So Walsall progressed to the second round of the FA Cup to face Torquay away by beating brave Fleetwood Town 2-0 in the replay at the Banks's Stadium but it was a hollow victory with the Lancashire club unlucky not to be four goals up by half time. Walsall made two changes with Oliver Lancashire and Alex Nicholls in for Andy Butler and Julian Gray.
After a few initial bursts of action, Walsall went into their shells and Fleetwood got their passing game going, playing some delightful football and were probing away at the Walsall defence causing all sorts of problems. Veteran goal keeper Jimmy Walker made a string of fine first half saves and it was remarkable that the scores were level at half time.
On 58 minutes somewhat against the run of play Walsall took the lead. Nicholls produced a fine pass for Rueben Reid to latch on to and the on loan striker cooly finished. Walsall were still looking anything but confident though and our visitors were not giving up. Fleetwood kept plugging away but suffered a body play two minutes into time added on when Reid got his second to break their hearts.
Fleetwood Town certainly deserved to progress and the scoreline was no reflection on the game. But for Walker this would have been an upset.
