Strange things were happening out on the pitch at Bescot Stadium this afternoon.

When the full backs broke forward, the two wide men were tucking in and covering for them. When we were in possession, we were looking for alternatives and the two front men were making runs for each other unselfishly. When they had the ball, we defended from the front, kept our shape and gave the two strikers little or no room. I think, dragging my mind back over the years, that it’s something called organisation.

This was the first opportunity we’ve had to see Richard Money’s side in action against serious opponents, ones which, let’s not forget, were playing in the Premiership a few short weeks ago. Despite the 2 - 1 defeat, we did not look out of place.

The first half saw the two teams evenly matched, with the Saddlers having the edge, if anything. The Albion centre backs were not enjoying the experience of being up against the Sam/Butler partnership, which seems to be blossoming, Roper and Gerrard gave Hartson and Ellington no space at all and Walsall had the better chances, with Sam, in particular drawing a good save out of Hoult with a piledriver from the edge of the box. It was a pity that the one time we let Ellington get away, he managed to toe poke a pass to Greening to score.

The second hlaf followed a similar pattern until Butler equalised with a 25 yard shot from a well worked opening, before Anthony Gerrard became the player to forget the golden rule that when your keeper yells, you let the ball through to him and headed it into the empty net instead.

Still, with the starting eleven of Ince, Westwood, Roper, Gerrard, Fox, Bedeau, Dobson, Kinsella, Wright, Butler and Sam on the field, we were the better side and it was only when Money started giving other players a chance that Albion got on top. That team looked solid in defence and inventive up front and, against lesser defenders, Butler and Sam would have had a field day.

This was only pre-season, but it was full of promise.

Informed sources in the Antipodes advise that Dickie Dosh was considered a bit of a soft touch at his last club, Newcastle Jets. All things being relative, that would make him hard as nails compared with the previous incumbent at Bescot, but is this aspect of his management style something he’s aware of and working on to improve, or something we’ll have to accept as part of the rescue package?

After the lack of discipline and direction of the last two years the last thing the playing squad need is another soft manager to allow the bad habits that have crept in to go unfettered for an even longer period. It’s important that the cliques that formed are dismantled, that dissenting players are properly penalised, and that everyone works together as a team to build a club that can succeed in the fourth tier of English football.

Money is talking the talk, let’s hope that he’s also walking the walk, as the signs so far have been very good.

One of the more interesting questions following last night’s first run out at Halesowen isn’t so much the validity of a comfortable 4 – 0 win in relation to our prospects this season, but more about the worth of the trialists, especially, of course, former Wolf Adam Proudlock and aspiring Trinidad and Tobago International Hector Sam.

Proudlock is a player who burst on to the scene with Wolves, full of promise. He was rated very highly as a goal scorer and managed a total of 13 goals in his 42 starts for them, but without ever quite fulfilling that early promise. Eventually, he moved to Sheffield Wednesday (in preference to us, it is rumoured), but there his career stagnated and he was eventually sacked by the club for a breach of discipline. He was re-instated following representations by the PFA, but had shot his bolt there and even a loan spell at Ipswich couldn’t get him back on track.

He is a talented player, however, and Richard Money may well want to take the risk of taking on board his baggage, in the hope of turning him into the player he once was.

Hector Sam, is a different kettle of fish entirely. Wrexham bought him to this country in June 2000 as a raw 22 year old for £125,000. He developed well enough to score an impressive 40 goals in 93 starts and 83 sub appearances, before moving on to Port Vale on a free. His time there was a disaster, however, as he lost the entire 2005/2006 season following a broken leg. He is desperately trying to get a club now in order to get his career back on track, especially in view of his International possibilities, having been on standby for Trinidad and Tobago for the World Cup.

Both could be considered to be well worth the risk of signing and it will be interesting to see how Money deals with this situatiuon.

One possible target named by some Saddlers fans as a target has now gone. Former loanee Pablo Mills, who had a reasonably successful time at Bescot, despite the poor season, has been snapped up by Division 1 Rotherham United.

It’s difficult to see how Walsall could have even considered another experienced centre back on the books in the current Division, given that we already have Gerrard, Roper and Westwood, but, such is the impression Mills made here, several fans had expressed an opinion that we should have been chasing the former Derby England under 21 International.

We wish Pablo well and hope he doesn’t regret hid choice of club too much in the future!

As we predicted yesterday, todays’ new experienced signing has, indeed, turned out to be Trinidad and Tobago international ‘keeper, Clayton Ince.

The player, who is 34 in the next couple of weeks, has just returned from the World Cup, where he was back up to Shaka Hislop, and has been on trial for the past week at the Saddlers.

It was Dario Grady first bought the player to England and he made some 137 League appearances for the Cheshire side, before moving to Coventry last season. He only made four appearances for them, however, (one in the League) and they were prepared to free him if he found another club, despite having a year left on his contract.

He has a massive 63 caps for Trinidad and Tobago, becoming one of, if not the most capped Walsall players, making his debut on April 4, 1997 against Barbados.

He’s 6 foot 3 inches tall and just over 13 stones. He was born July 12, 1972. Somewhat unusually, he began his footballing career as a defender before converting to become a goalkeeper. He played in goal when Trinidad and Tobago qualified for the 1991 FIFA World Youth Championship held in Portugal, although the tournament did not go too well for him (he conceded a total of 12 goals in his nation’s three group matches).

Ince began his playing career with the Defence Force club back home, where he quickly established himself as one of the top goalkeepers in the Caribbean. In 1997 he was named as the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation’s Player of the Year, he has also twice been named as the Best Goalkeeper at the bi-annual Caribbean Cup.

In 1999 he went on trial with Wrexham. Although he did well, the club could not afford to offer him a contract. However, in September of the same year he was offered a contract by Crewe Alexandra, which was accepted by Ince.

Ince spent most of his first two seasons at Crewe as understudy to Jason Kearton, the exception being a one-month loan spell at Dundee, during which time he did not actually play. After returning to Crewe in November 2000 he was placed on the transfer list, the only club who actively tried to sign him was Wrexham, whose bid failed due to a lack of funds. He was removed from the transfer list in the summer of 2001 when Kearton left the club, Ince went on to establish himself as Crewe’s first-choice goalkeeper during the 2000-01 season.

After playing in over 200 games for the club, Ince left Crewe in the summer of 2005 following the expiry of his contract. He signed for Coventry City on a Bosman transfer. He did not establish himself as a first-choice with the club, serving as understudy to successive loan signings Stephen Bywater and Márton Fülöp.

Following Trinidad and Tobago’s qualification for the 2006 World Cup, made it publicly known that he wanted to leave Coventry on loan in order to play first-team football.

The club have announced on the official site a new signing. Trouble is, the announcement is that we won’t find out until tomorrow.

The signing is to be made public, unusually, on a Saturday and is described as “an experienced player”.

The suspicion is that, given his presence on trial this week, that it is Trinidad and Tobago International ‘keeper and former Crewe and Coventry man, Clayton Ince.

Anthony Gerrard has been speaking to the Evening Mail about how he sees the Saddlers prospects for next season. He believes fielding a settled side will be the biggest factor in helping the club bounce straight back up.

A big factor in our troubles over the last two seasons has been an an ever-changing team, culminating in using a club-record 49 players last year.

Richard Money is aiming at halving that figure next season and Gerrard believes that will be a key element in the campaign.

“We’ve got to be looking for promotion straight away,” Gerrard told the Evening Mail.

“Staying in League Two would be bad for the club as it doesn’t belong there. We want to start well and, if we can do that, it will give a springboard to stay strong all the way through.

Hopefully we will have a much more settled side this season and that will help a lot. It got to be a joke last season when we didn’t know what the team would be one week to the next. That did make it difficult. It helps so much when you have a settled side.”

Saddlers fans will only hope that this will be the case.

Former Villa youngster and Bradford City player Michael Standing today became the next victim of the Richard Money revolution at Walsall.

The midfielder was one of Merson’s first signings two years ago, but has always been a bit player at Walsall. Despite a few decent performances, his lack of consistency and lightweight play, coupled with a few injuries too, made it all the more remarkable when Merson gave him an extended contract.

It now seems that the new man at the helm has decided, after seeing him in training, that Standing does not fit the rough and tumble of the fourth Division and the majority will probably agree that a player who gives nothing defensively and who has a limited passing range, despite his ability to run with the ball, is not really what we need. He leaves by “mutual consent”.

Manager Richard Money has been weighing up his options for the opening day and, obviously, doesn’t like what he sees.

Both Ian Roper and Chris Westwood will be serving out suspensions for the opening fixture at Rochdale, so Money has been left with the prospect of either playing one of the youngsters, or wasting new signing Dobson out of position (although he has played central defence before).

It seems that he has decided neither option is really suitable, having seen the players in training, and has now told the Express and Star that he is looking for a short term loan for the first month of the season, to ease the selection problems.

England have crashed out of the World Cup, and every English Saddler waves goodbye to Swedish Sven, the man who took £27m of FA money, and brought us precisely nothing - apart from every other country thinking England have forgotten how to play football, following 5 turgid games of dire, negative football.

It is at times like this we must remember who appointed Sven, whose decisions are ruled by his wallet and his privates, and who lost his tactical ability when his bank balance hit six figures. The guilty man was none other than Adam Crozier, who annointed Sven with a phone call from the Royal Box in Wembley in 2000; a man who has now single-handedly down his best to ruin the Post Office.

So stand up Adam Crozier, and wave goodbye Sven Goran Eriksson. The two men who have taken English football precisely nowhere in 5+ long years.

Upthesaddlers reprints its editorial from 4 years ago:

http://upthesaddlers.com/wp/archives/2002/10/16/go-and-go-now/