Pictures and analysis of Walsall 2 Tranmere 0

A performance which drew on quality and steel kept up Walsall's resurgence last night.

The Saddlers overcame fourth-placed former leaders Tranmere, with another from Will Grigg's growing penalty collection and a spectacular Craig Westcarr strike following a scoreless first-half.

That tells the story of the game in its essential detail but behind those brief notes lie what is rapidly becoming one of the football tales of the season.

After 16 games without a win, the Saddlers have now gone 16 games, racking up 36 points to continue nibbling away the distance from the top six they have now reduced to just four points.

On a night cold enough for snowballs, Walsall's keeps rolling down the hill with ever greater substance and momentum and the only pity was that the freezing temperatures – and perhaps the rival TV attraction from the Nou Camp – again contributed to a disappointingly low gate of under 4,000.

One of the game's ancient truths is that while it is very easy to lose supporters it takes a lot of hard work to bring them back.

Dean Smith's team can do no more than continue in their current vein and hope to see a response at the turnstiles they deserve even allowing for these difficult times for a hard-pressed public.

Smith will today be wondering which elements of his team's latest victory gave him the most satisfaction – the football that brought them their two-goal lead inside an hour or the resilience with which it was then protected.

Make no mistake, Walsall have two opponents to conquer at the Banks's Stadium thanks to an unforgiving winter – the 11 on the other side of the pitch and a challenging, uneven surface which does not favour the passing game which has transformed Walsall this season.

But they were still able to find enough pockets of play from which to create the chances which eventually broke Tranmere's resistance.

More significantly, perhaps, was the way in which they saw out the game as the visitors finally roused themselves over the final half hour in an effort to retrieve the game.

Such signals of the team's growing maturity will have delighted Smith as much as anything else he has seen in their remarkable recovery especially with the promise it carries for future development.

Not that there should be any doubt his team deserved this latest victory. They were never able to flow as they had done on the County Ground's superior surface at Swindon.

But when they did get the ball into the danger areas, Saddlers fans saw yet more signs of the growing attacking craft their side now possesses.

Perhaps the 11th minute combination featuring Sam Mantom, Grigg and Jamie Paterson, which finished with a cross for an Andy Butler header cleared off the line by Ash Taylor, was the pick of the early manoeuvres.

But it was not alone. Paterson smacked a well-controlled left-foot volley which Owain Fon Williams did well to beat away, went narrowly wide with another while Mantom struck the outside of the post from 25 yards.

These foretold what was to come as Adam Chambers and Mantom established control in midfield which subdued a lively opening salvo from a physically powerful Tranmere team.

Smith, though, wanted a simplified game – partly in response to such a demanding surface – and his players absorbed the half time message to seek more direct routes to goal after the break.

Cue a 50th-minute burst from Febian Brandy which cut through challenges from both centre-halves Taylor and Ian Goodison before a third attempted tackle by Danny Holmes upended the striker just inside the area.

Despite some gamesmanship by Fon-Williams, who reminded Grigg he had seen his previous spot-kick at Swindon on TV, the Saddlers striker stuck to his plan to strike for the opposite corner which he executed with precision.

Before Tranmere could recover, Walsall's grip on the game tightened with a memorable moment for Westcarr.

His bulleted, angled strike from outside the area gave Fon-Williams had no chance of reaching but captured perfectly the confidence Smith has injected into his players.

Memories of past fragilities were then banished as Walsall's organised and committed defence saw off Tranmere's most concerted phase of the game without any serious alarms for keeper Aaron McCarey.

It was a sign of the team's development that will raise still further the belief that this campaign may yet have an exciting surprise in store for a club revelling in an admirable renaissance.

One which hopefully more and more of those 'lost' spectators will want to see.

By Nick Mashiter