THE SADDLERS' interest in the FA Cup is over for another year following a 2-1 third round replay defeat at Millwall.

An early sweeping move by Walsall ended with Ishmel Demontagnac snatching at his shot and firing well off target. Then on ten minutes, the home side almost capitalised as we failed to clear our lines, however, Scott Dann was able to block bravely from Ali Fuseini.

The Lions took the lead just before the quarter-hour mark when a ball through the middle picked out Ben May who strode through to fire home through Clayton Ince.

Alex Nicholls won a free-kick in a good position which was taken by Richard Taundry and deflected for a corner as Anthony Gerrard's towering header was gathered by Lenny Pidgeley in the home goal.

On 26 minutes Mark Bradley headed just wide from an inviting corner, whilst at the other end Dave Brammer fired well over.

Another corner caused problems for Millwall as they were forced to clear from right in front of goal, but the were able to launch an attack of their own moments later as Gary Alexander got free from the attentions of Rhys Weston to put a low ball across the face of goal which May failed to connect to properly.

There was a yellow card for Demontagnac for a late challenge before Troy Deeney's clever through-ball was cleared ahead of Nicholls as he looked to close in on goal.

The half ended with Deeney dragging a shot wide of the target.

It took the home side just three minutes into the second period to double their lead when Alexander found space inside the area to confidently fire home into the far corner of the net.

As The Saddlers looked to hit back, Deeney was denied by a well-timed challenge inside the area by Lions' skipper, Paul Robinson as Bradley headed over as the resulting throw-in was taken quickly and delivered back into the danger zone.

A shot on the hour by Nicholls took a wicked deflection on its way past Pidgeley and into the net as Walsall pulled a goal back to set up an exciting final 30 minutes.

Moments later a driving run by Nicholls saw him feed Edrissa Sonko out wide and he lashed an effort across the face of goal and just the wrong side of the post.

There was a welcome return to action for Michael Dobson as he replaced Darren Wrack in the heart of the side. However, the next action saw Ince tip over well from Alexander's acrobatic effort in front of goal.

There were a couple of further changes as Paul Boertien came back from a niggling knee injury to replace Bradley, whilst Martin Brittain took the place of Demontagnac.

After Sonko cut inside to send a powerful shot just over, Dann was booked for a late challenge as The Saddlers pushed for an equaliser.

With time running out, a frantic final few minutes saw Sonko's cross back into the box met with a glancing header by Dann who was just off target. In injury time a low shot  in a crowded penalty area took a deflection off Deeney in front of goal but it only acted to take the sting out of the ball as Pidgeley gratefully gathered to ensure his side made progress into the next round.