The Official Walsall Match Thread (Sponsored by Chicken Balti Pies "for all your match snack needs") | Page 3 | Vital Football

The Official Walsall Match Thread (Sponsored by Chicken Balti Pies "for all your match snack needs")

So so poor. We looked like the pre Christmas team. All hoofball, second to every ball, let them have way too much space. Same team as at Harrogate and the same conclusions for me. O’Brien adds nothing and Lapslie can’t play wide. Very disappointing. Jury still out on Harris for me. We are a million miles from being able to compete at the top next season.
 
gills69 said:
The stats are saying that we haven't had a shot on target. I'd be more frustrated by that, especially given we started with a, supposedly, 'attacking XI'.
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Thats a worry given the supposed quality we brought in over January.

I still think big question mark on whether Harris is the man for next season. I think he needs a really strong finish this season. Home form is decent since January but ability to win on the road is not yet proven .

Win Tuesday and table will look better but questions for next season remain
 
Yes it was disappointing, but bare in mind their gameplan seemed to stop us playing. In that they succeeded. Before December Walsall would not have needed to stop us playing and 2-0 would have been more comfortable for them.
At the moment we don't need to look like promotion challengers, that's a problem for the coaching staff during the pre season, our objective is to stay in this division, nothing else.
 
Hugely disappointing today for a number of reasons - our lack of threat, a poor referee and a Walsall team as toothless as us being gifted a game by sheer luck.

We draw 0-0 at home to Walsall earlier in the season in the bad old days and I thought that we were the better of two poor sides in a lame game that day. Today looked very little in difference to the game earlier in the season - two shit teams with decent defences, but nothing going forward and it should have ended 0-0, bar for an extraordinarily fluky goal from the Saddlers.

From our point of view, the one positive is that we looked the classier team and clearly have better players than Walsall, but that's a negative too as we should be cashing in on it and we didn't. We actually made some nice moves around the box with quality with people like O'B and Nichols, but when it came to it our final ball or shot were not good enough or luck deserted us. O'B made a great chance on the edge of the box, got a good shot off, but it was deflected over - that was literally the only difference between the teams as when Walsall got a deflection it wickedly went beyond Morris off of Ehmer's arse. There was some talk before about Jefferies being unlucky to be benched, but I think his two shots near the end showed why he was on the bench with our attacking line-up. He had two balls fall perfectly for him on the edge of the box, sat-up beautifully, but he blazed both over - not good enough.

The ref and officials were poor. Nichols was rugby tackled in the first half when through on goal, but it seems the ref and linesman went for the easy and less controversial option of giving the foul against Nichols rather than have to make a red card decision. Hawkins was buffeted and man-handled all game and didn't get a foul until the 86th minute, but was penalised pretty much every time we got a ball in the box.

All in, a really frustrating day at the office and a thoroughly undeserved win for Walsall - we deserved nothing more than a point, but neither did Walsall.
 
markinkent said:
Thats a worry given the supposed quality we brought in over January.

I still think big question mark on whether Harris is the man for next season. I think he needs a really strong finish this season. Home form is decent since January but ability to win on the road is not yet proven .

Win Tuesday and table will look better but questions for next season remain
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No question mark, GBN tells us daily Harris is the man.
 
markinkent said:
Spot on. He needs to contribute with goals or assists soon - hasnt so far.

We are desperate for pace and width.
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Some of us were criticised for our disappointment at the transfer window and in particularly the lack of a pacey forward being added. I think that's coming back to bite us on the bum now.
 
Lark said:
O’Brien for all his technical skills still hasn’t scored a goal yet, I wouldn’t necessarily be rushing to offer him a deal in the summer if we can get someone more productive in.
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He's clearly a quality player, but for me, he too often slows everything down when he gets the ball.
 
markinkent said:
Spot on. He needs to contribute with goals or assists soon - hasnt so far.

We are desperate for pace and width.
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That's what makes leaving out Jefferies and MacDonald more puzzling. Leave one out fine but both?
I was genuinely surprised by the team selection. I of course hoped it would work.But the balance looks absolutely ambitious especially away from home .Basically NH appears to have depended on Tutonda and Alexander to cover the whole pitch.
 
SteveTreacle said:
He's clearly a quality player, but for me, he too often slows everything down when he gets the ball.
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He's been playing in the number 10 position which is Lapslie's best position, and Lapslie has been shunted out wide where he's been less effective.
In wide areas Macdonald for his assists or Jeffries for his driving runs have been better, but both on the bench today.
Think Harris got the team selection wrong, hope he doesn't persist with this lineup and formation.
 
NathanH_GFC said:
No question mark, GBN tells us daily Harris is the man.
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Not if there is better out there, and a definite plan to back his replacement. It is BG's call.

NH admitted in KOL this week that the new owner could have decided to replace him, so he is under no illusions.

Maybe there is someone else that would work well with Jackett, but otherwise it does seem a bit weird to have recruited KJ if NH is not going to be the one to tell him the players he wants for next season and his plans for them. BG will need advice before making decisions in the early days, so who else will he turn to on the football front?

Disappointing today but consistency comes with games playing together, and we have to remember that players are still being integrated, with some (Dieng, Nichols, Lapslie and O'Brien) still building up to peak fitness having been left out by their previous teams.. Maybe I have lower expectations but the run of 19 points from 8 games, and 5 of the last 6 home games won makes me more accepting of the odd bad performance.
 
Am I the only one not being negative about todays game?
Yes it’s not the result we wanted but went behind to a freak goal and conceded the second whilst chasing the equaliser, it just didn’t drop for us today, decisions most certainly didn’t go our way and we created enough to have scored a couple of goals but it just wasn’t to be.

Onwards and upwards to Tuesday.
 
Well I watched the game and Walsall were there for the taking. The official stats were that we had more possession than them, more shots than them, but of the 13 shots we had none were on target!
The amount of times we had a shot and it went sailing over the bar was so frustrating. Must do better in front of goal.
 
SteveTreacle said:
Hugely disappointing today for a number of reasons - our lack of threat, a poor referee and a Walsall team as toothless as us being gifted a game by sheer luck.

We draw 0-0 at home to Walsall earlier in the season in the bad old days and I thought that we were the better of two poor sides in a lame game that day. Today looked very little in difference to the game earlier in the season - two shit teams with decent defences, but nothing going forward and it should have ended 0-0, bar for an extraordinarily fluky goal from the Saddlers.

From our point of view, the one positive is that we looked the classier team and clearly have better players than Walsall, but that's a negative too as we should be cashing in on it and we didn't. We actually made some nice moves around the box with quality with people like O'B and Nichols, but when it came to it our final ball or shot were not good enough or luck deserted us. O'B made a great chance on the edge of the box, got a good shot off, but it was deflected over - that was literally the only difference between the teams as when Walsall got a deflection it wickedly went beyond Morris off of Ehmer's arse. There was some talk before about Jefferies being unlucky to be benched, but I think his two shots near the end showed why he was on the bench with our attacking line-up. He had two balls fall perfectly for him on the edge of the box, sat-up beautifully, but he blazed both over - not good enough.

The ref and officials were poor. Nichols was rugby tackled in the first half when through on goal, but it seems the ref and linesman went for the easy and less controversial option of giving the foul against Nichols rather than have to make a red card decision. Hawkins was buffeted and man-handled all game and didn't get a foul until the 86th minute, but was penalised pretty much every time we got a ball in the box.

All in, a really frustrating day at the office and a thoroughly undeserved win for Walsall - we deserved nothing more than a point, but neither did Walsall.
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There should be an official enquiry by the EFL regarding referees consistently being biased against us. Almost every match they make sure we don't win and give virtually every decision against us. They are clearly under instructions. It is so unfair.

I hear it's the same for Millwall when I talk to them.
 
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