Walsall retain League One status despite last-day defeat at promoted Southampton

May 8 2011 by Peter Keenan, Sunday Mercury

FOR 78 minutes, Dean Smith’s hair was gradually changing from ginger to grey.

The Walsall manager’s heart was racing at 1,000 beats per-minute and his miraculous turnaround looked to be fading away.

But finally the newly-dubbed ‘Ginger Mourinho’ could relax when he found out that Peterborough were thrashing Dagenham & Redbridge 3-0 (it ended 5-0) and Walsall were staying in League One.

If the Daggers lost, it didn’t matter what the result was at St Mary’s and Walsall would escape relegation.

As it turned out it finished 3-1 on the south coast after a dominant display from a side the Saddlers will not be playing next season. Goals from Guly Do Prado, David Connolly and Alex Chamberlain were enough for the League One runners-up to end the season in style.

Julian Gray got the Saddlers goal, a fine one at that, but it was irrelevant as Walsall were safe. The Saddlers had been bottom of the table when Chris Hutchings was sacked in January and Smith couldn’t hide his joy at the final whistle.

“The lads won’t realise what they have done at the moment, but it is a remarkable achievement,” he said.

“You play a whole season to win things and for us the objective changed in January. Our aim was to stay up and we’ve done it.

“When it was 3-0 to Peterborough I knew that was it. It’s an incredible feeling and the lads should be so proud of themselves.

“We’ll enjoy every minute of it and celebrate.”

The game itself was fairly one-sided as Southampton celebrated promotion to the Championship.

A packed-out ground vociferously cheered on the Saints throughout and the electric atmosphere clearly affected Walsall early on.

With just over a minute played, Jordan Cook misplaced his pass to Tom Williams allowing Do Prado a free shot on goal.

Fortunately for the shaky visitors, keeper Jimmy Walker was alert to tip his effort over the bar.

It was all Southampton, but Walsall didn’t care.

Suddenly there was a huge eruption in the away end as the 1,600 travelling fans got wind of the score at London Road.

Peterborough had taken the lead and in an instant the entire crowd were singing, loving every second of the party atmosphere. The pressure dropped but the home onslaught continued. Dithering in possession, Walsall’s Richard Taundry was dispossessed in his own box by Rickie Lambert on 19 minutes.

The Saints’ top scorer crossed to the back post for Connolly who headed back to Do Prado but somehow Walker saved his effort with his legs.

It was only a matter of time before Walsall conceded and it was no surprise to see Do Prado on the score sheet on 26 minutes

Put through one-on-one by a perfect ball from veteran Connolly, the left winger coolly slotted home.

Three minutes later, it got worse as Connolly doubled the Saints’ advantage.

Collecting a pass from Dean Hammond, ex-West Ham forward Connolly lashed his effort towards the bottom corner and it had the power to sneak past Walker.

The occasion looked to be getting the better of Walsall and they were lucky not to go further behind when Dean Hammond rattled a shot against the post.

But on the stroke of half-time Gray scored a screamer to remind the League One runners-up that they were still in a game.

Latching onto a Jon Macken flick-on, the former Blues winger danced past Ryan Dickson and curled in a delightful strike to beat keeper Kelvin Davis.

It was Walsall’s first real effort on goal and after the break they upped the tempo and looked a different side.

Jordan Cook sent in a searching cross to the back post but Macken shot into the side netting on 57 minutes.

Young prodigy Chamberlain was introduced seconds later and the £10-million rated player crashed a shot off the post with his first touch of the game.

At the other end Will Grigg, who made a huge difference following his 35th-minute arrival as a sub, then hit the post.

The away support had their heads in their hands, but despair turned to elation when the news from Peterborough filtered through.

Not even a cracking goal from Chamberlain, cutting inside and firing home an unstoppable shot on 67 minutes, could dampen their mood as both sets of fans partyed long into the night.