THE SADDLERS fell to a 1-0 defeat at a windy Southend United.

The first real incident of note came after nine minutes when Mark Bradley was booked for a foul.

There was a good chance for the home side shortly afterwards when James Walker got past Richard Taundry only to see his low shot clip the post on its way wide.

It was Southend who were asking all of the early questions and on the 20-minute mark Tommy Mooney was back defending to deflect an effort wide that appeared to come off the head of Taundry following an inviting cross from Tommy Black.

The next home raid saw Anthony Gerrard clear in front of goal from Walker's low ball into the danger zone.

Ian Roper saw yellow on 26 minutes for a late challenge as Charlie Mulgrew headed the resulting free-kick just over the crossbar.

With Richard Money's men defending resolutely, a deft header from Shrimpers' skipper, Adam Barrett landed just over before there was a real let-off for Walsall as Simon Francis smashed a shot that bounced down off the crossbar and was grabbed under pressure from Barnard by Clayton Ince.

The half ended with Walker seeing a long-range effort deflected wide by Taundry as The Saddlers ended the opening period without seriously testing Daryl Flahavan in the home goal.

With Stefan Moore and Alassane N'Dour on for Troy Deeney and Alex Nicholls during the interval, Southend took just a minute to get their noses in front in the second half as Barnard found space inside the area to guide the ball past Ince.

After Bradley had seen an effort fly well over, David McDermott was introduced in place of Lee Holmes.

Just past the hour-mark, Mark Gower drilled a shot straight at Ince before the 'keeper pushed out a speculative effort from Francis.

In the next raid, Gerrard made another timely clearance in front of goal as The Shrimpers pushed for a second goal to make the game safe. Ince then made a fine stop on 69 minutes as he acrobatically pushed over a long-range drive.

A neat touch by Mooney deep inside the penalty area found Moore who was crowded out as he lined up a shot and his effort was blocked.

After Walsall lost the ball in midfield, Ince was called upon to make another timely block to deny McCormack.

The closing stages saw a dangerous cross from McDermott touched away from the awaiting Mooney at the far post by Barratt as The Saddlers forced a corner which ultimately came to nothing and with it went our chance of taking anything from the game.

New loan signing, Aaron Brown was unable to figure as the necessary clearance from the Premier League was not received.