Match Report

If Bristol Rovers had produced this goalscoring form earlier in the season they would have been in the promotion hunt.

They destroyed hapless Walsall as they chalked up their best away win since January 1999.

Bristol Rovers never looked back after two goals in the opening nine minutes through Darryl Duffy and Craig Disley.

But the player who really enjoyed the goal romp was Rovers' left-back Aaron Lescott.

He had previously played 165 games for Bristol without scoring and then marked the game against Walsall with two goals.

With only one defeat in their previous eight games, this was a hugely embarrassing reverse for the Saddlers as they slumped to their worst home performance of the season.

Rovers, who had won three of their previous four away games, could not have made a better start when they exploited some weak defensive.

In only the second minute, David Pipe made an unchecked run down the right which resulted in the unmarked Duffy tapping home from close range.

Walsall failed miserably to learn from this mistake and Pipe was accorded loads of space down the right to create Rovers' second goal in the sixth minute.

He put over a cross which Jeff Hughes headed into the path of Duffy, who pushed his pass to Disley and he had the simplest of tasks to score from a couple of yards.

It went from bad to worse for hapless Walsall as Rovers steamed further ahead in the 19th minute when Lescott notched his first goal for the club in his 166th appearance.

Rovers sliced through Walsall like a hot knife through butter and Hughes put a pass into the path of the defender to score with a low cross shot.

The ease in which Rovers built up their lead was the most surprising feature of the play in the first half when Walsall were a complete shambles.

Walsall were completely all at sea against some smooth moving Bristol attacks and their attempts to get back into the game was met by a powerful defence.

It could have been even better for Rovers as, in the last minute of the first half, hot-shot Rickie Lambert slammed a free-kick against the crossbar.

Lambert went close to adding to his 26-goal tally early in the second half but it was Duffy who was on the mark in the 58th minute with another simple tap in goal with the ball trickling into the net off goalkeeper Clayton Ince.

Walsall were overwhelmed by the pressure exerted by the opposition and Ince prevented a second Lescott goal when he blocked the defender's powerful drive.

But Lescott could not be denied. In the 78th minute he waltzed through on to a Stuart Campbell pass to blast his shot past a transfixed Ince.

Corners

Fouls

Goal attempts

Shots off target

Offsides