Well, the rumours about Matt Carbon training with us have turned out to be true, but, as some people predicted on the message boards, it doesn’t mean he’s on his way back to Bescot.

The club have announced that he is back with us in an attempt to get match fit, according to Richard Money:

“We have agreed to let Matt train with us and Jon Whitney is working hard to get him fit,” he said. “He’s obviously been here before and knows a lot of the boys but is quite a way off match fitness at the moment.
It may be the case that as we are helping him get fit, he will help us by registering for us before the deadline next Thursday so that should we need him between now and the end of the season he will be available.
We’ve got nothing to lose; it is a situation that will suit everyone and after a month of training he may have a role to play should we suffer injury or suspension in the final
run-in.”

Money also hasn’t given up on bringing in more reinforcements before deadline day:

“I’m still looking at the loan market,” he said. “The need for defensive cover isn’t as great right now, so we have turned our attentions to other areas of the team.

I will also be talking to both Stoke City and Cardiff City in the next few days about extending the loan deals of Kevin Harper and Kevin Cooper.”

Lovely leafy High Wycombe has many a pub to speak of, unfortunately none of them are anywhere near the football ground, perched as it is on an industrial estate in the middle of the rolling Chilterns.

The Hour Glass is probably the nearest at about half a mile, and pretty good it is too luckily enough, which is more than can be said for the pubs nearest the railway station some 2 miles away, which vary from the bland Flint Cottage to the eminently avoidable Finns Irish pub - now Scorpios.

The good news however is that the town’s most atmospheric real ale bar, namely The Hobgoblin is found at the top of the High St, no more than about 5 minutes walk from the Station heading downhill. Well worth a visit and a sample of Hobgoblin bitter. Also recommended in the town centre is The Glass House adjacent to The Hobgoblin heading along towards the Hospital.

At the other side of that little market quadrant, Wetherspoons enthusiasts will find The Falcon for all the usual Wetherspoons type stuff, both good and bad! On the whole not a bad example of this chain. Similarly there is the ubiquitous O’Neil’s to complete a quartet of town centre pubs within tripping distance.

The ground itself boasts a supporters club with a door charge (allegedly £2!!) if you don’t fancy the Hour Glass, while football special busses depart the station at 1.55, and return from the ground in a rather amusing convoy afterwards.

The Birmingham Evening Mail is reporting that both Walsall’s current loanees want to stay.

The two Kevins, Harper and Cooper, have indicated that they are both prepared to extend their stays at Walsall until the end of the season, to participate in the club’s promotion push.

The arrival of the two wingers coincided with an upturn in form which has put the Saddlers back in the driving seat in the attempt to overtake Hartlepool at the top of the table.

Both players have not yet reached full match fitness, but their presence has proved to be crucial so far.

Cooper is also in the middle of a fine run of nine games undefeated, even though they are for three different clubs, Cardiff, Yeovil and Walsall.

Promising youngster Troy Deeney has signed the contract offered to him by the club.

The striker, who will be 19 in June, was plucked from non League Chelmsley Town before Christmas 2006, after some impressive performances for the non League side. He had managed 14 goals for them in the previous season, showing a great deal of maturity, then went on to net an even better 10 in 15 appearances this season.

Richard Money sent the player out on loan to Halesowen, where he ran up the very impressive total of 8 goals between Christmas and his recall last week.

It seems that his performances were beginning to come to the notice of other clubs, notably Birmingham City, so Money has acted to give Deeney a professional conbtract.

Manager Richard Money is about to open negotiations with his “Special Ks”, Kevin Harper and Kevin Cooper, in the hope of keeping them until the end of the season.

Since the arrival of Harper from Stoke City and Cooper from Cardiff, the Saddlers have taken seven points from three games. Both the wingers have played their part in this, despite the fact that neither is yet fully match fit, especially Harper, who still managed to score twice on his debut.

Fans will be watching the situation carefully and hoping that both can stay.

I said in the preview that I felt sorry for Chester fans. I feel even more sorry for them now, as I’ve seen what they have to put up with every week - an over physical side, unafraid to commit continual fouls in their only aim of stopping the other team play at any cost. All you need is a lenient ref and boy, did we get one.

Richard Money sprang a surprise by not bringing back Westwood, leaving Craig Pead at right back, and replacing Hector Sam with Michael Dobson in a five man midfield, Wracky playing “in the hole”. With Chester lining up 3 5 2, it quickly became obvious what his reasoning was, as he wanted to match them in midfield.

The tactics worked, to a large extent, as the Saddlers spent virtually the whole of the game on top and on the front foot. Pead did leave his man too much space on one occasion and Steele put a good chance well wide, Ince had to save one shot low down, also in the first half, and an uncharacteristic mistake by Dann (one of three in the second 45!), let in Steele and Ince made a very good stop at full stretch with his left hand. Apart from that, though, this game was a tale of spoiling tactics. Every time we got any decent possession, you could guarantee there would be a foul and the referee just wasn’t prepared to take any action to deal with the persistent misconduct.

Butler was the first to go close with a left foot shot, Harper was put in by Butler, but only forced a corner, then Pead mis-hit a shot which almost landed on Butler’s foot.

20 minutes in, Wrack tangled with Linwood just inside their half. Wrack won the ball, but Artell then lashed out at the Walsall midfielder with a horrible late, two footed challenge. Wracky received a good two or three minutes treatment, tried to carry on, but had to be replaced by Hector Sam. Artell picked up a yellow for what was, in everyone’s opinion, including some of the Chester players, judging by their faces, a nailed on red card offence.

Walsall were already on top, but that incident just served to liven them up even more. Butler put a chance narrowly wide from a Keates pass, Butler again had a good shot well saved by the ‘keeper and Scott Dann had a header blocked on the line from a Kevin Harper corner.

As half time approached, Dobson was bought down on the edge of the box and Keates’ free kick was too close to the ‘keeper, Cooper was scythed down with a knee high tackle (still no yellow!) and Gerrard’s header from the free kick was deflected narrowly wide and, finally, Hector Sam unleashed a pile driver which shaved the post with the ‘keeper beaten.

The second half was much the same. Sam, whose off the ball running was exemplary, broke well, only to hit a tame shot at the ‘keeper before Keates had to go off to receive treatment for a cut inflicted by a high boot. (No action from the ref again).

He was soon back in the action as Fox and Cooper combined brilliantly to send him clear and his cross was met by Butler and Danby saved very well, tipping the shot over. Yet another free kick was then sent over by Keates and Harper’s header went just wide.

Finally the breakthrough came when Harper floated over a free kick. There was a scramble for the ball as Danby tried to force his way through a crowd of players and no fewer than two blue and white clad sleeves went up for the hands on the end of them to clearly push the ball away. Nailed on penalty and Keates duly smashed it into the roof of the net.

The game then was in the bag and the Saddlers were cruising, but Dobson still found time to win the ball well, the rebound went to Sam, who cut inside onto his left foot and smashed a left foot shot against the inside of the far post and out again. I was told afterwards that Danby got a finger tip to it. If so, it was a world class save. Oh - and we should have had another penalty for hand ball as well!

Towards the end, Taylor replaced the tiring Harper.

All in all, a good performance against a team that had come with but one intention, to stop us playing, by fair means or foul. The back four was good on the whole, but did have the occasional shaky moment and Butler and (especially) Sam worked their socks off up front. Both deserved a goal that failed to come.

The key was, yet again, the midfield, however. Cooper and Harper were quieter than against Barnet, but the threat was always there that they were going to produce something. Up until the horrible tackle that finished his game, Wrack was looking very comfortable in his role, but Dobson and Keates were exceptional. Virtually nothing got past Dobson all afternoon and he found time to make some super passes and Keates, playing slightly deeper with the 4 4 1 1, looked so much more comfortable, as he wasn’t having to try and cover too much ground and was easily my Man of the Match.

One thought as we left is my mate Steve said that he’d hate to see this lot play Boston, but, then again, if it had the same ref as yesterday, it might get really entertaining, in quite the wrong way!

I tend to feel sorry for Chester City fans. Not only has the club suffered from languishing in the lowest reaches of the Football League, received bad press for one reason or another and had numerous financial worries, but also, one of the City’s more famous sons is Talk S***t’s Mike Parry. Mike, of course, as befits a plastic Scouser (Everton fan) and armchair football supporter, likes to mention Chester every now and again as his local club, but does so, of course, in the most patronising terms imaginable. And we think we’ve got problems putting up with Tony Butler! Still, I hope we give them a good stuffing tomorrow.

Definitely out for the Saddlers will be long term injury victim Ian Roper, who may now be out for the rest of the season, and Allan Picken, who the club say is improving and should be able to play a part before the campaign is over. Michael Dobson and Chris Westwood are both fit again, so the Nuneaton and Australian born centre backs are our only injury problems.

Craig Pead and Darren Wrack gave a good account of themselves in place of Dobson and Westwood last week and there are hints on the Official Site that Mark Bradley may well play some part, given his excellent performance against Forest for the reserves.

I would still suspect that we’ll line up very much like:

Ince, Westwood, Gerrard, Dann, Fox, Harper, Dobson, Keates, Cooper, Butler, Sam

With a bench containing a choice from

Bossu, Pead, Wrack, Bradley, Wright, Cederqvist, Taylor.

Cederqvist has been suffering from a slight knee problem, which has been threatening to keep him out.

Chester go into the game with one or two injury problems of their own. Experienced striker Simon Yeo, formally of Peterborough amongst others, will be missing after picking up an ankle injury against Torquay and defender David Artell missed the game at Mansfield after getting a bad cut against the same opponents. He might well be back for the game, however.

Manager Mark Wright has quite a few loanees in the squad, as he tries to find a winning formula and save some cash. It is noticeable that, of the number 1 to 11 in the original squad this season, five have disappeared. Of those loanees, Brad Maylett scored his first goal for the club in midweek following his arrival from Boston United, Australian target-man, Royce Brownlie joined the club from Swindon Town at the start of this month and they also have Alan Kearney (from Everton) and Alex Meechan (from Forest Green Rovers).

Predictions?

Chester go into the game in 14th place, with 47 points, but that doesn’t tell the story of their season by a long way. On their home record, they would be 17th in the table, but, on their away form, they’d be a creditable 11th, having won 6, drawn 5 and lost 7 on their travels. In those 18 games, they have conceded a miserly 16 goals, equal best with Hartlepool and one better than we’ve managed ourselves. Having said that, they did let in 2 in the week against the Stags, without the influential Artell, so they will be hoping that he is fit and they haven’t managed a win in four.

All in all, I’d go for a close run thing here, but, as long as the wingers are operating at full throttle, I’ll say a home win.

Just a quick note to say UpTheSaddlers is now on its own dedicated server, hopefully you should notice a quicker site to read.

Two sides with question marks about their defence, (because of injuries in the case of the Saddlers), but each with a potent attacking threat. It was bound to end up 0 - 0, wasn’t it?

Darlington were the better team in the second half, as they pushed forward time and time again against the Saddlers, but to no avail. They increased their unbeaten run to 11 games, but the Walsall back four stood firm and coped well with the attacks and Ince was never really extended as he ran up the teams 19th clean sheet of the season in all competitions, and their first since the away win at Macclesfield back in January.

Keates had a very good game in a more defensive role than normal in the absence of Michael Dobson, but the Man of the Match could have gone to any of the back four, especially the two centre backs and, even more especially to Scott Dann, playing on in the second half despite having stitches in a head wound. The Fat Controller has no hesitation in naming the young centre half as his MoM for a performance in which he won everything.

All in all, a reasonable day, getting an away point at an in-form side, especially as Swindon were well and truly thumped at Stockport and Lincoln lost at home. Just a pity about Franchise getting their two late goals.

Richard Money decided to bring in Craig Pead for the injured Westwood and Darren Wrack for Dobson, but it hasn’t weakened the team that much from last week.

On a heavy pitch, chances have been few and far between. Harper and Cooper have been struggling to get involved, although Cooper went close early on. Keates and Wrack are holding the centre together, but are creating very little.

Butler has gone close on a couple of occasions, as as Julian Joachim (who missed one easy chance on the edge of the six yard box), but Darlington have been struggling to cope with the conditions as much as we have, according to the Fat Controller.

Ashley’s overall opinion is that we need to make some real improvements in the second half if we are going to come away with the points.