W 2-1 vs Notts County (A) - League Two - Sat 9th Dec, 3pm

2-1 away to arrest a slide. Fantastic. Something to build on.

Now let’s build.

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Talking of Building, for those of us who dream of the fine things in life and to drink from the Dickie Dosh cup of promotion the finest APA there is now only 56 points to go

17 wins
5 draws
4 defeats

May seem Mission impossible but hey Stockport ain’t fair off that form , Barrow , yes mighty mighty Barrow have only lost three in twenty one and Mansfield have lost one all season so far.

Strange crap happens in Division 4

I’m a believer

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Typical Walsall to get a win when it was least expected. Like others have said, let’s see where it leads. Totally irrelevant if we go and lose on Tuesday and Saturday.

Need to build some consistency.

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U can see why the players hated Hatswell!

We havent had a decent ‘assistant’ since ROK

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Plenty of positive comments on here during the first half

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A couple of points.

It was good to see they found Jackson Smith a proper goalkeeping kit instead of the No Fo Brew Co training kit he wore on Tuesday.

You could hear the relief in Sadler’s interview. Thought he looked emotional.

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It’s lovely when we win. Weekends so much better.

The Daniels thing worked very well yesterday. Meant we always seemed to have an extra man in the middle of the park and it liberated others to get forward. No coincidence that with Daniels more advanced when we have the ball, that Mcentee had licence to ghost into the box.

I think Tierney going off possibly helped too. The Daniels thing also meant that the “10” could drift which is ideal for Hutch who has been somewhat stymied being stuck out on the left.

Given that he’s a centre back Mcentee is absolutely lost as a four. He’s ten yards more advanced than where his brain tells him he should be which leads to hesitation and poor decision making. But two of our away wins (yesterday and Salford) have happened when he is given licence to get right forward, whether that be wide or through the middle. The responsibility for picking him up will be vague amongst the opposition given that his position is vague and whether that be from set pieces or in open play he can find a yard in an opposition box which is absolutely priceless especially if you have an end product in your locker. In other words, given he’s a centre back by trade, if we’re to insist on him playing further up the pitch then it needs to be in a freer role rather than as a shield for the back four. Now Daniels as shield for the back four looked a lot better.

Trouble is, if we do it again and again, then the opposition will plan for it. Yesterday, there was an element of surprise. “What’s Daniels doing there?”. If he’s “there” all the time then you can plan for it and a Danielsless central defensive partnership looked shakey at times.

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First half I thought we did ok and more or less matched them - booing, and calling for Sadler out during the game when it was playing out like it was was ridiculous. Second half it was one way traffic.

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He did didn’t he?

I felt he crossed a line in the last eight days. There’s a way of protecting your players from negativity without snidey inferences about the fans and the calls for “togetherness” which is always a proxy for “back off”.

The fans have been unbelievable this season given the general level of tosh served up more often than not.

If that was born out of stress and pressure I get it and as a human being, if yesterday relieved some of that then I’m really happy for him.

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I think it will take a few more wins or maybe assent into top 10 to stop the booing and out chants.

People are still sceptical but our fan base is not as negative as its often portrayed, im sure the players will be driven to do well for us after this win.

Or we lose the next two league games and it starts again.

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It was one of the best first halfs I’ve seen from us for a while and all we looked like doing was keeping the score down. That’s how bad we’ve been recently.

Our one shot was Knowles pot shot from the half way line.

It was a hard working half, and to be fair we looked organised but I’m not sure it was a good half.

That said it was a great second half and we won so I’m happy with that game in isolation.

It’s what happens in the next 2 that’ll surely decide what happens to Sadler now.

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Yeah I agree with what you’re saying. I’m certainly not adverse to airing my views at the match towards the players or management, I just feel in the context of the first half performance yesterday it was unwarranted, but not in the context of the season certainly.

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Didn’t say there weren’t Belph, but there is also the view expressed by @bernie that appears to be fairly prevalent too.

I’m not saying that our play didn’t improve after half time, just that we weren’t gash in the first 45 either - especially if you take into account that not only were we playing against a team who have been there or thereabouts most of the season (at their own gaff) but were also playing into a strong wind (and stinging rain) for a good portion of the first half too. We didn’t get the same advantage ourselves on the second (nor County the disadvantage of playing against the storm) so it was then more mano a mano.

Some people also drew comparisons between the first half and Alfreton in terms of it not being a good watch. Can’t disagree in terms of ease on the eye, but some things not in our favour or condusive to playing the sexy football that we all crave in both, so going safety first hoof-it-away was probably the better decision than trying to play it out.

As Sadler says, the team has now put down a marker of what they can do so they need to start replicating it on a more consistent basis.

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Same. I’d desperately like to be wrong about Sadler. If there’s a positive few weeks in which we pull away from the noose, if the yanks financially back their choice in January (when Draper is likely to be recalled) then I’d be comfortable in Sadler being given a full summer to progress next season.

It’s one win though after a dreadful run and dreadful performance against a poor amateur team. The next few games will be telling

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The new Kieron Morris’s mom in the making :rofl:

https://twitter.com/tobihutch10/status/1733545745653875033?t=bV9HAvmhSg0PRZAk_SnQng&s=19

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Im not sure why Draper would be recalled to be honest. He works hard clearly, but his main strength appears to be fouling defenders.

He has lots of potential but needs to learn to be smarter to progress further. That will only come from experience and good coaching i guess.

Hmm! Just realised my last sentence included good coaching … maybe he will be recalled then :wink:

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Talking to a Lincoln fan, with family on the board, who suggested that the plan was to recall and blood from the bench in the second half of the season. Hopefully this isn’t the case but I’d think it would be a good way of developing him for next season.

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As should Smith for their goal IMO.

His Grandad does it on Walsall fans have your say bad idea being a family member of a player and seeing whats posted on there :joy:

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