England National Manager Paul Fairclough has named ex Saddlers Karl Hawley and Craig Stanley in the squad for the non league international versus Holland at Woking on February the 16th.

This will be Hawley’s second call up to the squad, having played in the last game against Italy, and he will be joined by fellow ex-Saddler Craig Stanley, benefitting from his close season move to Hereford United. The former Walsall duo were unlucky to be part of a pre-deadline day cull by Colin Lee last season.

Fairclough, the Barnet Manager, has named five of his own players as well as Exeter pair Dean Moxey and Les Afful, who impressed against Manchester United last week.

Another pointless away day on Saturday and the need to break the sequence is becoming more and more pressing. Only Peterborough and Milton Keynes have a worse away record than Walsall - even Stockport are better - and there are only two teams in each of the Second Division and the Championship worse than the Saddlers.

Mark Kinsella went off with a face injury on Saturday but may well figure, as it turns out not to have been a broken nose. It would have been a great disappointment for him to miss the trip to the club where he started his professional career. The latest information from the club is that Michael Standing is struggling, however, and that Matt Fryatt and Ian Roper are both still out.

As for Colchester, striker Richard Garcia is out of action for between six to eight weeks with hip and groin injuries, while defender John White (knee) and midfielder Bobby Bowry (hip) are still unavailable, as is Muzzy’s brother Kem Izzet and Karl Duguid.

Colchester are three points and one place below us in the table, with a home record that reads:-
P13 W4 D3 L6 F14 A15 GD -1 Points 15.
Granted our away record is second to most peoples, but this has to be seen as a winnable game, especially with the opposition having their minds on other things, with an FA Cup trip to Ewood Park next weekend. Please, Paul, this surely must be an away win?