The Saddlers, in their usual way, seem hell bent on taking this season right down to the wire. Still, with two games to go, three points from those games will see us safe and, to be honest, even no points probably will, in view of the vastly superior goal difference. If some encouragement is neede, however, it must be that the last two games are both, virtually, “dead rubbers” for the opposition. The two teams concerned, Huddersfield at home tomrrow and the Franchise away next week, will meet each other in the play offs, with the order of the games the only issue left to be decided. That could well play to the Saddlers’ advantage, as, although the teams would like to go into the play offs with some momentum, the individual players wont want to pick up any injuries at this stage, with a possible Wembley appearance beckoning.
That seems to have left even the Bookies undecided about the game, with both sides favourites, depending on which firm you go to!
Dean Smith will be welcoming Lee Beevers back fro suspension, but will be without Manny Smith, following his ridiculous sending off last week. The right back position, along with that, the one centre half position, seem to be his only worries.
Huddersfield manager Simon Grayson seems to be suffering from some confusion, in that he seems to be suggesting that they will be resting players for the play offs and playing their strongest team, all at the sxame time! Reading between the lines, however, think their minds are already on the play offs:
With a two-legged Play-Off semi-final against MK Dons looming large, Simon (Grayson) revealed that he may give other personnel a chance to impress in the final two League games.
“It is a possibility, but we want to win the game and we will pick a team that we feel is capable of doing that. We won’t be throwing young kids into the game who have got very little experience, especially when we have got experienced players coming back from injury who need the game time. Whatever team we select for Saturday will be good enough to win the game.
“We have started our preparations ahead of the semi-final; we had MK Dons watched last week and will continue to do so over the next couple of matches, as they will be doing with us. Plenty of preparation will go into the games, but first and foremost we need to get victories against Walsall and Yeovil. We have got plans that we are working on in training and also in the games coming up to make sure that we are best prepared for when we take them on.”
Predictions?
I’m going for a draw – and that will prove to be enough.