Walsall 1-0 Shrewsbury Town
- Published
Craig Westcarr scored and was later sent off as Walsall boosted their play-off hopes with victory over Shrewsbury.
Westcarr put the Saddlers ahead inside five minutes, turning on the edge of the box to fire past Joe Anyon.
He also hit a post before half-time as the home side pushed for a second.
The visitors were reduced to 10 men when Joseph Mills was sent off for a tackle on Adam Chambers, before Westcarr saw red for violent conduct after a clash with Sam Foley.
Dean Smith's Walsall are two points behind sixth-placed Peterborough in League One, although Posh have two games in hand, while Shrewsbury are second from bottom and two points from safety.
Walsall boss Dean Smith told BBC WM:
"The win was really important for us today, to follow up the game from Bradford and to get two successive clean sheets was really pleasing.
"The fans deserve that, we haven't won as many games as we should have at home. Some of the performances have been good without getting the points tally that we deserve.
"Westy has gone a while without scoring and he's got three in a week, in two games, and somebody now has to now step up to the plate and replace that.
"We've got players who can score goals. Can we replace Craig Westcarr? Yeah, I'm sure we can and hopefully we can do that in the next game."
Shrewsbury Town manager Michael Jackson told BBC Radio Shropshire:
"I'm disappointed with the result and with the sending off today. We were taking too long to move the ball and we had to move it quicker, but we didn't do that today.
"We were running out of legs, and we couldn't match Walsall.
"We have to look forward and we have to stay positive. We must find a way of controlling the game and not waiting for something to happen before we react."
- Published25 March 2014
- Published25 March 2014