Once again Walsall shot themselves in the foot at Victoria Park, Hartlepool, in their 1-2 defeat. Their 8th in 10 in all games this season and Walsall fans after this game were left wondering when they will see their team win again. Saddlers started off brightly- how many times have they done that? They took the lead on nine minutes through Julian Gray then went downhill after that.
Manager Chris Hutchings is being hampered by having a small squad. You only have to look at the inexperienced substitute bench week after week to see that there is no strength in depth waiting in the wings so there is little he can do to change things around. It only wants a few injuries and suspensions and he will be snookered.
Well Walsall held on till the stroke of half time- and how many times have we said that? They just can't hang on to a lead it seems. Anthony Sweeney pulled 'Pool level and he looked a handful oat times. The home side would have been disappointed not to have found the net more times in that first half as they forced 13 corners to Walsall's two.
The second half was all one way traffic to be honest and Hartlepool fully deserved to take the lead through Andy Monkhouse on 56 minutes and it was game over. So very little was seen of Walsall as an attacking force and they came away with nothing. Another defeat and a run of 21 games without a clean sheet.
