Sheffield Wednesday v Walsall: match report

The Saddlers headed up north to Hillsborough on Tuesday night for thier second away clash in a row.

This time against high flying Sheffield Wednesday, a game which by all accounts, is never for the faint of heart!

The game began with The Owls very much in control, raining efforts down on Grof's goal, and eventually clipping the crossbar, leaving a lot of fans think it was going to be a very long night indeed.

Walsall failed to gain a foothold and our defence was kept very busy, before impressive Owl Michael Antonio crashed an effort against our bar once again, Jon Macken may have been wondering why he didn't have to buy a ticket like the other spectators!

Walsall did eventually gain enough conviction to attack, albeit briefly seeing a Nicholls effort pushed away for a corner, which was headed just wide by Manny Smith.

Straight back up the other end and Grof was again forced into a save, before Smith became the first entry into the ref's book for dissent.

The Saddlers were without doubt the happier of the two sides to hear the half time whistle!

The second period began with Wednesday again controlling possession, but against the run of play Cuvelier showed great composure to beat a man and whip a devilish cross into the Wednesday box, which Jon Macken stabbed him a volley to put the Saddlers into the lead.

Wednesday went straight back into thier pattern of dominance and within three minutes, they were level through Ryan Lowe.

Walsall seemed content to keep catching Wednesday on the break, and due to the defence doing a stellar job keeping the Owls at bay, this paid off in the 72nd minute.

Jamie Paterson on the right hand side, beat a man, checked inside the box and crashed a stunning drive rising into the top corner of Bywater's net, to send the travelling fans into raptures.

It then became the backs to the wall job that we all know so well, with Walsall trying thier hardest to frustrate the Owls and holding on well.

Somehow the officials managed to cook up four minutes of stoppage time to be added on, much to the frustration of Saddlers fans, as Wednesday looked a constant threat.

Walsall kept hanging on and it looked for all the world like we had stolen maximum points, before the last kick of the game FIVE minutes into stoppage time, Owls forward Gary Madine snatched a point for the home side.

A sickening blow at the last minute, but a point that doubtful any Saddlers fan would have turned down pre-match.

Final result:

Sheffield Wednesday: 2 Lowe 59', Madine 90+5

Saddlers: 2 Macken 58', Paterson 72'

Attendance: 18,689

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