Quick plug for One Pod Beyond, the unofficial Walsall podcast – episode 3 is now online! Discussing all the exciting goings on since the last pod including thrilling wins*, dynamic AGMs and a teeny bit of swearing from people who really should know better.
Listen here: http://www.onepodbeyond.tumblr.com
*May not contain thrilling wins. Or any wins.
As I said in the Trust Column in the Walsall Advertiser this week, this has to stop now. It wasn’t quite so bad when we started this appalling run, as we were, at least, still playing decent football. The last few games, however, the standard of the football has fallen to match the level of the results, leaving us on a downward spiral and dumped ignominiously out of the FA Cup by a non League team yet again. From the moment that Dean Smith was given his contract extension, we have been going downhill, and its difficult not to place the blame with the Manager. He set the squad up this season to play one way, the 4 2 3 1, and yet keeps persisting in trying to play a 4 4 2, when his acquisitions just don’t look capable of playing that way, especially the two strikers. Granted he hasn’t been helped by a couple of important injuries, but he really should be more confident of his original intentions, or strengthen his squad in various areas in order to be able to play the 4 4 2, primarily in the striking department.
At least Smith’s squad will be better this week, although Cuvelier is not likely to be back until next week at the earliest. He has bought in promising Wolves keeper Aaron McCarey, who is likely to make his debut. McCarey says his strengths are “I’m very vocal and certainly like to have my say. I’m not afraid to come for crosses and feel that I am also a good kicker.” Well, that’s three things Goff can’t do then! Let’s hope the defence will be more confident without Grof behind them.
Sam Mantom will be making his second debut for the side having been ineligible for the FA Cup tie on Tuesday, as he wasn’t on the books for the first game. Hopefully Andy Taylor will be back in the fold to strengthen the side and Will Grigg will be back from International duty, but Ben Purkiss is still out.
As for Crawley, Shaun Cooper has been ruled out with a hip injury; but Gary Alexander may be back after being “rested” (dropped) last weekend. It’s also the last game for loanee Jonathan Forte, who has been scoring goals for them. Hope Akpan is the other absentee, as he is still suspended, having been sent off twice this season already.
Matt Sadler will, of course, be playing against his old club.
Predictions?
Difficult to see anything other than a loss, against a team in fourth position. Of course, knowing us, that probably means an unexpected win.
First up a poll. The recent run of results has gone beyond a random string of bad luck and turned into a full-blown rout, with the team looking worse and worse and no sign of coming back from it. So, without further comment, your votes please:
Total Voters: 407
Loading ...This was the best chance to get into the third round in years, with a tie against further non-league opposition in the offing had we gone through. This failure has cost the club thousands, financially, but the real damage is much more serious – the scars on the psyche of the fans (those that remain) will take a long time to heal.
Chapin, one of our UTS regulars, had the following to say about the match:
We deservedly lost to a Lincoln team who made the most of their limited ability. Very direct but the front two made life difficult for Butler and particularly Holden. They had good support from midfield and defended in depth.
We were woeful, devoid of ideas and effort. Grof’s performance in the first 20 minutes showed why the defence have no confidence in him. And for a keeper of his height he fails to command his 6 yard box. Can anyone remember the last time he caught a corner?
James Chambers did ok but going forward offers less than Purkiss. Benning had a steady game, pity he seems reluctant to kick a ball with his right foot.Taundry proved again he is not a wide midfielder. Not really sure how he gets a game. Featherstone struggles when there is no movement off the ball. Countless times he was looking for a pass and no one was moving into space or off their man. Adam Chambers at least made some forward runs but no real end result. Patterson looked as if he didn’t care when wide left but suddenly got interested when playing just behind the front two. Brandy put in a good shift and certainly tried. Pity the same can’t be said of Bowerman who seems a shadow of the player of two months ago.
I would have taken Bowerman off earlier and it would have been interesting to see how Brandy could react to the flick ons Williams managed. Hemmings has shown a bit more interest in his last two substitute appearances. Surprised Jones was used rather than Baxendale.
We really have messed things up. We had a great chance to make the 3rd round which would have put a few pound in the kitty and given the fans and the players a bit of a lift.
Like others have said if Smith has any integrity he should do the honourable thing and walk with a token settlement. The last few performances are proving he is somewhat out of his depth.
Some people need to take a good hard look at themselves in the short term. I’ll refrain from further comment for fear of upsetting more sensitive souls. Grrr.
That’s all you need on a potentially freezing cold November afternoon, isn’t it? A third tier fixture between two desperately out of form teams. Probably turn out to be a cracker!
Let’s not get this wrong, either. We may be really bad at the moment, but Swindon Town are in an atrocious run of form themselves, so much so that their wildly eccentric manager, Paolo Di Canio, has stopped being mentioned in conjunction with just about any and every managerial vacancy going. In fact they have only one win in their last seven games (a 4 – 0 win at Stevenage!) and that includes an abject FA Cup home loss to non league Macclesfield Town.
Di Canio has been talking about bringing in a couple of loan signings to try and stop the rot, but, as I write, there has been no change as yet.
Of course, part of Dean Smith’s problem at the moment is that he has changed the system because of the absence through injury of Florent Cuvelier. He has tackled that, at least, with the re-signing on loan of last season’s other big success story, Sam Mantom, which should help and also suggests that we will be reverting to the 4 2 3 1 formation.
As for his other choices, both Purkiss and Taylor are out with injury, but, considering our lack of creativity and penetration on Tuesday, he really should be looking at more than just replacing those two and finding a place for Mantom. There are one or two others who could do with a bit of a shake up and, above all, he should abandon all thought of playing a 4 4 2 when the two central men are defensively minded, as Featherstone and Chambers are.
As for the opposition, Swindon will be without Aden Flint (suspended), Tommy Miller (leg), Alan Navarro (knee) and Fede Bessone (calf). Captain Alan McCormack remains a doubt with a hamstring problem but John Bostock may be ready to return after a recent groin injury.
Predictions?
Honestly? I really don’t have a clue with this one. Basically, anything could happen and you would be mad to put any money on it!
We’re not putting up a match report, as therre was only one team on the pitch last night. Instead, here’s a collection of comments by Walsall supporters as they reflect on their Tuesday night experience. Perhaps someone at the club can print this off and put it on the front of every locker in the changing room.
Worst defensive and midfield display I have seen in a long while. They were completely outbattled (too lightweight) and seemed to lack any confidence at all.
It’s as if everyones looking around for someone else to take some sort of responsibility
I did loff at the “4-0 and you f**ked it up” chant when we scored…
90 mins of the most turgid pathetic excuse for football I have seen in a long time. The players need to take a good look at themselves and realize that even at this level they are very fortunate to be in their position
Oxford under Coackley, Chelsea under Barnwell, Coventry under Lee, Doncaster under Hibbett, Tranmere under Hutching were all awful. Cup games against Yeovil, Macclefield, Darlington et al in recent years were all bad. But I don’t think any of them come close to being as wretched as last night.
I struggle to think of five worse performances in all my years of following the Saddlers
What an embarrassment
the team selection was only beaten by the performance, i really can not find words to describe it. Utterly useless is as close as i can get
After that performance, there are some players who should never play for Walsall again. There are others who need to be taken out of the firing line for a bit. And then there’s a manager who, along with his players, has taken the pee out of the club that gave him a long-term deal and the fans who pay his wages.
there’s no point reporting on the ins and outs of the match. We didn’t compete for a single minute of that game and got exactly what we deserved
Pathetic again. Don’t know what is going on but it needs sorting out, left after the fourth went in like hundreds of others
There are no words to describe just how bad and clueless that performance was
It was a shambles of Mersonesque proportions
Well that was abysmal, one shot on target in 90minutes, no passion, no tactics, no nothing.
this result is embarrassing and inexcusable
i wouldnt pay one player their wage tonight and they all disgust me with their attititudes
I look forward to our players talking about their haircuts and new cars on twitter.
Every single lady-garden should be released and thrown back onto the footballing scrapheap
If there is one team whose fortunes have mirrored our own in recent years it is probably Scunthorpe. Leaving aside the fact that we share the same ground (albeit we ended up paying twice as much for the privilege) Scunny also matched our achievement of two promotions from League One in three years from 2007-2009. The other thing they have in common with Walsall is that they badly overreached themselves in trying to stay in the Championship. They spent £700,000 on lanky centre half Rob Jones as recently as 2009 and also splashed out over £600,000 on Martin Paterson and, er, Kevan Hurst at the start of the Nigel Adkins era. But they’ve also been phenomenally successful at speculating to accumulate – selling on Paterson, Billy Sharp, Gary Hooper, Martyn Woolford and Andy Keogh for the best part of seven million quid in the last five years.
Which makes you wonder just how they’ve got themselves into their current financial predicament. They even have a Sunday market for goodness sake! The Iron have long been proud of their status as one of the few debt-free clubs in British football but that is about to change with the announcement this week that chairman Steve Wharton will be retiring at the end of the season. Wharton revealed that the club would be in administration but for his cash injections although he does seem to have a relatively benevolent exit strategy (certain other owners of League One clubs take note). Wharton is loaning the club enough money to get through the next two seasons – and will be repaid over the next 20 years. He has also offered his shares for free to anyone willing to take the club over. If only he owned the ground. That’s where the money is Steve!
The game itself pits two teams desperately struggling for form against each other. Scunthorpe’s poor start finally did for Alan “Squirrel Killer” Knill last week and the club turned to a name from the past to attempt to turn things around. Brian Laws spent almost a decade at Glanford Park before moving on to bigger and worserer things with Sheffield Wendy and was a rather improbable manager in the Premier League with Burnley as recently as three seasons ago. He is, however, most famous for once having thrown a tray of chicken wings at a player during half time when he was Grimsby boss.
New manager syndrome didn’t seem to do him much good on Saturday – Scunny were thumped 4-0 by Gillingham in the Cup. Laws has responded by dropping goalkeeper Sam Slocombe whose floppy hair deeply offended me at Glanford Park last season. Experienced stopper Steve Mildenhall has come in on loan from Millwall and will make his debut tonight. On-loan duo Leon Clarke and David Prutton will return to contention after being refused permission to play at the weekend, while centre half David Mirfin faces a late fitness test. United will also feature Barr Beacon Comp alumnus Karl Hawley in their ranks. Which is nice.
The Saddlers will be without Florent Cuvelier, an injury we could have done without, while Andy Taylor is also sidelined with a hamstring injury. Getting a lot of those, innit? The only other question mark is over the formation. 4-4-2 again after the shocking display on Saturday? Or gamble on 4-2-3-1 with Baxendale in the Cuvelier role? And will Smith reward Richard Taundry’s match-turning contribution at Lincoln with the creative midfield role that he so richly deserves? It makes my head hurt a little bit so I’m going for a lie down but not before I’ve confidently revealed that we will win 2-1. Toodle pip!
Well, by all accounts a disappointing outing to the Imps and a lucky escape to blag a replay at home. With the draw being made since then, if we get past Lincoln we have a home game against either Mansfield or Slough. So here’s a poll to enjoy!
Total Voters: 202
Loading ...Meanwhile, UTS regular Sadders was at the match and this is how he saw it. There’s some harsh words in there for some of our players, who might want to think long and hard about the performances they’re (not) turning in at the moment:
Pathetic, woeful, slow, pedestrian, un-creative, lacking pace, lacking defensive ability, lacking guile, lacking height, lacking presense. Tremendously crud, awful, David Dickinson, crud, lacklustre, childish. Lincoln hammered us, we were pathetic. Back to the dark days of Hutchings, perhaps even worse at times. I dont blame Smith (who by the way kept the players on the pitch at the end hopefully to give them a roasting of their life time) he had no Taylor, no Brandy, no Cuvelier – I’d have gone with the exact same system as him, the only thing I’d have considered was leaving Bowerman on the bench and putting Baxendale back into a 4-5-1. Smith made the right changes IMO, Jones looked lively when he came on and Williams is bigger in size than any other striker in our side. The players need to take a long look at themselves, no urgency, no passion, no 1st balls, no 2nd balls, no presence, no strength – they just werent bothered. We had all the ball in the 1st half, but continued to play it at training pace across the back four, despite repeatedly have opportunities to drive 10 or 20 yards further forward, this allowed Lincoln’s 2 banks of 4 to sit in comfortably awaiting our mis-placed pass.
Hemmings is the biggest disgrace to play for this club in yonks. Not one jot of anything he showed today replicates that of a league player. He was weak, slow, couldn’t be bothered, didnt track back, showed no effort, no pace, didn’t beat his man, didnt break up play, didn’t defend, didnt attack – he just brought nothing but an arrogant ‘chip on the shoulder’ attitude – loan list him or tear his contract up now, we’l soon see how arrogant he is when he repeatedly checks his phone for an agent’s call – only to find Hednesford Town are the only team willing to give him a trial. The ‘We want Hemmings off chant’, the ‘Hemmings is a winner’ and the huge goal like cheer when he left the pitch were 100% thoroughly deserved – if he plays in a Walsall shirt again, its a crime of managerial proportions.
Jamie Paterson, yes – The Messi of league one. The fancy flicks, the pace, the skills, the turns. Oh sorry? It was almost like I was standing in his boots then. Note to yourself Jamie, you play in league one, you need to pass the ball like a lower league player, you need to look up before you pass, you need to stop running into blind alleys, you need to stop playing with such a stroppy pathetic ‘arrogant’ attitude – if we release you, who exactly do you think is going to take a gamble on a young kid released by lowly Warsaw? Macclesfield? Barnet? Accrington? You’l be lucky.
As for the rest. Holden and Butler were caught too square frequently, Holden is over the hill sat on his farm. To slow, easily shrugged off the ball and totally not up to it – shame as I like the man. Butler once again couldn’t keep his mouth in order and ended up giving 2 stupid fouls away because he’d wound himself up and got frustrated – note to self Andy, we as fans love you for you ‘up and at them attitude’ but please try not to get booked and give risky free kicks away because you can’t as a captain of a football team keep your mouth shut for more than 3.2 seconds.
Adam Chambers worked hard and put a couple of spicy tackles in, but went missing like most of last season and found himself in ‘crab mode’ at numerous points in the first half – especially on 2 occasions where he decided to play a 10 yard pass sidewards or backwards when he had a pass forwards on. James Chambers was relatively solid, but his ball retention in the 2nd half was poor and he was not his usual composed self. Featherstone had his worse game, his ball retention was the worst of anyone and despite ‘always’ trying, he was thoroughly lightweight, thoroughly wasteful and the only thing he tried to do was get at my patience.
On to David Grof. Why on earth do half of our fanbase back this clown? 3 times today he nearly cost us, flapping for a corner, parrying a weak long distance effort to the feet of Jamie Taylor and not communicating with Butler almost causing a goal both in the 1st half and 2nd half. The man is a walking liability. He is very close at times to being on Jon Brain level of liability. He can’t command his box, his kicking is generally hit and miss, his shot stopping is dire, he gets beaten from distance, he’s a walking ‘chip’ candidate, he instills no confidence in the squad or the defence and he is a ‘walking clanger’. Yet some people have him primed as the next candidate for Joe Hart’s position at City. Talk about blinkers, he’s mostly dire.
The only players that can take anything from the game are Grigg, who again tried hard, ran the channels well in the opening 20 minutes and did look like scoring for once. Bowerman works hard but doesn’t really have any attributes to his game bar the actually scoring part (okay that’s a good thing, but in a side like this it’s really not) and Purkiss who was literally standing that far over on the right hand side at times he wasn’t in the lines of play!
Sorry to sound so doomful and ‘write slashy’. But today wasn’t an off day like Bury was last week, this was 10 times as bad, this was lazy, un-motivated. This consisted of little attacking play, this consisted of arrogance from half of our squad and this consisted of quite frankly at times an embarassing lack of quality. This isn’t a worrying sign, this is a sign that we really need to pull the trigger on some loans before we lose all momentum and memory of a very good opening start to the season.
Without Cuvelier we looked less than a conference side. We had no physical edge against a bigger Lincoln side and our football was more ‘tippy tappy’ and ‘side to side’ than a conference side. If you can’t hoof it and get results, then you have to play football and get results – correct? We were frankly terrible at both today. Okay so Lincoln were up for it and had absolutely nothing to lose, but they were miles better than us, better on the ball, more penetrative, they had a classy looking little striker in Jamie Taylor, they had it over our backline all afternoon and for it – they looked far more threatening. If I was a Lincoln fan tonight, I’d be truly devastated. It says it all that I felt embarassed celebrating a Walsall FC goal.
This wasn’t a bad day because we drew to a side 50 places below us, this was an embarassing day because we had a squad that thought they’d walk all over Lincoln City and they were well and truly taught a lesson. Not been this dissapointed/angry about a performance since the darkest of dark days under Hutchings. Finally, an apology to Lincoln fans – I apologise that you will have drive 80 miles to our ground on a cold Tuesday night in 2 weeks, I apologise you will have to spend your hard earned cash on playing a replay against us and finally, I apologise that you wont be sat tommorrow afternoon watching the draw in the comfy knowledge that you have a place in the 2nd round, as you justly deserved.
Positives?
- We get a 2nd crack at it.
- We can’t play that badly again in any official fixture this season.
- Jake Jones looked lively.
- Hopefully Hemmings wont play in our team ever again.Grof 1 – Useless excuse for a goalkeeper. A flying purple potato.
Purkiss 6 – Tried his best. Got forward at times, still frighteningly slow though.
Holden 4 – Given the run around by a BSP striker.
Butler 5 – Skinned too easily and gave fouls away, won his fair share of headers though. Nothing like captain fantastic.
J Chambers 6 – Solid enough at the back, frustratingly wasteful in possession.Paterson 0 – Have fun in the reserves Jamie.
Featherstone 2 – The logic behind football is to pass the ball to one of your own players Nicky.
A Chambers 5 – Best of the midfield, tried hard but lacked the bite of recent weeks.
Hemmings 0 – Are you loan listed yet Ashley? Detestable little prat.Bowerman 4 – Goal is a goal, but brings nothing else.
Grigg 7 – MOTM. Won a few headers, brought others in to the game and generally was a bright spark in an otherwise terrible occasion.SUBS
Jake Jones 6 – Impressed, showed the energy and passion we lacked all afternoon.
Williams – Won 1 header, but isn’t ready for pro football yet.
I understand the budget constraints in our club, but we are better than this, surely?
I was thinking, while I was doing the Advertiser column this week, about the great Cup tradition of this club, both in the FA and League Cups. Aside from the epic defeat of Arsenal in 1933, I was at the wins at Stoke in 1966, the 0 – 0 against Liverpool, the narrow 0 – 1 to Spurs (and Jimmy Greaves), Newcastle at home, Leicester at home, Arsenal away in the League Cup, Anfield, in the same year, the epic Watford games and many others which went towards building our reputation as a Cup team, such as putting seven past Macclesfield.. Unfortunately, I can also lay claim to having been at two of the worst games of football I have ever seen in the FA Cup. The first was the replay against non League Yeovil in 1991 on a freezing cold night, when we lost 0 – 1 in extra time and the other, last year’s awful replay against Dagenham and Redbridge, which was better only in that it wasn’t quite as cold
The problem is, of course, is that it is the last two efforts which have most in common with our Cup exploits in the last few seasons, and I don’t think there will be any Saddlers fans who wouldn’t give their right arms for a Cup run and a chance at one of the so called big boys in the third round. An away game at non League opposition should give the chance to get us on our way, but, then again, we all remember the 13th November 2004, don’t we and the hapless Merson mismanaged defeat at Slough?
Andy Taylor will be Smith’s only absentee, after he left the pitch with a hamstring strain last week. That is also likely to keep him out of next Tuesday night’s game. James Chamber should deputise, giving Taundry and Purkiss the fight over the right back slot he would almost certainly have otherwise occupied.
Good news for Dean Smith, as he tries to get the team back to winning ways, is that Stoke haven’t objected to Florent Cuvelier becoming Cup tied.
As for Lincoln, team news is scarce (and most wont know the players concerned anyway), but the do have some injury concerns. Former Sheffield Wednesday (amongst others) defender Peter Gilbert, who, before this week was on a temporary contract, may be fit enough to return to the starting eleven following a poor defensive performance from the Imps last week. Much travelled striker Robert Duffy is still out and doesn’t look much nearer to playing then he has for a few months now and the former Rushden veteran midfielder Gary Mills returned to training this week but is unlikely to return to the starting line up so soon.
Danger man is 29 year old striker Jamie Taylor. He has seven this season and 52 in 144 starts at senior level for various non league teams and something like 130 in 170 games at lower levels. He does know where the net is.
Predictions?
They are just two places above the relegation slots in the Conference, with 3 wins, two draws and 3 defeats at home. They did only draw their last home League game, but did win at Wrexham before that, so can be dangerous. It is the Cup, but I have to say a win.
Support for Alex
The players will be wearing t shirts in support of Alex Nicholls, who will be out of the game for at least nine months after breaking his leg in two places while scoring for Northampton the other night. We all wish him all the best.
UptheSaddlers Owners (16)
- Ask Tony Limited
- ChesterSaddler
- Geoff Whiting
- HKSaddler
- I C Shipping Limited
- Jones Springs Limited
- King Crimson
- Neil Ravenscroft
- Pedagogue
- Power-All Europe Limited
- Ridgway Wilkes
- SaddlerSteve
- SirRayGraydon
- SR Print Management
- Stuart Brookes
- Welsh_Saddler
- WelshWalsallBen
Want to own part of UTS?
How to support UpTheSaddlers
Friends of UpTheSaddlers
Supporters Shop
