Win pay off for tinkerman Hutchings

The Saddlers used a 4-3-1-2 formation and won the game, after Hatters goalkeeper Conrad Logan punched Jabo Ibehre's cross into his own net under pressure from Mark Bradley, in injury time.

Anthony Gerrard had slammed the Saddlers into a 12th-minute lead, before Greg Tansey curled in a free-kick after 75 minutes.

Walsall were also let off the hook when Tommy Rowe blazed a 62nd-minute penalty over.

Hutchings recalled Troy Deeney to partner Ibehre up front, with Michael Ricketts playing just behind the duo.

Hutchings claimed his side had not even practised the formation.

He said: "We didn't work on it and I threw it on them but we did OK. I just felt we needed to put them under a bit more pressure. We played Michael off the striker last week and it didn't quite work.

"I wanted to put Troy back up there with Jabo and put their back four under pressure. Anything that was knocked down I was hoping Michael would pick up.

"In the first half Sofi (Zaaboub) had a lot of the ball down the left and put in some tremendous crosses.

"Michael worked tremendously hard both going forward and tracking back to get things going. It didn't quite happen in the last third and our lay-offs to him could have been a lot better so he could get shots in.

"But he worked hard enough and we can look at it again in the future."

Hutchings conceded his side should have been more than 1-0 ahead at the break, after Deeney and Ibehre were off target with decent chances.

It almost proved costly as Oli Johnson hit the post, before Rowe's penalty miss and Tansey's equaliser.

He said: "I thought we could have been further ahead at halftime because we put some good balls into the box. We just didn't have that killer instinct we were looking for.

"But they kept plugging away and we had some luck as they missed the penalty.

"They equalised and threw people forward but we had that little bit of quality. They have missed a penalty but we popped up at the end to nick it."

Hutchings will review Stockport's equaliser, after goalkeeper Rene Gilmartin looked to have positioned the wall wrong.

The manager said: "I've asked Rene and he said he had one-and-a-half bodies lined up with the ball, so I'll check on the DVD and see."

County assistant manager Peter Ward felt the winner should have been ruled out, for a foul by Bradley on Rowe.

He said: "We didn't deserve that. We'd done enough in the game to get a draw, even a win – we had some good chances.

"The referee didn't spot that Tommy was pushed into Conrad. We thought it was a clear free-kick.

"For our goal we could see the wall wasn't lined up properly and somebody with Greg's ability should score them all the time."