THE SADDLERS came home from Crewe Alexandra with a point and a clean sheet but our performance deserved more as we found ourselves on top for long periods.

With an extremely vocal backing from the travelling contingent, Walsall started well and on six minutes a neat move involving Tommy Mooney and Peter Sweeney ended with Darren Wrack teed up for a low strike that was held by Williams as it skidded along the slick surface.

A corner found its way to Mooney via Sweeney four minutes later but the popular skipper fired powerfully into the side-netting.

The home side were restricted to a couple of hopeful balls into the penalty area which were easily claimed by Clayton Ince who received a good reception on his return to Gresty Road.

Michael Ricketts won a free-kick just before the half-hour which Daniel Fox stepped up to slam goalwards, however he was denied by Williams who pushed his effort out.

The Saddlers caused panic from a corner in the next attack as Edrissa Sonko's ball back into the danger zone was hit by Scott Dann but Crewe had men back to block.

With 31 minutes on the clock, Sonko linked up with Mooney who in turn set up Sweeney for a low strike that looked destined for the far corner of the net until Williams got his fingertips to the ball to make an impressive save.

Crewe went close with ten minutes to go until the interval when Elliot Bennett's effort struck the base of the post and rebounded to safety with Ince beaten.

The home side were starting to get their passing game together as the half came to a close but the final action saw Sweeney drive forward for The Saddlers to hit a shot that lacked the necessary power to trouble Williams.

The second period started with an early effort from Mark Carrington flying wide after the Crewe wide-man had made good progress down the left.

At the other end, Richard Money's men put in a few teasing balls that were dealt with before Sweeney showed good battling qualities to win the ball before firing wide from distance.

A lucky deflection then set up Mooney whose effort was deflected out for a corner which was headed goalwards by Ricketts but scrambled off tthe line.

Then an intelligent ball in by Ricketts saw Mark Bradley just beaten to it in front of goal as he prepared to pull the trigger.

There was a change as Ishmel Demontagnac was introduced in place of Sweeney whilst Nicky Maynard dragged an effort just wide for the home side.

As the clock ticked down, Ricketts found himself in plenty of space from a corner but he put his header wide then the on-loan front-man saw yellow a few minutes later for a heavy challenge from behind.

On 85 minutes Demontagnac broke away following a Crewe corner before feeding Bradley who battled forward only to fire wide from a tight angle.

There was a late change as youngster, Troy Deeney replaced Ricketts and The Saddlers' faithful had their hearts in their mouths right at the death when a header fell into the path of Maynard who volleyed just wide from the edge of the area.

In the end, Walsall had to settle for a point.