D 1-1 vs Crawley Town (H) - League Two - Tue 7th Dec, 7:45pm

Match Centre Archive Match Centre 21/22
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So the circus stays in town as we look forward to our second home game out of three in a row, where we welcome Crawley Town to the Banks’s Stadium for a League Two encounter.

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The Red Devils are managed by John Yems who is a bit of a character (Click here to find out more) and find themselves 19th in League Two ahead of their trip here, 3 points behind us with a game in hand.

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Their recent form is a bit sketchy but they will still pose a threat to us, given that we will be a bit lower on confidence following a trio of demoralising defeats. There isn’t a lot of news available on Crawley at the moment, but they do have a goalkeeper on loan from Stoke City with a great name that sounds a little bit Christmassy - Blondy Rudolph Nna Noukeu - although he has only made one appearance in the EFL Trophy this year.

Crawley Town’s last six games have provided the following results:

30th Oct - Port Vale (H) - Lost 4-1
6th Nov - Tranmere Rovers (H) (FACR1) - Lost 1-0
9th Nov - Southampton U21’s (H) (PJT) - Lost 4-0
20th Nov - Barrow (A) - Won 1-0
23rd Nov - Newport County (H) - Drew 1-1
27th Nov - Mansfield Town (H) - Lost 2-1

Onto the Saddlers now and we head into this game sitting 14th in League Two with a defeat in each of our last three games vs Carlisle United (League), Cambridge United (Papa John’s Trophy) and Swindon Town (FA Cup), looking to get our season back onto some kind of track.

Injury-wise the only person guaranteed to miss out as it stands is of course Rory Holden, with potentially Stephen Ward being added to that list if he was indeed left out because of injury this past weekend.

Onto team selection, this will be interesting. Personally I think that Otis Khan played himself into a starting spot with his performance on Saturday, and I think that Zak Mills was solid enough as a replacement for Stephen Ward so where Khan would come in is anyone’s guess. If I was manager I’d be playing him on the right-wing, moving Conor Wilkinson into the number ten role, dropping Emmanuel Osadebe to the bench. That said, Liam Kinsella should be bought back into the starting XI, so more likely would be dropping Osadebe, moving Jack Earing to the ten role, and Kinsella slotting in next to Joss Labadie.

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What do others think? One thing is for sure, there should be a lot of thinking done by Matt Taylor as to who will play on Tuesday.

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One thing that baffled me on Saturday was Earing being left in a defensive mid position and Labadie being put further forward into the ten role. Can’t say I want to see that again…

With reports that the weather is going to be horrendous again this week this could be a very interesting and very cold fixture, so hopefully we can make the most of being at home and not having to travel hours on the day to play, and we can grab the 3 points.

Walsall vs Crawley Town - Match Result
  • Walsall Win
  • Draw
  • Crawley Town Win

0 voters

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2

I have gone for a win but not with a great deal of confidence.I would be more confident if the changes mentioned in the introduction were made.

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3

On yesterdays evidence it seems daft that Khan is on the bench. I thought he was our MOTM even if he did only have 25 minutes on the pitch. There are a few positions for which he looks a better option than the current regular choices.

I can’t see past 0-0 draw myself, but I live in hope. Was it these a few years ago who we played on a Tuesday night, we’d scored four goals in eleven games or something and then beat them 5-0, out of the blue. Brian The Beast Jensen was in goal for them. Maybe something like that will happen again. I’ll keep clutching those straws.

2 Likes
4

4-0

Wilkinson with 2
Miller
Khan

3608 in attendance

2 Likes
5

7-0 walsall all from set pieces

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6

You must mean breakaways following 7 of their corners and free kicks as we never score from our own.

7

Bradley and Viveash were at the Harrogate game. Did you talk them into coming out of retirement? :grin:

8

8-0, all direct from corners

9

Bloody good stuff that Whiskey is mate :joy: another couple of glasses we will be league champions :wink: only jesting though I feel we will win this also 2-1 for me Wilkinson and Miller on target.

1 Like
10

I fancy an edgy 2-1 win. Weather forecast is grim with another storm comin so our slick short passing game might be affected…

11

1-0 Walsall 3,650 inc 50 Crawley fans .

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12

We need to right the ship as we’ve been adrift recently.
We’re out of the cup competitions, the squad is getting healthier so we can entirely focus on climbing the table, a win tomorrow night would be a good start.

13

It’d be easier to predict a postponement tomorrow than a Walsall result! I gave up on that years ago.

2 Likes
14

OK, I’ll go for called off at 1815 hours, due to waterlogging. :grin:

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15

Interesting that Khan is getting the plaudits and the nods for a starting place…and yet that pass for Cambridge’s first, played aimlessly right across the danger zone, was one of the most woeful you could see from a professional footballer.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve liked the look of him at times, but maybe Taylor doesn’t trust him enough for a starting place yet.

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16

Crawley and Colchester are must wins if we have any hope of the play offs

17

That’s fair, it was dreadful. But I think most of our players are woeful at times, they have made so many individual and collective errors, with Khan he looks capable of giving us several positive things mixed in with the odd negative. If we were a good team we could leave him on the bench, but we aren’t and we need something to give us some energy and skill. Along with Wilkinson he looks the most likely to create something from nothing in the final third.
It isn’t as though it would be unfair to drop anybody to make way for him, there are several who could make way.

1 Like
18

Maybe but he would need to be in the attack. The giveaway against Cambridge was not the first time he has made similar errors around our penalty area, it’s just that the others were not punished.

I don’t see the team as just the starting line-up. There are many players who make more impact as subs than when they are in the starting 11. Frankly, there is not much to chose between the attacking midfield players.

Should Kinsella replace Labadie, by the way?

1 Like
19

Personally think we should go with this:

Rushworth
White, Mayo, Monthe, Mills
Labadie, Kinsella
Wilkinson, Earing, Khan
Miller

With decent options from the bench in Phillips and Kiernan… plus the options of Shade and Osadebe.

4 Likes
20

Exactly what I’d go for if we are to stick with this formation.
Atleast try khan and earing where there meant to play as were hardly scoring anyway it won’t hurt to try