At last! Walsall finally won a game last Saturday with a welcome 2-1 win over Exeter City at the Banks's Stadium. You could smell the relief from players, supporters and manager Chris Hutchings who really needed that win following the team's recent winless spell which saw them reach rock bottom. This win meant that Walsall actually climbed out of the bottom four too.
Walsall included two recent loan signings, winger Martin Devaney from Barnsley and defender Andrew Davies to stoke who both showed their class. Walsall in fact fielded five loan players-the maximum amount permitted on one game- which just goes to show how weak the squad was at the start of the season.
The Saddlers took the lead on 32 minutes when Rueben Reid pounced upon a mistake by David Noble and Archibald-Henville and on 43 minutes doubled their lead when Matt Richards headed home from a Devaney cross. The visitors first half misery was complete a minute later when Archibald-Henville was sent off for two bookable offences.
Instead of further goals in the second half, Exeter with their ten men were seeing a lot of the ball and pulled a goal back on 53 minutes thanks to the referee getting in the way of a David Davis clearance and Ryan Harley cashed in. This really made the game a contest and Exeter never gave up. So it was quite a sigh of relief when the final whistle went and that long awaited win was obtained.
