Walsall 0 Bristol Rovers 0: Bristol Rovers may still be finding it hard to take three points on their travels, but at least they rediscovered some pride after having the better of things at the Banks's Stadium.

And they can go into tomorrow's clash against the same opponents at the Memorial Stadium with at least a sense of moral victory under their belts.

Rovers' lack of activity in the transfer market and a 5-0 hammering at Leyton Orient in midweek attracted understandable heavy criticism.

But this vastly improved performance – and the imminence of new arrivals – should help to bring a sense of closure.

"We knew we had to come here and get a result after what happened on Tuesday, and I thought we battled hard," said central defender Byron Anthony.

"I think that collectively we felt that the performance at Orient was the worst we'd put in since we'd been together and we knew we had to put it behind us quickly.

"We worked hard for each other and helped each other out, and that had been missing from our game at Orient. But we had it here and we looked a lot better as a unit because of it."

One other note of encouragement ahead of tomorrow night's return encounter is that the Pirates will not have to endure the sort of atrocious pitch they encountered in the Black Country – a surface that appeared to possess the same sort of consistency as three-day old porridge, but with a liberal helping of sand.

It was to their credit that the Pirates passed the ball pretty well on it, especially as they grew into the game and dominated the second period.

Much of the first half had been a scrappy affair with Walsall offering little apart from a couple of skied efforts from midfielder Richard Taundry.

It was four minutes into the second half before the home side managed a shot on target – a tame effort from Matt Richards which drew ironic cheers from the sparse home support

Rovers created the better openings throughout and it needed a smart tackle from full-back Darryl Westlake to prevent loan signing Wayne Brown pulling the trigger, while Andy Williams wasn't too far away from finding the top corner with an angled effort from the edge of the box.

Anthony and Steve Elliott both headed wide from corners as the interval approached, but it was to be the heroics of Walsall keeper Clayton Ince that kept the Saddlers in the game in the second half.

He made a brave, smothering save on the edge of his six-yard box to prevent Jo Kuffour connecting with a low cross from the influential Mark Wright five minutes after the break, then was called into action again to clutch a 25-yarder from Brown and Dominic Blizzard's shot from the edge of the box.

But he needed assistance from Clayton McDonald to maintain a clean sheet in the 68th minute when Kuffour burst through but saw his angled attempt cleared off the line by the giant central defender.

Though Anthony had to make a spectacular clearance inside his own six-yard box to hack away a dangerous cross from Peter Till with 15 minutes left, Walsall then survived two more scares in quick succession.

Firstly, Williams flashed a ball across the face of goal with nobody able to get a touch.

Then Stuart Campbell's right-footed drive from 20 yards drew a full-length save from Ince, who was understandably announced as the home side's man of the match a few minutes later.

Yet there was almost a nasty sting in the tail for Rovers in the dying moments of the game when McDonald thumped a header against their crossbar from Taundry's corner kick.

"We would have been absolutely gutted if it had gone in, but I thought we deserved that bit of luck given how hard we'd worked," said Anthony.

"We passed the ball around quite well considering how difficult the pitch was to play on – and the fact their keeper was named as man-of-the-match showed we were a threat in front of goal.

"Now we have to go one better on Tuesday night."

Walsall's lack of punch as an attacking force was partially due to defending that showed a much higher level of intensity and concentration than some of the shambolic moments in evidence at Brisbane Road.

It was the Saddlers' eighth game in a row without a victory, although they may possess more punch up front tomorrow night when leading scorer Troy Deeney returns to their ranks after a suspension.

"The pitch made it difficult for both teams and I think a draw was a fair result in the end," said Walsall boss Chris Hutchings.

"We've extended our unbeaten run to three games and we are ready to go again on Tuesday night."