A trip to the capital city awaits The Saddlers this Tuesday as we make the trek down to London to face AFC Wimbledon at their new home, back at Plough Lane.
The Dons, managed by ex-pro Johnnie Jackson, find themselves topping the bottom half of the table, sitting 13th in League Two heading into the game. They have accumulated 36 points from their 26 league games to date.
The hosts have played 12 league games at home this season, winning 5, drawing 4, and losing the other 3.
Taking a quick look at their squad, I’m not quite sure what to say as it appears that they’ve lost quite a few players in the January Transfer window already with loanees being called back to their parent clubs, as happened to striker Nathan Young-Coombes and midfielder Paris Maghoma who both retuned to Brentford, and talented attacking midfielder Ayoub Assal being sold to Qatar Stars League team Al-Wakrah for a reported fee of £1m!.
Two names in their squad that stick out are Chris Gunter, the experienced defender who has played in all four professional defenders and was part of the Wales Qatar 2022 World Cup squad, and new recruit signed from Wycombe Wanderers, striker Ali Al-Hamadi who signed last week and is also an Iraqi International with 5 senior caps to his name…with 0 goals scored.
The Wombles last FIVE league fixtures have been:
26th Dec - Newport County (H) - Drew 1-1
29th Dec - Colchester United (A) - Won 2-1
1st Jan - Sutton United (A) - Lost 2-1
7th Jan - Crewe Alexandra (A) - Drew 0-0
14th Jan - Bradford City (H) - Drew 0-0
Onto The Saddlers now, and following our postponement against Swindon Town, avoiding a defeat here means we can go undefeated in the league through January…albeit having only played two league games!
Manny Monthé will sit this game out through suspension following his two yellow cards against Tranmere Rovers, whilst Danny Johnson will presumably still be locked away somewhere in Mansfield by Nigel Clough, meaning that new boy Jamille Matt is almost certain to be handed his Saddlers debut, and with a few extra days bedding in behind him too.
There isn’t much to report really that wasn’t already covered in the Swindon Town thread as nothing has happened, so barring any new signings appearing before Tuesday, what would your starting XI be for this game? One piece of bad news is that Jack Earing sustained an ACL injury in training recently and is looking at 12 months out with that, so hopefully we can stick by him as his contract is up at the end of this season, and we can get him back to full fitness because he is a decent player when fully firing.
How many UTS users are going to at the game? I’m driving down, new ground, looks fairly decent, but £25 (£27 on the day) is a ridiculous price to pay for a League Two football game. I only paid £30 in comparison for Wolves vs West Ham in the Premier League the other weekend! Scandalous pricing, whether in London or not.
Anyhow, a chance to get another 3 points for the lads, and I think we should have enough about us to see this one out.
A good second half of the season in store methinks.
UP THE SADDLERS!
- AFC Wimbledon Win
- Draw
- Walsall Win
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