I thought Stirk was excellent yesterday. Tackles flying in and he must have run about 20km !
Might go on Tuesday night. Going home Wednesday
Sorry, meant for @Scooby2167
On Josh Gordon you are right. Really sound bloke.
But I’m still buzzing from DJ’s comments yesterday. Because I’m sure Sadler has said “you need to be more like Josh Gordon”. Now that could go either way. You could have your arse in your hands and put goal scoring data on the table and ask “why?” or you can get right into the managers thought process and go “I absolutely get that and I want to be part of this”. And I’m delighted he seems to have gone for the latter.
There’s lots of stuff on social media about any rift being bollocks. I’m not sure. From his words and actions yesterday I feel that a pretty big hatchet has been buried. Which is great for all of us.
Their fans. Pretty much like ours after Tranmere. The big difference is the managers. Alexander, not an ounce of class whereas Sadler after Tranmere was very balanced. I’m struggling to remember Alexander at Fleetwood in the third tier or Salford coming out and saying “refs give us small clubs the decisions because they feel they have to stand up to the big clubs”. Maybe it’s because he didn’t say it. Classless whinging nob. His side should have been out of sight after half an hour and if you can’t defend a free kick 75 yards from your goal, the answer lies closer to home.
No you don’t.
Agree on Sadler despite the pressure he was under last season he rarely spoke about referees. He was a bit robotic but I can only remember one occasion when he mentioned refereeing decisions.
I reckon that hatchet being buried was this illness. I’m not having there was no issue at all with a player who scores the goals he does, sitting on the bench to come on for 2 mins against Sheppey and so on, openly saying on podcasts he’s desperate to play football, grinning at fans singing songs about him hating the manager. A player who has literally demanded to leave his last club over … a lack of playing time.
However, it’s pretty clear now that the illness was legitimate, and there’s no doubt the club have stood by and protected him, and done everything they can to get him back healthy and back onto the pitch. I’d imagine that, despite whatever has gone on, he’d be very grateful to the club and to Sadler for that.
Great points made.
And all this starts with Sadler! I never signed onto the: Mat Sadler and DJ don’t get on business - that doesn’t sound like Sadlers M.O. It’s so good to hear DJ’s comments and a fit DJ is as good a striker as any in League 2. The only problem we have is: which is our best combination upfront?
It would appear that Mr Slater has got DJ back to the best he can be. Lean, fit and scoring goals.
Like having a freebie outside the transfer window.
Credit to the gaffer.
That’s a tough one, when everyone is fit we are going to have some big names that don’t even make the squad. Comley, Daniels, Mcintee, Flash, Priestly all still to return and Maher wasn’t even in the squad yesterday.
There is still a long way to go and there are no guarantees of promotion but if we can stay in the top 10 until Xmas, I feel that the owners will strengthen again in January should the squad need reinforcements.
Regarding ‘team togetherness’, it was very clear in the pre season friendlies that this starts with Sadler. It is almost impossible to build up strong relationships without giving a leader time and it is good to see that most UTS posters are now beginning to give the manager the credit he deserves.
Really interesting that in the post match interview, Sadler said ‘for me’ and quickly corrected himself to ‘playing for us’. Very different to Flynn in that regard and symptomatic of the power of the collective that he is at pains to instil, not just with the players but also amongst the Walsall FC supporters.
Long may it continue. UTS
Could see it 10 minutes into his trial at Alvechurch.
We went 18 months playing a wingback system with no right wing back that could cross a ball, now we have two.
Quick one on Harry Williams.
Jay Stansfield and the Andy Cook pocketed within eleven days of each other.
He’s some defender that lad. Dare I say the nearest thing to Ian Roper since Ian Roper?
Like Ropes his touch isn’t great and the game has moved on to the point where he won’t progress unless he works on that. But first and foremost he is a defender whose job it is to stop their centre forwards from scoring goals. And he’s very good at that.
As am I. You can imagine the factors though if a chat was had something along the lines of.
- final year of contract
- another year on the bench, bad for finding another club in the league unless adapt to Sadler’s plans.
- at 31, prolonging physical attributes worthwhile as can rapidly decline in coming years.
- illness plus high wages I imagine was hard to move on in the summer.
Either way, it’s a big plus for the club if this issue (presuming there was one in the first place) has been resolved.
It was brilliant and being DJ made it more special after all he has gone through.
He was my man of the match before it was announced. He seemed to be everywhere.
Yes, and we can have that type of player in the centre of a back 3. Unfortunately, the same is true of Okagbue, which is why the return of McEntee will be so welcome. A back three of him, H and Allen will do us fine.
The thing about Roper was that he was pretty much the same in any division. He was no ball player but it was hard to get past him.
The thing that impressed me most yesterday was the attitude and application of some of these young players. Simkin took the sting out of the game superbly when we were really under the cosh, the kind of mature display you’d expect someone who’d played a couple of hundred first team games to make
Reyes Cleary was another one who impressed me. His first five mins were abysmal, slipping over and giving the ball away. Many young players would have hidden but he dusted himself down, continue to get involved and made a decent impact.
You can have all of the ability in the world but it’s worthless without the right attitude, and that’s something that these lads seem to have
Loved yesterday at the bescot!!. Very good and composed performance in the first half, stirky ran the show. Should have been 3 up before they got that goal from our error. Second half Bradford more in the ascendancy with us defending brilliantly. Special mention to Harry Williams, absolutely top draw yesterday. Very much in the Ropes mould( not a bad player to be like!!). Loved the way Conor Barrett was up and down that right flank and delivered some real quality into the box. Defensively a great performance from him too. Bringing on Uncle was absolutely brilliant. His delivery was way above League 2 level. We’re so lucky to have him. DJ what else can i say but he is the one striker if you wanted to get a winner, you’d bank on him. Delighted for him. Finally from me, there is a clear structure in play from us now from Mat. He is putting the building blocks into place ready for a promotion push. Well done to all. UTS
I wasn’t sold on MS at the time of his appointment as it seemed like a cheap option.
His interviews were dull and there wasn’t much to get excited about.
Trivela have backed him and we’re starting to see real progress, solid improvement and a togetherness throughout the squad.
I went wondering how it would go after last week’s poor performance and although we had lapses in concentration, overall the team played as a team especially in the second half when Bradford were in the ascendancy, our defending was solid.
I’m happy to admit that my initial doubts about Matt Sadler were wrong. He never criticises players only speaks in glowing terms about them and is always respectful of the supporters.
Unlike previous seasons when the atmosphere felt quite toxic the whole match day experience is much improved.