Strike partners Jamille Matt and Josh Gordon earned praise from Walsall manager Mat Sadler as the ruthless side beat Morecambe with a 3-0 League Two win.
The score did not tell the whole story with the Saddlers having to withstand plenty of pressure to move to within three points of the play-off places – despite remaining in 16th place.
Sadler said: “I thought Jamille and Josh up front were awesome and they beat them up. That was how I saw the game.
“I think by the 60 to 75-minute mark, they wanted no more of what they were offering and that was top centre-forward work from those guys, they brought everyone else into the game.
“Jamille and Josh did so much work off the ball. That is what’s brilliant about having those two working together because they understand the game.
“It was a brilliant performance from front to back and we have got a bit of momentum.
“I faced Jamille on numerous occasions as a player so I know what he is like and it wasn’t very pleasant. He is so strong and mobile.”
Walsall almost led when Isaac Hutchinson’s rising drive had to be tipped over by Archie Mair at the near post and the deadlock was broken from the corner that followed.
Hutchinson showing clever footwork before finding Ross Tierney to thump the ball low into the bottom corner in the 13th minute.
It was 2-0 when Matt’s colossal leap flicked Gordon into space in the right of the box to cut back from a tight spot for Matt to force inside the far post in the 26th minute.
Morecambe built more pressure early in the second half but the game was up when substitute Jack Earing found Matt to nudge the ball against the post, with on-loan Norwich defender Emmanuel Adegboyega slamming home the rebound in the 66th minute.
Sadler was pleased with the clean sheet, adding: “Clearly the squad is stretched and we had a back three which hadn’t played together all season but I thought they were brilliant from start to finish.
“Most importantly, that desire to want to keep a clean sheet was evident throughout.”
Opposite number Ged Brannan argued Morecambe had been the better side but also architects of their own downfall.
“We played some good football but we can’t concede two goals like we did in the first half,” he said.
“We dominated play without really hurting them, then we got two crosses in like that and we didn’t pick up. It is hard to swallow.
“We’re a good team. We were better than Walsall tonight, they sat in and counterattacked us and could afford to do that being two goals up.
“We believed in ourselves and tried to get a goal but it didn’t fall for us.”
Real Madrid 0-4 Barcelona: Guijarro brace sets visitors up for Clasico glory
Patri Guijarro's first-half brace set Barcelona on their way to a thumping 4-0 win over rivals Real Madrid in Liga F on Saturday.
Claudia Pina and Alexia Putellas were also on target as Barcelona continued their perfect start to the season, extending their lead at the top of the table.
The visitors dominated from the off, as Guijarro broke the deadlock inside the fourth minute, tapping in from Putellas' flick-on from a corner.
Cata Coll was forced into a big save to deny Alba Redondo an equaliser shortly after, but Madrid's hope was soon dented as Guijarro picked out the bottom corner with a superb long-range strike for her second.
Pina strengthened their lead six minutes before the break, clinically slotting past Misa with her low strike.
Putellas added some more gloss to the scoreline with four minutes remaining of normal time, beating the Madrid keeper with a lovely dink to bring up her 199th goal for the club.
Barcelona have won all 10 of their games, and now sit eight points clear of Madrid, who suffered their first league defeat of the campaign.
Data Debrief: Total dominance
Madrid will have felt fairly confident coming into this game after a strong start to their season, but they once again failed to find a way past their Clasico rival.
Los Blancos have lost every single game they have played against Barcelona in all competitions, with this their 15th such meeting.
Barcelona smothered their attack early on, restricting their hosts to just one shot in the first half, while they had 10.
Indonesia 0-4 Japan: Visitors stay unbeaten with rout
Japan continued their unbeaten start to World Cup qualifying with a 4-0 victory over Indonesia on Friday.
Two goals from the visitors in either half were enough to seal the three points and get them back to winning ways after a stalemate with Australia last time out.
Ragnar Oratmangoen should have put Indonesia ahead, but he hesitated one-on-one with the goalkeeper, and Japan did not look back after that. They got a bit of fortune with their first goal, Justin Hubner deflecting a cross into his own net in the 35th minute.
Takumi Minamino got their second just before the break, finishing off a pacy counter-attack by darting onto the end of Kaoru Mitoma’s cross to sweep it past Maarten Paes.
While there was not much the goalkeeper could do with that one, he was at fault for the third as he gifted the ball to Hidemasa Morita, who coolly picked out the bottom corner just after the break.
Yukinari Sugawara came off the bench to round off the scoring in the 69th minute. He raced down the right wing and instead of looking to his options, he rifled it in from a tight angle at the near post.
Japan are up to 13 points after five games, sitting top of Group C, while Indonesia are bottom, still in search of their first win.
Data Debrief: Clinically done
For a team still chasing their first win, Japan are probably not high on the list of opponents they would want to face, and Indonesia were undone by their visitors.
Hajime Moriyasu's side created 0.79 expected goals (xG) to Indonesia's 0.72, while they only had four more shots than their hosts (12 compared to eight).
Japan took their chances, and though the win margin may look harsh, they were deserving of the three points, having dominated throughout the game.
Jamaica 0-1 United States: Pepi give visitors advantage in Nations League quarter-final
Ricardo Pepi's first-half strike gave the United States a 1-0 advantage over Jamaica after the first leg of their Concacaf Nations League quarter-final.
The hosts saw a penalty saved in the first half before their frustrations were compounded late on thanks to Mason Holgate's red card.
The USA had the lead just five minutes in – having smothered a Jamaica attack at one end, the visitors caught them out with a pacy counter-attack, with Pepi sweeping it into the back of the net.
Shortly after, Shamar Nicholson was brought down by Matt Turner when he tried to take it around him, but the goalkeeper made amends, diving low to his right to deny Demarai Gray from 12 yards.
In the second half, Holgate was denied a tap-in by Yunus Musah before Turner scrambled to stop Leon Bailey's corner from nestling into the net as Jamaica searched for an equaliser.
With 86 minutes on the clock, Holgate received a second yellow card in just over 10 minutes for dragging Brandon Vazquez back, meaning he will miss the return leg in Missouri on Monday.
Data Debrief: Hitting the mark
Pepi got the all-important goal on Thursday, and is the fourth player to score 12 goals for the USA before turning 22 years old, joining Landon Donovan, Jozy Altidore and Christian Pulisic.
But it was perhaps Turner who actually had the most vital interventions; he has now saved three of the eight penalties he's faced for the USA, including two against Jamaica.
Mauricio Pochettino also could not have asked for a better result from his first competitive game in charge of the Stars and Stripes as he became just the third full-time manager to win his first competitive away match, joining Bob Bradley (2008) and Steve Sampson (1996).
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