I thought Allen was superb today given his lack of minutes. Some of his passing and deliveries were excellent and played a large part in a positive performance.
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Yes know a guy who had Allen as a Sixteen year old and knows a thing about football said when he signed for us heās a rock solid guy gives 100% and a good signing for us .good squad player and versatile.
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I must admit until today I had more or less forgotten about Allen. He looked pretty good to me (admittedly on iFollow) but maybe he deserves more of a run in the team than he has had at any time since he joined us.
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This guys worked really hard to get were his today no world beater but compared to some of the squad fillers and loans weāve signed in the past Iād take an Allen any day of the week .ps. Iām not his a dad 
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Considered verdict on today:
Absolutely fantastic, weāve got our Walsall back, Sadler is a genius, play-offs here we come,
And to save time, hereās comment on Tuesday v Morecambe:
Pathetic, losing/drawing* (* delete as appropriate) to the likes of Morecambe, Sadler out, Trivela fook off thatās me finished with this load of dogshit worst bunch of spineless, couldnāt care less tossers in my 30/40/50/60* (delete as appropriate) years of following Walsall. Iām off to IKEA/Morrisons/nearest Sex Shop (*delete as appropriate)
16 Likes
No one has mentioned Knowles and his shithousery. Now we have 3 points in the bag it was so funny when he undid the keepers gloves as we were taking a corner. Not just one, but both!! Oh my days.
At the time i was going mental calling him all sorts in case he got sent off and left us a player short. Not seen anything like that for a long time.
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Yeh, saw that and thought it was funny (being that he didnāt get caught).
Was saying hadnāt seen anything that funny in a game since away at brighton in 2002 when Filtz hid the refs red card down his shorts. Heād dropped it, Holdsworth was gone for a foul, he was already walking knowing he was going to be sent off, then when the ref couldnāt find his red card got all flustered and ended up just giving him the yellow to save his own embarrassment only for Fitz to walk up to him 5 mins later and say Iāve just found this ref.
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Nail on the head.
Ability within the squad is there.,
We havenāt just beaten one of the top sides. Weāve done it time and time again. Itās no fluke.
That says to me the ability and quality of the players is not in question.
@Bluejay made a great point about this squads ages profile and Trivellas model.
- Are we lacking a few more Jamille Matt type characters ? (edit are there enough)
- Do we have owners who understand this ?
- Do we have a manager capable of instilling consistency and mainintinh levels
Answer to all 3 of those is No
We could be knocking on the door to get out this league
Instead we are hoping that Sadler is learning and building
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Consistency has been out problem for a number of years. We always show against the so called bigger teams, but always let ourselves down against the smaller teams in the league.
Letās hope the squad can show the same desire and commitment as yesterday.
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I said before during and after the Newport game that he had ten of the side who brilliantly dispatched Wrexham available for that Newport game and yet left three of them on the bench.
Yesterday, Smith, Earing and Matt all started and we were a lot better and won.
Iād love to say that is a manifestation of ālearningā but I canāt. He has favourites both in terms of personnel and system. Personified in Earing. Earing has to start every game he can. Heās the only member of the squad who can play that role and the midfield looks so much more functional when he plays. Yet weāve done absolutely nothing by way of providing cover for him. Itās either Earing or the double shield in Stirk and Comley. And my, does he love that double shield, trying to convert Mcentee was a folly. Given that thre is no sign Earing had an injury, he should have brought him on after about ten minutes last week. He didnāt. Because heās either stubborn or incompetent or a bit of both.
Despite yesterday, Iād still be very happily amazed if we challenged this season. Partly due to the injury list but importantly also partly due to a manager who I reckon has left nine or ten points on the table this season. I just canāt see him/us not leaving more as the season winds down.
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I take the view that yes MS is learning (heās relatively inexperienced) however, relegation is not an issue and although I donāt think we will make the playoffs thereās still an outside chance that we could. That keeps the season alive for me.
I think when he uses words like brilliant after games such as Newport itās bloody irritating because we were actually awful especially in the first half and we only looked better in the second half because Newport had the game wrapped up and simply saw the game out.
Iāve said many times Iām no expert on formations and tactics and wouldnāt pretend to be but for me what Trivela are doing is the right way to go about things.
They have taken the millstone from around our neck by reuniting us with the freehold, they have given us the locker which as the saddlers club stood there as an example of how far we had slipped.
I know fans are desperate for improvement on the pitch (I feel that way too) but it takes time, you donāt build a house from the roof down you build from the foundations up and thatās what Trivela are doing. Thatās my opinion anyway.
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The best managers, as well as players, and in fact the vast majority of successful people will say that they never stop learning.
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Excellent observation from @P.T about who has featured in these good results.
Focusing on the keepers.
His decision to put Evans back in has baffled everyone.
Iād love to know what the players think about the random GK changes ?
Matt has begun to grow on a lot of fans after a poor start. You get the impression heās a big character.
Again, wonder how the players see this.
I do think a change in who runs this team would be perfect now. Imagine the new Manager bounce has in the play offs. This team can play with front foot confidence every week.
First home match without my dad (passed at NY), took my mum (who never goes) & my family. So was an emotional day.
The boys did him & the club proud. Good team performance that, totally rode our luck at times, but the boys wanted it & deserved it after a great second half. I will save repeating a lot of what has been said above, but concur with Matt as captain.
Love people calling for consistency, thatās the whole point of league football really. If you are consistently good or bad, you tend to leave the division. We havenāt been consistently good since Barnsley battered us in the playoffs.
However, today was a great & emotional day.
UTS! Love this club.
40 Likes
I disagree that with those who say that we have a good squad. How many of them would get in the Mansfield team? Two or three, in my opinion.
We won yesterday, and deserved it because Mansfield did not take their chances. But our defence gave Mansfield enough far easier chances to score than they gave Newport last week, for them to be out of sight at half-time.
Two Saturday afternoons. Against Newport we concede from a deflected shot from outside the box, and they then make the most of two half chances, and everyone says it was a terrible performance. Against Mansfield they have at least six clear chances to score, including one that crossed the goal line but was not given, and some people argue that it shows we have a quality squad of players.
1 Like
Whilst Iām not arguing that Earing has done ok, your guilty of forming an argument to suit your own narrative there.
Before yesterday, heād started 5 of the last 6 games weād gone without a win and was accountable at anyone! He was poor against Southampton (forgiven due to the level of oppostion), but he was bloody awful against Stockport and Sutton and wasnāt much better v Gillingham.
When he was left out v Newport (edit) the general consensus agreed it was for his own good in terms of preservation and protection and that it was fully justified. The performance against Newport was in no way down to his absence and he was pretty anonymous again v Crawley midweek and most, again, felt changes needed before they equalised with him being one of the names at the top of the list.
Likewise, our so called only good spell of the season saw a run of 6 wins in 7 games and he didnāt play in 4 of the 6 only appearing firstly for the Wrexham game and then Grimsby.
Heās a good player knits things together and is neat and tidy on the ball, but for me heās not a game changer and as it stands he needs looking after and Sadler resting him was and is fully justified.
In my own opinion heās not undroppable and weāre in no way dependant on him as it stands.
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