Saddlers remain unbeaten...
THE MONTH of March got underway with a local derby against Shrewsbury Town.In front of a vocal crowd, Will Grigg set us on our way with another expertly dispatched penalty on the half-hour mark.
Craig Westcarr was in the right place at the right time to double our advantage early in the second half as The Saddlers gave our visitors a footballing lesson.
It wasn't long before Grigg bagged his second to out us out of sight and even though The Shrews pulled a goal back, we ran out worthy winners.
We were on the road for our next assignment at high-flying Swindon Town who were being managed by former Saddler, Kevin McDonald for the first time on home soil.
Andy Williams gave our hosts the lead but they were pegged back as Will Grigg converted another penalty.
In what was an evenly-matched encounter, Swindon thought they had nicked all three points with ten minutes to go when Aaron McCarey spilled a long range effort and Simon Ferry was on hand to turn the ball home.
But there is a never-say-die attitude amongst this Walsall team and we grabbed a deserved share of the spoils right at the death with a rare headed goal from Jamie Paterson.
It sent us into our home game with Tranmere Rovers in good spirits.
Rovers had been in and around the top of the table throughout the season but they had no answer to a slick Saddlers outfit who were over-flowing with belief.
The deadlock was broken in the 50th minute with our third penalty in a row as Will Grigg did the honours, before Craig Westcarr added a second seven minutes later and, in fairness, Dean Smith's side never looked in any real danger of surrendering our lead.
We were back at home three days later for Crawley Town's first-ever visit to Banks's Stadium.
On a heavy surface, The Saddlers looked leggy and failed to recapture the form we had previously showed during the month.
Both sides were evenly-matched until the visitors were able to get their noses in front early in the second half. They went on to make it 2-0 with just under 20 minutes to go and that is how the scoreline stayed going into the final minute.
A goal from Jamie Paterson looked like being a mere consolation but then in stoppage time Will Grigg swept home to level the scores and send The Saddlers' faithful wild with delight.
This Walsall side just doesn't know when it is beaten and although we only took a point from the game, it felt like much more.
Next up was a trip to a very windy Hartlepool United and in extremely difficult conditions, we failed to find a spark and had to be content with a point from a goalless draw.
It was the same scoreline for our Good Friday trip to fellow play-off hopefuls, Yeovil Town.
Both teams cancelled each other out on a day when Will Grigg and Paddy Madden - two of the leading scorers in League One - fired a blank.
What it did do was ensure that we ended the month of March unbeaten from our six matches.