Stevenage (A) Sat 20th February, 3pm

Match Centre Archive Match Centre 20/21
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Up next for the Saddlers is an away trip to Hertfordshire to face a Stevenage team that realistically don’t deserve to be in the league after their performance last season. Only the demise of Macclesfield and Bury really saved them.

As it goes they are again towards the bottom of the League Two table this season, having played 29 games and accumulated 32 points, placing them 21st at the time of writing. Seems as though they will be saved again this season by there being two worse teams than them.

On the other hand maybe I’m being a tad harsh on them because if they beat us and we lost our two games in hand they’re right up next to us. Shows how poor we have been this season really doesn’t it?

Stevenage’s last six games have been:

30th Jan - Grimsby Town (a) - Won 2-1
2nd Feb - Exeter City (h) - Lost 1-0
6th Feb - Morecambe (h) - Drew 2-2
9th Feb - Tranmere Rovers (a) - Won 1-0
13th Feb - Bolton Wanderers (a) - Lost 1-0
16th Feb - Crawley Town (a) - Won 1-0

As you can see, they have picked up 10 points out of the last 18 available and they have a few decent results in there, including a victory against Crawley Town on Tuesday night.

After seeing our performance on Tuesday night against Cheltenham Town, I’m hoping we see a bit more composure this time out as Brian Dutton has spent a bit more time inputting his ideas into our players. It was good to see more passing on the floor between our players, and hopefully this will start to pay off as Dutton’s reign goes on.

Team selection will be interesting:

Will Liam Roberts be kept on in goal, or will we see Jack Rose?
Will Tyreik Wright be fit enough to start?
Will Jack Nolan get a chance to impress from the start?
Will Frank Vincent get a second consecutive start?

It is probably fair to say that after Caolan Lavery mistakenly found the net on Tuesday, he will lead the line once again. I hope that goal instills a bit more confidence in him and allows him to get a few more.

As usual now, any players that have played for both are welcome to be discussed. A couple of names that ring a bell are Robin Shroot and Simeon Jackson

A few questions to get some conversation going:

Who do you think will start?
How do you see the game going?
Will we leave the Lamex Stadium with the first three points of BD’s reign?
Will @Gensanx123 finally be happy about something to do with Walsall FC?

Let the conversation commence…

PS. Did you know? Stevenage was the first new town to be designated under the New Towns Act of 1946.
It is also home to everybody’s favourite F1 Driver, Lewis Hamilton

Stevenage vs Walsall Match Result
  • Stevenage Win
  • Goalless Draw
  • Score Draw
  • Walsall Win

0 voters

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A 1-0 to us to get the BD time off to a good start.

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This will be a different situation to the game against Cheltenham who were a very good side. It will still be a challenge if we change the style of play but I have every confidence that this set of players can play a passing game going on what I have seen them do so far this season.

We have exactly the same situation we had when Smith started and look how that turned out. We need to give BD and the players a bit of slack while they work on it and not be too critical of the inevitable mistakes which might happen.

The Cheltenham game was much closer than the 3-0 we lost by last time and a slight misjudgement by Scarr and some quick reactions from their keeper made a big difference. The team selection was a hard choice for the manager due to the opposition but it will get easier.

They were clearly the better side on the night but I don’t buy this Houdini rubbish from DC. I think we have a strong enough squad to continue to challenge once BD gets the right team and formation on the pitch.

I am Optimistic

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I’d never have guessed

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Not many common players. Scott Laird played for both.

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The result was irrelevant for me the other day, but there’s no excuse here. These are poor. Home or Away we need to be winning these games.

I gave Dutton a free pass the other night, and was just interested in his selections. But he’s worked with the players for a long time, it’s not like he has just walked through the door. This needs to be a good performance.

2 Likes
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Good to hear from you again…‘optimism’ not a word commonly banded about during Clarke’s abysmal reign!
What are your thoughts on Clarke’s transfer to a ‘much bigger club’?

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Desperate men do desperate things.

Actually I had confidence in Smith and what he was trying to achieve from the very beginning and I have the same gut feeling about BD. Clarke was almost there but maybe the good points I saw were from BD’s influence, I certainly hope so and it looks that way at the moment.

9

Really struggling to see more than a 1-1 draw, but I was pleased to see some attempt at playing football during Tuesday’s game. Creativity in the final third essential to winning games though and we are struggling there.

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The awful Kevin Toner had a loan spell with them, I forget whether it was before or after he played for us. Scott Houghton played a few games there as his career wound down.

Daley Thompson played for them. No Saddlers connection, but interesting to know and useful if you are having an ad hoc quiz with friends.

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I quite enjoyed going to this a few years back even though it was a loss, nice little ground dipped on the end of a ring road so reminds me of the Lamb at Tamworth. Actually stumbled across it years before when getting supplies at the Tesco next door when at Sonisphere festival in 2011.

Think it will be 1-1 surprise surprise. They’ve improved and team is in a bit of a flux so feels yet another low score grind game.

12

I looked this up and it was after but he’s had a strange career since us! Bradford and Stevenage on loan followed by 50 apps in the Irish Premier League with St Patrick Athletic before dropping into “The Leinster Senior League” to play what I can only assume is pub football, before now plying his trade with La Nucia in the Spanish “Segunda Division B” (Third Tier).

2 Likes
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He was a strange one, was very poor for us which made me wonder how he was on the Villa books. I know players develop at different ages, but no way did he look like he could be good enough at Championship or Premier level, didn’t even look competent in League One.
For a loan from a big club it was disappointing.

14

I used to live in Stevenage many years ago. When I couldn’t get to a saddlers game for some reason I used to go and watch them in the conference if they were at home. I remember Barry Hales knocking them in for fun (73 goals in 154 appearances.) He later won 2 promotions with Fulham and played for them in the premier league.
He’s still playing now at 48 for Merstham in the Isthmian premier as player/manager.

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I live not far from Stevenage and so nice and easy for me to get to and from, under normal circumstances…

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Wasn’t there some of their little ■■■■■ supporters trying to cause trouble last season

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Not nice Robbie…it was a lovely goal.

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I’ve seen BD had some coaching jobs, so maybe it won’t be that bad. But this game score draw and maybe one goal from the attacking set piece. No, that was in the last game, so at least one goal, no matter how.

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The match there last season was postponed because of the weather, just before lockdown 1.
The rearranged match was never played, as the season was then cancelled.

I recall the Cheltenham fans acting like ■■■■■ after the match there last season.

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That’s my bad then sorry , I had it in my head it was Stevenage . :man_facepalming: