Walsall replaced Burton Albion at the top of the Sky Bet League One table thanks to a hard-fought 2-0 victory over their rivals at the Banks’s Stadium.
An opener from 19-year-old Liam Kinsella and a last-minute penalty from Tom Bradshaw handed the Brewers their first defeat in six games in front of the biggest league gate of the season at Walsall.
The 6,812 in attendance saw the Saddlers go ahead of their opponents at the top on goal difference but the home fans endured several nervy moments in the second half.
“I thought we were excellent in the first half, we played really well, moved the ball around and created some chances and scored a good goal,” said the Walsall manager, Dean Smith. “Young Kinsella, what a game. He’s taken the reins from Jason Demetriou, who’s been excellent all season and got a goal.
“As well as we played in the first half, they had an awful lot of the ball in the second half and put a lot of balls into their front men. Adam Chambers in front of our three centre halves was outstanding.”
The home side dominated the early exchanges but had to wait until nine minutes before the interval to take the lead. Rico Henry and Romaine Sawyers combined to create space for Kinsella and the teenager hammered home his first goal for the club.
Burton improved after the break and missed several chances to equalise, the most glaring of which fell to Timmy Thiele five minutes from time.
Instead John Mousinho was adjudged to have handled inside the area in injury time and Bradshaw confidently converted from the penalty spot for his sixth league goal of the season.
“They were the better team in the first half and they deserved to be 1-0 up,” said the Albion manager Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. “We didn’t play as well as we can; we weren’t on the front foot and we were losing our second balls.
“We were going out of our shape to chase the ball and that’s what they like because they can pick you off in pockets.
“In the second half, we addressed that and I thought we were the better team and it looked like there was only one team to score. We had a really good chance to score, but it was not meant to be.”
The result means Smith’s side extend their unbeaten league run to six matches, with the clean sheet maintaining their record as the league’s tightest defence.
