Experienced striker Richard Cresswell blasted home a penalty in front of the Kop to complete a superb comeback following a frantic evening at Bramall Lane.
Cresswell rounded off the turnaround, after Lee Williamson and Matt Lowton had drawn the sides level. At the other end, Steve Simonsen, who made two fantastic saves in the game, had made a costly error, and a further two that went unpunished.
Boss Danny Wilson kept faith with the same team that beat Brentford on Saturday, with the old/young duos partnered up front and in defence.
A steady first half saw Walsall create the better chances, but fortunately Simonsen was on hand to rescue his side. However, a disastrous start to the second half resulted in former Blade Kevan Hurst’s shot from the edge of the area take a wicked deflection to beat the stranded Simonsen. Moments later and things went from bad to worse, with memories flooding back of last season; Simonsen flapped at a left-wing corner, and the ball was eventually smashed home from close range by the impressive Will Grigg. United’s ‘keeper was cautioned for his protests.
New signing Kevin McDonald was withdrawn immediately after the goal to be replaced by Michael Doyle, and Lee Williamson came on for Nathaniel Mendez-Laing.
And the latter was straight into the action, being slid in after some composed play in the box by Stephen Quinn, the former Watford man crossed for Lowton to tap in six yards out. All this action before the hour mark, and then on 68 minutes things got even better.
With the fans groaning as United continued to play square between Montgomery and Collins, the ball eventually found its way to Williamson on the left, and this time rather than being the provider, he showed what he can do himself, cutting inside and hitting a rasping drive that just stayed inside the post sending the fans into raptures.
The noise level went up for a moment Wilson described as “the roof just came off” – and Williamson again was in the thick of it bursting into the area where he was brought down. Cresswell stepped up to put his spot-kick into the tap of the net past the despairing Jimmy Walker and secure maximum points for Danny’s men.
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