Matt Maher: 'Slow torture' of Walsall's second half reached its climax at Wembley

A campaign which travelled through triumph and then despair, went back through both again in the play-offs, ending under the arch with one final, agonising whimper.

This was a match which summed up the second half of a season which really should have delivered promotion for the Saddlers, one way or another. 

Wimbledon’s Myles Hippolyte scored the only goal of the afternoon just before half-time and from that moment on Walsall seemed powerless to prevent their final chance of promotion from slipping away, just as they were unable to stop that once apparently unassailable lead at the top of League Two from being eroded.

The Saddlers were 15 points clear of fourth place at the summit in January and somehow contrived to squander the advantage.

Even then there was hope but after the ecstasy of the play-off semi-final win over Chesterfield, this was one final, irreversible dip on the rollercoaster. 

For Mat Sadler, the head coach who in one season has experienced more emotions than some do in entire careers, this was another hammer blow and a performance and result which may put some scrutiny back on his own position.

“Slow torture,” was how Sadler described watching Wimbledon’s celebrate. It’s a phrase which perhaps best describes the past few months for his own team.

The 40-year-old, who had spent most of the afternoon prowling around his technical area, bowed his head when the final whistle sounded. 

A water bottle, drop kicked into the dugout, summed up his frustration, before the long trudge around one half of the pitch, applauding the rapidly departing hoardes of Walsall supporters who had arrived with such expectation but left deflated once again. This was just their club’s second-ever trip to Wembley and they are still to celebrate a goal. The difference this time, compared to the 2015 Johnstone Paint Trophy final, is that so much more was on the line.

The stands in Walsall’s half of the ground were empty by the time Sadler and his players, some with arms folded, others slumped on the turf, watched their Wimbledon counterparts climb the Wembley steps.

Their collective experience here was less gut-wrenching than that at Crewe a few weeks previously, when automatic promotion had been snatched away at the last.

Instead, the overall emotion will have been one of emptiness and the sense of another opportunity lost. Through 90 minutes, Walsall registered only five efforts on goal. None of those came until Hippolyte had opened the scoring. From then on, the Saddlers were tasked with breaking down the team with the best defence in League Two and bar a couple of flashes never looked like doing so.

For Sadler and his players, who came closer than you can get to promotion without actually achieving it, the pain will take some easing.

But there will also need to be some serious questions asked. This was not a campaign which should have ended in despair.

Wimbledon had 10,000 more supporters inside the stadium, while the numbers supporting the Saddlers were around 12,000 down on the figure which followed them to the arch 10 years ago for the Johnstone Paint Trophy final.

But that was a very different occasion, a piece of history and a grand day out for the town rather than the club.

This match, with a much shorter run-in but with so much more on the line, attracted the more hardcore following. You were only here if you really wanted to be here. At least, that was the theory, espoused on the raft of coaches and cars which headed down the M40 and the trains, all full well before departure from Birmingham Moor Street, which dropped hundreds of supporters off at time a short distance from the stadium.

Sadler’s approach to the day was best demonstrated by his clothing. 

Reaching Wembley is a special moment for any manager. So few get to taste it, you could hardly begrudge Dons boss Jamie Jackson wearing a suit.

Yet Sadler, just as he has since taking interim charge more than two years ago, wore a tracksuit. 

This could have been Morecambe on a Tuesday night. Except it wasn’t. No matter how much you might try and treat this like a normal match, you can’t fully kid yourself it isn’t everything.

The noise in the stands reached its crescendo but then steadily quietened to match the tension of events on the field. Challenges flew in yet chances were slow to emerge. Volume rose when Matty Stevens briefly looked like reaching a loose ball before Tommy Simkin but the Walsall keeper was quick off his line to gather.

Moments later it was the turn of Saddlers fans to get excited as George Hall wriggled away from a defender. The cross found no-one.

Sadler’s pose throughout remained largely unmoved, parading round the very edge of his technical area, arms folded.

They were eventually out, hands cupped around his mouth to yell encouragement, after Ryan Stirk lost possession deep in his own half, allowing Hippolyte the first attempt at goal just beyond the 20 minute mark. It trickled past the post.

By then, Jackson had taken off his blazer and rolled up his shirt sleeves. That felt something of a metaphor for a match where grit was heavily outweighing flair. Through half-an-hour, it was the team in blue winning the expected goals battle, 0.04 to 0.00.

Then finally, some action. Marcus Browne picked up the ball 25 yards out, thumped a low shot toward the bottom corner. Simkin dived to his left, got a strong hand to the ball and palmed it round the post. The action came at a cost for the Saddlers with Harry Williams, hurt in his effort to block the shot, forced off.

Now there was a team starting to ask questions and it was not Walsall. Alistair Smith threatened to run through on goal but was denied by the swift recovery of Taylor Allen to block his progress.

But the pressure was building and with 90 seconds of the half to play it told. Browne’s volley hit a defender, fell to Hippolyte and with one swing of the left boot he sent the ball flying toward the bottom corner. This time, for Simkin, there was no saving it. Wimbledon’s supporters roared as one. Walsall’s placed their hands on heads. Sadler, hands now by his side, puffed out his cheeks.

His team ended the first half without a single attempt at goal but within four minutes of the restart almost scored with their first. Jamille Matt beat Owen Goodman to Nathan Assimwe’s cross and turned it between the keeper’s legs, only to watch in agony as the alert Riley Harbottle hacked the ball off the line.

That woke the crowd up but the Saddlers were struggling to maintain any kind of pressure. It took the introduction of Levi Amantchi just past the hour mark to spark sustained attacks. Within seconds of arriving on the pitch the striker had wriggled away from his marker. There was only Goodman to beat. Yet the finish was lobbed weakly into the keeper’s grateful arms.

With 20 minutes to go it might have been all over. Josh Neufville twisted and turned inside the Walsall box before lifting a shot toward the roof of the net. Simkin thrust out an arm to save and keep promotion dreams alive.

Sadler was spending less time in the technical area and more time behind it, speaking to assistants Darren Byfield and Gary Waddock. More changes were made, Charlie Lakin and Connor Barrett both introduced. 

But the Saddlers continued to lack fluidity and finesse. David Okagbue hammered a half-chance over the bar.

Sadler was now waving his arms, urging his team forward but the moment they craved never looked like coming.