Walsall's pre-season got under way with a narrow 2-1 win against Rotherham Unitedas manager Chris Hutchings fielded virtually two complete teams over the 90 minutes at The Don Valley Stadium at Sheffield.
As 'warm-up' games go, this was actually a keenly-fought contest throughout with plenty of end-to-end action in sunny if somewhat blustery conditions at The Miller's temporary home. With Hutching's latest signing Sam Parkin leading Walsall's attack it was combative as the ex-Swindon striker won a ball in the air in the 3rd minute to unsteady the young home centrebacks. On 5 minutes local referee Howard Webb decided to change his shirt from black to a more easy-on-the-eye yellow for identification as the away team sported their new green and black away shirts which clearly clashed with the top official's first choice. With the visitors also wearing black shorts it really did look like Walsall had 12 men in that opening first few minutes!
As 'warm-up' games go, this was actually a keenly-fought contest throughout with plenty of end-to-end action in sunny if somewhat blustery conditions at The Miller's temporary home. With Hutching's latest signing Sam Parkin leading Walsall's attack it was combative as the ex-Swindon striker won a ball in the air in the 3rd minute to unsteady the young home centrebacks. On 5 minutes local referee Howard Webb decided to change his shirt from black to a more easy-on-the-eye yellow for identification as the away team sported their new green and black away shirts which clearly clashed with the top official's first choice. With the visitors also wearing black shorts it really did look like Walsall had 12 men in that opening first few minutes!
Trialist Peter Till, who looked more than useful, often swapping flanks to unsteady the home defence,set up Parkin with a good cross on 8 mins which unfortunately saw his bullet header thud back into play thanks to the crossbar.
After 27 mins Rene Gilmartin produced a truely remarkable point-blank save that even drew applause from the home fans as he flung himself to deny Rotherham's Ryan Taylor a certain goal. On 38 mins there was concern on the faces of the Walsall bench as Till took a somewhat heavy but fair challenge that left the ex-Grimsby man hobbling for a few minutes afterwards.
A minute later Josh O'Keefe should have scored when he raced onto a Mark Bradley through ball but shot tamely right into the hands of the home keeper. Gilmartin then produced another fine save tipping a goal-bound shot from Taylor onto a post. A couple of minutes before half time centre back Mark Hughes hit a suicide pass which almost let Rotherham in but thankfully the resulting shot was blocked.
The restart saw all sorts of wholesale changes as you would expect and Walsall went for Troy Deeney and Alex Nicholls and the pace of Walsall's attacks were noticablyquicker with these pair posing constant panic in the home defence. Nicholls was out left side for spells and on a couple of occassions cut inside to cause a bit of panic as he nipped in and either shot or laid on balls for Deeney.
Richard Taundry was in the thick of the early action in the second period and had a couple of long range shots which were not far away. On 62 mins Walsall finally took the lead thanks to the hard working Nicholls with a neat finish. A big cheer went up from the 112 visiting fans with the sight of centre back Steve Roberts who came on unannounced for his first Walsall outing for months.He looked the part and he joined the vastly experienced Jamie Vincent who looked cool and composed on the ball at left back and would certainly be a useful addition to the squad. Rhys Weston took a blow on the head and returned with his head bandaged.
In the 83rd min Walsall doubled their lead when youngster Richard Davies finished
off well but within a minute Tom Pope beat Clayton Ince to keep the game alive and still chances were carved out by both sides. The game was played in a good spirit and was a pleasure to watch as there was plenty of action to keep the 866 spectators interested throughout.