I think you need at least one of Matt and Faal on the pitch, otherwise there’s just not the physical presence. In fact ,we’ve done well during the overlap when they’ve both been on. Matt offers more at both ends of the pitch atm.
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Given the injury bible and the team which we had left to put out, a draw wasn’t a bad result against a compact, intelligent team. After THE MISS, I was happily settling for the drawer tbh. I think a neutral would say that Barrow would be more disappointed with the draw, though not a bad result for them.
On the bonus side, we are genuinely starting to become enjoyable to watch. Who’d have thought that watching those truly dreadful cup games against the park teams before Christmas. I’d be surprised, given the injuries, if we have quite enough to make the playoffs but I’m definitely looking forward to next season for the first time in years. UTS
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I agree you need Matt but having Matt nd Gordon/ faal is just awful for acoring goals
Most of our recent goals are from set pieces we rarely score in open play
There is now way that DJ would have even got to the penalty area running full pelt from the half way line as Faal had to in order to get on the end of the cross that Gordon delivered.
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Must say that ( wayward crosses apart) we really missed Knowles last night and will do if as seems likely he’s out all season. I’ve given Knowles some agro about his crosses this season but boy do we miss him down the right, especially since Liam Gordon has stopped supplying crosses from his side.
You are probably correct, however, in that scenario it would have been a tap in for Jack 
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This is the key for next season for me. I wouldn’t mind signing Gordon as long as we pair him with a more natural goalscorer. Difficult to find one that fits Saddlers preferred profile though as he seems to want physicality and workrate too which has done for DJ this season on probably next if he stays with us.
Hard to judge on one game and not sure what their stats are but Barrow have been top six all season with on last nights showing 2 very ordinary forwards. Stockton was poor and the big lad offered little against our makeshift defense. So as part of a well organised and efficient team, which we have become since November you don’t necessarily need that 25 goal man to have success at this level. Would be nice though!
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For me the current squad is far to depleted for a serious go at the playoffs.
But the signs are positive for next season.
Faal’s miss gets worse every time I watch it - but I agree that he’s only human and even the best strikers in the world miss chances. I can remember years back when either Michael Ricketts or Clive Platt put a similar cross over the bar of an empty net from almost on the goal line - something they’d never be able to reproduce in a million years!
Likewise it’s hard to blame Rollin - hastily recalled from a lower league and slotted straight into a team he’s never played with was always going to carry a fair degree of risk - and let’s remember he did score.
I think it’s injuries that are crippling us (no pun intended) - not many teams in the bottom two leagues can carry the number of injuries we’ve got and not have severe consequences on their ability. Who’d have thought at the start of this season that we’d be short of defenders - back in August it seemed like we had plenty of cover, but here we are relying on a defender whose career with Walsall was, for all intents and purposes, over.
I also think it shows just how much a role Tom Knowles plays - he’s often accused of having poor end product, but his work rate and pace down that wing does help drive our play forwards - and it gives the opposition’s left side plenty to keep them busy.
On reflection a point gained - and it was important not to lose two on the bounce. However, we’ve dropped 5 points in two very winnable games through a combination of sloppy finishing and the disruption to what had been a winning formula - and I think ultimately this is what will prevent us from finishing in the play-offs.
I hope Trivela and the management team are looking at our injury record to see if there’s anything that needs to be improved in the physio / medical side. It’s not the first season where we have had a higher than average number of serious injuries, and a promotion winning side needs to be performing at the top of its game in ALL areas - both on and off the pitch.
Up the Saddlers!
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Im going to defend faal and say the keeper made a world class save. In fairness to him he didnt actually miss the goal he got it on target, but it just dribbled really slowly towards it
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You have to give credit to the goalkeeper, from that photo you would think no way would he get to that ball but he did. If Faal had hit it to the left as some said and missed then you could moan but nine out of ten strikers would have done the same.
We seem to be forgetting the two horrendous misses by DJT too.
Garbage.
You mean the shot that was deflected for a corner and the save by the keeper! Harsh comments in my view.
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I saw a Portsmouth player do it last night and he was closer than Faal and missed the goal completely.by the way I’ve seen Haaland miss worse than that and he’s an experienced player.
Any sort of decent striker scored those. Utter crap.
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Don’t agree…in fact he did well to connect so well with the one unluckily diverted for a corner.
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As I wrote above any decent player can miss as well.
The deflected shot… My lad likes to go and stand down the front for the last few mins, I couldn’t see properly when he took that shot. It seemed like the ref had given a goal kick, did our players manage to change his mind by harassing him? Or did the linesman give the corner?
They can and always will. I think the problem is our players seem to be missing them all at the moment, which is frustrating but at least we are creating chances, a long way from the boredom of post January last season. Injuries are killing us unfortunately.
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Which were they?