Back to League Two action this weekend as we host Grimsby Town at The Poundland Bescot Stadium looking to take three points and offer an encouraging performance similar to the one we saw against Charlton Athletic in midweek.
Grimsby Town are back in League Two this season following a one season hiatus that saw them competing in the National League last season, gaining promotion back to the EFL at the first attempt after beating Solihull Moors in the Play-Off Final in June. Interestingly, they only finished 6th in the League, but still managed to battle through and win promotion, including a crazy game against moneybags Wrexham.
Anyway, into the present now and the visitors are managed by ex-Shrewsbury Town boss Paul Hurst, who is actually in his third spell as boss, following stints in 2011-13 (joint manager with Rob Scott) and 2013-16 before leaving for Shropshire. He was on some Saddlers fans wanted list for our own managerial post in the past.
The Mariners head into this game 16th in League Two with one victory from their three away games so far this season, which came against bottom club Rochdale. Their squad contains links to Walsall Football Club in the form of ex-Saddlers, Otis Khan and Bryn Morris, whilst they also have current Saddlers player Brendan Kiernan there on loan from us, meaning he will be unable to play in this fixture.
Grimsby Town’s last six fixtures (and incidentally their first six fixtures) this season have been:
30th July - Leyton Orient (A) - Lost 2-0
6th Aug - Northampton Town (H) - Drew 1-1
9th Aug - Crewe Alexandra (H) (CC1) - Won 4-0
13th Aug - Rochdale (A) - Won 1-0
20th Aug - Sutton United (H) - Drew 0-0
23rd Aug - Nottingham Forest (H) (CC2) - Lost 3-0
Onto The Saddlers now, and we head into the game following a 1-0 loss to Charlton Athletic in the Carabao Cup Second Round in midweek, that as it turns out was actually quite unlucky as Andy Williams’ scored his first goal for the club, but found it didn’t count on account of the referee giving a handball against him, for not using his hands. Enough about the referee from that evening anyway, before the rant starts.
Michael Flynn should be encouraged by Tuesday evening’s performance and will have a couple of selection headaches given to him by those who played. Liam Bennett staked his claim for a start in his favoured right-back/right-wing position with another strong performance, and there could be reason to believe that Jack Earing could be in contention to start in this game after a decent showing too. A third player that could keep his starting place for the third game in a row is Ronan Maher after an impressive 65-70 minutes in the cup fixture.
One player that I’m confident to say won’t be starting the game, if making the squad at all, is Norwich City loanee Flynn Clarke who has had a very slow start to his Walsall career so far.
As we stand at the time of writing, there are no new injury concerns for Michael Flynn to deal with, but that could change before matchday. Fingers crossed we come through the next couple of days unscathed.
Looking into tactics briefly, will the gaffer go with his favoured 3-5-2 formation, or could we see a return to something with a 4 man defence? What would you do? Who starts in your team?
I haven’t seen the sales figures for Grimsby Town but given that it’s a Saturday with decent temperatures, and they are in their first season back in the EFL, a decent crowd may ensue, with a 5000+ attendance surely on the cards.
Looking forward to this one after being surprised with how well we played in spells on Tuesday, and hoping for 3 points to boost us back into those play-off spots to continue what has been a relatively strong start to the 22/23 season so far.
- Walsall Win
- Draw
- Grimsby Town Win
0 voters
. Wow the realisation that I sound old 
Ouch and Bump!
