Rushall Olympic 0 Walsall XI 2 - Report
A Walsall XI progressed to the second round of the Staffordshire Senior Cup courtesy of first half goals from Tobias Hailes-Docherty and Zeli Ismail.
Ismail and Maz Kouhyar both came close for Walsall early on, but neither were able to force a save from Jono Brown.
Rushall came close themselves on 21 minutes, with new boy Mattis Fonovich receiving the ball down the left and crashing an effort against the bar with keeper Liam Roberts beaten.
The Saddlers broke the deadline on 29 minutes courtesy of a Hailes-Docherty beauty from outside the area. The wide man cut inside before curling an effort into the top corner.
That lead was doubled on 41 minutes, with Ismail this time cutting inside from the left and unleashing a thunderbolt low to Brown’s helpless right hand.
The second half started controversially, with Will Hancox receiving his marching orders on 49 minutes for what appeared to be a perfectly timed last ditch challenge.
Referee Maskrey saw it differently and sent the midfielder off.
Despite being down to 10 men, it was Rushall who threatened next, with Danny Waldron heading wide from a dinked Andre Landell cross down the right on 57 minutes.
Brown was called into action in the Rushall box on 72 minutes when he got strong hands behind an Ismail shot with the Walsall man bearing down on goal.
Rushall went down to nine men with five minutes to play when Landell was forced off injured with the Pics having used all three subs.
