Pictures and analysis of Bournemouth 1 Walsall 3

Just six weeks ago, time looked like being blown on Walsall's season – but you should always play to the whistle.

From two points above the relegation zone to two points adrift of the play-offs, the Saddlers' tune rings out.

Courage in their conviction has led them to this point, how they recorded their fourth straight win with a 3-1 victory over Bournemouth was less straightforward.

Eunan O'Kane will struggle to live down his stunning second-half gaffe which 'handed' the Saddlers a second penalty and the points on Saturday.

Boss Dean Smith joked he had seen it before – on the training ground – but O'Kane's embarrassment will resonate for weeks after he casually picked up the ball in the area expecting the whistle, after Will Grigg was tripped outside of the box.

It never came and Grigg's resulting penalty settled a game which included a red card for Febian Brandy, glaring misses and the woodwork struck three times.

Victory completed the double over big-spending Bournemouth and ended their impressive 15-match unbeaten run in the league.

A statement, a result which Smith hailed as one of his best and a performance befitting the occasion.

But the Saddlers will be acutely aware of what happened after their last victory over the Cherries.

A 16-match winless run, which threatened the entire season, followed their Dean Court success and Walsall are now in a similar position.

Then, in September, they were fifth and facing Leyton Orient and Carlisle. They lost both and fell apart.

Now, struggling Colchester and Oldham are next and the 10th-placed Saddlers must again deal with the expectation.

They will be favourites – a rare recent position – after four straight victories and six wins from seven games.

While they play it down, two wins would turn them into play-off contenders, even as outsiders, as the improbable merges into the possible.

Getting to 50 points remains the target; history dictates that. But why, after a barren two years, can't the club and its long-suffering fans dare to dream?

Smith is right to dampen expectation, but while the Saddlers remain on form he will struggle to do it for long – such is football's hyperbole.

Nearly 20 points above the relegation zone almost renders talk of the drop meaningless and, after that, who wants to talk of or target mid-table consolidation?

That would have been the aim at the start of the season, but targets change and hitting 50 points will give the Saddlers the green light to charge.

And the form of striker Will Grigg continues to inspire. The biggest criticism levelled at the 21-year-old is that, for all his graft, he fails to score enough.

B,ut after he netted his 10th goal of the season, that doubt is ebbing away. An extra yard of pace, added strength and improved confidence has seen the Northern Ireland international begin to fulfil his potential.

He had no right to win the first penalty, which he scored to put Walsall 2-0 up, after running onto his own flick, beating the Bournemouth backline and teasing a foul from goalkeeper David James in first-half stoppage time.

Before then only Tommy Elphick's outstretched boot denied him the opener – an honour which went to Sam Mantom when his 27th minute cross-shot dropped into the corner.

It confirmed the Saddlers' dominance, something which was only threatened when Brett Pitman crashed a header onto the bar seven minutes from the break.

But Walsall shrugged off the scare to go 2-0 up at half-time thanks to Grigg's persistence, even if his penalty lacked conviction.

Pitman's neat header made it 2-1 three minutes after the interval and brought back memories of last season's two-goal surrender to the Cherries.

But those fears were unfounded. Jamie Paterson hit the post before Bournemouth should have levelled when Ian McLoughlin spilled Josh McQuoid's cross and Wes Thomas struck the bar from two yards.

Walsall were rocking and Brandy, on a yellow, walked on 71 minutes after diving in on O'Kane when Mal Benning's free-kick was spilled by James.

Cue nerves, but when Grigg was fouled on the edge of the area and O'Kane picked the ball up, expecting a whistle which never came, the points were won.

Grigg converted the penalty and almost claimed a hat-trick when his volley drifted wide. Bournemouth had been beaten by their own calamity, though.

Walsall have been used to hanging on for the last whistle; now one which never came has given them the perfect platform to build from.

By Nick Mashiter