George Bennett analysis: Saddlers’ charge checked on an afternoon to forget
Walsall’s League Two play-off push hit a bump in the road as they were condemned to a surprise 2-0 defeat by second from bottom Forest Green Rovers at the New Lawn.
It felt as if it was never going to be their day with Walsall boss Mat Sadler claiming after the final whistle that “everything that could go wrong, did go wrong” across the 90 minutes in Gloucestershire.
The Saddlers lost Tom Knowles and Jamille Matt to injury within the opening 45 minutes and struggled to show the recent clinical touch in front of goal which had previously propelled them to five wins on the spin.
Sadler confirmed Knowles had picked up an ankle injury, while Matt was suffering with a hamstring issue but the Walsall boss was understandably unable to provide an early assessment.
Josh Gordon had two golden chances when he was unable to sort his feet to convert Emmanuel Adegboyega’s clipped cross, before Vicente Reyes, who enjoyed a brilliant performance for the hosts, denied him one-on-one.
Joe Foulkes, who has struggled for minutes since his run in the team earlier in the season, was arguably Walsall’s stand-out player after replacing Knowles.
He combined effectively with Hutchinson down the right before clipping a delightful cross to the back post but half-time substitute Mo Faal found Reyes in his way again.
Walsall would then be made to rue their missed chances when former Saddlers man Emmanuel Osadebe came back to haunt his former club just past the hour.
Forest Green clearly attempted to unlock Walsall’s defence on the counter-attack and succeeded when a raking long ball from Kyle McAllister found Christian Doidge.
