THE SADDLERS played for over an hour with ten men but managed to battle out a deserved 1-0 derby day victory over Shrewsbury Town in front of a large Bescot Stadium crowd.

The first action saw a nicely lifted ball into the box by Kris Taylor met by the head of Tommy Wright whose effort landed inches over.

Then Martin Butler's through-ball set Tommy Wright off in chase but Scott Shearer in The Shrews' goal was alert to clear outside his area under pressure.

At the other end, a teasing cross from the visitors' left required Daniel Fox to get in a brave clearing header under pressure from Andy Cooke as both players required treatment.

There was a half-chance for Dave Edwards on the quarter-hour as he hooked the ball goalwards but Clayton Ince gathered.

Ince then did well to claim Sagi Burton's header back across goal from a corner and then set-up a counter-attack with Mark Wright whose low cross into the area was cleared.

Moments later Tommy Wright put a header over at the far post following another ball into the box.

The Saddlers were reduced to ten men on 28 minutes when Tommy Wright was given a straight red card following a committed challenge inside the Shrewsbury half. The referee was very quick to send the on-loan striker off for what appeared to be two players battling hard for possession in a keenly-contested local derby.

With 38 minutes on the clock, Ben Davies' corner was headed powerfully over by Cooke before the former Walsall youth team player saw a fierce drive from distance deflected out for a corner which Burton put well over.

In the closing stages of the half, Butler managed to bundle his way through but was pushed out wide as his eventual shot was deflected before being cleared.

Craig Pead entered the action at half-time to replace Bedeau as The Saddlers started brightly and took the lead on 52 minutes when some fine play by Taylor saw him evade several challenges before spreading the play out wide to Westwood who in turn fed Mark Wright and he curled the ball home beyond Shearer's despairing dive.

Boosted by the goal, Fox then curled a free-kick from a dangerous position narrowly wide of the target.

On the hour-mark, Stewart Drummond hit a dipping effort just over  as Fox's clearing header fell out to him before some neat play by Richard Money's side saw Mark Wright's cross met by a stooping header from Butler that was just off target.

Wright then did well to cut inside near the by-line and his pull-back was scrambled clear by The Shrews with Butler looking to profit.

Passions were running high in this local derby as The Saddlers had three powerful strikes on goal blocked in quick succession from Mark Wright, Chris Westwood and then Scott Dann.

As the clock ticked down, Pead managed to get away down the right and his cross in search of Butler was cleared right in front of his own goal by Kelvin Langmead who made an important interception.

The closing stages saw a real goalmouth scramble as Shrewsbury searched for an equaliser with a curling corner kick met by the head of goalkeeper, Scott Shearer, who was up to join the attack and as the ball found its way to target-man, Leo Fortune-West, Dann was on hand to bravely deflect the ball up onto the crossbar and away to safety with The Shrews' players lining up to put the ball home.

It meant that a brave performance by The Saddlers ended with three richly-deserved points to maintain our position at the top of the table.

PHOTOS: David Linney Photography