Worcester City 0 Walsall 4
10:29pm Tuesday 15th July 2008
WORCESTER City were comfortably swept aside by League One Walsall in their second pre-season friendly at St George’s Lane.
Two goals in each half crowned a dominant display from the visitors, who made 10 changes at half-time, as they ran Richard Dryden’s side ragged for much of the match.
As against Cheltenham on Saturday, the first-half was much more fluent than a second interrupted by a raft of substitutions.
However, unlike the weekend, City struggled to get to grips with their higher-graded opponents from the off.
On the positive side, boss Dryden would have been pleased to see his players get another match under their belts and all, bar a first-half knock to new signing Dave Bampton, came through unscathed.
The match also saw Danny McDonnell make his first appearance in a City shirt since November following his recovery from shoulder surgey, the goalkeeper playing an hour before being replaced by trialist Zac Jones.
Walsall controlled the first-half and had the first opportunity when Jacob Ibehre headed Anthony Gerrard’s cross past the post.
Only eight minutes had passed when linesman Mark Daniel was unable to continue. Following a short delay, Walsall fan Alex Hartshorne, a qualified official, took over until Worcester referee Neil Radford arrived to take over.
City’s back-four were put to the test on numerous occasions and stood up well to Walsall’s early pressure with Shabir Khan and new recruit Ollie Barnes making some good interceptions.
Troy Wood forced keeper Clayton Ince to hold on to his 16th-minute drive, while trialist Danny Wring fired wide from distance soon after.
But Walsall’s passing and superior quality told for the majority of the half and they took the lead on 24 minutes.
Mark Bradley sent over a cross from the right and Dwayne Mattis rose to head past McDonnell.
Jimmy Mullen’s side stepped up the pace with Marco Reich firing just over and McDonnell producing a fine tip-over to prevent Chris Palmer.
It was no surprise when George Ba added a second goal from the edge of the area on 36 minutes after dancing his way through several challenges.
It was a similar story at the start of the second-half and Ishmel Demontagnac would have made it three had his shot not been turned in on the line by Troy Deeney and subsequently ruled offside.
The visitors only had to wait until the hour mark, however, for their third when Patrick Suffo was allowed to twist and turn before comfortably beating the dive of McDonnell from 20 yards.
The striker then got his second and Walsall’s fourth 10 minutes later but missed his hat-trick chance in the final minute when he lofted the ball over substitute Jones’ goal.
City (first-half): McDonnell, Ward, Shabir, Barnes, Richardson, Walker, Wring, Bampton (Price 43), Edwards, Dinsmore, Wood; (second-half): McDonnell (Jones 62), Richards, Price, Richardson (Brown 60), Barnes (Gill 60), Dinsmore (Heeley 86), Ward, Walker (Tyack 60), Wring, Wilding, Robinson.
Walsall (first-half): Ince, Bradley, Palmer, Grant, Gerrard, Roberts, Reich, Mattis, Ibehre, Ba, Zaaboub; (second-half): Gilmartin, Davis (Harris 76), Sansara, Lowe, Smith, Swartz, Reich (Davies 69), Nicholls, Deeney, Suffo, Demontagnac.
Attendance: 337.