Realistic and sensible talk from a man that I’m convinced will prove to be a very good manager.
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I’ve enjoyed myself more at the dentist than I did watching that tonight.
As entertainment goes, it was spectacularly dreadful.
Rose had a decent half.
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They wiped a few seats, job done.
Many potential reasons such as Walsall fans buying them for them, or the fact that some Villa fans will have booking history with us if we are their second team, from Wembley, etc. Same issue you get when we play Wolves at home.
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I found the exact same. We were literally standing behind villa fans on the entrance to the upper blatantly wearing their shirts.
There were very large queues at the ticket office Aswell unless that was last second walsall tickets which I thought were all digital now? Guys in front of us had paper tickets.
Seats were really dirty id want my money back from that deep clean company . Surely pomlet or mole walked it off when they finished?
Atleast the digital code worked first time nice and quick and even with that result I was truly buzzing to be back!
Also really liked how Taylor told all the players to walk the pitch and clap all the Walsall fans end of the game!
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To be expected in terms of the final result, especially when you consider the gulf in quality (and gap in league positions) is at it’s biggest in a long time.
Just to think, if we’d have won the play-offs in 2016 both clubs would have been in the same division the following season!
Anyway, on to the game and for the first 20 minutes or so we seemed to be dealing okay with the majority of their attacks whilst offering a few brief moments on the counter. Kiernan was impressive, as was White who seems to be benefitting from having a proper pre season under his belt.
For the rest of the first half Buendia and Watkins showed their class and cut through us on a few occasions.
The second half was played at a slower pace, but getting minutes in against quality opposition can only be a good thing moving forward.
As others have mentioned, we should hopefully get to see a bit more of what we’re like in possession when we play Kidderminster on Saturday.
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The company hired to ‘deep clean’ the stadium obviously misheard.
They must have heard ‘don’t clean’ instead.
Everywhere was absolutely filthy.Seats/ toilets etc.
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I knocked this fixture on the head a few season ago, it’s not really one for us fans. Real quality opposition will always highlight andy weaknesses and magnifies them so tells us where we need to focus efforts on improving and I trust the coaching team to do that. Same squad we said looks really promising just a few days ago and only the 2nd friendly so I won’t be ringing franksy and saying e’s gorra gew, dingle style just yet.
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It’s difficult to judge how things are going to be. Ollie Watkins alone is probably worth more than Walsall FC all rolled into one.
Rose and Rushworth looked competent. Rose, imho, did a very good job.
Defensively we conceded 3 identical goes. Even against Villa does this show some kind of weakness?
Midfield looked alright. Tough to judge trialists on this game. Give them another match or so before being able to tell. Kinsella played well, better than labadie but he probs is no where near fully fit.
Attacking wise we offered very little. Osadebe did less than nothing. Offered no support to Phillips at all so can’t judge the lone striker.
But as a friendly the final result doesn’t matter. Take from the game as much as you can and work to fix the mistakes.
But boy was it amazing to be back at the stadium! I can’t remember the last match I saw 
had an ingenious idea of getting tickets in the upper on crouches because I am a genius lmao 
defo didn’t leave disappointed. UTS!!!
Sorry to say but Osadebe is a joke, how hes a professional footballer is beyond me.
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One decent month in our worst team ever did enough to pusuade a lot of people he was good including management which really matters
Never been good for me. Should have been released ages ago.
Hopefully a season with a new manager proves us all wrong
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Incredible that Villa fans can get tickets in our end but genuine Walsall fans struggled to do so and these aren’t idiots either lots have had issues with the new system even season ticket holders of 30 plus years
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Alot of people wanted White gone at the end of the season and there was abit of negativity when he signed his new contract, but he’s come back looking like Cafu.
I think with Holden, Wilkinson and Earing all missing tonight, the number 10 role is certainly up for grabs when they’re all fully fit.
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Here’s an idea. How about a working bee to give the stadium a clean up?
no chance it’s Been live on YouTube Last 3 years with double that and the year it was called the 125 year game there was 9,000 there
Calm down everyone,when you take a battering from a premier league team it affects the players mentality and confidence, if we lose 4-0 against Kidderminster we can start worrying then. What was the attendance by the way?
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One other thing to note - Kins was doing typical kins stuff and lobbing himself infront of everything, I’m not sure I want that in a friendly he’ll be sore as hell this morning, he took some absolute rockets
I Don’t have a bad word to say about Matt he’s so much more professional in his demeanour and that goes a long way with me and I’m sure the players will feel the same,we always get thumped against Villa it’s done now let’s move on to the next game and carry on preparation for the start of the season.
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Loved how our midfield and defenders socially distanced all night, only Kinsella knew all restrictions were gone.
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I think give both the triallists more time and the game against kiddy should hopefully show more what they can do for us.
Obviously last night was very hard and they were far ahead of us even with their second string playing in the second half. But to be expected tbh. The goals did worry a bit in terms of defence being out of posution, especially Taylor for the first two, but they are still getting used to each other as a unit so will bed in. I though Rollin menayese looked quite good when he came on and mills played okay so we have reasonable CB and FB cover.
Defo need more options up top.
My favourite part of the game last night was seeing kinsella not being afraid to fly in and challenge mcginn for the ball but bounce off him like a little schoolboy!!
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- Villa had gone rubbish. Think large parts of Villa Park are closed off for the season because like Wolves when they begin to struggle they literally lose tens of thousands of fans. Think they barely filled behind the goal that year for our friendly and our bits were empty too. Look at the YouTube footage.
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