Chesterfield defender calls out Walsall's 'cheating' in play-off tie

The Saddlers will take a two-goal lead into Friday’s second leg at the Bescot Stadium after winning at the SMH Group Stadium on Sunday in the first clash.

Aside from the result, the biggest frustration for the Spireites was Walsall’s delaying tactics, with goalkeeper Tommy Simkin, who came in for some stick from the home faithful throughout the game, the main culprit. The stoppages allowed the Saddlers to rush over to the touchline and take on instructions and prevented the Blues from maintaining their pressure on the visitors.

Pretty much every team who has come to the SMH this season has used the same ‘dark arts’ and it is something we are seeing more and more in the game as a whole. When Simkin dropped to the floor in the first-half, McFadzean confronted referee Martin Coy about it, but the official effectively responded with a shrug of the shoulders, giving the impression that he can’t do much about it until there is a rule change.

"There needs to be something done about their goalkeeper wasting so much time and just going down when they went,” McFadzean told BBC Radio Sheffield. “There needs to be a rule for that. I just thought it was cheating. We were putting them under pressure and he (Simkin) just decided to go down. It definitely needs to get sorted out because when we are putting teams under pressure, it is basically a time-out. It is not fair, it is cheating to be honest. I asked him (Coy) about it and he can’t do anything about it. It is not good enough, you can’t just go down and waste time.”

Back to the football, McFadzean was frustrated with the result, felt they did enough to score a goal or two, but accepted that Walsall defended resolutely.

"We huffed and puffed but they defended the box really well,” he continued. “They made good blocks and the keeper made a couple of good saves.”

With another 90 minutes still to play on Friday, they know the importance of scoring the next goal.

He added: “We have got to stick together. There is a lot of football to be played. 90 minutes is a long time. If we can get that first goal, it is massive. I just wish the game was sooner. We can't go there and just give it away straight away. We have got to go there and build our way into it and hopefully we get the first goal and see what happens. It is not over.”