Walsall had not lost in League Two all season. They were two goals down inside an hour, level ten minutes later, and beaten by two more before the end. Salford City won 4-2 at Walsall, took their seventh league win in a row and moved six points clear at the top, and for about ninety seconds in the middle of the second half it looked like none of that was going to happen.
Patience, then a goal on the stroke of half-time
Salford came out of the blocks hunting an early goal and did not get one. What eventually broke the deadlock in the 45th minute was slower and better built: Luke Molyneux worked the ball crisply into the right side of the box and Macauley Langstaff put it low inside the far post without breaking stride.
The second arrived nine minutes after the restart and came from a mistake. Brendan Wiredu robbed Courtney Clarke on the left edge of the Walsall area, Jorge Grant took the ball on and thumped it inside the far post. Two up away from home against the division's only unbeaten side, and the game looked finished.
Eight minutes that changed the afternoon
It was not. Tai Sodje kept running at Salford down the right in the 58th minute and his cutback was slammed in at the near post by Aaron Pressley. Eight minutes after that, Mason Hancock's cross from the left was perfectly weighted and substitute Lewis Simper got his head to it. From 2-0 down to 2-2 in a quarter of an hour, with the home crowd up and the leaders rattled.
Salford's answer took just over a minute. Langstaff, who had scored the first, laid the ball off for Kallum Cesay to drive past Jed Ward from close range. Whatever momentum Walsall had built was gone before they had worked out how to use it.
Set-piece finish and a six-point lead
The fourth settled it with eight minutes to play, Molyneux swinging a corner in and Adebola Oluwo powering a header inside the near post. Molyneux had a hand in two of the four and was involved in the build-up to the opener as well.
Seven straight league wins is the kind of run that turns an early-season table into a real lead, and six points is a gap Walsall will now have to close having lost their unbeaten record in the process. The Saddlers have plenty to work with — they scored twice in eight minutes against the league leaders and had the game level — but they also conceded four at home, which is the part that will sting on the review.
Match facts: Walsall 2-4 Salford City, League Two. Scorers: Langstaff 45', Grant 54', Pressley 58', Simper 66', Cesay (just over a minute after the equaliser), Oluwo 82'. Salford's seventh straight league win takes them six points clear at the top; Walsall's unbeaten start to the season ends. Match report supplied by the Press Association via BBC Sport.
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