Walsall 2, City 1

YOU could have flown to Thailand or Brazil in the time that City went without letting in a goal.

Unfortunately their bid to equal the all-time club best of eight clean sheets on the bounce never got off the runway.

The barricades surrounding Ben Williams' net had not been breached in over 11 hours before Saturday – party-poopers Walsall needed only ten minutes.

On a weekend when unsung names like Tyson Fury and Jamie Vardy were basking in the sporting limelight, Williams narrowly dipped out on his own slice of local history.

Mark Mellors' 1911 mark remains untouchable – but still, he can look back with pride on the longest run of shut-outs for over a century.

City also have no reason to sulk about their first league defeat since the end of September.

That run, since an insipid midweek loss at Colchester, had seen them glean 21 points from a possible 27 to ease from one end of the table to the other.

Getting beaten at the Bescot cost them the play-off spot they had occupied for four days but there was enough in the performance once again to suggest that might only be temporary.

Walsall boss Dean Smith, one of only five managers to have been in the hot-seat longer than Phil Parkinson, jokingly threatened to call in the police to deal with the midweek miscarriage of justice after losing at Swindon.

Parkinson, to a degree, could have argued something similar. His black mood in the Black Country was down to a dominant second-half display ending with nothing.

The Bantams chief argued that he would have been disappointed with only a point, let alone a first loss for 11 games.

He said: "We can hold our heads up very high. That was one hell of an effort in the second period.

"But I just felt after we scored we had that little bit of a breather. We stopped for a spell and it lifted them.

"It was almost as if we thought we'd done our job already but for me, the game was there to be won. But we've still had a great run and got ourselves in and around the mix."

The statistics backed up his claims. Walsall's only two shots on target were their goals and they failed to win a single corner.

City, on the other hand, could point to two James Hanson headers, two back-post chances for Tony McMahon and a huge shout for a penalty in the five minutes of stoppages.

By that stage, the Bantams were playing with four up top as Devante Cole smashed in a shot from just outside the box.

Centre half James O'Connor turned away to take the blow but the ball struck an outstretched arm. Nothing doing, said referee Mark Brown as the visitors – and the entire away end behind that goal – screamed for handball.

It was one of those contentious calls where a home team would have probably got the benefit. Or maybe the official might have thought differently if the result had not been in the balance at that stage.

Parkinson, having scrutinised the match video on the coach back up the M6, had absolutely no doubt his team should have been awarded a third spot-kick in four games.

But that sense of injustice can be used as a motivational tool to encourage his players to start building the next unbeaten run.

He had made only one change from the combative draw with leaders Coventry as James Meredith returned for a first outing since his World Cup travels.

Parkinson was at pains to point out that the switch was in no way a criticism of Greg Leigh's efforts during the Australian's absence.

The Bantams boss explained: "Greg couldn't have done much more in terms of scoring goals and keeping clean sheets. But I just felt he'd come in, played games quickly in a short period of time and Mezza was looking fresh in training."

Meredith did show some signs of rustiness and his link-up play with Kyel Reid was not as sharp as usual.

But then for the first quarter of the game, City had looked off it generally. The stats had Walsall dominating 74 per cent of the possession in that period and it felt like more.

Walsall did what they usually do – pass, move and keep the ball – but the Bantams did not help themselves by cheaply coughing it up.

Still, there was an element of luck about the first goal to get past them since the clocks had changed.

Milan Lalkovic's shot from 25 yards was half-blocked by Nathan Clarke and the rebound fell conveniently for the lurking Tom Bradshaw. He was not going to miss his 12th goal of the season and City's clean-sheet resistance had run its course at 678 minutes.

City had already missed a big chance of their own by that point, Hanson burying a header straight into the arms of relieved keeper Neil Etheridge.

The big man needs a goal – but he could not have done much more as he dominated the Saddlers defence for the rest of the afternoon.

It got to the stage where they almost saw no point in contesting his headers and instead waited to react on where they would drop.

City had come back into it as the first half went on and really stepped up a gear after the break.

Hanson thought he had levelled from a superb Stephen Darby cross but Etheridge scrambled to his left post to smuggle the ball behind.

Billy Knott, looking to justify his first away start since that last league loss, was within an inches of a birthday goal.

But Lee Evans ensured local pride as the midfielder on loan from neighbouring Wolves beat Etheridge with a crisp low volley. Credit too for Billy Clarke for outjumping the much taller O'Connor to tee him up with a header.

With just under half an hour left, the stage was set for City to push on and complete the comeback.

But their foot briefly came off the pedal, much to Parkinson's post-match annoyance, and Walsall soon restored their advantage.

It came from City's own loose play as Reid sold Evans short in midfield – but take nothing away from the quality of the through-pass from Romaine Sawyers and the angled finish by Lalkovic.

McMahon should still have levelled in a late rally and that penalty shout went unheeded. But City's flight towards League One's upper echelons had been grounded for now.

Attendance: 4,668