Walsall go top

In truth we have achieved nothing and we still need 9 wins to stay up. However that view is only present due to the fiasco of last season when we topped the league in August only to be bottom come May.

Today Dickie Dosh made changes for the game at the Memorial Ground. As predicted some changes were made but not the ones we expected. Out went Craig Pead and in came Scott Dann, with Westwood moving to right back. Giving a Walsall team as : Clayton Ince, Scott Dann, Chris Westwood, Mark Wright, Ian Roper, Daniel Fox, Michael Dobson, Dean Keates, Kris Taylor, Martin Butler, Hector Sam

Subs: Craig Pead, Tony Bedeau, Carlos Fangueiro, Ishmel Demontagnac, Rene Gilmartin

However things changed again with Roper going off with what looked like an ankle problem.Scott Dann, however, soon put the Saddlers infront, when a free kick lofted into the area from the centre circle. The home keeper , didn`t get there and Dann did to back header in to the net to register his third of the season.

Rovers had plenty of the ball with out hurting us, I still have concerns over the centrall midfield pairing of Keates and Dobson, However Mark Wright was effective and Butler and Sam were troubling the Rovers back four. Rovers were also uncertain at set pieces and Keates inswing corner was met with a powerful header from Fox to make it comfortable 0-2 at half time.

Dickie Dosh had stated that in previous away games we had defended too deep and again this was the case in the second half with the front pair isolated at times a midfield carrying on from the first half. However Dann and Westwood had the Rovers attack in there pocket.

Bristol Rovers who had the lions share of the ball didn’t trouble Clayton Ince until a minute into stoppage time, when Sandell hit one home from 20 yards.

I feel that this is a case of celebrating the three points, but another below par performance doesn’t paper over the cracks, a decent side would have made us pay for defending too deep. Shrewsbury on tuesday may be that team. However they do say that a good team picks up points when not playing well, so how good is a team that hasn’t hit it’s true potential that is sitting on top of the league?