Walsall FC 1 Harrogate Town 3: Advertiser player ratings

Mark Oxley 7 - Made an excellent reaction save at 2-0 to deny Kieran Phillips one-on-one. Kicking was good throughout. Couldn’t hold on to Rollin Menayese’s late strike, which Phillips pounced on to pull a goal back.

Nathan Sheron 7.5 - Kept things relatively tight on the right-hand side of the back-four. Brendan Kiernan caused him a few issues but he stuck to his task. Made five successful tackles over the course of the 90 minutes.

Warren Burrell 8 – ADVERTISER STAR MAN. Kept his concentration levels high throughout, barely putting a foot wrong. Was assertive in the air and contributed two important blocks. Lost his bearings for a split-second as Phillips stole in behind on 69 minutes.

Connor Hall 8 – There was one mistake in the first half where he tried to shepherd the ball out for a thrown-in and was dispossessed by Emmanuel Osadebe, but otherwise this was an extremely sound display. Made a number of key interventions inside his own penalty area. His good reading of the game saw him effect four interceptions and six clearances.

Lewis Page 7.5 – A switched-on performance from Harrogate’s left-back. Twice went down injured early on but recovered to play a big part. Won an impressive seven headers – more than any of his team-mates. Stayed alert to make a crucial back-post clearance from a dangerous cross from the left late in the match.

Simon Power 7.5 - Scored a with a powerful strike from a free-kick for the second Saturday in succession and looked bright during the first half. Wasn’t really in the game as much after the interval, turning down a couple of opportunities to run forward with the ball and try and get Town up the pitch in favour of playing an easy pass.

Josh Falkingham 7.5 – Set the tone during the opening exchanges with his work off the ball, harassing opponents and snapping into challenges. Booked for an awful late challenge on after a quarter of an hour, but that didn’t prevent him from continuing to influence proceedings as he made five interceptions and one useful block.

Alex Pattison 7.5 – Despite not enjoying anywhere near as many opportunities to get on the ball as he did against Sheffield Wednesday last time out, he delivered a really disciplined performance next to Falkingham in the centre of the park. But there were still a couple of impressive little bursts when he had the ball at his feet, including the moment that saw him leave Stephen Ward for dead before crossing from the right to set up Town’s third goal.

Jack Diamond 8 – Involved in all of his team’s key moments. Kept his composure to net his third goal of the season having already teed-up Power to break the deadlock. Also led the counter-attack in the build-up to the Armstrong strike which took the scoreline to 3-0. Another one who probably didn’t see as much of the ball as he would have liked, however he still managed to find a way to ensure that he impacted proceedings.

Danilo Orsi 7 – With Walsall enjoying plenty of possession he had to drop into midfield at times and do a job for the team, though he was a willing and effective worker. There were three moments early in the match when the ball came to him in the final third and he was unable to either hold it up or link the play, however he did provide the assist for Diamond’s goal with a ball in behind.

Luke Armstrong 7.5 – The spearhead of the Sulphurites’ attack had very little to work with on his return from injury, but grafted and competed for 82 minutes then got his reward. Showed good movement and his usual predatory instincts as he headed to the front post to dispatch Pattison’s inviting cross.