Shrewsbury Town 0-0 Walsall: Saddlers sink into League Two after draw
- Published
Martin O'Connor took over as Walsall caretaker manager after the sacking of Dean Keates but could not keep his hometown club in League One
Walsall were relegated to League Two after a final-day stalemate at Shrewsbury Town.
The Saddlers needed to win to have a hope of survival, and even then they needed other results to go their way, but Shrewsbury keeper Jonathan Mitchell made fine saves to deny Joe Edwards and Nicky Devlin.
In the end, Walsall's result was rendered irrelevant as relegation rivals Southend and Wimbledon picked up the results they needed to stay up.
The managerless Saddlers, who sacked boss Dean Keates last month, drop to the fourth tier for the first time since 2007, having finished 22nd, three points from safety.
Knowing only a win gave them a chance of staying up, Walsall were nervy in the first half and were fortunate not to fall behind when George Dobson cleared James Bolton's glancing header off the line.
The Saddlers improved after the break but Edwards fired narrowly wide and then saw a curler smartly tipped wide by Mitchell, who then foiled Devlin one-on-one from Dobson's through ball.
Shrewsbury, who had clinched their own safety a weekend earlier, could have won it late on but Josh Laurent's strike was tipped over by Walsall keeper Chris Dunn.
Sorry Saddlers sunk by shocking sequence
Walsall's 12-year stay in League One comes to an end after a poor run of form which has seen them win just five league games since the end of October.
The Saddlers, who finished third under Jon Whitney and were beaten play-off semi-finalists in 2016, started the season well and sat fifth in early September after winning four of their opening five games.
However, the club slid down the table under boss Keates, losing seven out of eight games at the start of 2019, and were just above the relegation zone at the end of February.
Back-to-back home wins over Bradford and Fleetwood hinted at a revival but five straight defeats saw them drop to 23rd place, which prompted Keates' departure after just over a year in charge.
Former captain Martin O'Connor was appointed as caretaker but could not turn around their form until a 3-0 win over Peterborough on the penultimate weekend of the season boosted hopes of an unlikely escape.
With several players out of contract in the summer, Walsall must now decide whether to stick with O'Connor or bring in a new manager in an attempt to bounce straight back, as they did under Richard Money in 2007.