Walsall 1 Scunthorpe 4 - Report and pictures
Another defensive home horror show saw Walsall slip to a third Banks's Stadium defeat on the spin as in-form Scunthorpe capitalised.
The slack Saddlers defending allowed United to establish a 2-0 half-time lead through a James Chambers own goal and loanee Tom Hopper's predatory finish.
Michael Cain's fine strike got the Saddlers back in it early in the second-half but more defensive woes handed Scunthorpe – now unbeaten in 11 games – the points.
First, Paul Downing gave away a penalty – slammed home by Paddy Madden – for a foul on Neal Bishop.
And then Bishop himself took advantage of the Walsall defence going AWOL to fire home Hopper's knockdown to make it 4-1.
The defeat dealt a severe blow to Walsall's fading play-off ambitions and, indeed, will have left many looking over their shoulder at the shrinking gap to the bottom four.
The Saddlers were unchanged from their midweek Johnstone's Paint Trophy area final first leg win at Preston as boss Dean Smith felt his troops were fresh enough to cope with a second game in four days.
Scunthorpe, meanwhile, made three changes to their starting line-up despite their fine recent run of results.
Two of those changes were debutant loanees as Leicester striker Hopper and Norwich wide man Jacob Murphy – recently turfed out of Blackpool for a disrespectful tweet about the club – came in.
Midfielder Liam O'Neil also returned to the line-up after Scunthorpe's midweek FA Cup 2-2 draw with Chesterfield.
Sean McAllister, Hakeeb Adelakun and Lyle Taylor were the United players to drop to the bench.
Walsall had the better of the early stages and a fine sixth-minute move saw Romaine Sawyers and Tom Bradshaw link up well to feed Anthony Forde, who drilled just wide from 20 yards.
He then fired more waywardly wide after a swift break led by Sawyers moments later, before Jordan Cook fired in a well-struck 30 yarder that Iron keeper Sam Slocombe grabbed at the second attempt.
The Saddlers seemed to be operating a shoot-on-sight policy and right-back James O'Connor was next to have a go, firing a rising drive over from 25 yards.
Scunthorpe had not had a shot to that point – and they still hadn't had one even after taking an undeserved 24th-minute lead.
Although it was James Chambers who diverted Gary McSheffrey's dangerous cross past Richard O'Donnell, James O'Connor was the real culprit for gifting possession to the United man in the first place.
Scunthorpe were buoyed by the goal and thought they had a second when Madden swept home a loose ball from a free-kick.
But the flag was up against Miguel Llera, whose initial header had been saved by O'Donnell. However, they did double their lead six minutes before the break.
Walsall were caught cold by a short corner and United's two new loanees combined, Hopper sweeping home Murphy's low cross from close range.
Walsall could have pulled one back on the stroke of half-time, as Sawyers drove at the Scunthorpe defence and whistled a fierce strike inches wide from 25 yards.
They had an even better chance after the interval as Forde's cross found Cain free just inside the area but he shanked a panicked finish well wide.
However, Cain made up for that miss on 51 minutes to pull Walsall back in it, steering an accurate finish into the bottom corner from the edge of the box after being teed up by Bradshaw.
Three minutes later, the Saddlers had a real let-off as referee Lee Collins seemed to have given a penalty for a tug by James Chambers on Llera but the linesman had already flagged for offside.
Walsall almost took immediate advantage of the let-off as, first, Andy Taylor fizzed just wide from outside the area and then Adam Chambers lashed over a tough chance when a corner was half-cleared.
However, it was game over on 63 minutes as Scunthorpe this time did receive a penalty, although it looked a soft one, as Bishop fell under Downing's challenge.
Madden slammed the spot-kick straight down the middle and the man who won the penalty, Bishop, put the icing on the cake two minutes later.
Just like on Boxing Day against Swindon, Walsall's defence capitulated after the blow of conceding at such a key time.
Hopper's header down from a high ball completely cut out an out-of-sorts Downing and allowed Bishop to slide home back across goal at the far post.
The Saddlers looked a beaten side and it took until stoppage time for them to register a chance of a consolation, only for substitute Ashley Grimes' header to be instinctively kept out by Slocombe.
