Walsall replaced Burton Albion at the top of the Sky Bet League One table thanks to a hard-fought 2-0 victory over their rivals at the Banks’s Stadium.
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The 19-year-old potential customer Liam Kinsella covered of a strong capability with the use of a well-merited end goal, having latched on top of Sawyers cross to effectively machine low past McLaughlin, and offer the provides the show nine seconds before half time frame.
Victory for the home side, their seventh of the season, lifts them above the Brewers on goal difference, yet a third defeat of the season was not enough to see Burton fall out of the top two.
“I thought we were excellent in the first half, we played really well, moved the ball around and created a few chances and scored a good goal”, said the Walsall manager, Dean Smith.
Robbie Simpson had put Cambridge United ahead at home to Portsmouth, but the dismissal of Mark Roberts during the half-time interval proved costly as Matt Tubbs’ second-half hat-trick earned the visitors – who also finished the game with 10 men following Gareth Evans’ late red card – three points. The Saddlers were defending from the front, with Sawyers dispossessing opposition players on multiple occasions, while both Kinsella and Rico Henry made a number of key tackles on the flanks and Adam Chambers was vast breaking up play in front of the defence.
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink hasn’t set any targets for Burton but feels being competitive is the most important thing.
Instead John Mousinho was adjudged to have handled inside the area in injury time and Bradshaw confidently converted from the penalty spot for his sixth league goal of the season.
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“We had a chance to make it 1-1 but didn’t take it. But I think the game was lost in the first half”. Defensively he was very good and going forward he was always an out ball for us.
