W 4-0 vs Hartlepool United (H) - League Two - Sat 30th July, 3pm

The start of the new Glory Years? :slightly_smiling_face:

Can’t say I’m unhappy with that as a start. Still plenty of time for it all to unravel!

Just kidding. Well done the lads. :smiley:

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Hi Mods…. just a note that someone has obviously hacked Jeffsmate123’s account.

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DJ’s debut hat trick

Saddlers’ fans in shock after 4-0 opening day win.

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Great team performance and could have been more, I was enjoying a pint in railway and said to my lad and bro in law a Walsall win with DJ to score is 4/1, I waited for the line ups and lumped a score on it.
Every man knew their job and carried it out to perfection, our defence didn’t look full of pace but Hartlepool never got a look in, Kins and Comley played well together which seen kins a little higher up the pitch.

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Hartlepool remninded me of us under Taylor. They tried to knock it around in their own half ultimately going nowhere, then a big hoof up the middle hoping their no.9 would get on the end of it. What was so impressive from us was when we pressed them we didn’t even give them opportunity to lump it forward. Cant remember the last time we won the ball in the opposition half so frequently.

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Really looking forward to our post match debrief today. Thought we were absolutely outstanding. I know it’s not sexy but our shape and pressing out of possession was a joy to watch and laid the foundations of all the good attacking play on the ball.

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Note of caution - hope we aren’t a single tactic team that gets found out…

Tbf before i dont think we are a single tactic team, we played short sweet flowing football played it long when needed played down then center and used our width. Dont look like there will be any definitive style to our play just hard work on and off the ball.

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Another pleasing aspect of yesterday was the performance allowed us to give minutes to fringe players Timmy and the kid from Stoke and minutes to Earing and Bennett as they play catch up from knocks nice to see Maher get his debut too
The injured players and the soon to return Reilly will push the first eleven to keep performing

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Kinsella looked even better yesterday with some decent support around him.

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Anyone notice the Knee was not taken before KO?

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I didn’t.notice tbh. I Wonder if that’s been punted for the new season across the board?

The only thing I noticed being taken on the pitch, was the piss :smile:

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Speaking of which - nice to smell fresh paint in the gents instead of fresh piss…….

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What about the routine at the corner for the first goal? Hutchinson feigned a bit of frustration at being replaced as the taker, and pretended to amble back towards the box. He then suddenly turned back towards the by line, leaving his marker stranded and creating space for the cross.
There was another different routine in the second half that nearly came off too. Also wasn’t it great to see Manny pushed up front a bit more at set pieces- last season there was no way he’d have been that far up the pitch to lay on the 4th goal.

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We are noticeably a very tall team, I hope to see a lot more goals from set pieces this season. The back three just looked immense and the recovery tackle from Monthe in the first half was first class

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Next couple of games will be interesting.

Newport scored the most L2 goal of the day yesterday at Sutton (new away end), and I think Stevenage could be a dark horse under Evans.

Another thing I noticed yesterday was how the level of Monthe and White has gone up a notch with what looked yesterday like much better players around them.Kinsella always does what Kinsella does but he was also marauding forwards at times it was really good to see and they were all really enjoying their jobs you could see it on their faces and the freedom they played with.

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Bit of analysis on the 4 goals, none of which were stunners, but they were all different and of types we’ve seen too little of over the past few years:

  1. A training ground routine from a corner (not the only one tried yesterday). It did break down but then fell to a midfielder coming onto the clearance and able to hit it first time rather than mis-trap it/deciding to go sideways or backwards.

  2. Defending a Hartlepool attack, a defensive clearance finds one of our own players rather than theirs and suddenly we’re counterattacking with pace and options in front of the ball carrier so no need for them to slow things down to allow support to arrive or have to go it alone.

  3. An attack breaks down and Hartlepool have a chance of a counter - but instead of those in front of the ball shrugging their shoulders and trotting back, or those behind it parting like the Red Sea, we went hunting the ball down in packs, won it back, and went straight back on the attack rarher than the usual ā€œcalm it down a bitā€. Passing was crisp and incise, only 1-2 touches, nobody trying to beat the same man 3 times, the cross comes in first time and isn’t over/under hit into the box where there is more than 1 player waiting for it, and others in the right positions to pick up any panicked clearance (see goal 1).

  4. Another dead ball training ground routine, this time a free kick to the back post (again not the only one during the game). It doesnt sail straight out but finds one of our big men from the back who wins the header and simply puts the ball into a danger area, leaving it up to a forward to have got themselves into the right place to be able to take advantage.

There were also several other near misses, and passages of play showing some good movement and passing (and all at pace, not this pussyfooting around we’ve become used to).

As I say, all bog standard really, but all sorely missing from our game play in recent years.

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Did you notice, after that routine, the players ran to the bench applauding the management team. Straight off the training ground.

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