A win against Yeovil today has seen the Saddlers a little more comfortable in the play-off picture, with other teams dropping points; Red Saddler was there and gave his views on the message board:

The first hour today was probably our weakest display for a while. We lacked creativity and a cutting edge to our game, passes were going astray and we rarely troubled their keeper. But once we got the goal, we looked a different team as more and more crosses were coming in and chances were being created. Yeovil were one of the poorest teams I’ve seen this season from an attacking perspective, whilst at the other end of the pitch it just goes to show how important it is to have a substitute keeper on the bench! The referee was puzzling to say the least. Some of the yellow cards he dished out (i.e. Mooney and Betsy) were hard to believe.

Ince: Little to do. Fumbled a couple of crosses in the first half.
Weston: Kept Stewart quiet and was quietly effective.
Gerrard: Long-range passing was wayward, but otherwise solid.
Roper: A mixture of the comical and courageous. Typical Ropes performance!
Boertien: Quiet first half. Supported Holmes more after the break.
Betsy: Could have had a hat-trick, but I’ll settle for one. A mixed display.
Sonko: Continues to improve and confidence is growing all the time. MOTM.
Wrack: Kept things ticking over in the middle of the park before injury forced him off.
Holmes: Like Boertien, quiet first half. More creative and well-taken goal in the second half.
Mooney: Ineffective up until the last half-hour. Covered every blade of grass as usual.
Deeney: Plenty of hard work and endeavour. Just needs a goal to increase his confidence further.

Subs:
Taundry: Creative, energetic and attack-minded. We looked a lot better when he came on.
Nicholls: Injected some pace into our forward line. Involved in the second goal.
N’Dour: No time to make an impact.

To sum up, three crucial points in the bag despite a poor performance. Let’s hope we can end our hoodoo against Swansea on Tuesday night!

Our current weird set of fixtures given to us by the Football League computer continue with our second game in a month against Yeovil. If someone can tell me that this gives more logical fixtures than the old way of doing things, then please do so, but I can’t see it myself.

Mark Bradley is the big doubt, as he picked up an ankle knock against Carlisle, which also stopped him playing for the Welsh under 21s in the week.

The rest of the squad has been reported as being fit and well, and there is a possible reinforcement in the shape of Senegalese International full back and midfielder Alassane N’Dour, if he should receive his international clearance in time from the French League, where he has been playing with Troyes and Saint Etienne.

Our other African International, Eddie Sonko, will hopefully have received a boost to his confidence by getting the Powerade Player of the Month Award for the Division.

Loan signing, Kevin Betsy should be making his home debut against a team for which he made six appearances earlier this season whilst on loan there, so the formation looks a little problematical. Ignoring N’Dour for the time being, I’d expect:

Ince, Weston, Roper, Gerrard, Boertien, Betsy, Sonko, Wrack, Holmes, Mooney, Deeney.

It will also be interesting to see if Ishmel Demontagnac will be on the bench, as Money is thinking of sending him out on loan, which probably explains the acquisition of N’Dour.

Yeovil have also made some acquisitions, with the signing of ex Northampton striker, Andy Kirk (13 goals to his name already this season), Lee Peltier from Liverpool, Jamie Peters on loan from Ipswich and Simon Church from Reading.

Paul Warne and Marcus Stewart have been out with injuries, but were back on the bench for the last match, when they picked up another home defeat at the hands of Huddersfield.

Predictions?

Yeovil Town have been slipping down the table, on a run of not particularly good form, and are now 13th. They are still searching for their first victory in 2008 after three draws and four defeats in their last seven matches and have only four away wins this season.

With a difficult game to come in the week at Swansea and a free weekend next week, thanks to the FA Cup, we do need three points tomorrow and I think we should have enough to get them.

The main point of interest for the majority of Walsall fans may well be the news on the Scott Dann transfer, but there was plenty more of interest at last night’s Focus Group Meeting, including the points the Trust wanted made about the impact of the transfer on the playing side, whether this was done to pay off short term debts and whether it could have waited until the end of the season. The question of improving gates was also widely discussed.

In general, the discussions were rewarding, but it was a pity that a certain element seem to think it’s more important to have a laugh at Roy Whalley’s expense than try to build bridges with the club.

Roy Whalley, Director Nigel Bond and Safety Officer Dave Storr represented the club, with around 40 fans in attendance.

The Scott Dann Transfer

Roy was adamant that the player was always going to be sold as soon as he made his transfer request on the Thursday morning. The version released by the club on Friday was the story of how it happened, although Nigel Bond also mentioned that the player had changed agents shortly before the move – to the same one as Michael Ricketts.

The fee was “undisclosed” on the insistence of Coventry, as Ray Ranson does not want it to get out what he is prepared to pay for players. However, Nigel Bond did say press speculation was never far of the mark in the case of both the Scott Dann and Danny Fox fees and that the Dann fee was a club record, plus add ons.

Roy went on to say that there will be additions to the squad, as the club is still committed to a promotion push, as they want to be in the Championship in the 2009/2010 season, when the new TV deal will mean a huge increase in revenue.

Richard Money is looking (he will be at another game Tuesday) for loan players in the same situation as Lee Holmes, who will be out of contract in the summer and could join, if we were to be promoted.

The Gates

Probably more time was spent on this than any other topic. Asps and MMF had taken from the message board the suggestions made, which included those the Trust wanted asking, and out several of these to Roy and Nigel Bond. Once Roy has got over his normal defensiveness, probably learned from bitter experience in the past, he seemed to be quite receptive to many of them. He said that there is a weekly “Fans of the Future” meeting within the club, at which these ideas can be discussed (although he wouldn’t consider a fan’s rep on it). As the UTS thread has been so successful, we will be gathering these together on a regular basis and sending them in.

The club is, however, investing in a Customer Relationship Management System, which will be of great assistance in putting some of these ideas into effect. Unfortunately, Roy didn’t seem to have a complete grasp yet of the business changes a CRM could lead to.

One of the ideas that did seem to provoke a reaction was when MMF suggested a trial of providing free transport for outlying areas, something Nigel Bond was very interested in.

The club are looking actively at a “Bring a Friend Scheme” for season ticket holders, something backed by most fans there, as experience shows that many season ticket holders have empty seats next to them and the fact they can go with friends would attract (and keep) many more stay away fans.

Several ideas were also discussed on how to attract more ethnic minority supporters.

The Youth Set Up

The £25,000 donated by the Villa fan has gone on a gym and new equipment for the Youth Team.

We are now spending £400,000 a year on Youth Development, some £260,000 of which comes directly from the club.

It was pointed out to Roy that Mick Halsall must have done around ten years now and thoroughly deserves a testimonial. Roy said he would take that back to the club.

There was a lot more discussed, which should be revealed on the message boards.

A first league defeat in 18 games for the Saddlers at the weekend, reaction has been flooding in on the UTS message board, this the view from correspondent Cully:

Excellent performance today from the majority of the players and very unlucky to lose. There is no doubt that we are a very good team with a number of outstanding players and promising players. First mention must go to Roper who was my man of the match closely followed by Holmes who had his best game so far scoring our goal and providing a stream of crosses into the box. Betsy made an excellent debut, his control and accurate passing at times cut Carlisle to pieces, very promising. Man for man the only player I might have swapped would have been Mark Bridge Wilkinson for the ponderous Wrack who’s days are surely numbered losing the ball when in possession a number of times more crucially leading upto their equaliser when he dwelt on the ball just outside their penalty area and was robbed which led to a breakaway for the penalty when Boertin handled[ball driven against his arm] not given by the referee but signalled by the linesman who was futher away.

It was a pity that Troy Deeney spoilt his display with the miss of the season, eclipsing Wracks miss last week, by succeeding to side foot the ball from 6 yards right at the defender standing on the line, an incredible miss had that gone in there is no doubt we would have won comfortably but despite our dominance Clayton Ince managed to fluff a relatively simple header which he let slip under his body and rolled into the net. He had a poor game, missing crosses, not collecting the ball cleanly and on more than two occasions throwing the ball to the opposition.

It is clear that we missed Michael Ricketts or any other striker who could have put away our chances, Mooney, although occassionally active, looked a little off the pace and he could certainly do with a few more games to get gack to his best.

The late night departure of Scott Dann on transfer deadline day has overshadowed the entire week for Saddlers fans. Whilst the departure of Danny Fox, for a reasonably good fee for a third tier left back didn’t cause many ripples, with Paul Boertien as a more than adequate replacement, Scott ZiDann’s move was a complete shock. We don’t. of course, even know whether the outstanding prospect’s fee was reasonable, or a knock down, as it was hidden behind the magic “undisclosed” word and, while Ian Roper can step into the breach, we are now desperately short at the back if we have injuries or suspensions.

Whether there is going to be any change in the opinions of fans after the club statement today that we had, in fact, turned down an offer for Dann on Wednesday night and that he himself asked for a transfer on Thursday morning having “mysteriously” found out about the offer, I don’t know. The explanation is that Coventry then came back with another offer, which was accepted, on the understanding that Coventry would loan the player back until the end of February, in order for us to find a replacement, but Dann himself then refused the loan. If that is true, then the player’s own actions leave an awful lot to be desired.

All that being said, we are likely to line up tomorrow, in the absence of any injury problems, with an eleven picked from:

Ince, Bossu, Weston, Roper, Gerrard, Fox, Betsy, Sonko, Taundry, Wrack, Dobson, Holmes, Deeney, Nicholls, Mooney, Smith, Demontagnac.

A 4 5 1 seems to be a very likely option.

Carlisle have two new signings to parade, right winger Cleveland Taylor, a virtual unknown they have taken from Scunthorpe for £50,000 and former Baggie (and Carlisle) player Scott Dobie, who has escaped his nightmare at Forest (4 goals in 49 appearances). He has taken the place of Danny Graham, who hasn’t scored since early October.

Predictions?

Carlisle, of course, were our visitors for the first home game of the season, when they got a 1 – 1 at the Banks’s. Since then, they have managed to maintain a place in the running for the play offs, as they are currently one place and one point behind us, but with two games in hand.

What is keeping them there, unfortunately, is their home record of, won 10, drawn 1, lost 1.

I really can’t see us getting anything out of this one, with the best will in the world. I’d have had doubts even with Ricketts and Dann in the side, but, without them, I think we are a lot weaker.

Not that one, the other one, with a deliberate title pun. In an astounding piece of business close to the deadline on transfer day, when all good supporters are tucked up in bed, the sale of Scott Dann to Coventry, on a three and a half year deal, was announced. Predictably, the fee was undisclosed.

Having signed a three year deal just last June, Dann would hav been one of the last people anyone would expect to leave, but the unthinkable has happened, and it looks like Roper will now have a good run at making a centre-back slot his own, unless Dickie thinks Manny is ready to cut his teeth in the first team.

There’s some questions need answering over this deal, given the very public announcements from both our owner and manager expressing their satisfaction with the youth, with our progress and with our finances. “We don’t need to sell”?? No doubt these answers will be forthcoming tomorrow.