Walsall second string romp to win

A 90 second blitz from Walsall capped a comfortable 4-0 win over Shrewsbury as the Saddlers rounded off their reserve season in style.

Josh O'Keefe and George Bowerman's quickfire second-half strikes were sandwiched between Sam Parkin's penalty and Jamie Paterson's late fourth at the Banks's Stadium last night.

It could have been more, as the Saddlers dominated their final league clash of the season leaving assistant boss Martin O'Connor pleased.

He said: "I said to the boys beforehand, the team we had out was good enough to win the game if we showed the right attitude. We started off OK, the penalty calmed us down and in the second half there was a bit more fluency and tempo to our play.

"We pressed higher up the pitch which meant, when we did win it, it was in the final third and we created more chances."

Rhys Weston blazed over from distance early on but the Saddlers edged ahead after 24 minutes, when Scott Keyes handled Netan Sansara's deflected free kick and Parkin smashed the penalty down the centre.

The striker headed wide soon after and Bowerman forced Chris Neal into a smart near post save eight minutes before the break.

Peter Till then sliced wide following a darting run as the hosts continued to dominate and nine minutes after the break they bagged a second.

Neal denied Parkin and Mark Bradley in quick succession but, when the ball fell to O'Keefe 35 yards out, the midfielder coolly lobbed in.

Ninety seconds later it was 3-0 when Till fed Bowerman and the young striker finished from close range.

Lewis Neal's free kick deflected behind and goalkeeper Clayton Ince claimed Kris Bright's glancing header, as the Shrews tried to hit back.

The veteran stopped saved from Andre Gray while Bright drilled wide but Richard Davies should have made it 4-0, after a quick break from a corner with 10 minutes remaining.

Substitute Paterson did add a fourth a minute from time, after skipping down the right to drill under Neal.