W 1-0 vs Tranmere Rovers (H) - League Two - Sat 12th Feb, 3pm

Dont worry you will do us 3 or 4 nil

I think it’s worth continuing with the 3-5-2, if only because we have 3 centre backs and no midfield.

Rushworth
Mayo Daniel Monthe
White Kinsella Earing Bates Devine
Wilkinson or Rodney Miller

Walsall to win 2-1 with a Bates double!

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I think we have a case for calling the game off, due to having only a couple of players actually capable of playing football :joy: :wink:

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I don’t know what will happen, or what will be the effect of the last sacking, but I hope it will be injury free game, with maybe some reason to smile after the final whistle.

I will take a scrappy 1-0 win, not bothered about the performance. Got a feeling we are in for a heavy defeat though

Eternal optimist.

Even though we have lost 7 on the trot, we haven’t exactly been caned in any of them. The problem is one of attitude and heads being in the right places in the crucial areas.

Not counting the one against Bradford which he knew sod all about (it would have been Mills’ goal if it had gone in off a defender’s backside rather than his), Miller hasn’t scored since the old King died. In other circumstances he almost certainly would have scored a few more though - he absolutely spaffed his “unmissable” early chance against Bradford, was thwarted by an unbelievable goal line clearance at Mansfield, and hit the bar at Scunthorpe. If any of those had gone in we might not be in quite the position we now find ourselves. Those misses can play on a striker’s mind and cause them to snatch at chances or try too hard and prolong the barren spell, so he needs to clear all of that out of his head and play like he did when he first arrived.

Similarly at the other end - the farcical own goal at Stevenage, Daniels attempted header back at Bristol Rovers, and Mills’ unfathomable handball (was he fouled or did he just lose the plot?) to give Bradford a win they didn’t deserve. Defenders start getting anxious about making mistakes which usually leads to them making more - and so the cycle continues.

And when it’s all going wrong at the front and back at the same time, the whole team get the bug and so we end up on a losing streak - and as you make your own luck, ours turns bad and nothing goes our way until we can break the cycle.

The good news is that Labadie is out so Kinsella should not only start but be captain. You know he isn’t going to let us down in terms of work rate and commitment - which will hopefully drive others on too. Maybe a pairing with another “one of our own” in Bates or Perry (who should both be raring to show everyone that MT was wrong not to use them more).

Monthe is back after missing most of the losing run so far, and therefore should also have a spur to show it was his absence that was the problem. Hopefully Daniels and Devine haven’t been here long enough to fully catch the defeatism - and Rodney too if he’s had a miraculous recovery of his long term injury since Tuesday night.

Even though they are doing well at the moment, Tranmere aren’t Man City in term of quality, just a team of L2 players the same as us. And we all know that (apart from FGR by the look of it) on the day any team in this league can be beaten by any other, regardless of form.

The bookies and fan mood might say easy Tranmere win, but if the players can go into it with their heads straight (and our fans get behind them from the off, leaving the protests for the main entrance before and after not during) they might not only begin to believe they can win it but actually do so.

Nurse - have you got my pills?

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7-0 Walsall. Leigh Pomlett and Stefan Gamble dance the fandango before kickoff. Half time entertainment is much more popular as Swifty plays a live version of Whack-a-Mole with grenades, leaving large holes in the pitch which crock all the Tranmere players leaving Miller with an open goal for the last five minutes of an unprecedented 25 minutes of injury time during which time all our goals are scored.

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9-0 Walsall. Pomlett and Gamble to convert to Enlil, the Sumerian god of storms and beloved in Nippur.

An on field human sacrifice (Dan Mole) to pave the way for an electric storm of monumental proportions, knocking out the grid for 17 square miles. In the confusion, the novice Tranmere keeper spills the ball into the net and the ref blows for full time just as a giant cat bites his head clean off - it was looking for Kurt Zouma and got blown off course in the maelstrom.

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It makes a lot of sense what you have written, I was thinking along the same lines but couldn’t articulate it as well as you have.

The day we go into any League 2 game thinking we don’t have any chance at all is the day we probably don’t belong here anymore. I don’t believe that, just yet anyway.

I have mentioned it in other posts and you have pointed it out too. We aren’t getting smashed every week, we are almost finding ways to lose. I’m not trying to make excuses, you generally get what you deserve in football in the end but we could sure do with a bit of the rub of the green in key moments in games. If we could only improve at defending set pieces we would surely pick up more (some) points.

I know some people are concerned about the protest filtering into the ground. Again everyone involved with ISSA urges everyone to be fully behind the team once in the stadium. It is possible it could have a positive affect. From reading social media posts there are quite a few coming that wouldn’t have gone to the game if it wasn’t for the protest, some travelling distance to get here. Hopefully the adrenaline will enter the ground in a positive way. Of course if we go a goal down early it can change quickly but that would likely happen regardless.

Tranmere are bringing a good following which always improves the atmosphere, If we can stay in the game there is no reason at all we can’t get a positive result.

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In Dean Smith’s third season here it started quite well then we went on an awful run I think it was 13 winless games then got a lucky 1-0 win I think against Stevenage and won the following five games I know it was a good squad of players but when confidence is low nothing seems to go right

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Now is the time to show our support for the team. There will be over 1500 Tranmere fans there who will be loud and supportive of their team - we need to be the same. We should have more than enough on the pitch to give them a game. It needs to be a team effort: fans, coaches, players if we are to get out of this mess.

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At last another Optimist, there are not many on here.

You post is spot on Andy, that’s exactly what’s happening. I know people complain about the players but in my eyes they are mostly doing the best they can with the ability they have, which should be plenty good enough for this league.

Most of our problems are individual mistakes which you have explained clearly and they need to keep their heads up and stay confident and the results will come.

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I agree entirely.

The problem is that part of that collective , I.e us lot, have done most of the heavy lifting. Especially in terms of having renewed hope constantly dashed by the same people making the same mistakes.

If I could see this as a moment in time that if we could just get through together because there is a visible and transparent “other side” then it would definitely worth that one big collective push. But the malaise and rot is so imbedded that even if we can climb this mountain, we will be looking at another one right in front of us with all the usual people doing the usual things that make the ascent nigh on impossible.

So third bottom of the fourth division might be a “phew” moment and one of huge relief but with season ticket sales set to plummet, those mountains get bigger and bigger. The managers move on, the players move on - often barely concealing their delight to be out of the place, the same men on the board continue their delusion - so it falls to us lot - it always falls to us lot and as the load gets heavier then so “us lot” become “us few” and fewer and fewer.

Anyway - still haven’t made my mind up yet. The match, the march - might be at one, both or neither.

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And that in a nutshell is why they’ve got to go.

Walsall FC with this board, in footballing terms, and in terms of what Walsall FC should be, is literally pointless. There’s no coming back for this regime from the events of the last few weeks in my opinion, its now surely just a case of when and how they are replaced. If that means a few years of pain then so be it, but relatively short term pain with a visible better end is preferable to a slow, pitiful demise.

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Has anyone heard from @hkpete ? he hasn’t posted for a while, unless i have missed it?

Not going to this one - respect to all who do and those who march.
The best I can hope for is nil nil and if we are to achieve the giddy heights of nil goals against then our setup will probably have to be something like 10 - 0 - 0.
Might as well go for that as we haven’t got any strikers anyway.

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So Ladabie is doing his best?

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Normally you would be looking for the new manager effect, but nothing has changed so i am expecting more of the same, unless the rumours were true and the players didn’t want to play for MT? in which case we will be able to see it in their performance and attitude.

Cheer up old chap. You are still a youngish man and have a lot of life yet.Walsall FC will survive and will no doubt prosper sometime in the future. My time will be shorter I expect and I might not see that so for me this is it but I am not giving up. I still enjoy meeting old friends and new at matches and I will carry on doing that as long as I can.
I feel the same frustrations as many on here and understand the motivation behind the protest but unless we can attract a multi millionaire to take us over I cannot see a quick fix.

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We just need people who do things better. I get fed up of hearing about good intentions to be honest. Good intentions won’t fix this. We still have a top ten playing budget at this level so we should not be failing this hard consistently.

There are some great examples of clubs that have had success without a bucket load of money.

Having some investment would be great, not having to pay the rent and being free would be even better but it should not be an excuse for failure of this magnitude.

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