"The man in question? Well, that be me. The setting? Cheltenham Town. So gather all, come, sit round, My tale I shall tell"
(“The Pastor’s daughter Nelly” - The Red Rain)
A real test for Darrell Clarke’s squad this week as we welcome the Robins of Cheltenham Town, who haven’t lost a League 2 match since the back end of August. They occupy a comfortable 6th place in the table on 22 points, with the enviable goal difference of +10. There is an ex-Saddler on their books in the form of Reuben Reid, but he hasn’t figured for them recently (wasn’t he known as“Sick Note” when he was a Walsall player?). There’s another connection - John Ward managed the Robins a few years ago, and saw them promoted from League 2 in 2006 via the play-off final. Current form:-
Sep 7 Stevenage (H) Won 4-2
Sep 14 Salford City (A) Won 0-2
Sep 17 Bradford City (H) Won 3-2
Sep 21 Plymouth Argyle (A) Won 0-2
Sep 28 Crewe Alexandra (H) Drew 1-1
Oct 5 Oldham Athletic (A) Drew 1-1
Their match last weekend against Newport County was postponed (International call-ups) so not only are they in the play-off zone, they also have a game in hand! Happy days for Robins fans…
Hard to forecast the composition of Darrell Clarke’s matchday squad - much will depend on his assessment of the opposition (this is done on a match-by-match basis), and also on the progress of any injuries, specially to those players who are becoming prone to persistent visits to the treatment table. The good news is that Kory Roberts appears to be nearing a return to full fitness, having played 90 minutes in the reserves game against Mansfield Town this week.
Prediction for the Cheltenham result? Based on the current form of both sides, a draw would be quite an achievement for The Saddlers … if we say 1-1 (The Robins have conceded 11 goals in 12 games so far) with a goal from the ever-dependable Sinclair, and cross our fingers that we don’t ship a bucketful.
We will, and the home fans, any left in the stadium at the end, will let their displeasure be known to DC and the team (which will of course have Liddle and Holden as certain starters).
Back in fairytale land we might get a very lucky 1-1 draw.
Clarke has NOT got to set a team up to counter Cheltenhams threat… He has got to set an attacking team up that starts on the front foot from the off. We need to be entertained in this game or the boos will get loader for Clarke and his team. Come on let’s have a go at the mighty Cheltenham. UTS
Worried about this. Play like we did in the second half against Orient and the whole of the Salford game then we could be in for another disappointing afternoon. As @Welsh_Saddler points out they’re in excellent form, have a bright young manager in Mike Duff and are riding the crest of a wave.
With that being said, I still believe that if we get the line up right and start positively then there’s nothing stopping us winning this. We went to Crawley (still the best team I’ve seen this season) and beat them fairly convincingly, so hopefully we can get back on track here.
As others have mentioned, let’s just bloody go at them from the off. I’d rather lose by the odd goal by taking it to them than try (and fail) to stifle them and bore us all.
Good preview @Welsh_Saddler for the Matt Richards Derby.
Hadn’t realised they were in such good form. And if things stay true to that we are in for a hiding. But this is League Two and anything can happen, I hope.
Just some attacking intent and defensive competence would do tomorrow. Anything better than last week’s self-destruction/surrender 2nd half.
My lad is travelling up from the big smoke to see his old nan at the weekend and is going to nip down the Bonk’ssss for the game.
Anyone know if there will be a pay turnstile for the blue pop stand.
Ta muchly.
I think we could sneak a 2-1 win here with defenders scoring both
We’ve played them 6 times in the past resulting in 3 wins to the saddlers and 3 draws hopefully this continues maybe a bit of a bogey side to them I love a good old straw clutch me…
I would say that’s a 100% certainty BUT teams do have bogey sides with fixtures dating back for some years so fingers crossed the flip side to that argument is they are due a result against us god knows we live in hope chunkster
