WALSALL 1 CITY 2

“I’M EXPECTING the best team in the league currently coming to town.”

That was Brian Dutton’s pre-match billing for the bouncing Bantams.

Walsall’s newly-installed boss is discovering that it is not a simple case of taking the reins and expecting the team to gallop off freely.

The Saddlers are still searching for a first win since Darrell Clarke’s former number two got the chance of the top job.

Not everyone, it seems, can do a Trueman and Sellars.

A fourth win on the bounce for the first time in five years backed up Dutton’s assertion of the quality of opposition.

The rest of League Two are sitting up and taking notice. Along with Tranmere and Bolton, whose Valley Parade visit next weekend is standing out like a beacon, City are setting a fierce pace at the top of the form table.

Teams are now adjusting their own plans to try and halt the juggernaut.

First Leyton Orient and then Walsall in the past week have switched formations and tactics in an unsuccessful attempt to apply the brakes.

City’s performance may not have hit the heights but they showed quality when it mattered and the guile and determination to see it through.

“Manage it now!” bawled Paudie O’Connor during an uncomfortable finale. This is a proud run and however the players and management publicly play it down, something they are loathe to concede.

O’Connor and Niall Canavan had been defending on the front foot throughout, summing up the “bodies on the line” attitude that Mark Trueman and Conor Sellars have been so eager to instil.

City’s young skipper took his knocks, by fair means and foul, but always got back up and kept fighting.

Alongside him, Canavan’s booming organisation kept the shape to restrict Walsall to just the one effort on target – which was their goal.

It was not a game to write home about but the best bits came from the visitors.

Ollie Crankshaw, restored to the starting line-up in place of hamstring victim Gareth Evans, nearly profited on what would have been something special.

Elliot Watt sprayed a pinpoint pass to the touchline where Anthony O’Connor brought it down with a clever, cushioned touch.

His first-time control found Crankshaw, whose cross-shot whistled past the far post. It was a wonderful snapshot of the confidence in City’s play.

It needed a spark from somewhere to break the deadlock in the sunshine. City, inevitably, found it a minute before the break.

Sam Hornby’s long clearance was won by Andy Cook. Crankshaw claimed he had been taken out by Callum Cockerill-Mollett as they fought for the knockdown.

But as the floored winger appealed for the foul, Levi Sutton took matters into his own hands.

The midfielder snaffled the loose ball with only one thing on his mind.

“There was nothing else on, so I thought, ‘why not?’ If it hits row Z, it hits row Z,” he later admitted about the shot he sized up from the edge of the box.

Viewers on iFollow will have to take my word for what happened next.

Unfortunately, it appeared that the online coverage decided on exactly the wrong moment to freeze. The only on-screen movement for many City fans watching from home was the clock in the corner until the picture cleared to show Sutton submerged in celebrating team-mates.

It’s fair to say Walsall keeper Liam Roberts had no better view with the velocity of the shot that flew past him before crashing in off the bar. The satisfying ping of the goal frame demonstrating its power.

Callum Cooke, it seems, is not the only midfielder who can give the ball a fair lick.

Two goals now for Sutton and both ones to remember. His highlights reel for the season currently reads “crunch, crunch, worldy, crunch, crunch, worldy!”

The contest looked settled with City’s second goal on 67 minutes as Sutton, this time, turned provider.

He exchanged passes with Connor Wood on the left before cutting onto his right foot to swing in the cross.

Cook, who had been marshalled tightly by his former club up to that point, inexplicably found himself with the freedom of the Walsall penalty area.

He had all the time needed to take a touch on his chest and then turn and shoot before any challenge could come near.

Then suddenly, City let their grip on proceedings slip.

Walsall had offered very little up to that point – their only real threat being the first when Derick Osei Yaw hit the side-netting in the opening minutes.

But sensing the job was done and dusted, the Bantams eased off.

Trueman and Sellars rested legs by replacing Cook and Cooke with Danny Rowe and Billy Clarke.

It proved a mistake as City lost their previous effectiveness at holding the ball up and keeping possession.

Walsall’s set-pieces had been decent without causing too many concerns but then one finally paid off.

Wood was guilty of overplaying in midfield to concede it and Dan Scarr got the decisive second flick header in off the far post to halve the deficit.

City looked rattled as the home side regained some purpose to their play. It made for some unnecessarily nervy moments.

The big call – or non-call – from referee Scott Oldham came when Josh Gordon tumbled in the box under the looming presence of Niall Canavan. All eyes focused on the official, who waved play on.

Sutton, a sound judge on these things, was in the vicinity and never in doubt.

“A lot of people might have thought it was a penalty but I was right there in the box and could see it.

“The boy knew he wasn’t going to win the ball and just put his body in the way and threw himself to the floor. If you give that, the game’s gone.”

Trueman admitted his heart was in his mouth on the touchline; a few yards away Brian Dutton was dancing like a cat on hot bricks in his frustration at nothing being given.

Maybe a touch of fortune going City’s way, as Trueman felt afterwards. But they have earned that and more in the ongoing surge of the last few months.

It’s now four wins on the bounce for the first time since April 2016 and Phil Parkinson’s swansong.

Beat Mansfield at Valley Parade on Tuesday and it will equal a feat last enjoyed by Colin Todd’s post-administration battlers of October 2004.

These are heady times, although you won’t get anybody from the dressing room shouting from the rooftops.

These next four games – three against teams above them – could prove a big indication of how the rest of this season may unfold. It remains a tantalising prospect.