Lions gobble up yet another gift horse

POINTS, they say, make prizes – yet Walsall have done a good job of frittering them away this season.

Their inability to hold onto a lead has cost them any chance of making the play-offs – this draw on Saturday took the total points squandered from winning positions to 22 this season.

Hanging on in even half of those games would have put them right in the hunt – not only through the extra points they would have gained but the points they would have taken off other teams.

Because it is against the top teams that Walsall have come a cropper when taking the lead.

The likes of Leeds, Norwich, Southampton, Charlton, Swindon and now, twice, Millwall, have all taken advantage of Walsall's soft underbelly.

It may seem a tad harsh to point this out in the wake of Walsall's most recent collapse, given that they spent most of the second half down to ten men against the Lions.

But it was not the sending-off of Matt Richards that turned the game – it was the first half howler that handed Millwall a route back into the match.

Up to that point, Walsall had outclassed the visitors and it was difficult to tell which team were the true play-off contenders.

Troy Deeney typified their start, tracking back to the edge of his own box to dispossess Liam Trotter and launch an inch-perfect ball over the top for Alex Nicholls to chase.

There was still much for Nicholls to do but he took the pass in his stride, outpaced the defence and fired smartly across David Forde's goal into the far corner from just inside the box.

It was 2-0 on 27 minutes as Richard Taundry unleashed a 20-yard piledriver into the top corner but then came the moment that gave the Lions a lifeline.

Rene Gilmartin called for skipper Jamie Vincent to leave a harmless ball down the middle but the two got in a muddle and by the time the keeper eventually cleared, Steve Morison had nipped in to block and rolled the ball into an empty net.

Cue chaos as Walsall lost their heads and Millwall could have gone in at the break ahead – the usually clinical Neil Harris sent two close range headers wide, was denied by a last-ditch Vincent tackle and then a Tony Craig rocket cannoned off Gilmartin's bar.

Walsall somehow rode out the storm but in the midst of the pressure, Richards saw yellow for a high foot that cut open the forehead of Chris Hackett.

And when the full-back hacked down the same Millwall man just after the hour to receive a deserved second yellow card, it was always going to be backs-to-the-wall time.

In truth, the Lions merited their point but it was harsh on the Saddlers that it came in stoppage time, just when it looked like they had held out.

Clayton McDonald had cleared a Morison header off the line and the Millwall man had sent another straight at Gilmartin from six yards.

But the sting in the tail came via the goal of the game – which is saying something after the quality of Nicholls' and Taundry's strikes – Alan Dunne slamming a 25-yard half volley into the top corner.

Coca Cola League One

Walsall 2

Millwall 2

WALSALL: Gilmartin, Richards, Vincent, McDonald, Weston (Westlake HT), Gray, Taundry, O'Keefe, Jones (Hughes 77), Nicholls (Byfield 88), Deeney. Subs (not used): Ince, Sansara, Bradley, Grigg. ATTENDANCE: 3,835. ADVERTISER STAR MAN: Richard Taundry – non-stop display.