Scotia Smith's match report...
On a bright but cold Bank Holiday Monday, Walsall took on relegation strugglers Swindon Town in front of a decent crowd of 5,196 – including 913 away supporters.The Saddlers started fast; in the first minute, McCarthy had a shot cleared off the line and Osbourne’s follow up was well saved. After this, Swindon settled down and had a few dangerous attempts that were well dealt with by the home defence and goalie.
The rest of the first half was pretty much a stalemate, apart from three long range shots from Morris, which were all straight at the keeper.
In the second half, Morris carried on where he’d left off and shaved the post from outside the box. Walsall now piled on the pressure looking for the opener – O’Connell, Edwards and Bakayoko all had efforts on goal.
With no goal on the horizon, JW decided to switch it up, bringing on Oztumer for Makris in the 71st minute and Dobson for Osbourne in the 74th minute.
Then, against the run of play, Swindon almost scored in the 81st minute with a header which was superbly saved by MacGillivary. This woke Walsall up…
GOAL!!! Oztumer played the ball out to Man of the Match Edwards wide on the left. He dribbled it into the box and fired an unstoppable shot past the keeper.
In the last minute, Oztumer almost added to the lead but was tackled in the box at the last second. Finally, the whistle blew extending Walsall’s unbeaten run to three games.
In the press conference, JW thought it was a deserved win and wants to stay unbeaten for the rest of season. He also said he was off to Pizza Hut with his family to celebrate with a Hawaiian pizza and a Jack Daniels and Coke.