"Bromley has not been particularly gracious to me, Nor I to Bromley … a morbid sprawl of population"
H G Wells
Well, here’s a rarity - a game against a team we’ve never faced in the Football League (or any other competition as far as I can see), this season being their very first in the FL since their formation in 1892. Back in August when this season started, they were going great guns, winning their first couple of games and keeping a clean sheet - but it’s been something of an anti-climax since then, with only one more win in the 13 games since those heady opening days. Currently 21st in the table only 3 points above the drop, with League 2 form looking like this:-
October 5th Fleetwood Town (A) Drew 0-0
October 19th Tranmere Rovers (H) Lost 1-2
October 22nd Doncaster Rovers (A) Won 0-1
October 26th Barrow (H) Drew 1-1
November 9th Cheltenham Town (A) Drew 1-1
November 16th Carlisle Utd (H) Drew 1-1
In 15 League 2 games they have scored 17 goals with more than half that total coming from Michael Cheek, who shares a striking partnership with Corey Whitely - both forwards being 33 years of age.
Matt Sadler’s options are unchanged as far as is known, hopefully Harry Williams’ concussion has had its prescribed recovery time? MS may consider rotating the squad a teensy bit, having attracted 5 yellow cards in the game at AFC Wimbledon - and it’s so reassuring to have a squad with such strength in depth that he could consider that!
Prediction? It surely has to be a home win, which will keep us within snapping distance of Port Vale - they entertain Crewe Alexandra on Monday night (8pm). I’ll go for a 3-0 win with Lowe (obvs), Jellis and Uncle Albert on target.
More awkward than it looks on paper ive seen them a few times on the old skysportsplus out of intrigue, they are a very solid side, set up to be solid and hard to beat and they have some pace.
I don’t think we can (or will) take anyone for granted but this team of ours seems to have so many good players with different options available, plus it’s the perfect opportunity to close the gap on Burslem.
Simon Osborn/Osborne/Osbourne all played for Bromley after leaving Walsall, and as well as those three Kory Roberts also played there after leaving us. Not sure if there is anyone else we have in common.
Having had a very good season at Gateshead last year, my former pupil, Marcus “Don’t Look Back” Dinanga, is now at Bromley but I believe he’s been injured for a while so may not be available for Tuesday.
This is the sort of game we have struggled with in the past, particularly on a Tuesday. A strong start and we should be OK but it rarely works out that way.
Sadler likes to keep his team unchanged and I will be surprised if he doesn’t.
The awful conditions yesterday contributed to us not playing our usual game (especially they gave our defenders issues in the first half with the wind and rain in their faces - much like the first half at Notts County last season) but we now have enough in our locker to find another way to get the win.
The forecast for Tuesday is much better so hopefully we should be able to go back to normal and have too much for Bromley.
Fingers crossed that Crewe win at Fail tomorrow night so that we’re playing for top spot as an extra incentice.
As this seems to be developing into a genuine promotion campaign, those of us old enough can’t help comparing this to previous ones.
Tuesday reminds me of a Tuesday night game in Graydon’s first season. All from memory this (I do no research), but it was Lincoln, it was rainy, crowd of around 3,500 so barely three thousand of “us” despite the surprisingly brilliant start to the season. They turned us round so it had all the ingredients of one of “those” Tuesdays.
They took the lead. We had someone sent off. Which seemed to galvanise us. The 3,000 of us found our voices. The team found their spunk. And somehow, despite missing a pen we went on to win the game in the last minute.We as a crowd were all over the ref who evened the numbers up, I’m pretty sure based on fans reaction to a challenge at our end.
When the keeper saved the pen in last minute we kept believing and from the resultant corner we got the winner and the roof nearly came off. Think the kids would describe it as “limbs” in the Gilbert Allsop terrace despite all the action taking place at the far end.
This Tuesday will be similar. I think it will be ugly at times. There won’t be a huge crowd. Weather, expense, time of year, live football on the telly. So everybody with a Walsall heart both on and off the pitch need to channel the spirit of that evening against Lincoln.
The saying " there are no easy games" couldn’t be more true. We are in the position now where we are up there to be shot down. Teams are going to come and either park the bus or as Crewe did block our wingbacks out of the game. We are however proving that we can beat anyone at the moment,so I’ll go for a 2-0 win.
It’s about this time of the season and against these sort of teams that I used to really need self-motivation to attend the game. However, this season is very different and really looking forward to this.
It will be a really tough game against a physical team. Think it’ll be tight with few goals. I’m going for a late 1-0 win.
he’s six foot two his eyes are blue, the kit man is after you 