Warning: There is a 10.00 am pitch inspection tomorrow due to the snow and the weather forecast.

It’s back to Bescot for the new Manager’s home debut tomorrow, with the visit of Bournemouth, one of the teams we’ll be aiming to overtake in the course of the remaining twelve games this season. Kevan Broadhurst is talking a good game in the build up to the match, as well as identifying the source of many of our problems, but, weather permitting, it’s time to start delivering.

Some of Broadhurst’s injury problems may be easing, as Danny Fox may be available again. The Manager has said, however, that he doesn’t want to take any risks with his injured players, so he will be making sure of Fox’s fitness and also will be ruling out Westwood. With Roper suspended with his five yellows, the defence picks itself with:

Oakes, Pead, Gerrard, Mills, Fox or Smith.

The midfield welcomes back Paul Devlin from his suspension, hopefully to show a little more nous than he did on his home debut, but Wrack is out, of course, and Mads Timm (back) will more than likely to be missing. Timm’s absence, at least, gets over the problem of which of the six loanees to leave out.

The choice, therefore, looks like being between Wright or James, Devlin, Osborn, Leary, Keates, Smith (if Fox is fit), Standing and Demontagnac.

Up front, Nicholls will be missing the rest of the season with his broken leg and we don’t yet know if Constable has recovered from his mystery injury, so it’s a choice there of Constable (if fit), James, Fitzgerald and Barrowman.

So what of the Cherries? Danger man Steve Fletcher has had a re-occurrence of his hamstring injury and will not be available. In fact, they have a shed load of problems up front, as former Saddler Dani Rodrigues has only just returned to training following a lay off, leaving the dangerous James Hayter as their only recognised senior striker.

The rest of the side also has personnel missing, as defender Neil Young has a one-match ban after collecting his fifth yellow card last weekend and defenders Shaun Cooper (Achilles) and James O’Connor (hand) are out, along with long-term absentees Shaun Maher and Josh Gowling, both of whom are also defenders. Because of these problems, they have brought in Watford’s Aussie defender Adam Griffiths in on loan and he scored their goal in the week against Barnsley in a home draw. Fitzgerald, Devlin and Griffiths should know each other’s games well enough!

Predictions? Well, a lot depends on just what difference Broadhurst has been able to make in a short time. He has already identified our lack of fitness as one major problem and taken steps to rectify that.

“We have been training morning and afternoon and the sessions are very intensive and focussed. I have initiated regular fitness tests and there will be other changes introduced as well. Things have to be done properly and we have to work hard. There is a reason why we are near the bottom of the table and things had to be addressed quickly”.

The other major problem he was left with was our lack of a proper goal scoring replacement for Matty Fryatt and he is hoping to do something about that next week, but that does leave us with problems tomorrow. Bournemouth are, however, in a bit of a slide at the moment and, despite the assurances of ex Saddler Assistant Manager Richard O’Kelly to the fans, they must be looking anxiously over their shoulders, hovering only 4 points above the relegation zone.

This is a must win for the Saddlers if we are going to ease the stress, but I’d imagine it’ll be close. A home win, all the same.