So after a month of inactivity Walsall FC finally had a fixture that was just about passed following two morning pitch inspections against Brighton And Hove Albion at the Banks's Stadium last Saturday although heavy overnight rain had left the pitch heavy with a well-saturated surface. Both teams had been inactive over recent weeks and could perhaps have been excused for being a little rusty but Brighton started the game off at a good tempo whereas Walsall looked decidely sluggish in the opening stages.

Our visitors should have been in the lead as early as the 5th minute when Nicky Forster burst through but Glenn Murray couldn't finish. However just three minutes later The Seagulls did take the lead thanks to a good move in which Elliott Bennett threaded a super ball for Murray who made no mistake.

The Saddlers were finding it hard to come to terms with the pace of the Brighton attack especially down the right side. Brighton could not capitalise on this and against the run of play Matt Richards struck an angled drive which went into the net of a post. The player had previously enjoyed a long loan period with the Seagulls last season so a sweet moment for him.

The Saddlers goal didn't knock Brighton out of their stride however and it wasn't long before Forster put The Seagulls back into the lead with a magnificent overhead kick that gave home keeper Clayton Ince no chance.Darren Byfield almost pulled one back for Walsall on the stroke of half time however Darren and his team mates were aggrieved minutes earlier has a quite obvious penalty appeal was brushed aside by the referee.

The second half saw no real improvement for Walsall. Troy Deeney blasted over from close range and Mannie Smith planted a tame header into the arms of the visitors goalkeeper. The evergreen Forster continued to cause problems for Chris Hutchings men and the Walsall boss made a double substitution with Sam Parkin and Josh O'Keefe introduced half way through that second half but try as hard as they could, The Saddlers could not find the net.

So a bitter disappointment then for the crowd which suprisingly saw less than 3,000 in the home sections.