George Bennett analysis: Saddlers draw blank, but a point helps their cause
Despite serving up a first goalless draw of the campaign, a point on the road will only help boost Walsall’s promotion pursuit in League Two.
Walsall had averaged more than two goals per game prior to their trip to Lancashire, but were unable to break down a resilient Accrington Stanley side despite having chances to register back-to-back away league wins for the first time under Mat Sadler.
The Saddlers have been almost flawless on home soil – barring the freak 6-2 defeat against Fleetwood Town – with five wins from six games at Bescot in the league.
But away form ultimately undermined Walsall’s play-off push last term and it appeared homesickness could be problematic again when they suffered successive away defeats at Tranmere Rovers and MK Dons earlier in the campaign.
Instead, Walsall have not tasted defeat on the road since that 1-0 loss at Stadium MK in early-September and have collected eight points from a possible 12 in the process.
The biggest difference has been the defensive performances with Sadler’s men registering three clean sheets in seven games compared to the solitary shut-out they kept on the road throughout the whole of the previous campaign.
They’ve conceded just five goals across those seven games (0.7 per 90), which is a remarkable improvement on the 49 goals they shipped in 23 away outings last season (2.13 per 90).
The issue was at the other end on Saturday, which has not been the case on too many occasions this season.
