Another positive month for The Saddlers...
THE MONTH of February kicked off with a home game against an Oldham Athletic side that were fresh from an FA Cup victory over Liverpool.The Latics got the best possible start as they took the lead only for James Baxendale to level matters just before the break.
The second period saw Dean Smith's side take control and Jamie Paterson gave us a 74th minute lead before sealing the points with a well-taken second goal to make it 3-1 right at the death.
A trip to League leaders, Doncatser Rovers, followed and on a tricky surface at the Keepmoat Stadium, it took Andy Butler less than two minutes to open the scoring against his hometown club.
The Saddlers played some good football but were pegged back when the home side grabbed an equaliser just past the quarter-hour mark.
However, we refused to let our heads drop and got our reward towards the end when Febian Brandy bagged a deserved winner.
A return to home soil followed with the visit of Notts County.
On a heavy surface at Banks's Stadium, both sides found it difficult to get into any rhythm or momentum.
Walsall went ahead with another coolly dispatched penalty from Will Grigg but our East Midlands rivals took home a share of the spoils with a second half equaliser.
The month ended with consecutive away games as firstly we headed to the Capital to take on Brentford.
The high-flying Bees were challenging at the top of the table but The Saddlers put in a stubborn rear-guard display to frustrate the home side, whilst we also created a couple of chances ourselves at the other end.
In the end it proved to be a stalemate as we brought home a point from a goalless draw.
Three days later we were on the road to Carlisle United.
In what was a convincing performance from start to finish, our hosts simply had no answer to us as we played some slick, attacking football.
We took the lead with Will Grigg's third minute penalty and never looked back as the Northern Ireland International went on to claim a hat-trick in a 3-0 success that saw the home supporters stay behind to applaud Dean Smith's side off the field.
It proved an extremely positive end to the month...