THE MONTH of September started with The Saddlers setting out on the Johnstone's Paint Trophy trail with a home game against League Two Bury.
After 90 minutes of goalless action, the match went straight to penalty kicks. Sam Parkin missed the first one for Chris Hutchings' side as Bury went on to claim a 5-4 shoot-out victory to end our interest in the competition at the first hurdle.
A tough trip to Norwich City followed as Walsall put in a hard-working and committed display to bring home a point from a goalless draw - our third stalemate in a row.
In front of a crowd of over 23,000, The Saddlers managed to frustrate the home side for long periods and could have nicked all three points.
Another road trip seven days later saw us head for John Barnes' struggling Tranmere Rovers.
The home side edged in front early on through former Saddlers' loanee, Chris Shuker, but Darren Byfield's first goal since his return to the club levelled matters right on the stroke of half-time.
The Saddlers came out full of purpose for the second period and within two minutes of the restart, Troy Deeney had put us in front with his first goal of the season.
Tranmere hit back just past the hour through Alan Mahon but Walsall kept plugging away and looked the most likely side. A breakaway by Alex Nicholls with seven minutes to go ended with him setting up Deeney who made no mistake as he celebrated signing a new two-year contract in the best possible way to give us our second win of the season.
We were back on home soil for the visit of Swindon Town and an impressive first half performance saw us deservedly go in at the break one goal to the good through Troy Deeney.
It could - and should - have been more and we were made to pay in the second half as our visitors came back into it. They won a spot-kick following Darryl Westlake's foul on Billy Paynter but he saw his effort strike the post.
Shortly afterwards Paynter was presented with another opportunity from the penalty spot following Mark Hughes' handball and this time he made no mistake to make it 1-1 and that is how the scoreline stayed.
A long trip up to Hartlepool wasn't for the feint-hearted and in the north-east sunshine we were second best from the first whistle to the last and duly came home on the wrong end of a 3-0 scoreline.
The month ended with a home game against a much-fancied Huddersfield Town outfit who had invested heavily in their squad duing the summer.
It was Walsall who were the better side during a goalless first half but fell behind within seconds of the restart when Theo Robinson broke the offside trap to round Rene Gilmartin and slot home.
The Saddlers failed to let their heads drop and deservedly drew level when Darren Byfield converted from the penalty spot on his birthday.
The winner came with just three minutes to go when Huddersfield-born Dwayne Mattis fired home for his first goal of the season against the club where he started his career.
It gave us our first win of the season on home soil and was the perfect way to end the month of September.
