Walsall (0) 1 Fulham (1) 2
Fulham have never won club football’s most celebrated knockout competition
and Walsall have never been beyond the fifth round. You wouldn’t bet on either
record improving in the foreseeable future on yesterday’s evidence.
The tie was competitive throughout, but it developed into a routine win for Goliath,
which was not what the majority had come to see. That said, for 10 minutes or
so, it seemed that the packed crowd in their compact stadium might have the classic
cup tale to revel in, courtesy of Darren Byfield, who scored a goal with real
romantic potential.
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Sylvain Legwinski has good chance saved at Walsall
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Byfield, 21, was Aston Villa’s most promising young striker until Darius
Vassell came along, and the two are still friends. So much so that when Vassell
scored on his England debut last Wednesday, his erstwhile colleague from their
days in Villa’s youth team, who was watching the match on television, jumped
so far out of his chair he aggravated an ankle injury, which kept him out of the
starting line-up yesterday.
Undeterred, he quickly made up for lost time when he was introduced from the bench,
emulating Vassell’s midweek success by putting the ball past Fulham’s
Dutch international goalkeeper, Edwin van der Sar.
Byfield’s big moment, four minutes into the second half, equalised the
43rd-minute own goal which had given Fulham the lead and, had the young man
scored again late on, when it took a top-notch save from van der Sar to deny
him, Walsall would have lived to fight another day. Instead, an instinctive
volley from Barry Hayles was decisive, taking the Premiership side through to
tonight’s quarter-final draw.
The team from the Nationwide League still face a fight for survival in the
First Division, where they are at home to Manchester City on Saturday, then
away to Wolves, and although their fans are unlikely to agree, it is perhaps
as well that they can now devote their undivided attention to that task. They
had their moment of glory in the fourth round, winning at Charlton, but they
were never going to get much further and need to focus on securing what their
new manager, Colin Lee, calls the “bread and butter”. Walsall’s
goalscoring hero at the Valley, Jorge Leitao, was subdued to the point of near-
invisibility here, getting no encouragement from the attentions of Abdeslam
Ouaddou, a leggy defender who can be Rio Ferdinand one moment, Carlton Palmer
the next.
A Moroccan marking a Portuguese; it was that sort of occasion. Gone are the
days when the Walsall team sounded like an audition for Crossroads; the Bescot
now echoes to the cosmopolitan tones of two Spaniards, a Brazilian and a Frenchman,
as well as Leitao, who arrived in the West Midlands via Oporto and Farense.
If Fulham and their manager, Jean Tigana, did not enjoy a monopoly when it
came to exotica, nor did they fashion all the goalscoring chances. Sylvain Legwinski
and Steed Malbranque had early oppportunities, but Leitao spurned one that was
much more clear-cut when Byfield picked him out with an inviting cross from
the left. The accuracy of the delivery warranted a much better fate than a free
header straight at the goalkeeper from seven yards.
The first goal, tantalisingly close to half-time, was a calamitous one for
Tom Bennett, the Walsall captain, who was booked, then collided with Matt Carbon
to divert Malbranque’s subsequent free kick past his startled keeper.
The equaliser was no better from the defensive viewpoint, van der Sar flapping
ineffectively at a corner swung in by Dean Keates, and all but throwing the
ball against Byfield, who admitted his good fortune afterwards.
“It was a bit of a gift”, he said, “but at least I can now tell
Darius that I put one past van der Sar, too.”
Byfield had telephoned Vassell straight after the England game, and will be
doing so again today.
“We talk all the time”, he said, “we’re good mates. At
Villa, I set the scoring record for the youth team one season, and he broke
it the next. People ask why I left. When they look at Darius now, they can probably
see why.”
Fulham responded well to the concession of what was a soft goal that left Tigana
“a little worried”. Malbranque might have restored the advantage twice
before Hayles did so, after 61 minutes, thumping home Steve Finnan’s right-wing
centre at the far post.
| Match
Stats |
Walsall |
Fulham |
| Goal
attempts |
9 |
5 |
| On
Target |
5 |
2 |
| Hit
woodwork |
0 |
0 |
| Fouls |
14 |
8 |
| Offsides |
3 |
6 |
| Corners |
6 |
3 |
| Yellows |
3 |
1 |
| Reds |
0 |
0 |
| source:
www.sports.com |
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Walsall were down to 10 men at the time, Darren Wrack having withdrawn to have
running repairs on a gashed ankle. It took more than 10 minutes for the wound
to be stitched, which Lee seemed to suggest was too long.
“He was off the field for 10 minutes, 25 seconds, which is a long time,”
the manager said. “That was a bit of a sickener, especially as they scored
in the 25 seconds before he came back. Sometimes I suppose those type of things
happen.
“I didn’t want to take Darren off because he was playing so well.
We never really had a natural right-back on the bench anyway.
“I felt we held them long enough, but to take that long to put a few stitches
in his ankle is something I need to look into.” Because of Wrack, Walsall
found themselves on the rack, but they would still have had the replay Lee felt
they deserved but for the save with which van der Sar thwarted Byfield in the
closing minutes.
Walsall: Walker, Wrack, Holdsworth, Carbon
(Roper 45), Aranalde, Bennett (Corica 76), Keates, Biancalani, Matias, Leitao,
Herivelto (Byfield 37).
Subs Not Used: Harper, Angell.
Booked: Carbon, Matias, Byfield.
Goals: Byfield 49.
Fulham: Van der Sar, Finnan, Ouaddou (Melville 81), Goma, Brevett, Malbranque,
Legwinski, Collins (Harley 90), Davis, Marlet (Saha 80), Hayles.
Subs Not Used: Taylor, Willock.
Booked: Brevett(77, foul).
Goals: Bennett 43 og, Hayles 61.
Att: 8,766 Ref: S Dunn (Bristol).