The Saddlers Pay the Penalty
By Neil Ravenscroft & 4two
November 6 2002
A fighting performance from the lads, as they come from behind to lead the holders 2 - 1, only for some desperate luck to give Blackburn an equaliser from a Hay own goal.
Blackburn Rovers 2-2 Saddlers (5-4 Pens)
| Goals : ' Aranalde pen 67 'Zdrilic 95' (Walsall) Grabbi pen' 45 Hay og 105' (Rovers) | |
| Man of the Match: Darren Bazeley (Walsall) | |
| Walsall - Walker , Bazeley , Hay , Roper , Aranalde , Wrack , Sonner , Simpson , Corica , Leitao , Junior Subs: Ward, Wright , Herivelto , Zdrilic , Barras Walsall Form - Exellent | |
| Blackburn
Rovers -
Kelly, Pelzer, Johansson, Curtis, Gillespie, Dunn,
Danns, Mahon, Grabbi, Jansen. Subs: Ostenstad, Douglas, McEverley,
Richards, Robison. Blackburn Rovers
Form - Average |
|
Full Time Match Report by Neil Ravenscroft & 4two
The drama of penalties left the Saddlers missing out on a possible lucrative tie in the League Cup tonight.Having trailed to a Grabbi penalty late in the first half of normal time, given away by Aranalde, struggling to cope with the trickery of Gillespie, Walsall fought back to lead with an Aranalde penalty and a wonder strike from David Zdrilic. Herivelto had a 20 yard effort that rebounded of the bar in extra time, a chance that would have secured a shock win for the Saddlers.
The first Blackburn goal that came from the penalty which was a result of Aranalde carelessly pollaxing Gillespie down with a high footed challenge inside the penalty box. Blackburn had a number of chances during the first half, most notably a Dunn Free Kick that Walker plucked out the air, and, a number of Grabbi efforts that were wide of the target. Walsall on the other hand were limited to half chances from Junior and Wrack which were also off target.
Half Time - Blackburn 1-0 Saddlers
The substitutions of Zdrilic and Herivelto for Corica and Junior changed Walsall approach to the game. It was Herivelto who earned the Saddlers their equalizing penalty on 67 minutes when he cajoled Nils-Eric Johansson in to bringing him down in exactly the same spot Aranalde had bought down Gillespie in the first half. Aranalde stepped up and slammed the ball in to the bottom left hand corner in front of the Saddlers fans.
Mahon, Gillespie and Grabbi all had chances to put Blackburn back in to the lead, but they were unable to finish the Saddlers off, and the game went in to extra time. Jorge Leitao had Walsall's best chance of the 90 minutes from open play, when he broke down the right wing, and shook off the Blackburn defenders only to his shot flash across the face of goal.
Full Time - Blackburn 1-1 Saddlers
In the first period of extra time, "Driller" found him self on the edge of the penalty box and able to smash home a superb goal to send the Saddlers in to the lead, just 5 minutes in to extra time. Almost 5 minutes later Herivelto's effort rebounded of the bar and Blackburn cleared the ball away.
Blackburn equalised from an unlucky deflection, credited to a Danny
Hay own goal (105mins) and the match, finally, went to the drama of
penalties. The goal bound shot from the edge of the area appeared to
be going wide, but, Danny Hay wasn't to know that and attempted to
hack it clear. Blackburn pushed on for the remainder of the extra
time, and looked likely to snatch another goal, but the finishing of
the Blackburn forwards was just not up to scratch.
Darren Wrack was the unfortunate man to miss, as the Saddlers finally
lost 5 - 4, none of the others looking like being saved.
Full Time (aet) - Blackburn 2-2
Saddlers
Penalty takers for the lads in the shootout were:-
Sonner (scored), Barras (scored), Wrack (saved), Bazeley (scored), Zdrilic
(scored).
Penalties Blackburn 5-4 Saddler
TheSaddlersFC Player Form by 4two
Hard to single out anyone Player. The defensive duo got better as the game went on. Sonner and Simpson had their periods of domination, Simpson and Sonners distribution was a tad careless at times. Junior was his usual frustrating self, he had 3 or 4 chances today. Bazeley was solid and consistent.
After Match Reaction - by The Fans
Reaction : Neil Ravenscroft - Although the League Cup could never be a target for us this season, it is disappointing, in that it stops us getting a potentially lucrative tie in the next round. Mind you, that might have proven difficult on a night of shocks, as the Premiership will not be well represented later on!
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Who's place may be under threat ? |
Danny Sonner, nowhere near as influential as O'Connor. Junior, Driller took his goal well. | |
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How Did Colin Lee do today? |
Although it was a strange change, to bring off Junior and Corica, it proved to be a good one, and inspired the rally. | |
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TheSaddlersFC Recommends.... |
Tell Zigore to tackle the Wingers out side the box, and keep playing attacking Football, we love it. |
Reaction : 4two - Some careless mistakes today cost us dear. Cannot fault the Saddlers approach to the game.
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