Walsall's mini revival came unstuck at Hillsborough on Tuesday night as the Saddlers slumped to a 3-0 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday. The players couldn't be faulted for effort as they battled hard from the first whistle to the last. But at the end of the day its still a thumping defeat which leaves them stranded at the bottom of the table. With the list of fixtures coming up after this week's FA Cup tie at Torquay its hard to see where the next league point is going to come from.
Walsall went into this game unchanged following following last Saturday's 2-1 success against Carlisle and started off OK, winning a couple of corners before Jimmy Walker made a slip up on 7 minutes. He seemed to have a shot from Darren Potter covered but failed to hang onto it. He made up for it soon after with a smart save and Walsall were taking the game to the hosts at times.
Jon Macken had to leave the field injured in the first half with Liam Dickinson taking his place. Wednesday for their part were looking more lively on the attack before half time and so going into the interval there wasn't too much between the teams. Rueben Reid, who had a good game for The Saddlers, also had to go off injured with a pulled hamstring. He had a couple of shots on target and should have done better when he had a one-on- one with hope keeper Nicky Weaver.
But The Owls class finally shone in the second half and they scored two goals with not much between them time wise. Mark Beevers rose the highest to head home past Walker then Clint Morrison finished off Walsall's night from a corner. The Walsall players rightfully received a standing ovation from the 170 or so fans in the away stand as they had put in so much effort for no reward. Manager Chris Hutchings however had his usual cat calls when the team fall behind and lose. The fans are simply sick at all these league defeats... 12 from 18 games played.
