The Walsall Low Down | Vital Football

The Walsall Low Down

PompeyFrippy

PompeyFrippy

Vital 1st Team Regular
OPPONENTS: Walsall Football Club
MANAGER: Jon Whitney
NICKNAME: The Saddlers
LEAGUE POSITION: 12th

THE JOURNEY: Bescot Stadium to Fratton Park - 170 miles - about 3 hours.

LAST TIME OUT:
* Pompey fell to their first league defeat since March 18th at Oxford last Saturday. Three second half goals after Pitman's first half header was ruled out saw Pompey's first away game in League one end in defeat. Also, Pompey drew 3-3 then lost on penalties to Fulham U21s in the Checkatrade trophy, but who cares.
* Walsall on the other hand gained their first win of the season against Oldham. The Saddlers trailed 1-0 at the break but goals from Joe Edwards and a 90th minute winner from Erhun Oztumer gave them a 2-1 win in front of their own fans.

POMPEY STATS:
* Pompey's defeat last Saturday was their first defeat in the league in 10 games. Pompey's 5 wins in a row had not been done since March 2014. 6 wins in a row has not been achieved since 2002.
* Portsmouth have failed to score in their last 5 defeats. The last time they netted in a game they lost was Kal Naismith's goal against then league leaders Doncaster in January.
* The Blues have only lost once at home since January this year. That loss is the now infamous defeat to Crewe where Pompey failed to muster a single attempt on target, a game which many consider to be a turning point last season.
* Pompey have won 6 of their last 7 league games at Fratton Park, scoring 20 goals and conceding just 5. Portsmouth have not conceded more than 1 goal at Fratton Park since November 2016 (2-1 defeat to Stevenage)
* Top Scorer: Pitman (2)

Walsall STATS:
* Walsall had only tasted victory once in 10 league games prior to last weekend's win against Oldham.
* In their last 10 away games they have only scored more than once on 1 occasion, and have failed to find the net in 6 of these.
* The Saddlers have not tasted victory on the road since Boxing Day 2016 (a 1-0 win at Port Vale), a run of 12 games without a win.
* Last season, Walsall gave away less free kicks than anyone else in the League (412), including 7 spot kicks.
* Top Scorers: Joe Edwards & Erhun Oztumer (1)

HEAD TO HEAD (Courtesy of Pompeyrama.com):
* In their 25 previous meetings Pompey currently have the upper hand having won 10 to Walsall's 7 (with 8 draws)
* These sides met in League One in the 12/13 season as Pompey parachuted through the football league. Walsall won both meetings, 1-0 at the Bescot and 2-1 at Fratton Park with Izale McLeod scoring a late consolation.
* Portsmouth's last success against Walsall came in the promotion winning season of 2002/03 when they done the double over them. Pompey won 3-2 at Fratton thanks to goals from Quashie, Taylor and Todorov, and won 2-1 at Bescot Stadium thanks to goals from Harper and Todorov.

PLAYED FOR US/PLAYED FOR THEM/SCUMMER WATCH
* Florent Cuvelier: Might ring a few bells for some, the Belgian midfielder was just 16 when he joined Portsmouth's youth set-up and featured in a couple of pre-season games in 2009, but never made a first team appearance.
* Milan Lalkovic: Spent a season at Walsall before moving to Portsmouth with reasonable success. He started 40 games that in the 15/16 season scoring 7 times.

ONE TO WATCH:
* Erhun Oztumer: The London born midfielder of Cypriot/Turkish decent hit the ground running at Walsall last season. He played in Turkey until 2012 when he joined Isthmian Leauge Dulwich Hamlet, scoring over 60 goals in two seasons. Despite playing in midfield, he was Walsall's top scorer last season with 15 goals, and although he poses no threat aerially he is quick and is not afraid to dribble past players.

PREDICTION:
* Walsall's away record makes good reading for Pompey, who need to pick themselves up after last Saturday's defeat. An early goal will settle all nerves and hopefully see Pompey grab 3 points to keep them in the right half of the table. 3-1 for me, a brace from Pitman (one from the spot) and a Bennett special.

NEXT 5 GAMES:
Sat 26 Aug - Wigan Athletic (A) - League One
Sun 3rd Sep - Rotherham (H) - League One
Sat 9th Sep - Wimbledon (A) - League One
Tue 12th Sep - Northampton (A) - League One
Sat 16th Sep - Fleetwood (H) - League One

PUP
 
The Football League have now announced the Match Day officials that will take charge of the game between Portsmouth and Walsall this Saturday.


<br><br><a href ="http://www.vitalfootball.co.uk/router.asp?584285">Click here to read the article</a><br><br>
 
Nicely done Frippy, as always.

Home form will be crucial to Pompey this season. We showed glimpses of what we could do against Rochdale at Fratton Park and again in the games to follow - a reaction to the Oxford defeat is important.

A win will almost certainly be anticipated from the Fratton faithful but we shouldn't assume it'll be the case.

However, I think, as you said Frippy, if we can score and early goal to settle things down it'll help with a Pompey win. Being ahead will always allow us to play to our strengths as the more teams come onto us to try and level - if we defend well - it'll give scope for us to catch them on the break with our firepower and speed on the counter.
 
Walsall's away record makes good reading for Pompey, who need to pick themselves up after last Saturday's defeat at Oxford.


<br><br><a href ="http://www.vitalfootball.co.uk/router.asp?584305">Click here to read the article</a><br><br>
 
The 2017-18 season continues with the latest round of games this weekend, 19th August.


<br><br><a href ="http://www.vitalfootball.co.uk/router.asp?584356">Click here to read the article</a><br><br>
 
Was an early start, shattered too, but it's looking set to be a decent afternoon - let's hope the footie can match it.

Still undecided on result at the moment but go a bit of time before kick off to ponder as I continue my travels.
 
Pompey are at Fratton Park with Walsall the visitors today, this will be a 3pm kick-off.


<br><br><a href ="http://www.vitalfootball.co.uk/router.asp?584343">Click here to read the article</a><br><br>
 
Pompey are at Fratton Park with Walsall the visitors for the latest League 1 game.


<br><br><a href ="http://www.vitalfootball.co.uk/router.asp?584401">Click here to read the article</a><br><br>
 
All the stats from Portsmouth (1) vs (1) Walsall, Fratton Park, 19/8/17 Att: 17,198


<br><br><a href ="http://www.vitalfootball.co.uk/router.asp?584407">Click here to read the article</a><br><br>
 
Another performance that clearly show we're a side in transition. MORE needs to be shown in the attacking third as we've clearly got players who can cause problems and will score goals.

Looking forward to Lowe's return as he's been impressive out wide so far. Didn't see nearly enough from Lalkovic on Saturday, in fairness his first game back, or Naismith.
 
Poor performance. Early days I know, and we did well to salvage a point, but I genuinely haven't seen us play 'well' yet or walked away having enjoyed watching our football. Again, injuries have hampered things, but Jackett needs to start settling on a team and a style of football. All I've seen so far is long-ball and the centre-halves hoofing it forwards, rather than trying to play through midfield.

If we are going to play route-one, then we need to have more physical presence in attack. I was expecting Chaplin to come on and for us to continue to lose the ball up front, but fair play to KJ for bringing on Main & Kabamba who both livened things up and allowed Pitman to start influencing the game - rather than chasing lost causes.

Walsall's goal is all the evidence you need as to why Cook didn't use Lalkovic last year. Haunstrup defended reasonably well but Lalkovic's work rate was shocking and when he should have been tracking his man to prevent the cross, he stood-still. Not ideal when it is tough enough for a young lad, without not getting any help from the winger in front of you.

Not enough bite in midfield still and I'm not sure whether Donohue is the type of player to bring that to the table. From his interviews he was saying he's attack minded and likes to get forward. Is that what we need right now? Enough quality in our attacking options, it's just not clicking yet. Doesn't help that they never seem to be receiving the ball into feet.

Like Rug, looking forward to getting Lowe back into the side. Naismith doesn't seem to know what his role in the side is and I don't think Evans is effective enough as a winger. Would prefer to see him at right-back, to be honest.

God help us against Cookie's Wigan. Don't think we'll get anything from that game, but maybe we'll go and put men behind the ball in the hope of a point. We know that's something that he struggles against so it's a viable option because there is no way in hell that we're going to take them on and beat them, based on performances so far.
 
A point is a point, but again there was a lack of encouragement from the performance.

Without going too much into it, the last 20 minutes of the first half was about as bad a football match I've seen. Neither team could string more than 3 passes together and I don't think the ball left the middle third.

Their goal was well worked but as FB said questions to be asked about the covering players. Questions to be asked about a few to be honest. The squad is stretched and we're having to rely on players that would otherwise be on the fringes. Some of these players weren't considered good enough to play in League Two but are getting starts in League One - and to be fair some of them are proving themselves - Talbot being the prime example until his injury.

Kabamba looked a right handful when he came on, and as theatrical as his fall was he did well to win the penalty. Pitman shows exactly how you take a spot kick, but on reflection I think we were lucky to pick up a point. Walsall had 3-4 guild edge chances including one in the dying seconds that would have given them a victory.

I repeat what I've been saying all pre-season, any finish in the top half will be a decent achievement, the quality of opposition has taken a big step up and we really need to strengthen in key areas.

One last word on Pitman, really impressed at his workrate, he seemed to be everywhere, was even making tackles deep in his own half at times. A proper captain, leading by example. Touch wood he keeps fit.
 
I'm not sure why but we haven't started with the attacking 3 of Naismith, Bennett and Baker behind Pitman, this was the threat we had last season and they were really good together in the run in and complemented each others game. I'd like us to give this a chance, I don't think Naismith as a striker works as well as when he comes a from deep and switches position with the others. The down side of this is Pitman plays the number 10 but I would would try him as the no. 9 and see if this gets us a bit more penetration than we have shown so far.
 
The League One season continued with the latest round of games played over the weekend, 19th August.


<br><br><a href ="http://www.vitalfootball.co.uk/router.asp?584424">Click here to read the article</a><br><br>
 
Pompey are still unbeaten at Fratton Park - recovering from the defeat at Oxford - but unlike the Rochdale win we had to settle for a point after a 1-1 draw against Walsall on Saturday.


<br><br><a href ="http://www.vitalfootball.co.uk/router.asp?584453">Click here to read the article</a><br><br>
 
Pompey were once again punished within minutes of the re-start, which happened against Rochdale and Oxford, but hit back to earn a 1-1 draw with Walsall at Fratton Park on Saturday.


<br><br><a href ="http://www.vitalfootball.co.uk/router.asp?584418">Click here to read the article</a><br><br>
 
I'm not convinced Baker is convincing Jackett weller? Am I right in saying he proved, in training drills, tests, etc., Baker was as fit as any player at the club but WILL he offer enough getting around the pitch to justify inclusion?

Admittedly, Naismith and Lalkovic didn't offer much of a threat against Walsall, so would he have offered any less?

Happy to have Lowe coming back.

Spot on re: Pitman though Frippy, competely agree with all said about him and actually said those exact words 'that's how you take a penalty' as I turned to my cousin following it.
 
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