Walsall competed well with Premiership Aston Villa in their final home pre-season game atthe Banks's Stadium going down 1-2 but playing with a lot of promise and purpose reverting back to 4-4-2. Saddlers goalkeeper Jon Brain was called into early action to make a fine save from Steve Sidwell. It was good to see winger Julian Gray looking a bit more fitter and he looked good on the ball.
Villa keeper Brad Friedel had to make a wonderful save on 16 minutes from a header from Troy Deeney that had a goal written all over it. However it was Villa who took the lead on 25 minutes. John Carew. He sent over a ball for Andreas Weimann to slot home.
Walsall were not intimidated though and continued to compete. Darren Byfield hit the bar in the 64th minute but just a minute later Villa increased their lead through Weimann again. With 75 minutes of play gone manager Chris Hutchings introduced striker Alex Nicholls and within a minute he had scored.The last 15 minutes saw Saddlers launch more attacks and could easily have made this into a draw. After the defeats to Wolves and Coventry this was a better performance and the last friendly at Port Vale should provide a perfect test to the new season which is now only a week away.
