Rochdale 3 Walsall 3 - analysis
At half-time at Spotland Walsall were picture perfect. With a minute left they were looking at the negatives. And at full-time they were still in the relegation frame as their drop fight continued to develop.
At half-time at Spotland Walsall were picture perfect. With a minute left they were looking at the negatives. And at full-time they were still in the relegation frame as their drop fight continued to develop.
Emmanuel Ledesma celebrated Walsall going 2-0 up at Rochdale by borrowing Express & Star photographer Alan Evans' camera to take a snapshot of his team-mates.
But after looking at their 3-3 draw through a lens the Saddlers will need to digest the result in a dark room.
From control, to despair, to elation – the Saddlers went through the whole gamut of emotions during an afternoon which saw them go from comfort to calamity.
Andy Butler's 93rd-minute equaliser snatched a point when Walsall seemed to have blown all three.
The overriding factor with Dean Smith's side is that they can be never written off – but you can never put your house on them.
This game symbolised the Saddlers' season – they gave themselves a chance but never quite took it.
Sheffield United, Bournemouth, Sheffield Wednesday and now Rochdale have been beneficiaries of Walsall's generosity.
You are going to lose points over the course of the season and teams do not hang on to every lead they earn.
But when the Saddlers have lost 26 points from winning positions, fingers have to be pointed.
Whether Saturday is a point gained or two dropped is subject for debate. Walsall should never have put themselves in such a desperate position. They let a poor Rochdale side back into the game through a combination of naivety and poor decision making.
After being so comfortable for an hour it is two points lost but, at 3-2 down with 30 seconds remaining, it is certainly one gained.
It maintained the status quo between the Saddlers and fourth-bottom Wycombe after the Chairboys bagged their own last-minute equaliser in their 1-1 draw at Stevenage.
Walsall are still two points ahead of the drop zone with just six matches left.
That the Saddlers didn't surrender any advantage to their rivals is a source of solace in what increasingly looks to be a straight survival shoot-out between them and Wycombe.
The three sides below – Rochdale, Exeter and Chesterfield – are all but down and Bury's win over Tranmere moved them three points clear of the Saddlers.
At half-time Walsall were closing in on the top half of the table but now, after their 19th draw of the season, securing 20th place is their first and only target.
Smith insisted he would not dwell on the result but should the Saddlers lose their fight for survival their afternoon at Spotland will be their biggest 'what if' moment of the season – and there have been a few.
How important the point – or the two lost – will prove only time will tell.
Emmanuel Ledesma and Joe Widdowson's own goal had put Walsall in complete control and there was no suggestion a limited Rochdale side could hit back.
Ledesma's 25-yard stunner pierced a mediocre game as the teams cancelled each other out. Dale bossed possession but failed to breakdown the Saddlers, who themselves struggled to create clear openings.
And the hosts would have been aggrieved to fall 2-0 behind when Widdowson's looping header from Ledesma's free-kick dropped into the corner of his own net eight minutes before the break.
There seemed no way back for Dale but, after Florent Cuvelier and Kevan Hurst squandered openings, Jean-Louis Akpa Akpro stabbed in to start their comeback.
And the Saddlers continued to implode when Mat Sadler clipped Jason Kennedy and Michael Symes levelled from the spot with eight minutes left.
The momentum continued to shift and David Grof tipped Andrew Tutte's effort wide before Akpa Akpro netted with a minute left when Walsall failed to clear a corner.
All seemed lost but when Sadler launched it long from the kick-off, Butler rose between two defenders to loop a brilliant header over the stranded David Lucas from 18-yards.
Rochdale had to win – their joy at scoring a third contrasted the sheer desperation at conceding Butler's late leveller.
And Walsall's celebrations said it all too. A picture paints a thousand words.
By Nick Mashiter
