Merthyr Tydfil (A)- 4/11/2005 F.A. Cup

[TofDover]

2-1 to Walsall trying to work out who the part timers are

[Duke Wayne]

glad thats over full marks to merthyr they made it tough for us
i was expecting staunton to give a penalty away but he made a excellent challange late on
kinsella's goal was a beauty fryatt lead the line superbly all in all good nights work
lets hope for home draw in round 2
mersons apperance on sky pre match interveiw was dreadfull tie undone collar open and
unshaven not a good image for walsall football club

come on chasetown

[shrewsbury saddler]

yes.we won-RELIEF! but was there any time in that match when you could clearly identify the professional team as opposed to the non-leaguers?in the end,it took a dubious penalty(i'd have been furious if it was given against us) and a moment of combined brilliance from Fryatt and Kinsellla.OK people will point to injuries, but that may come down to the culture at this club.A couple of years ago,I can remember an Aussie fast bowler-may have been Brett Lee-saying that he'd found out that even a small amount of alcohol greatly increased your risk of injury.If this squad are "bonding" with Merson.........

[Bristol Fan]

Just got back. I thought we were terrible. I suppose it was much as expected though. I hope we never play that formation again. There was no gulf in class and no apparent gulf in fitness, which is shocking. Fryatt worked his socks off and was magnificent; the rest? Well, they turned up I suppose. Most important thing though is we won, so well done. Banana skin avoided.

[tinned]

The commentators were going on about how our superior fitness would show. I kept thinking "Yeah, yeah, wait until you see us in the second half". But, the amount of their players that went down with cramp was unreal. None of ours did (shouldn't do either).

[ws3]

The commentators were going on about how our superior fitness would show. I kept thinking "Yeah, yeah, wait until you see us in the second half". But, the amount of their players that went down with cramp was unreal. None of ours did (shouldn't do either).

Also they used all of there subs and we used none.

we didn't appear to be that strectched physically.

[Saddler Jim]

To who this may concern,When will people realise that wene anyone plays teams like this,(including Premiership teams)away from home you have to scrap there way to a win,thats the only way to do it,tonight the players did it,and altho I'm anti Merson fan please give the team some credit for whate they did tonight,if they did this in league matches we would be better of now,the times this season I have seen there heads drop wene they have been under pressure is unbielevable,tonight this did'nt happen,they kept on fighting untill the end.so come on Saddlers fans give credit were credit were credits due,and stop moaning.

[YGA Saddler]

Havent been back too long, after being kept in the stadium like sheep for about 20 minutes and once I got to Bescot my car wouldnt start! :x

Anyway the game..
I didnt think we played too well but we won. Ropes,Kinsella and Fryatt were probably the pick of our lot. I thought Staunton was again poor and so was Gerrard but he was being played out of position.

Fair play to Merthyr they gave us a game.

[PerStener]

Great victory... as long as we win I don't care if it's scrappy... a win is a win :D

[Neil Ravenscroft]

Scrappy it was. Match report on line. Worrying in that we were lumping it long again (to Merson's despair, from what he said last time) and a better team would have made us pay, giving away so much possession.

[PerStener]

Scrappy it was. Match report on line. Worrying in that we were lumping it long again (to Merson's despair, from what he said last time) and a better team would have made us pay, giving away so much possession.

Yepp.. I think we use to play better against teams who are better then us anyway.. we seem to have the same problem as the Swedish national team had a couple of years ago, when playing bad teams we have troubble taking command and lead the game....

I'm looking forward to the draw and can't wait to find out which opponent we will play in the next round.

[Geordiesaddler]

An absolutely nailed on "merson's lot" performance. Played well for 15 minutes and utter shyte for the other 75. As soon as they got amongst us we didn't have any guts or organisation. Embarassing second half, but the 15 minutes of good footy was enough for Merythr and enough to keep Merson in a job for another week.

[Greg WP]

Bu to be fair to Mersons lot, The Martyrs superior fitness was always going to make life in the second half difficult for us. That 40 yr and 18 1/2 stone right back were an example of what a couple of nights a week training can do for your fitness.

[geoffwhiting]

yes.we won-RELIEF! but was there any time in that match when you could clearly identify the professional team as opposed to the non-leaguers?in the end,it took a dubious penalty(i'd have been furious if it was given against us) and a moment of combined brilliance from Fryatt and Kinsellla.OK people will point to injuries, but that may come down to the culture at this club.A couple of years ago,I can remember an Aussie fast bowler-may have been Brett Lee-saying that he'd found out that even a small amount of alcohol greatly increased your risk of injury.If this squad are "bonding" with Merson.........

Don't understand the view on the penalty - it was an absolute dead-cert penalty.

The Merthyr guy took Matty and never got a touch on the ball, you'll rarely see a more straight-forward decision on a football pitch.

Other than that, little to comment on, the absolute gulf in class showed early on, we went 2 up and looked like going on to murder 'em, then the Kinsella "duck" out of the way of the free kick, and suddenly it's a different ball game.

From half-time on, we seemed content to just cope with them, they had a lot of the ball but threatened little.

I'd have been happier if we'd taken the game to 'em to finish 'em off in the early minutes of the second half, and don't understand why we didn't.

Maybe thoughts in the back of their minds about what happened at Slough, so they just soaked it up and made sure, but there's always a chance you can come unstuck doing that, and for sure it was not good viewing by any stretch of the imagination.

[Neil Ravenscroft]

Thought, actually Geoff, that we showed them too much respect with the 5 3 2, even if that was a little dictated by injury, but 4 4 2 with Demontagnac would have been a better option for me. Don't forget, they are 83 league places below us.

[Duke]

lets give merthyr some credit they made if touch for us
i did expect demontagnac to come on as the merthyr players tied his pace would have
made a big diffrence still we are through thats the main thing

[Stu]

Talk about bloody negative.

I thought we did okay last night, we did what we had to do. At the end of the day, all we had to do was win and we did that very easily.

I don't know what match some of you whingers were watching, but Merthyr didn't really offer anything at all offensively in the 90 minutes. They had a free kick and then the big looping deflection, whilst we had 2/3 other chances that we could have taken.

We more than matched them and could quite easily have stepped up another gear if we'd needed to, but why bust a gut when you don't need to, you just keep something in reserve if you need it.

Does look to be a bit of complaining for the sake of complaining on this match thread.

[WFC_Rob]

4 4 2 with Demontagnac would have been a better option for me. Don't forget, they are 83 league places below us.

Ishmel would have been kicked to pieces last night. For me, Merson got the team right with the players he had available.

[SaigonSaddler]

WE WON!

[Percie]

mersons apperance on sky pre match interveiw was dreadfull tie undone collar open and unshaven not a good image for walsall football club

Unfair statement to be fair Wayne. Don't you watch Match Of The Day every week? Jose Mourinho looks like that every time hes interviewed, don't hear many critisising him do you? Well maybe Arsene would have a few words to say about him. :P

All in all, a good battleing preformance, quite happy with the way we played. Play like that every week, with the same gutts and determination, I'd be happy.

Can we all laugh at Gillingham and Forest now. 8)

[Duke]

gillingham :lol:
forest :lol:

[ws3]

gillingham :lol:
forest :lol:

Bournemouth :lol:

[Redordead]

I think not having any relevant subs on the bench thus tying up mersons hand so he couldn't tinker with the squad by making his usual inept substitutions helped us as a team last night. Fair play to Merthyr for battling but fair play to us for going out with a game plan of getting the job done with nothing fancy (apart from kinsellla's goal)

And Neil as for them being 83 places below us, that doesn't make ant diffrence in the FA Cup. Any team can come unstuck against lower league opposition

[Stonnall_Saddler]

gillingham :lol:
forest :lol:

Bournemouth :lol:

Merson- Manager :lol:

[Duke]

gillingham :lol:
forest :lol:

Bournemouth :lol:

Merson- Manager :lol:

i like it stonnall :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Neil Ravenscroft]

I think not having any relevant subs on the bench thus tying up mersons hand so he couldn't tinker with the squad by making his usual inept substitutions helped us as a team last night. Fair play to Merthyr for battling but fair play to us for going out with a game plan of getting the job done with nothing fancy (apart from kinsellla's goal)

And Neil as for them being 83 places below us, that doesn't make ant diffrence in the FA Cup. Any team can come unstuck against lower league opposition

Didn't say you can't, but the attitude was right on the night. It's no cause for treating like we've just beaten the League leaders away, though.

[Ian Gittins]

Depends how you can see it. You can take the Stu view that it's OK cause we won doing the bare minimum, or the less charitable opinion that it was a very ordinary and scrappy performance and we only got through cause we were playing a team of limited part-timers.

I thought Fryatt was great, a real class act with a good touch, Leitao did well, and Roper was very good at the back. Staunton did OK too. Most of the others contributed something in patches, but did Joe Broad actually come out for the first half? The first time his name was mentioned by the commentator was the 48th minute. I struggle to think of a more anonymous Walsall player in recent years (there again, I suppose I would, as the people I'm trying to think of were anonymous).

[WarsawPact]

Other than a couple of 3-0 wins in the 80's, (Stafford Rangers & Kettering), I don't recall us ever really taking non-league opposition to the cleaners.

It's usually been a battle until the last few minutes when the part-timers tire. This is exactly what we got on Friday.

[Neil Ravenscroft]

I disagree, actually, Warsaw. We were all over them like a rash when the second went in and only a rash and fairly stupid challenge from Staunton (just watch it on Pete Lee's site again - straight through the back of the player on the edge of the box - that's why I can't say he played at all well, as it wasn't the only one) and a piece of crass silliness from Kinsella let them back in. If we'd have got a third when it was 2 - 0, we'd have been rivalling Colchester.

(And, Staffs Saddler, that's no criticism of Merson, as there's nothing he could have done about it, just the two players concerned in this case)

[geoffwhiting]

Er-r-r-r, wait for it ------------- Neil, I absolutely agree !

At 2-0 we were carving them to bits and Fryatt and Leitao had their defence stretched all over the place. At that point it looked to me like a big win was on the cards - then Staunton's stupidity and Kinsella's/Taylor's failure to stand strong and tall in the wall handed Merthyr the encouragement and the lifeline to come back at us.

What followed was an abandonment of the football of the first 20 minutes and a more safety-first approach, which admittedly got the job done, with a scare or two along the way. Those scares might have been unnecessary though, but for that particular rash Staunton moment.