Fair play, I know he was keen to stay, I guess Livingston offered far more than we would have contemplated then. I never minded Devlin, he was always committed, even when most of the team had downed tools. You do get the feeling Keates was annoyed he was stuck with most of Whitney’s defence, but that was the job he took on.
It’s not an argument, it’s an observation.
The defence was fine for first 3 months of 18/19 bar Doncaster game which I think was 4-1? Otherwise very few goals conceded.
All went wrong when Martin came in for whatever reason.
I think there was a lot more to it than just the defenders. The dressing room became rotten, there were far too many players who were highly strung, and ready to sulk and strop when things weren’t going well. Selling Ginnelly cost us dear, he covered Leahy well down the left side, and once he was gone, Leahy was completely exposed.
You are right though, we did look like a decent team at one point.
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The average salary at Livingston is £42000.
So not massive
Keates was just too wet behind the ears to cope when things started going wrong. A shame as I welcomed the appointment.
Completely agree. Martin was the problem.
I remember Devlin being 5 yards behind our defensive line once. He kept a man onside who then went on to score and people on here still refused to blame him. Remember getting into an argument with a certain poster who absolutely refused to acknowledge Devlin being 5yards behind. I liked the bloke, worked hard and was an asset going forward but how anyone can defend his shoddy defending is beyond me. I don’t give a ■■■■ what he does in Scotland. For us he couldn’t defend.
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Because that’s one incident agree or not. Generally he defended whole heartedly. More than I can say for a lot of the defenders tried and tested in that time. Can’t have been easy playing in that set up.
I loved Devlin for his attacking ability and his effort, he was just a poor defender.
No that was just an account I have on here. An example of people defending him when he was completely in the wrong. The amount of times Devlin and Leahy kept people onside by not holding the line was embarrassing. Granted Devlins pace often got him out the ■■■■ on a few occasions, something Leahy lacked.
No m8. Learnt a long time ago that predicting anything Walsall related is impossible when it comes to football. One of the reasons I love them.
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Well I can agree there, Leahy certainly was more culpable in that set up in my opinion.
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Yeah, I’d agree with that. I think most of us welcomed the appointment, was a shame it ended the way it did.
Oh definitely. It’s a shame both Devlin and Leahy weren’t better defenders because you can’t really fault their contributions going forward. A bit of defensive nous and we could have have two solid full backs.
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I think some of it was the fault of playing under two poor managers playing terrible styles with unorganised defences. Leahy was signed as a Marcos Alonso style left wing back and Whitney dropped that plan after literally a few weeks. A whole seasons plan. Madness. And Keates never got the hang of him either. Think it says it all that he’s played most of the season at wing back and even left mid for Bristol Rovers last season in a decent mid table league one team. You’re right about him though, no manner of defensive tweaking would have turned him into a left back.
Devlin, we can disagree until we are blue in the face about his defensive capabilities, but I think the fact Clarke tried to keep him on speaks volumes. There was a player to be had there and it’s a shame it won’t be at Walsall in my opinion.
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The 5 at the back experiment that we started at the beginning of 17/18 is something we definitely should’ve persisted with.
I was at that Rotherham 5-1 away defeat that I think saw the end of it, but generally we looked okay with Devlin and Leahy as wing backs. No surprise that we beat Posh 3-0 at the end of 18/19 when O’Connor went back to it.
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Problem wasn’t with the wing backs, but the fact he had neglected other areas which made it impossible for him to persist with it. That was his failing, his own plan fell down and he was left with no where to go.
Absolutely. Especially when it became painfully obvious we needed more height at set pieces and when Connor Johnson (more by luck than judgement) looked much better than a last chance saloon back up under Keates. I felt that formation cured two ills with that side A) getting the most of out of the full backs as wing backs and B) a bit more solidity at centre half.
Would we get panned playing it occasionally? Probably. But I don’t think we’d be in the mess we are in now.
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I can’t believe people are still knocking Whitney after the shower of ■■■■■ that followed! It was more the people in the board room that hindered the football club for 15 years - except for the one miraculous appointment of Dean Smith, anyway.
SLP aint that bad - a mixture of League One / Championship quality equivalent.
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