Due to the teams that both of us should have been playing are involved in the EFL Trophy Final this weekend, we now welcome Barrow to Fortress Bescot for a Friday Night Football Fiasco.
Caretaker vs Caretaker 18th vs 22nd A relegation six pointer?
Barrow have dispensed with the services of two managers this season in David Dunn and Michael Jolley and are now led on a caretaker basis until the end of the season by Rob Kelly who is vastly experienced within football.
They currently find themselves 22nd in League Two with 29 points from 31 games and have scored 35 goals (Walsall have 36) and have conceded 41 (just like us!). They are scrapping for their league status and are going to be fully motivated to beat us to aid their potential survival.
Barrowâs last six games have been:
16th Feb - Salford City (a) - Lost 1-0
20th Feb - Morecambe (h) - Lost 2-1
23rd Feb - Oldham Athletic (a) - Won 2-1
27th Feb - Bolton Wanderers (a) - Lost 1-0
2nd Mar - Harrogate Town (h) - Lost 1-0
6th Mar - Mansfield Town (h) - Won 2-0
6 points out of 18.
Due to work I didnât see us play on Saturday but based on numerous comments it appears that although we didnât make a breakthrough, we were playing better than in recent games. Will this continue?
Please post up your predictions for the score, starting line up, and how you see the game being. Personally I think we always struggle with the lower placed teams and Iâm not looking forward to this game one bit.
Any links between the sides, give us some info below!
This is quite possibly the BIGGEST GAME FOR MANY YEARS for Walsall. Defeat, and i fear the worst.
If we play like we did on saturday then we will get at least a draw, but we just need one to go in off somebodyâs arse and we win, Ty to get the winner 1-0
Time for a win, but when it wonât be possible, draw is a minimum plan. Defeat will cause a lot of bad things, so better not. After the draw it would be still nine points, so maybe not that bad.
If ever there was a must win game in anyoneâs season itâs this one.
Like Rob, not looking forward to this at all, we have been pathetic at home, canât score to save our lives, and Barrow won on Saturday, whilst we fell to a sucker punch defeat.
Not good omensâŠ0-0 again.
I just can never see is winning nowadays! We never shoot, never score and still always concede a goal.
Itâs a recipe for disaster against any team, barrows defence shouldnât have a problem keeping us out when we hit the final third!
Bore draw at most
Playing Barrow on a Friday in front of literally no fans trying to eek out a result to prevent us becoming embroiled in a scrap to preserve our league status.
Iâm surprised I missed âThe Mekonâ, but Riley was a bit before my time. Looked him up and he scored the winner in the 1964 League Cup Final against Stoke for Leicester, then scored for us against Stoke in the FA cup in '66. Heâs 82 now.
My wild match prediction is no more than two team changes, and the same number of goals for us. Scored by our strikers would be nice, but wonât complain if not.
Letâs hope for Grimsby & Southend defeats tonight. They both have vastly inferior goal differences to us ( & Barrow too). If they lose, a draw on Friday would be a disappointment but not a disaster. A couple of wins for them and if others below us pick up points then it becomes more crucial.
I think it will be 1-1.
