Pre-season Friendly
6th July 2019 (3pm KO)
The Impact Arena, Alfreton
Match preview to come, courtesy of @Welsh_Saddler
UTS
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Match preview will appear somewhat nearer the time, when (and if!!) we have more of an idea as to what kind of squad we are able to field… 
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Triallist A all the way to at least M, N, O or P if a few more leave next week.
Alfreton 8-0 Walsall.
Game basically fixed as we borrow 4 Alfreton players to make up a team who all go onto score two own goals each.
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Are you Welsh’s warm up man Simon…
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He’s learning the business.
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I try to get the crowd warmed up for him, Sid. He’s a consummate professional.
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Bonser’s admin supremo is organising the team bus as we speak…
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Nice one Welsh 
Funny how things stick in your mind. Whenever I hear / see the name Alfreton that advert comes to mind.
Also funny that i think of a certain Glenn Campbell song 
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If we get few decent signings in between now and this game to make a full team think I will make the shortish journey to see the new lads in action.
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Don’t worry, I understand it will be 7 a side, though we will struggle to find enough of our under 14’s team to stand in as substitutes!
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My guess is that DC will have a whole bunch of trialists he will look at in pre-season games like this if his days with the Gas are anything to go by. It’s a chance to look at potential players for the future, after such a game he offered Billy Boden a short term contract…Billy went on to be a great player for DC and eventually netted a good profit when transferred to PNE.
Also the last regular game of DCs conference season with the Gas was against Alferton and finished 7-0 to the good.
In DC we trust
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Good knowledge! 
In return, we all remember Craig Westcarr , Chris Westwood and maybe Richard Peniket as ex Saddlers who ended up at Alfreton but I’m pretty sure that Jordan Pickford also had a loan spell at Alfreton back in the day…
The best thing that we can hope for is a 3-0 loss to the almighty AT
Maybe this could be the catalyst to the “ management “ aka the self-imposed Mr SelfNo.1supposed fan, that he has made us bleed white now fro the last 20 years or so with mismanagement and self-centred financial control
It maybe be shrugged off as “ it’s only a friendly” but a team whose aspiration is pisstakinglly is the Championship, we might make our vampire realise the day has now finally arrived to clear off to Cyprus on a one way ticket and pass it on to someone whom the Club comes before the No 1 fan < fan myarse>
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This will turn out to be the vaguest preview of all time … kick off is a little over a couple of days away, and it’s difficult to predict the starting Saddlers’ line-up, let alone what changes might be seen at half-time. The only real certainties, barring an influx of signings tomorrow and Friday, are that Liam Roberts will be first choice as goalkeeper and Messrs Sinclair and Clarke will form the backbone of our defence, with Liam Kinsella, James Hardy, Jack Kiersey and Alfie Bates bolstering what looks like quite a strong midfield. In the striking area it seems that Josh Gordon will need to take on the goalscoring responsibility which was previously known as the Andy Cook department and of course Elijah Adebayo, Morgan Ferrier and Mitchel Candlin will be trying to stake their claims to a regular place in Darrell Clarke’s plans.
What do we know about Alfreton Town? Well, last season they finished 15th out of 22 in the Vanarama League Northern section - the league that Salford were promoted from the previous year. Their pre-season friendlies have already started - last weekend they faced Championship side Nottingham Forest who put out relatively strong sides for each half. Alfreton had the nerve to take the lead early on, only to see Forest equalise shortly before half-time. The game was decided in the 82nd minute with a Forest winner before a decent crowd of 1,799.
There is one connection between ourselves and Alfreton Town - their midfielder Jordan Sinnott is the son of Lee Sinnott, who older Saddlers’ supporters will recall playing in our colours.
Prediction? Pointless really, but at least it should be the kind of competitive fixture that will enable Darrell Clarke to confirm any evaluations he already has on the strengths (and otherwise) of our playing staff.
Oh, all right - we should win this one, go for a 0-2 scoreline with Gordon and Adebayo finding the net.
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Will be there for Clarkes first game in charge as I hope many more of you will.
A first chance to see these new players in the flesh and see what DC is building. UTS
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I’ll be there on Saturday in my “roving reporter” guise for D3D4Football.com, a website made for & by fans of clubs in the bottom two tiers, check it out…please!!
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