Walsall 1-7 Oldham
Walsall looked to turn their fortunes around against a strong visiting Oldham side, but after a confident start their woes continued.
Despite Oldham starting the brightest, they were to concede an early penalty, when Samim Sarvari was brought down in the box. Antonio Cristofaro stepped up and calmly slotted the ball past Luke Sotherington in the Oldham goal.
In the early stages of the game both teams had good possession of the ball in a fairly end to end start. Favour Okeke caused Walsall some issues running forward from left back with the full back creating chances throughout the first half.
Walsall were able to threaten the Oldham goal after Marvellous Onabirekhanlen held the ball well and played Piers Juliff through down the right-hand side of the pitch. His shot ended straight at Sotherington to gather easily.
In the 20th minute Oldham were able to score an equaliser. The Latics were awarded a penalty after Mworina Doro was brought down in the box. Aaron Atkinson converted the penalty slotting the ball into the bottom left corner.
Okeke caused further problems for the Young Saddlers with the Latics building on their momentum and with a swift counter attack took the visitors took the lead. The move resulted in the ball being headed past Hedge in the Walsall net.
Another chance for Oldham saw a spectacular save from Hedge at point blank range. This was the first of a series of saves made to keep Walsall in the game.
In the last 15 minutes of the half Walsall were able to settle the game down and stunt Oldham’s momentum, almost creating a chance when Juliff got the by line and crossed into the area looking for Onabirekhanlen. However, the chance came to nothing.
The visitors extended their lead on the stroke of half time with a headed goal from Frazer Cookson after winning a free-kick out on the right flank.
Walsall started the half strongly, retaining possession well and looking a lot more comfortable defending Oldham’s attacks.
Oldham showed their first threat on goal down the right hand side, Hedge saved well at his front post, leading to a corner for the visitors.
Hedge carried on his strong performance in goal with a further set of saves after the visitors continued to cause problems down the left-hand side.
The Young Saddlers put up a strong resistance half way through the half defending well, but Oldham scored their fourth of the game on the hour mark.
The Latics made it five midway through the second half, as Okeke scored a wonderful curling effort from the left side of the 18 yard box into the top right corner of the goal. Oldham then added a sixth to the tally from their second penalty of the game.
The Saddlers succumbed to a seventh goal after losing the ball poorly on the halfway line. Allowing the Latics to counter and score after a first attempted was blocked.
Late in the game Rio Sawyers moved into midfield from centre back and seemed to make a small difference for Walsall. Sawyers was able to get on the ball and dictate play well for the Saddlers.
After a good start to the game with an early goal, Walsall were unable to build on their advantage and were eventually overwhelmed by a strong Oldham performance.