Walsall 1 Norwich 2
Tuesday 26th January 2010, 9:45PM GMT.
Battling Walsall crashed to an undeserved defeat after leaders Norwich launched a smash and grab raid at the Banks’s Stadium.
Troy Deeney’s first-half opener had put the Saddlers in control, before two late goals from Chris Martin and Cody McDonald won it for the Canaries.
For the home side Jamie Vincent, Clayton McDonald and Rhys Weston returned for Netan Sansara, the injured Mark Hughes and Daryl Westlake respectively.
The Saddlers started strongly with a quick tempo, as neither side settled in a scrappy opening.
Weston had to clear when Oli Johnson lobbed goalkeeper Clayton Ince on 21 minutes, but the Saddlers were causing Norwich problems.
Mark Bradley scuffed wide on 21 minutes, but the hosts took the lead 10 minutes before the break.
Deeney forced Gary Doherty, Michael Nelson and goalkeeper Fraser Forster into collective errors and steered the ball into an empty net.
It was all they deserved, but Stephen Hughes should have levelled when he blazed over 10 minutes after the re-start.
Martin equalised for Norwich on 76 minutes when Ince missed Wes Hoolahan’s corner and the visitors won it nine minutes later.
Hoolahan was afforded time to cross and McDonald ghosted in unmarked to volley in off the post.
UK Sport
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Down the football league we go….
Massive debts to pay, no fans, no tactical awareness, no new players, transfer deadline looming Deeney, Smith, Nicholls leaving….
Its always a joy being a Walsall fan. At least the club is well run and does not need football or fans to keep it going.
Very soon it will just be the dynamic duo of Pension Fund and the Wallet attending games.
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Didn’t manage to go last night as I got stuck in traffic in Manchester but these lost leads are starting to bother me and that’s 11 goals we’ve shipped in 5 games. We’ve scored in all 5 but only have 1 point to show for it and that was against a side we should easily have beaten. Something needs to be done about the defence or with the sides we’re playing in Feb it’s going to be a depressing month.
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Conceded 11 goals in 5 games. We need to sort that out!
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Are we still talking playoffs i should be prepared for your Accrinton Stanleys again Div 4 here we come..
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Conceding late goals, in fact, conceding any goal is down to lack of concentration, discipline and fitness. The number of goals we have conceded in the last 15 minutes this season is now something like 12 and it has cost us about the same number of points. We went through the same when Mullen was in charge, I think it’s very unfair to say Hutchings and O’Connor are down with the likes of him but the blame cannot just laie with the players.
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His win percentage is only just better than Mullens so 12 months on weres the progress ??
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Actually we’ve only conceded 9 in the last 15 mins. As I’ve been looking at ridiculous stats- we’re 2nd best in the league for turning games around (i.e. winning/drawing a game that we were losing) but 3rd worst in the league for blowing it (losing/drawing after taking the lead). It’s a 3 point net loss and the two stats combined points to a huge level of inconsistency.
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Stats dont mean a thing we need points..
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