Walsall 0 Tranmere 1 - analysis

Spot the difference. Team on a roll snatches late winner to edge into the play-offs, the losing side squander the best chances and are rooted in mid-table.

Walsall are the latter. Embittered and battle weary after failing to claim at least the point they deserved.

They can look at Tranmere only with justified jealousy after the visitors claimed a win that propelled them into League One's top six.

Bas Savage's 79th-minute header put paid to the Saddlers' afternoon work and brought back memories of their former guise when they used to leak late goals.

The endeavour is evident, there is little wrong with the application, but as boss Chris Hutchings admitted afterwards the top sides have just a little bit more about them.

The 10-15 per cent which would make the Saddlers challengers is missing, be it that creative spark in the centre or cutting edge up front, and they will not hit the heights until it is found.

The consensus, however disappointing, is a mid-table finish is where Walsall deserve to be. The inconsistency which has blighted the campaign has inevitably had consequences. The table doesn't lie.

The plucky also-rans need to turn into contenders but are unlikely to become League One's equivalent to Rocky overnight.

Happily there are more than a few summer nights to perform the necessary surgery and Hutchings will already be sharpening his scalpel.

How many players remain will depend on the direction he wants to go. The axe will swing, the bell will toll – but for whom?

What is clear is the unpredictability at home.

Eight League One defeats at the Banks's Stadium, coupled with the slip ups against Darlington, Scunthorpe and Luton in the cups, is too many. A ruthless streak, as skipper Stephen Hughes pointedly admitted afterwards, is needed.

Consecutive defeats against top-six contenders Millwall and now Tranmere have been met with the same response.

Walsall haven't been outplayed or outfought, they just lack the extra nous.

Nowhere was it more evident than against Rovers. An open game, begging to be claimed, wasn't put to bed and they paid the price on Saturday.

Chances were spurned while Walsall occasionally rode their luck at the other end, with Rene Gilmartin impressing, but that missing quality was needed.

The bare fact is, following recent displays, the Saddlers cannot compete at the top. But the gap isn't insurmountable.

Now the issue is being able to end well. A flat finish would just add to the frustration of a campaign which failed to fire.

By the time Hutchings arrived in January it was hard to see a way to the play-offs, despite his counter claims, and now they are finally mathematically out of reach.

The clash on Saturday probably summed up the Saddlers' entire season.

How we would love to tell you the game defied belief but we can't. At half-time there was general bemusement why Rovers were happy with the pedestrian pace when there was so much at stake for them at least.

The malaise which drifted around the game was palpable despite a lively opening.

Tranmere arrived needing a win to leap into the top six and started well as Savage found Gilmartin's midriff when Ian Moore seized on Anthony Gerrard's slip after just 20 seconds.

Edrissa Sonko, who spent last season at the Banks's, fizzed one over as, with only one defeat in their previous 11 games, Rovers started with confidence but the

Saddlers fought their way back and should have taken the lead after 19 minutes.

Michael Ricketts found Sofiene Zaaboub, who clipped the ball in for the onrushing striker to shudder the bar with an eight yard volley.

The teams were trading chances and Moore was the next to miss as he skipped on to Charlie Barnett's ball but found Gilmartin equal to his angled effort.

A lull set in, with Tranmere seemingly very confident of their own abilities to find a winner.

Seeing as this was a must-win clash for them, following play-off rivals Scunthorpe's slip up the night before, it was unbelievable Rovers were content to plod along – before the game briefly sparked at the end of the half. In stoppage time, Manny Smith threw himself in front of Moore's strike and from the resulting corner Gilmartin excelled when he flew to his left to keep out Antony Kay's stinging volley.

The 21-year-old keeper has come in for criticism this season, not least from himself, but there is nothing to suggest he can't become the Saddlers' number one.

In for Clayton Ince, who was still absent after a family bereavement, Gilmartin again denied Kay early in the second half when the midfielder let fly with a 25-yard volley, but there was little to suggest the deadlock was going to be broken.

Chances which were presented were missed as Jabo Ibehre became the next culprit.

Substitute Troy Deeney, who had seen Danny Coyne save an earlier effort, slipped the striker through and he powered his way into the area but, as so often this season, Ibehre's composure deserted him.

Kay then headed Moore's cross inches wide as Rovers rallied.

You always sensed one goal would win it. It was a classic case of schoolboy football – 'next goal wins'.

Unfortunately there were no jumpers for goalposts so no one could dispute Savage's winner.

Sonko, so lively against his former club, slalomed his way into the area to dink in a cross which the striker squeezed in between Gilmartin and the far post.

There was still time for Ibehre to see a header saved by Coyne and Gilmartin to deny Moore superbly.

But, sadly for Walsall, the difference at the end was evident. Only the scoreline mattered.

By Nick Mashiter.