Still searching for first win
Second division leaders Walsall again proved to be the comeback kings as they broke the hearts of rock-bottom Oxford United at Bescot.
Substitute Brent Angell's 82nd minute strike earned the home side their second successive league win and provided them with their best start to a season in their history.
However, the Saddlers made hard work of their latest success coming from behind to win for the third time in four league games.
Oxford who arrived at Bescot with no points and no goals in their first three games of the season, stunned Walsall by twice taking the lead through Joey Beauchamp.
Beauchamp's opener was largely down to the player's awareness, as he caught the home defence napping.
The ex-Swindon man fielded a loose ball 30 yards out from goal, and having advanced a little he let fly with his left-foot to shoot beyond James Walker's outstretched hand and into the back of the net.
Walsall quickly went in search of the equaliser and both Gabor Bukran and Darren Byfield went close - former Villa striker Byfield hitting the post.
However, it wasn't long before their reply came, when Bukran picked out Paul Hall to drill in an effort on goal.
Hall's first try was cleared off the line, but the Oxford defence could do nothing as he powered in the follow-up from an angle.
Again though just past the half-hour, Beauchamp managed to restore United's advantage.
This time he capitalised on a foul by Walsall defender Ian Roper, who had tripped Steve Anthrobus on the edge of the penalty box.
Beauchamp smashed home the resultant free-kick from 20 yards out, after Lee Jarman's short lay-off.
Once more Walsall rallied but despite the best efforts of Byfield and his colleagues, they still went in at half-time trailing.
Eventually Ray Grayson's men started to weigh down their determined visitors, and Jorge Leitao managed to find the target 20 minutes into the second-half, before Angell sealed their dramatic victory eight minutes from time.
A cross from the left by Darren Wrack picked out Leitao, who rose unmarked to tie up the scores with a header over Richard Knight.
Then came the late winner, as another header - this by Angell - from Pedro Matias' corner, was finished with the kind of power and deadly accuracy that no keeper in the world could stop.

BIRMINGHAM POST

NON-STOP SADDLERS IN MOOD TO ENTERTAIN
By PAUL MARSTON
Birmingham Post

Walsall 3
Oxford United 2
WALSALL set up a club record by winning their opening four league games in an absolute cracker against bottom-of-the table Oxford at Bescot Stadium last night.

In doing so they opened a three-point gap at the top of the Second Division but once again made it difficult for themselves by allowing Denis Smith's strugglers to twice take the lead.

But it would have been an injustice had the Saddlers not won after giving a non-stop display of attacking football involving crosses, good passing and sheer determination.

To their credit Oxford fought every inch of the way, even though Walsall missed chances and the woodwork twice came to the visitors' rescue.

So in their opening four league games the Saddlers have scored three, three, four and three goals, but their manager Ray Graydon will still be looking for ways to improve his defence.

Graydon praised his team's fighting spirit but said: "On the down side we are still leaking goals at the other end, and that is very disappointing at the minute.

"We were asked to defend twice in the first half and we had two goals against. That cannot be right, and the players know it.

"It was terrific entertainment but we have got to have mean defenders or we shall be tripped up.

"We could have scored five, six or seven goals, I don't know, and that's nice.

"But if we give goals away so easily we won't get promoted, we shall have a problem."

Not until eight minutes from time did substitute Brett Angell head a dramatic winner, and the fans gave the team a standing ovation as they left the field at the end.

Walsall's defence was caught flat-footed as early as the third minute when the dangerous Joey Beauchamp darted across the edge of the penalty area without a challenge in sight and coolly slid a shot inside the far post.

It was just the start Oxford needed to give their players a lift, and they defended superbly under waves of pressure as the Saddlers sought to repair the damage.

But Walsall's determination paid off in the 14th minute, Darren Byfield heading against a post from Paul Hall's cross, and in the ensuing scramble Hall saw a shot blocked on the line before he smashed the rebound into the roof of the net from an acute angle.

Eight minutes later Gabor Bukran burst through to hit a terrific shot which Knight managed to block, then came a disastrous mistake by Ian Roper.

He stumbled with the ball at his feet on the edge of the area and then committed a foul trying to recover.

From the free kick the ball was touched short to Beauchamp whose left-foot drive screamed past James Walker.

Oxford were playing the ball around at the back trying to keep it away from the home side, and manager Smith encroached on to the pitch to argue with the referee after he had cautioned two Oxford players.

Byfield headed wide with an easy chance to equalise four minutes into the second half, but after 65 minutes Portuguese striker Jorge Leitao, who was magnificent throughout, looped a header over the busy Knight to bring the teams level again.

Leitao, who had earlier headed against the inside of a post, then missed another half chance and Angell also failed to connect from close in.

But, roared on by their fans, Walsall clinched a memorable victory in the 82nd minute, Angell diving to head his third goal for the club from a corner by another substitute, Pedro Matias.

Scorers: Beauchamp (3) 0-1, Hall (14) 1-1, Beauchamp (33) 1-2, Leitao (65) 2-2, Angell (82) 3-2.

WALSALL (4-4-2): Walker; Brightwell, Roper (Barras 46), Tillson, Aranalde; Hall, Bukran, Keates, Wrack (Matias 75); Leitao, Byfield (Angell 64): Subs: Emberson, Rammell.

OXFORD UNITED (3-5-2): Knight; Jarman, Richardson, Shepheard; Robertson, Tait, Whitehead (Murphy 60), Beauchamp (Lilley 75), Powell (Folland 48); Omoyinmi, Anthrobus. Subs: Fear, Busby.

Referee: P Walton (Winwick).

Bookings: Oxford - Robertson, Tait (fouls). Attendance: 5,678.

Walsall man of the match: Jorge Leitao - non-stop aggression and skill, a bargain at £150,000.

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