Bristol City 2nd January

[Saddler Jim]

I'm not surprised I fully expected a 3 goal drubbing,away we hav'nt got a clue.and I'll tell everyone something else next week at Barnsley we will get another tanking maybe more than this,the only way we will get away from a hammering is if Barnsley decide that one goal is enough,wich it will be to get them into the next round.I really feel sorry for the poor sods who bother to spend there time and money travelling to watch this apology for a football team. :cry: :cry:

[shrewsbury saddler]

if merson goes like the majority on hear seem to want. who would replace him!!!. he will have no money and i just cant see what he would do differently to change the team.

can someone tell me what having a new manager would achieve.

im not pro or anti merson but i really dont think having another manager will change very much atall.

What you say would be true whenever he goes.please tell me he's not going to stay manager for ever!

[Stu]

you have to remember they have played 4 times in 8 days by anyones standard thats alot.

I've been waiting for the first person to spout that line.

Can I remind you of something?

Every club in the football league has played 4 games in 8 days, except for those who had a postponement. Oh, why did Bristol City manage to cope with 4 games in 8 days?

[asimpson]

good point i suppose, but still by looking at our home form we are a good team, its just away from home i just cant understand what the problem is when we go away.

anyway ill shut up now as most people on hear seem to have already made up thier mind on merson's future.

[TheSaddlers]

Our away form is just not good enough - we haven't won away in the league since September 24th against Scunthorpe United. In contrast to having not lost in the league at home since September 17th against Chesterfield Town. We need to sort this out, and soon - because as our genius of a manager quite rightly pointed out "If we don't improve our away record we're going nowhere this season."

[asimpson]

lol well you cant fault merson for his intelligence. :lol:

[Saddler Jim]

good point i suppose, but still by looking at our home form we are a good team, its just away from home i just cant understand what the problem is when we go away.

anyway ill shut up now as most people on hear seem to have already made up thier mind on merson's future.

We did that a long time ago asimpson,he cannot motivate players thats his main problem,he tells them to do one thing,then they go on the pitch and do there own thing,I call that complete lack of respect.and if a manager loses the respect of his players he might as well put on his coat and leave pronto,because he his doing the players,fans,and the name of Walsall FC no good at all.

[toffo]

if merson goes like the majority on hear seem to want. who would replace him!!!. he will have no money and i just cant see what he would do differently to change the team.

can someone tell me what having a new manager would achieve.

im not pro or anti merson but i really dont think having another manager will change very much atall.

I'd take any number of people to replace him.
Theres loads of ex managers looking foe jobs at the moment.
We need someone with experience at this level who can organise a team and play to a solid game plan.
I'd even want someone to come in as assistant because i just cannot see bonser giving merese the sack.
Getting a new manager can change everything.

[sean511]

Pathetic! 3-0? 3-0? Why? :evil:

[shrewsbury saddler]

the man himself is on WM before six.can anyone guess what he'll say?I don't think it'll be"it's all my fault".

[Valence Finstorr]

Sign the Merson out petition people!

http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/mersonout

[Phil_G]

...but still by looking at our home form we are a good team...

You obviously haven't seen any of those performances have you?

[Neil Ravenscroft]

Match report on line

[Lanzarote Saddler]

Just got back from Brum v Wigan. Chose that match over Bristol City, as I have a few mates that are Bluenoses.
I can't comment on today but there is only one word to describe our away performances INEPT.

[Cully]

Don't bother trying to make any sensible arguament, judging by the comments of 'tony' who has just appeared on WM, when asked about the large percentage of fans who were chanting Merson Out [ hooray!', well done everybody] if he agreed with them, stated that 'you can't blame Merson even though he picked the team'; well that's that then, QED.
The new religion of Merson worship gains another disciple, I'm thinking that there must be some parallel link with this and other religious larks that attracts weak minded people with no logical arguament, who cares about reality and the considered norm. for managers when you've got Merson managing on charisma, what I can't work out is who's making all the money and why can't I get a piece of the action?
I'm not sure, but didn't that story about turning water into wine have some connection with Paul Merson?

[asimpson]

winning is more importent than performance anyday, and at home we are winning alot of matches.

[asimpson]

merson is on WM tommorow at 8pm

[Cully]

Praise be the lord and master of all our home wins and yah boo sucks to the demon of away losses.

[asimpson]

who do you think merson meant when he said a player woudnot go on loan?

westwood?

[Whitti Steve]

We are NOT a good team - home or away - of the run of wins at home, how many were quality performances? How many of the results "could" have gone the other way. Walsall are a poor team under Merson - the players are good enough to do better - but they need direction, management and fitness. Useless.

MOSOC FFS

[Valence Finstorr]

What a joke this club has become. Just listening to Merson's backlash - how the hell can anyone at the club respect him? He's just repeated exactly what he said exactly a year ago. "players aren't doing their jobs" "im going to ship out 4" "im going to ship in 4".

He aint stupid - but he must think Bonser is stupid to reel out lines like that exactly a year on - who the hell does he think he is fooling? Not us, but he obviously is fooling his muppet like employers.

The chap currently on wm must be dumb. Daz hale has just confirmed that we have used 33 players this season, more than other team in all four divisions - yet he goes on to state that "we ay gor any money".

It defies belief. It really does.

[sean511]

merson is on WM tommorow at 8pm

I'll be listening

[Smithywfc]

A bit off topic but if away games are going to get merson sacked isnt this month a blessing with 5 away games out of 7, and two home matches that were bound to draw against the teams,

Bristol City (a) 0-3
Barnsley (a)
Colchester (h)
Swindon town (a)
Chesterfield (a)
Swansea City (a)
Yeovil (h)

I could see merson being sacked by the end of this month, if bonser had the balls to do it of course.

[shrewsbury saddler]

who do you think merson meant when he said a player woudnot go on loan?

westwood?

broad i think.

[Bristol Fan]

Got back from the game. What a disgrace.

I witnessed our "performances" against WBA and Gillingham which ended the reigns of Graydon and Lee and this was at least as bad. If ever there was a "sackable performance" this was it. I didn't go to Bradford but would be amazed if we were remotely as bad as this. It made our first half performance against Blackpool look like Real Madrid featuring Di Stefano in his prime.

First sustained "Merson Out" chanting today that I've heard, and from sizeable numbers of our pretty decent away following too.

First half we were the pits. The disgraceful, pitiful Kinsella being replaced by Osborn at half time was the right thing to do, and so was bringing Standing on for Taylor, and it worked with a mini-revival for five minutes or so, but that was it.

This was nothing to do with lapses of concentration, nothing to do with four games in eight days, nothing to do with bad refereeing, we were just a dim and distant second best all over the pitch. At the back, Roper was badly missed, and Westwood was a poor replacement, missing headers, letting the ball bounce, giving posession away all the time, but the booing of him by our own fans from the first whistle was unwarranted. They all cheered on Gerrard and, sure, he made some excellent, crunching tackles, but was too often caught out of position and certainly played his part in our downfall. Bennett was hapless at left back, which is hardly surprising since he isn't a left back. We had a left back on the pitch, but Harkness was playing on the left wing, and was awful beyond belief. Elsewhere in midfield, Kinsella should be fined for a performance like that, and I hope I never see him wear a Walsall shirt again. K Taylor looked like he wasn't bothered. Was shattered to see Leitao go off so early since he was the only chap in our team who might have created anything, but in fairness D Taylor played OK when he came on to replace him on the right wing.

Up front, Constable and Nicholls looked hopelessly out of their depth and it wouldn't be a shock to see more inspired performances if I wander over to the park to see an Under-11s game this evening.

We were outplayed, in every position, from the first minute to the last. I can't ever remember us looking so forlorn, so completely devoid of confidence, so totally without hope.

I was bewildered and saddened as soon as I saw what team we were putting out (five defenders, two midfielders and three strikers somehow forced into a 4-4-2 formation) and it looked like a team destined for relegation throughout the game, and indeed our return of four points from four games over the "festive" period is relegation form.

For pity's sake Merson, f*** off now so someone can come in during the transfer window, ship out the dross you've signed and bring in enough quality to keep us in the division.

For pity's sake Bonser, do the right thing. Get rid of the useless fat tosser NOW.

[Pedro]

Well said Bristol

I use to love going to away games, but while we got this tosser in charge of this club , I shall pick and choose my away games. I'll be at Barnsley Saturday to see if we can have ashock cup win

Bonser will not sack merse , Bonser thinks Merse can do no wrong.He loves him to much

[Stu]

I've always done 12-15 away games per season, even throughout last season I did.

This season, I've gone twice. Rotherham on the opening day and then Merthyr on the Friday night. I was going to go to Barnsley to give Jorge a good send off, but if he isn't going to be fit, I might save myself £40.

The only away games I plan on going to this season are those where I haven't yet been, so I think it leaves southend as the only one.

[Pedro]

think I shall only be going to Blackpool and Southend and maybe Swansea as its a new ground

Aways days are not the same anymore

[Welsh_Saddler]

I have to totally agree with Bristol Fan. I don't get to many matches, hence the rarity of my posting on a thread like this - but I was amazed at our lack of ability to do anything today. Bristol City not only outplayed us in most departments, they were actually toying with us more and more as the game went on. My heart went out to Joe Murphy, who had so little cover to protect him - and to Gerrard, who was so often left to cover two or three opposition players as other Walsall defenders went missing.

Where on earth did Westwood think he was playing today, and who was he supposed to be marking? Obviously no-one had told him, because he wasn't marking anyone most of the afternoon and largely contributed to their first goal through his inept play and passing.

To see Jorge limp off was a great disappointment, but again there was no communication going on, because he was signalling to the dugout for upwards of two or three minutes while nursing the back of his thigh - Jorge being Jorge, it didn't stop him trying his best to chase balls back, or win tackles, but he should have been withdrawn earlier. The conduct of the City team in taking advantage of the throw-in given to them when Joe Murphy deliberately put the ball into touch didn't add anything to the festive spirit !!!

Our "attacking method" (if there really was one) consisted of either lumping a high ball in the general direction of their tall defenders, or trying to send our left-back (playing left-wing) towards the corner flag and oblivion. We were never a threat to their keeper, whose only weak pont seemed to be clearing backpasses.

Paul Merson was doing a very satisfactory impression of Jose Mourinho in his black overcoat, but he is only an impression of the guy, and a bad one at that.

I have until now refrained from calling for Merson's head, not having seen enough of the team's performances. Having seen our total capitulation today, however, I have no hesitation in saying that Merson should do the decent thing, and go.

When I remember the attitude and commitment that Ray Graydon instilled into (on paper) a less skilled side, it makes my blood boil. It is obvious that several players need some of the Graydon discipline and motivation to raise their level of play to anything like acceptable.

I tell you, Zigor would have improved this lot's showing today, by at least 50%.............

Rant over.

[Bristol Fan]

I'm amazed by the match report on the front page of this site which implies we did well in the second half. We didn't. There was a five minute spell at the start of the half in which we dominated, but other than that the improvement was minimal. Apart from a 5-minute spell we were simply awe-inspiringly bad.