Portsmouth 1 Walsall 2 - analysis

A fixture that would have been unimaginable a couple of years ago brought a result Saddlers fans could scarcely believe.

Two years after being separated by two divisions and several digits on the pay roll, Walsall struck a blow for all those clubs who live within their means with this handsome victory over crisis-riddled Portsmouth.

Handsome it was, too. As Pompey's coach Michael Appleton conceded, his team were outplayed and out-worked in baking sunshine if ultimately only defeated by a couple of strikes which are already in the Saddlers' Goal of the Season competition.

James Baxendale, with his first for the club, and Florent Cuvelier were the headline makers but there is now real excitement running through Dean Smith's camp.

Tomorrow night, they face perhaps the acid test of Smith's admirable attempt to fashion a team of some style from the youthful talent and energy orbiting the core of the side, Andy Butler and Dean Holden.

Stevenage take no prisoners. But if the Saddlers can go there and produce the kind of performance we saw on Saturday, the season promises something beyond a struggle to stay out of the bottom three.

What will be satisfying for the Walsall boss will be knowing his players beat Portsmouth – fresh from their first two wins of the season – with room for improvement. Moments of carelessness when in good possession, little outbreaks of sloppy defending, the odd wrong decision as they burst away on the counter attack, all components Smith and the redoubtable Richard O'Kelly can get their teeth into over coming months on the training ground.

But O'Kelly's presence alongside the manager in the technical area these days is not without significance. These Saddlers bear all the hallmarks of the Alan Buckley and Sean O'Driscoll teams to which their former coach is associated, teams which produced a whole greater than the sum of their parts.

It should be pointed out, of course, that Appleton now faces the same challenge at Fratton Park having gone into this game with only one player signed to permanent contract while the fallen 2008 FA Cup winners sort out yet another owner.

But from the outset, the greater cohesion was Walsall's which enabled them to survive Portsmouth's first-half pressure without asking keeper David Grof to extend himself while they hinted at what was to come by fashioning the better chances. Jamie Paterson and George Bowerman were not able to take them but both registered fine performances, Bowerman in that thankless task as the lone central striker while Paterson took my Man of the Match award for another contribution of touch and creativity allied to a willingness to get back to his defensive station in front of full back Ben Purkiss.

The breakthrough was provided by two players experiencing quieter games. Ashley Hemmings finally eluded Mustapha Dumbaya's attentions in a tangle of arms and legs out on the left touchline and squared a pass to the unmarked Baxendale 25 yards out.

Baxendale, an O'Kelly 'pick' from last season's relegated Hereford squad, allowed the ball to run across his line, steadied himself and then made the sweetest of connections which flummoxed Portsmouth keeper Mikkel Andersen as it dipped over him. If that was a peach, what followed was arguably better.

Bowerman's relentless toil and persistence earned Walsall a free-kick eight minutes later which Pompey only half-cleared to the lurking Florent Cuvelier, playing against his former club.

Cuvelier had endured a frustrating afternoon with some wayward and ambitious shooting from range. But this left-footer fizzed through a startled defence and caught an unsighted Andersen rooted to the spot.

There was time for Walsall to make life uncomfortable when three times they declined to clear a 70th minute corner which enabled Izale McLeod the chance to launch a revival. But it never materialised. Indeed the match closed with Paterson smashing the bar with an even longer-range effort before Walsall celebrated with their travelling fans.

And rightly so.

By Martin Swain