Backing for Nicholls after spot-kick woe

Florent Cuvelier today cleared Alex Nicholls of any blame after Walsall's late penalty heartbreak.

The striker saw his tame injury-time spot kick saved by Alex Cisak to blow a golden chance as the Saddlers went down 2-1 at Oldham last night.

Stoke loanee Cuvelier scored on his full debut after Filipe Morais, 72 seconds in, and Robbie Simpson put the Latics in control.

But the Belgian midfielder insisted six-goal Nicholls, who missed after Will Grigg was brought down by Jean Yves M'Voto, can't carry the can for the whole team.

He said: "Nics is the one who always takes the penalties so he took it and the keeper made a good save. There's no blame at all, he took the penalty and the responsibility. The keeper saved it and we'll have to move on.

"It's a big disappointment but we created chances, hit the post and had a penalty saved. It was a game we could have won but unfortunately we lost and we have to start thinking about Saturday."

Boss Dean Smith added: "It was a penalty and unfortunately we didn't score it. It would have been a good point coming back from 2-0 down.

"Penalties are scored and missed, it's been done in European Championships and World Cups so they are going to be missed in League One."

The Saddlers sunk to third bottom of League One, ahead of Saturday's visit of drop rivals Wycombe, after their 12th defeat of the season.

Scunthorpe's 1-0 win over Rochdale opened up a three point gap to the safety line with the Saddlers going to the Iron next Tuesday.

Cuvelier's second-half strike couldn't bridge the growing gap and the former Portsmouth starlet admitted it mattered little.

"I am happy to score but the most important thing is to win games and help Walsall," said the 19-year-old. "I'm happy about my goal but it doesn't matter because we lost 2-1 and it put us under pressure."