Matt Richards and Darren Byfield struck either side of half-time to give Walsall a third straight home win.

Richards struck a classy free-kick eight minutes before the break to claim his first competitive goal in Walsall colours.

Then Byfield put his off-the-field problems to one side,  doubling the advantage 11 minutes after the interval.

Goalkeeper Clayton Ince later pulled of a splendid late save to preserve the Saddlers’ clean sheet.

The teams were tough to separate in the opening 45 minutes, with the Saddlers making the running but the visitors looking dangerous on the break.

Walsall could have led in the first minute when a loose ball broke to Byfield 25 yards out, but the striker curled a shot narrowly off target.

Troy Deeney had a half-chance from a Steve Jones cross and Mark Hughes could not direct the ball on target when he slid to meet a Richards corner.

But the Hatters had the better of the chances with Nicholas Bignall, Peter Thompson and Liam Bridcutt all going close.

However, it was Walsall who went ahead eight minutes before the break when Jones’ jinking run was ended by an Adam Griffin foul.

Upstepped Richards to whip the free-kick over the wall and into the top corner.

Deeney could have doubled Walsall’s lead a minute into the second half after exchanging a neat one-two with Byfield,  but saw his powerful near-post shot turned away by Owain Fon Williams in the Stockport goal.

The strikers combined again to tee up Mark Bradley but the midfielder screwed his shot wide.

However, it was third time lucky for the strike duo as the Saddlers went 2-0 up on 56 minutes.

Bradley won a solid tackle in midfield and Dwayne Mattis found Deeney, who turned well to set up Byfield and to clip a left-footed shot past Fon Williams.

The Hatters had two loud penalty appeals turned down and were especially upset when they felt Clayton Ince fouled Peter Thompson as the goalkeeper dived at the feet of the riker.

Stockport made a triple-change in a bid to alter their fortunes and one of the substitutes, Oli Johnson, almost halved the arrears after cutting inside Netan Sansara to hit a shot at goal from 12 yards.

But Ince stuck out his left hand to pull off a fine save.