Sunderland (A) 16th Mar, 3pm

Mine would be Trevor Kettle

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Back in the day joey barton or mark hughes for me, oh and robbie savage :wink:, i walked past him while staying on salford quay’s last year and my brother in law asked me if i got his autograph and i said “what do YOU think” :grin:

https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/teams/walsall/11667698/sunderland-2-1-walsall

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looked like a fantastic effort by the boys :+1: no shame in losing. we won’t come up against quality like that for the remainder of the season, and if we do, and we give the quality of effort we seemed to put into this game, then i think we will get the results we need to stay up, it’s just a pity that we couldn’t put performances like that in against some of the poorer teams that we have played earlier in the season.

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What a great goal by Gordon…plus one or two other good efforts. Their first goal looked a real mess.Anyway as CHUNKSTER says we will be ok.if we play like that.

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We were at our best when we were applying pressure all over the pitch and getting players forward quickly. I don’t think Roberts touched the ball for the first 15 minutes. I am not sure whether trying to park the bus would have worked or not. I was not that impressed with Sunderland especially their defence. We very unlucky not to get a second in the first half. I know that we lost but there was a lot of character and determination out there today … we just need to reproduce this and perhaps get the rub of the green in some of our upcoming crucial games.
I wasn’t that impressed with the Sunderland crowd - 34,000 of them and hardly a song before they went 2-1 up.

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Just back. Great day out. Great support and a super display by the team against a club who’s resources should mean that they should be litterally rather than metaphorically in a different league.

Brilliant by everyone.

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I haven’t seen a post like that after we have lost for a long time thanks :wink:

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How many Saddlers made the trip PT?

647 mate. Noisy too. Great effort. And vast majority gave the lads a deserved ovation at the end.

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Great effort - well done all

Team did well today, but we were always going to come undone, given how the defence were all at sea every Sunderland attack - always a Sunderland player or two unmarked, and that proved to be the case for both of the goals.

Decent performance and we could have escaped with a draw on another day. At times we were pressing them really high and they were struggling to get out of their own half. Blacket and at times Zeli were causing them all sorts of problems. Thought Gordon lead the line well and what a cheeky finish for his goal. We look so much more solid with 3 in the middle and have to stick with this formation. The back 4/5 still worry me. Individually I think they could all do a job in the right team, but collectively here its just not solid enough. Our inability to sign experienced league one players has had the biggest impact here. Shout out to the support today. Great atmosphere in the away end which was maintained right till the end. Enjoyed it despite the result. They were a bloody quiet bunch though. Overall I’m more optimistic we’ll stay up than I was a month ago despite dropping into the bottom 4 today. If… IF we can keep this form up we have a good chance of getting the points we need after this horror run of fixtures. It would be so just us to be crap when we get an easier run of fixtures. UTS.

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Today was a shame.

Excellent first half, not quite so strong in the final third second but that was to be expected given who the opposition were.

In a funny way I’m not too bothered about not getting a point. Correct me if I’m wrong but think Walsall would still be in the bottom 4 with 43 points and as everyone knows these aren’t the games that will relegate the team in May.

Corey Blackett-Taylor was a revelation to me today. Sunderland were scared of him everytime he got the ball and he is real livewire when running, for me he needs to be starting majority of games in run in even if Jarvis gets fit soon.

Gordon was good again and Ismail seemed to turn into Messi for a ten minute spell in the first half, when he beat 2-3 men before shooting at the keeper. In the second half he became more selfish trying to beat too many and his crosses were s*** but that’s Zeli for you.

Have to say Stadium of Light is one of my favourite grounds in UK to watch football in. Loved the buzz pre match, bit disappointing they keep away fans isolated in the upper but still great view and overall they remain a proper football club despite all the turmoil last 10 years. These are the sort of occasions that will be missed (at least by me) in league two.

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Ultimately too much quality in the final third. Grigg hardly did anything all game but it was a good shot in fairness, Wyke’s caused trouble playing for Bradford previously although dosen’t seem to have done much at all for Sunderland and McGeady on 20 grand of course.

Frustrating as the team were looking good for a second at 1 nil and the crowd really would’ve turned at that point as there were plenty of grumbles at stray passes just before they got the equaliser.

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Which looked a silly preventable goal

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Ironically enough he’s put a loss v Peterborough even though they’re in abysmal form and will have nothing to play for by then. They also haven’t won at Bescot for nearly a decade.

Yes I can’t quite see the team winning every single six pointer in the April May run either. Still two wins and a few draws would give the team a fighting chance.

Team did defend in numbers second half, plenty of time wasting at Goal kicks etc.

DK and his in game management…one grumble is I’d have liked to have seen Cookie on at the hour. He was warming up for a good 5-10 minutes and came on as soon as Sunderland scored.

Chasing the game and the aimless long balls started again. I’d like to see 3-4 games of him having two speed merchants either side of him.

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Impossible to tell from 100 yards away really, did seem a bit of a scramble and then the ball bobbled in. Sunderland had another goal from a corner ruled out five minutes before that.

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A good performance but disappointing to move into the bottom 4 . There are 12 worried teams in this league now though. It’s all to play for right til the last day . How good would a win against Barnsley be now . UTS