Chris Marsh impressed by Walsall's Luke Leahy

It was like watching the Great Escape on Saturday as Walsall came from three-nil down to draw with Bradford, writes Chris Marsh.

But what a strange game of football. I’ve got to say I thought Bradford’s first goal was excellent, the way they counter-attacked and moved the ball at pace was top draw.

Then a bit of poor defending and they were 2-0 up.

But otherwise, Walsall had dominated the half and were incredibly unfortunate to be going in at the break behind.

When Luke Leahy then diverted the ball in for an own-goal, I was shaking my head in disbelief.

Of course, Tyler Roberts then came on and changed the game – and quite rightly it was the Albion loanee who grabbed all the headlines afterwards following his fairytale debut.

I’ll touch on him a bit more later.

But it’s Leahy I want to talk about first because he really impressed me with his character.

By the time you’re an old pro, you realise there is no point in dwelling on mistakes. They happen. And you have to put them behind you.

But it’s different for young players, particularly young players who have just joined a club.

Leahy is 24 years old, he was at the Gordon Strachan Football Foundation before he joined Falkirk.

And now he is playing in the English Football League for the first time.

There are a lot of players – who at that age – would have been left devastated after scoring that own-goal.

But his response couldn’t have been any better, five minutes later he was bringing his side back into the game with a bullet header.

It sounds obvious but that was a very important goal.

Walsall’s belief that they could get back into the game would have got less and less with each passing minute.

But Leahy stepped up to score at the crucial time, having shook off his earlier disappointment.

For me he deserves a massive pat on the back for scoring a hugely-important goal – as does Roberts of course.

His debut goal was a great header. And the cross for Amadou Bakayoko’s equaliser was top quality, Premier League quality.

It looks like he’s going to be a great signing. And if I was Jon Whitney, I’d be talking to Albion now to try and keep him until the end of the season – because if he carries on as he has started it won’t be long before Championship clubs come calling.

Alongside that game I’d also like to talk about my former team-mate Adi Viveash going in as assistant boss at Coventry.

As many of you will now, I suffered a brain haemorrhage last Christmas.

When I went to hospital, the doctor told me if I’d left it another 12 hours, there is a good chance I wouldn’t be here now.

Viveash has gone in at Coventry on an interim basis because Steve Taylor, Mark Robins’ usual assistant, has just undergone treatment for his third brain haemorrhage.

I know Mark Robins well and after what I went through he invited me in to talk to Steve.

We literally sat there and exchanged notes for bleeding on the brain.

So I was really sad to hear that he’d had to go through it all again.

I wish him the quickest of recoveries and hopefully he will be back in the Coventry dugout very soon.

In the meantime I’ll be keeping a close eye on how my mate Adi gets on.

Even when we played together, I knew he was destined for management. He was just that way inclined.

His nickname has always been Happy Harry because he comes across as so miserable. But he is a great bloke and a top class coach.

He was in charge of Chelsea’s academy for nine years and secured back-to-back UEFA Youth League titles.

The Chelsea players absolutely loved him. I know Dominic Solanke, who has just joined Liverpool, thinks the world of him.

Obviously he is number two at Coventry, Mark Robins is very much the boss.

But I wouldn’t be surprised if one or two Chelsea youngsters popped up there as they look to climb out of League Two.