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Southend - Sat 13h August (h)

Reports and reaction from the 2005-06 season as Walsall finished 24th (R) in League 1
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Stu
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Sat Aug 13, 2005 6:34 pm

Don't really blame Westwood for either. Up to their first goal, Benno had been marking Gray at all set pieces, so you'd presume it was his man. After Staunton came on, he started marking Gray and then Goater when Gray went wide, so it was Staunton's man for the 2nd goal. Thought Westwood had a reasonable game, ultimately his man (Eastwood)didn't really cause serious problems.

I am actually, much to my surprise, inclined to think that I'd like to seeWestwood and Roper as I think we miss Roper's aerial presence personally.

Overall, we are a defensive shambles still. 5 goals in 3 matches is poor, and every single goal has come from a cross into the box. Somebody isn't doing their job at the back.

Paul Smith will be a good signing, but Merse made a mistake playing him as he clearly wasn't anywhere near match fit. We missed Osborn terribly.

I still don't think we're suited to 4-4-2 as we just don't have an option out on the left, Wrack needs a rocket up his backside.

On one hand, we've not really played well yet and taken 7pts. On the other hand, we've had to rely on a 93rd minute winner, a dodgy penalty and red card and then thrown away 2pts today.

All depends how you look at it.

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Sat Aug 13, 2005 6:46 pm

EVO wrote:
AC_Loyalist wrote:2-2


Top pick AC. Whats tonights lottery numbers?


I was just about to tell you but i realised it's been drawn... maybe next week!

What can i say... the voices in my head happened to be right 8)

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Whitti Steve
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Sat Aug 13, 2005 7:03 pm

It hasn't been drawn yet - I am telling you now - the first number out tonight will be 26. Trust me on this.

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ToeJoe Jnr
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Sat Aug 13, 2005 7:23 pm

Today was simply a case of we lost out in midfield. Out of the 4 that started the only one with any excuse is Paul Smith as he has pretty muched missed a pre-season. Can't quite understand why we picked him though, Ozzie should have started with Smith coming on for him. I thought Taylor was very poor today. He played 90 mins as if he was on a booking. No harassing and he hid a lot from the ball, which is something we didn't need when playing with 4 accross the middle. Better today from Wrack, but nowhere near what he can do, and Wright, well why did we have to wait until the 92nd minute for him to put a decent cross in? People say we need a left sided winger, I think we should add a right sided one to the list as well. Neither wingers gave us much today, and with the weather as it was we should have had the ball down attacking from the wings.

7 points from 9 we would have taken before the season statred, I guess the dissapointing thing is we didn't expect to drop the 2 points against Southend. Credit to them, I thought they looked a good side who caused us no end of problems. We all knew the threat of Eastwood, but their number 10 caused us a lot of problems and worked hard. I thin they will easily stay up.

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Whitti Steve
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Sat Aug 13, 2005 7:31 pm

aldridge steve wrote:It hasn't been drawn yet - I am telling you now - the first number out tonight will be 26. Trust me on this.


Thunderball just been drawn - first number - 26!

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shrewsbury saddler
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Sat Aug 13, 2005 7:45 pm

They're a young team who will learn a lot quickly because we have the experienced players to teach them.Within five minutes on the pitch I could see why Merson was so anxious to sign Staunton-looks a brilliant organiser.The criticism of Wrack I agree with-we desparately need a wide left-sided midfield player;and Wright needs to learn that he doesn't have to beat 3 men every time he gets the ball.I thought Merson's comments about the team needing to learn to stifle a game when they're ahead were spot on-but learn they will.we're unbeaten and top of the league ,and I can only see the squad improving.Cause for optimism,I think.

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Sat Aug 13, 2005 7:56 pm

A bit of a disappointing result but I'm sure we'd all have taken 7 points from 3 games and being top of the league at this stage!

Merson made his first significant mistake of the season in leaving out Osborn. He's a class above our other midfielders (and other teams' midfielders) and has been at the heart of our long unbeaten run. We were an incomparably better side when he came on. I hope we'll not be seeing a midfield pair of Taylor and Smith very often; one of those two alongside Osborn would be my choice if we're playing two in the middle.

The wingers were a let down again - playing Wrack means we're playing virtually with ten men, such is his lack of contribution so far this season (and the last couple of months of the last one). Wright turns on and off and today he was more off than on, but still does some good work. Both strikers looked sharp, both scored - has to be a good sign. With a decent midfield behind them we'd have had a hatful today.

Despite all the criticism, I thought we defended all right. The goals were disappointing ones to concede and it's something we clearly need to work on but I think we'll get there. Westwood looked a bit shaky to me again (as he did on Tuesday) but he's commanding and powerful and does far more good than bad. Bennett was good again and Staunton's pass for our free kick was world class - I'm not sure how often he'll start but he looked excellent to me and a good asset to the team.

A lot of negative thoughts from people, and we're top of the league! This shows just how far we've come in a short space of time that expectations have been raised so high. But if we're going to sustain a promotion challenge, we need to do better - we won't get away with being as poor as we were in the first half today very often and only go into half time one goal down. Southend looked good, but we allowed them to. Must get better - and we did (again) in the second half.

Lesson learned today - Osborn must play.

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shrewsbury saddler
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Sat Aug 13, 2005 8:04 pm

remember,Osbourne wasn't dropped,he was rested.Merson thought three games in a week may have been too much for him and he could have been right.how do we know Osbourne would have been so effective if he'd played a full game?By playing him sparingly,Merson may be agreeing with you-we need to make sure he's an influence throughout the season.If i have to be critical it seems Paul Smith's fitness levels were overestimated.

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Sat Aug 13, 2005 8:12 pm

Because it's only the first week of the season. I'd rather he'd played the first 60 minutes than the last 30 (or whatever it was). Smith patently wasn't match fit. I thought he had some good touches but he needs some reserve games under his belt (and fewer burgers under there, by the looks of things)

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shrewsbury saddler
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Sat Aug 13, 2005 8:16 pm

Bristol.I think I must have edited your post at the same time you posted. can youread my edited post?you must have had an awful trip up from Bristol-I know it was bad enough from Shrewsbury with the rain.

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shrewsbury saddler
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Sat Aug 13, 2005 8:21 pm

Sorry.that should have read MY post

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Neil Ravenscroft
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Sat Aug 13, 2005 9:10 pm

Surely the point about "resting" Ossie was, if he felt it necessary, there was a ready made replacement - Kinsella. Why pick a bloke who's had no pre season, is just recovering from injury and patently isn't match fit. Bewildering, that one. First time I've ever seen us play with a wheelie bin in central midfield.

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shrewsbury saddler
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Sat Aug 13, 2005 9:20 pm

Neil,I agree.playing Paul Smith from the start was a mistake and Kinsella would have been a better bet.Smith did show some potential in the first half,putting in some good tackles.i still maintain that we're going to need Ossie in the dark days of winter,and preserving him now was a good move.

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Sat Aug 13, 2005 10:16 pm

Neil Ravenscroft wrote:First time I've ever seen us play with a wheelie bin in central midfield.

Yes - and that wheelie-bin had been our best midfield player (damned with faint praise!) which shows just how poor and ineffective Wright, Taylor and Wrack were!

Our midfield has been the main problem in the early games and pre-season. Wright and Taylor have been only spasmodically involved and Wrack has been dire. Now, on the other hand, if he had been DYER, things might have been different :D - just to echo one of your favourite "hobby horses", Neil - the need for a fast, natural left-footed player to replace Surman.

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Sat Aug 13, 2005 10:36 pm

aldridge steve wrote:
aldridge steve wrote:It hasn't been drawn yet - I am telling you now - the first number out tonight will be 26. Trust me on this.


Thunderball just been drawn - first number - 26!


That doesn't count! :P

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Sat Aug 13, 2005 11:18 pm

A lot of agreement with what has been said above so I'll try to only post what I thought different. Firstly, I don't think our defence has been too bad - Bennett and Osborn, defensive minded players, are for me the two highlights of the season so far. And Oakes has not been called upon to make save after save which shows he is getting some protection. However something is going seriously amiss with our organisation from crosses. I would set Stan some homework and get him to look at the videos of all our goals conceded, work out what's going wrong and what we can do to stop it. We can't afford to keep giving such cheap goals away.

Also I would like to see Kris Taylor given a go in Wracky's role. Part of me thinks pre-season was the time to experiment, not four matches into the new campaign, but then again he can't do much worse than Wrack has so far. Also Taylor can cross a good ball, which will hopefully lead to more goals like the one we saw from Matty today. I'd then put Ossie and Standing (if he's fit) in the middle.

Credit to Southend too - they passed the ball a lot better than I thought they would. Gray and Eastwood (the bloke in the Lower F2G who shouted "feeling lucky, punk" at him gets my vote for funniest comment of the season so far) were sharp and their midfielders were neat and tidy as well.

I was really disappointed with the way we played today, but despite that I'm determined to be optimistic. We're top of the league by a point, unbeaten in 9 and the way the results have gone so far suggests everyone in this league is capable of beating everyone else.

philthesaddler
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Sun Aug 14, 2005 12:00 am

Anonymous wrote:Eastwood (the bloke in the Lower F2G who shouted "feeling lucky, punk" at him gets my vote for funniest comment of the season so far)


You didnt hear my quote to David Johnson against Forest last tuesday obviously:

"Oi, Makosi, fudge off back to Big Brother!" :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

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Neil Ravenscroft
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Sun Aug 14, 2005 8:42 am

Match report is now on line on the front page.

philthesaddler
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Sun Aug 14, 2005 8:56 am

I think we've got the quality to do well in this league, but our consistency is awful. No team can concede two at home to southend, and expect to do well. It's time we started keeping some clean sheets, and consistently playing with urgency upfront, rather than just when we're 1-0 down.

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shrewsbury saddler
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Sun Aug 14, 2005 9:13 am

It's interesting that 3 of the four goals we conceded this week came from crosses from almost exactly the same point on the pitch.

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toffo
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Sun Aug 14, 2005 9:22 am

Both of their goals came from the left side and were crosses that should not have been allowed to come over.
Too much space was allowed to their players, we need to close down faster and harder. Wracky was the main culprit for both goals, if he isnt going to give us much going forward then surely he must defend better. Ive never criticised Wrack before but he looks well off the pace in the first three games.Why not playe Taylor there and Ossie in the Middla with Smith.

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shrewsbury saddler
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Sun Aug 14, 2005 9:26 am

I agree about Wrack's poor defending.The lack of support from the player in front of him makes Fox's performances all the more impressive.

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Sun Aug 14, 2005 9:28 am

I agree, wrack has looked poor, and his tackle that led to their first goal was a ridiculous lunge. Nevertheless, their equaliser wasn't Peads fault, it was westwood. Just seen it on the TV, Westwood got out jumped and out strengthened.

I would play Gerrard and Bennett in the centre of defence. Gerrard was blooming sublime the back end of last season. He'd have been the first name on the team sheet for me!

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toffo
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Sun Aug 14, 2005 9:44 am

westwood might have been outjumped for the second goal but the main problem was still the ease with which the crosses came in. They were playing pretty little passes between themselves before the cross came over, our players Wrack and Fox just did not get a foot in or close them down, call it good play by them if you want but imo it was poor play by us. I thought that we had rectified the problem by getting rid of Ziggy.

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toffo
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Sun Aug 14, 2005 9:45 am

westwood might have been outjumped for the second goal but the main problem was still the ease with which the crosses came in. They were playing pretty little passes between themselves before the cross came over, our players Wrack and Fox just did not get a foot in or close them down, call it good play by them if you want but imo it was poor play by us. I thought that we had rectified the problem by getting rid of Ziggy.

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Neil Ravenscroft
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Sun Aug 14, 2005 10:34 am

I agree, toffo. In fact, you can't blame Westwood completely, both because of that, and the fact hat, having seen the replays on the Championship, Pead was right behind Goater and should have done something to impede his jump as well (I wouldn't expect him to beat him in the air, but he could stop him getting a clean jump). As you say, too many goals from the same area, wide on our left flank.

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Sun Aug 14, 2005 10:45 am

Overall a poor performance today.We only really played for 20 mins again.
After a commanding performance against Forest Westwood was poor..
I think our biggest problem though is the midfield --especially the left side.Surely Merse can see that Wrack is a total passenger although he will probably get 6 in the ratings.We may aswell of played with 10 menJust how badly does he need to play to get dropped?..Kris Taylor was also poor yesterday.
Oakes does not inspire me either.They had 2 real attempts and scored from both with him no where near to both.I doubt he would have saved the effort Jorge had in the last minute.Very poor on crosses.
Still we have played poorly for the vast majority of the opening 3 games and sit top.Let's hope we can start playing as we did at the end of the season.For me though Surman is a big loss.we have very little creativity in midfield.

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Sun Aug 14, 2005 11:31 am

Agree with a lot of what has been said already. Osborne must start and so must Standing as soon as he is fit. My take on this would be to run with the 4-5-1 that has been so successful and have a midfield of Taylor, Osborne, Standing, Smith (when fit) and Wright with Fryatt up front. With Ozzie and Smith (or Kinsella) winning the ball I would tell Standing who can't tackle anyway to play just in front of them and do what he is really good at - running at people and creating chances. With Wright an d Taylor free to exploit space and support Fryatt we would cause havoc. We already have 7 from 9, if we can get the right players on the pitch in the right positions we can win this league !!!

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toffo
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Sun Aug 14, 2005 11:50 am

Whats going on with Ossie. People were qeuing up to slaughter him last season, now after o couple of okaish games hes suddenly the savoir of WFC. Get a grip.

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ToeJoe Jnr
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Sun Aug 14, 2005 12:57 pm

toffo wrote:Whats going on with Ossie. People were qeuing up to slaughter him last season, now after o couple of okaish games hes suddenly the savoir of WFC. Get a grip.


And there would be the flaw in your last comment. I can only presume yesterday was you first game, and you missed the other two and pre-season. Yes a lot of people slaughtered him, but he has been playing well, hence the reason Neil said that he was cheered when he came onto replace Smith. Therefore I would suggest you get a grip.

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