The point that Walsall has spent the majority of its history in League 1 is a point sadly lost on the happy clapper element of the forum
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At the minute weâre building on sand.
Iâm not old enough to remember that mate 
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Iâm not sure if anyone has mentioned this because there is so much to read through 
. BTW I am very much Sadler in, and Iâll make my decision at the end of the season to what I think is best for next year, BUTâŚ. I do have a couple of questions.
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Why was Daniels in the left of the back three? I canât understand what the need was
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Why was Earing dropped, we missed him from the second we kicked off.
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Why was Matt bought on with less than 10 mins to go, it was clear we needed more experience up top. Should have come in with Oteh at half time.
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Why was Evans picked over Smith?
I think the simple answer is, it was a terrible day at the office for Sadler and 80% of the team. Dave, Donovan, Evans, Flash and Faal all had 4/10 games at best.
There are a couple of positives out of this for me though
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How we have missed Oteh, looks a very good player, would like to see him up top or with the shortage of First Team CBs, maybe even go 433.
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Smith will probably be first choice till the end of the year, meaning we have a really good chance to decide if he is out future No1.
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For all Liam Gordonâs mistakes yesterday, he canât half come central and make scary runs, as can Knowles, itâs over to the coaching team now to work out how we can add the finishing touches and put this into games on a weekly basis if we are sticking to 532.
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Brandon Comley is becoming mr consistent, can hold his head high as he can in pretty much every game he plays, wouldnât be surprised to see him step up a league next year.
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Itâs something that does my swede in.
People in the media, pundits, footballers, ex-footballers. Chris Sutton was at it yesterday too. A kind of dismissal of any malcontent with âwell the supporters job is to erm supportâ attitude.
No, thatâs not our job. Our jobs are to teach, to deliver parcels, to sell stuff, to make stuff, to care for people, to do peopleâs accounts, to run businesses, to answer the phones, to do the admin, to draw stuff, to write stuff, to inspect stuff, to design stuff, to grow stuff, to cut down stuff, to pick stuff.
And then having done all that we expect Saturdayâs to release the burden a bit. Not be an extension of our weekday obligations.
Theyâve no idea.
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I heard Chris Sutton yesterday, itâs not often anything non Walsall related makes me angry, but that was a disgrace what he was saying. I donât know how long he carried it on for because I turned the radio off but he was so wide of the mark itâs unreal. I know he is probably only doing it for a reaction but it was proper cringe.
So apparently if any West Ham fan left the game early they arenât a real fan. Iâd like to bet there were fans who left at half time that have followed West Ham religiously for decades. Going to lengths to get to games he couldnât even dream up. I donât know how much it is to get in at West Ham but I bet they are paying through the nose, to go to a ground they never wanted to go to and I am pretty certain none of them ever wanted to kick off at 16.30 on a Sunday afternoon, or whatever time Sky decide they are playing. Maybe they thought the time was better spent going home to spend an extra hour with their wife, son or daughter cos they have to be up early for work the next day, or maybe they just thought watching the rest in the warm with a nice pint after a long hard week was more appealing. Who cares, shouldnât question their loyalty. Had I had the car Saturday and not been reliant on the train, I am fairly sure Iâd have left early, am I not a loyal Walsall fan? If anyone thought not, I could put a pretty strong argument back that I am and have been all of my life. None of us owe our clubs anything but we keep giving it anyway.
This is a bloke who refused to play for England though isnât it? As you rightly say, they have no idea.
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Absolutely spot in in my eyes. I donât like to see us keep changing the manager but, aside from one decent but short lived run of results, is he good enough?
So from what I gather, the players are allowed to express their âdisappointmentâ in us but if weâre true supporters we canât express our disappointment in them.
Crowd reaction is a direct correlation of their performance.
The best way to stop boos is to turn up, put a shift in, do your job to at least a competent level (including the ugly bits) and show some humility.
The worst way to stop boos is to go into the papers and request they stop.
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Feels like we have been here before.
I like Oteh, he has surprised me actually, he has been better than I expected, but once the back-and-forth begins between players and fans, itâs not really going to end well.
In an ideal world we would be singing and chanting at 3-0 down, and I do think some of the booing is over the top at times, but the feeling at Walsall is low right now, the disappointment will spill out inevitably.
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Tight knit? Tight knit except for where it really matters.
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Fully understand why the fans booed it was a very disappointing result, didnât agree with the abuse that Evans received possibly what he was on about if not then he could possibly become the new boo boy and be on his merry way come the end of the season.
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I remember some fans booing Romaine Sawyers when we were top of League 1 
Some will never be happy.
It is good to read posts like this and some of the more considered contributions yesterday, much more so than some of the stuff posted (admittedly in anger) on Saturday. Some of those were simply a vehicle for confirmation bias - having a go at the players they decided long ago they took a dislike to: e.g. Knowles. As frustrating as he can be, he was no worse than anyone else and better than most.
This doesnât in anyway detract from what was an abject performance, taking the field unprepared, completely outplayed, outfought and out-thought and looking like a team that had never played together. Ten minutes in we were in serious trouble but there was no reaction from the bench and for that I point the finger at Sadler and his invisible assistant. Change was needed, it should have been then.
Itâs wrong to see players pilloried for the sake of the managerâs errors - as Tamworth says, there have to be questions about the absence of Earing and Skips role, and as another said upthread, players like Evans have been hung out to dry. Heâs not a bad keeper, but after Saturday his confidence will be shot. Iâm not sure he will recover.
Saturday was on Sadler. He needs to sort it out. Now.
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Itâs part of the problem, nobody at the club seems to understand why fans are pissed off.
As @Blazing_Saddler said, sometimes it can be over the top but they have to hold their hands up sometimes and say itâs deserved. Or just donât comment on it.
For once, acknowledge that people are paying their hard earned cash to watch.
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Rems thoughts on the game .
Disappointed in Otehâs comments. Not unusual to hear that from players though. Not just Walsall players. Interviews given straight after the game are always prone to foot in mouth moments.
But what are the clubs media team or senior leaders/players doing in allowing these comments to be made publicly?
Everyone was pleased to see Oteh back on Saturday and he looked bright but now he has put a target on his back.
Same with Sadlers comments. I appreciate we wonât have a media liason team of advisors like the Premier League teams do but someone needs to step in.
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I was in the hospitality on Saturday as an important guest so I could take more of an objective view of events on and off the pitch. Newportâs support was quite superb, they were loud and outsung us from twenty to 3 (they didnât seem to have any issues making their way to their allocated seats on time) till 5 oâclock. Many of the fans booed the team off at half time and then back onto the pitch which isnât really helpful, nor was the ironic cheering of our own goalkeeper being sent off, fortunately Evans is an extremely confident character and will bounce back.
Pomlett was ashen faced and left in a rage as soon as the game ended, didnât stop to applaud the players efforts. Boycott looked stunned as to what had happened and stayed out for a good 5 minutes after the game had finished, as my previous post he also then made his way out to the main entrance to engage with fans, some were giving them their view in a heated manner and some were heckling and jeering which was very poor form. Gamble seemed cheerful despite the result but seemed more concerned with the Six Nations.
On the pitch we were very much 2nd best but no way was it a 3-0 game, other than their goals I recall (through a haze of jagerbombs, baileys and brandy alexanders) Newport created maybe two other chances of note in the entire game. Our poor finishing cost us, the sitter that Faal missed at 2-0 could have completely changed the complexion of the game. His distribution all afternoon was slapdash. Very few players hit the highs they have over the last few months. Captain Fantastic DD often sets the tone but even he had a rare off day on Saturday although I think he can count himself a little unfortunate with the 2nd goal which may have been disallowed for a high foot high feet are for me one of the scourges of the modern day game) in the build up at a higher level. The Priest was much more composed and I see him as a potential future captain, and Comley was his usual consistent self. Oteh was very lively when he came on and will be a huge asset for the remainder of the season.
I couldnât agree with Steven giving Player of the Match to Gordon.
My S&S Steelstock match rating would be a 4 and my Leamore Windows Player of the Match was Brandon Cumley.
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Priestly was man of the match
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Sutton is a contrarian, and deliberately so. Itâs annoying because I think he does know the game and he is very articulate by footie pundit standards. But his constant need to automatically disagree with everything said by the moron in the other chair makes the programme hard work. I donât listen to it regularly but heard 20 minutes or so yesterday and it was pathetic, Sutton saying something daft and then having to justify it instead of saying âwhoops, I think I got that wrong.â
And the pair of them having a âyou saidâŚno I didnât I saidâŚno, you said,âŚthat isnât what I saidâŚâ squabble that was at the level of six year olds in a playgroundâŚI switched over to Radio 4 at that point.
Iâve said it before, but this regular banter that we get on R5Live is horrible. I just want some intelligent analysis of the sport.
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