Analysis: Walsall go back to basics for solid point

This was no classic by any means, a game short of quality throughout and an absence of any stand-out players, but Flynn’s side more than earned their third clean sheet in five league games, albeit against a team still struggling to adjust to life back in League Two.

Flynn made over 100 appearances for the Kent side during his playing career and he received a warm welcome from the home fans prior to kick-off. While his former club appear to have central midfielders blessed with Flynn-like levels of tenacity at present, they looked short of creativity during the opening half.

Much of that was the result of the Saddlers opting to play a flat back four, with Hayden White and Manny Monthe either side of captain Donervon Daniels and Peter Clarke. The central pairing rarely looked flustered by lone Gillingham forward Michael Mandron’s aerial presence, while Monthe did well despite the hosts’ obvious plan to target him throughout.

The only time Walsall looked in danger during the opening 45 was when Gills loanee Hakeeb Adelakun ended a promising counter-attack that he started in his own half by shooting tamely at Owen Evans after five minutes.

If Evans’ afternoon in the hot Medway sun started off quietly, Glenn Morris, his counterpart in the Gillingham goal, had an even less stressful first half. The visitors’ best attempt of it came when Daniels curled his first-time effort from Monthe’s layoff narrowly over the bar three minutes from the break after the hosts had failed to clear a Knowles cross.

Given how goal-shy Gillingham are – Neil Harris’ team have now only scored just one goal in five league games to date – you sensed that any Walsall opener would have been as good as a winner.

To their credit, the Gills were much-improved after the break. Instead of trying to play everything in front of the Saddlers back line, a futile tactic especially given how Brandon Comley had brilliantly marshalled the energetic attacking midfielder Jordan Green, they looked to play through them.

This almost paid off when Green found space and darted past White en route to goal nine minutes after half-time, but Daniels was perfectly placed to divert his low shot away from goal. After the resulting corner wasn’t fully cleared, Mandron played in the unmarked Max Ehmer, whose shot from eight yards was spectacularly parried by Evans.

There were other scares, too: Monthe blocked a shot from the increasingly lively Green and Daniels almost diverted a corner into his own net.

By this point Flynn had made his first change of the afternoon, ending Ronan Maher’s full league debut shortly before the hour and replacing him with Liam Bennett.

Dropped from the starting XI for this game, Cambridge loanee Bennett quickly caused the Gillingham defence problems. His first cross of note into the box was spilled by Morris. White was perfectly placed to meet the loose ball, but could only hit the post from an acute angle.

All of the Saddlers’ dogged defensive work, set against a backdrop of an increasingly loud and encouraging home support, was almost undone on 68 minutes. Clarke telegraphed an outball to Comley, who was immediately hassled by Stuart O’Keefe. Presented with a two-on-one scenario, the Gills midfielder opted to go it alone and failed to trouble Evans with his rising shot.

If Walsall were fortunate that Gillingham’s previous openings had fallen to Ehmer (a centre-back) and O’Keefe (who has scored four league goals in three seasons for the hosts), they must have felt luck was truly on their side when it was substitute Lewis Walker who burst through on goal four minutes from time.

Having most recently played in Serie D in Italy, the striker’s arrival in Kent this summer was much derided given his lacklusture scoring record. Although he did well to get in between Clarke and Daniels to meet Elkan Baggott’s clearance-turned-pass, his tentative poke onto the post was befitting of somebody yet to score in England’s professional ranks.

Despite the hosts’ chances in the second half, Flynn felt – quite rightly - that neither side did enough to deserve victory. Nonetheless, his team almost snatched the three points with as many seconds of normal time remaining.

After Baggott miscued his clearance, Danny Johnson robbed Will Wright on the edge of the box but somehow Morris made himself big and kept out his goal-bound shot.

A winner this late would have sent the 333 travelling fans home euphoric. Instead, Saddlers supporters should use the dogged point as a reason to feel optimistic again after a frustrating few days.