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Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Reports and reaction from the 2007-08 season as Walsall finished 12th in League 1
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booster cogburn
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Re: Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Sat Dec 22, 2007 8:29 pm

Deano, did you not notice who set up two of our goals?

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PT
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Re: Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Sat Dec 22, 2007 8:43 pm

Played very well today and three-nil was about right.

Agree with comments about Weston, I'd have him just ahead of Tommy as MOTM but Tommy is such an inspiration and took his goals really well.

I think Ricketts adds a touch of class in some really key areas. Some can't see past his languid style and never will but for me he is a perfect link man between midfield and attack.

I thought it was a nasty little tackle that did Bradley. The number 22 saw a far more comitted player coming at him, so just exposed his studs at ankle height and left them there. I hope Bradders is OK.

6th - fantastic. Well done DD and the boys.

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Re: Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Sat Dec 22, 2007 9:01 pm

Very well done to the saddlers! Great performance today and a great 3 points. Play off places now. Abserlutly class considering our very poor start!!!
Hopefully the good form carrys on over Christmas and we can secure our place in the top 6!!! :D :D

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Re: Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Sat Dec 22, 2007 9:13 pm

According to DD on WM after the Wolves commentary Bradley is OK - Phew! Agree it was sly & nasty by the Milwall man. Bradley has become so important for us this season. I think he is our MVP, the sort of player that is like gold dust. He oozes quality in the middle of the park, and he can only get better. He links our solid defence and quality strike force fantastically.

Agree about Ricketts setting up the goals and he was also chasing back and tackling more today than I think I have seen him do before. DD said he took him off because he was suffering with flu and was to go straight to bed to make sure he is ready for Wednesday. Good news that Hughes scored for Oldham again today, means they will be happier to let Ricketts go.

Thought Deeney did really well, as did Ishy when he came on. I don't know how we didn't score second half, but there you go.

We dispatched a very poor Milwall side clinically today. They look like relegation fodder to me. Couldn't believe how few of their supporters came. From cup final to that in next to no time. Glad to see Vale lost again today, lets hope that's another three points. Sorry I can't be there, the way we are playing.

The future looks bright, especially if we can secure Ricketts and Sweeney. DD seems to think so and also thinks the players feel it too. He says he will not be selling anyone, unless they are offered silly money. How on earth have they achieved a top six place by Christmas? It is really amazing. Well done lads.

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Re: Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Sat Dec 22, 2007 9:17 pm

Great result, really proud.

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Deano_Saddler
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Re: Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Sat Dec 22, 2007 9:28 pm

I think Ricketts is a very good player but all i was saying is that he didn't look as good today.

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Re: Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Sat Dec 22, 2007 10:01 pm

just can't get the smile off my face tonight, thanks you, thanks you saddlers.

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Re: Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Sat Dec 22, 2007 10:20 pm

It was cold and damp and just before Christmas, but the crowd was pretty good (though most of the noise was in the family stand!). Very few weak links there - Weston had the best game I've seen him have, and I was impressed with Troy in midfield - he really can play there (no surprise, he started there for Chelmsley before being converted to a striker), and deserved a goal for his efforts and some fine moves. I like the lad's attitude as well - he works hard and just gets on with it. Defence really look classy, and that experience will be really good for Taundry - yet another one on the way through? Wrack also looks to be finding some real form - he too had a really good game today, and Bradders is just getting better every time I see him. Proud as punch - this team may just go up, because right now I doubt there is a better team in the league - we're only 6th because of the terrible start we had. The top of the league is not so far away, and with a little luck on injuries, we could be much higher come the end of Christmas, with really winnable games. Millwall looked poor, but then I think we probably made them look poor. Just so proud to see so many good young players coming through.

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Re: Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Sat Dec 22, 2007 10:25 pm

An efficient performance against a team who posed us some problems in the 1st 30 minutes but who were ultimately let down badly by comical defending.

A special mention for Darren Wrack, who had an excellent game in midfield - he hardly wasted a ball all afternoon. He may have totally lost his pace but his footballing brain is intact.

Agree with PJD that Mark Bradley has become our MVP. If he continues to develop at anything like the rate of the last few months, he will become a phenomenal player.

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Re: Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Sat Dec 22, 2007 10:33 pm

moaning saddler wrote:A special mention for Darren Wrack, who had an excellent game in midfield - he hardly wasted a ball all afternoon. He may have totally lost his pace but his footballing brain is intact.

I would agree that he was excellent today. He's grown into that position since being given the chance to play there after Dobson got injured. His maturity both on the ball and off it compliments Bradley really well.
I wouldn't necessarily say that he's "totally lost his pace". Did you not see the couple of breaks he made with the ball from inside our half? I think the pace is still there, but he just has to use it sparingly now.

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Deano_Saddler
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Re: Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Sun Dec 23, 2007 12:05 am

WFC_Rob wrote:
moaning saddler wrote:A special mention for Darren Wrack, who had an excellent game in midfield - he hardly wasted a ball all afternoon. He may have totally lost his pace but his footballing brain is intact.


I would agree that he was excellent today. He's grown into that position since being given the chance to play there after Dobson got injured. His maturity both on the ball and off it compliments Bradley really well.
I wouldn't necessarily say that he's "totally lost his pace". Did you not see the couple of breaks he made with the ball from inside our half? I think the pace is still there, but he just has to use it sparingly now.


I would have to agree with that, he and Bradley have been on fine form & i really do think that if Wracky can carry on with the good work he may well leave Dobbo out for a while once Dobbo is fit.
I also agree that he hardly wasted a ball all game, just tidy at what he was doing and did make some terrific runs even sometimes off the ball.

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belgiansaddler
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Re: Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Sun Dec 23, 2007 12:17 am

thought it was a nice touch by the Police to allocate each Millwall fan their own individual Police officer, how much did all that cost :?

Still an excellent performance and win, well done Saddlers, a thoroughly convincing performance :D

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Re: Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Sun Dec 23, 2007 1:01 am

Deano_Saddler wrote:I went to the game today. Pretty comfortable. Taundry for his 1st ever start in the 1st team i thought he was decent, Weston for me was probably MOTD while Gerrard & Dann where as solid as they normally are ( just a few mistakes made by gerrard).
Wrack & Bradley looked very comfortable & for me Wrack was the better of the two today. Deeney i thought was great & i thought he deserved a goal for his work. Ricketts was poor, he doesnt move at all does he?
Now some people at the ground today where saying that the fans love Mooney to much and that we start chanting his name over any little thing, i'm sorry this lad is a 36 year old man playing the last couple of years of his career & he's playing brilliantly most every game so why shouldn't we praise him?


Unbelievable that anyone could single out a player to criticise today. That was an awesome performance throughout the squad, and although 3-0 was probably a bit flattering at half-time, by full-time 7-0 would not have flattered us very much.

As someone has already asked, who set-up two of our goals? As you obviously don't know or won't accept, it was RICKETTS, and he was always involved in the game. To say he doesn't move is total nonsense, his class was obvious. Even though at times things didn't come off for him, he still made a very telling contribution to this win, and like it or not, we have scored goals far more regularly since he came into the side.

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Re: Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Sun Dec 23, 2007 1:56 am

Another decent display today. Not as good as against Leeds last week, but it didn't need to be against a very, very poor Millwall side. Defence was ok, but nothing special. With a bit more composure Millwall could have scored from one of a couple of presentable chances in the first half. As others have said, Weston was the pick of the back four and, after a dodgy start (no left foot is not a good thing for a left back), Taundry came on well. Midfield was very strong throughout. Wrack continued in the same vein as last week. If he can keep that up then he'll be a major asset in this division (although it does make you wonder what he's been up to the last 12 months). Sweeney was also very good down the left and I thought Deeney was more than adequate for a striker playing out of position on the right wing - certainly better than Sonko when he came on. Up front Mooney took his goals very well and Ricketts provided some good link up play before going off. Nicholls was better than the last couple of games that I've seen him play, but he's not going to make a professional footballer. It's a shame for the lad - the injury came at just the wrong time - but I'm not sure we can afford to persist with him.

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Re: Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Sun Dec 23, 2007 1:58 am

geoffwhiting wrote:
Deano_Saddler wrote:I went to the game today. Pretty comfortable. Taundry for his 1st ever start in the 1st team i thought he was decent, Weston for me was probably MOTD while Gerrard & Dann where as solid as they normally are ( just a few mistakes made by gerrard).
Wrack & Bradley looked very comfortable & for me Wrack was the better of the two today. Deeney i thought was great & i thought he deserved a goal for his work. Ricketts was poor, he doesnt move at all does he?
Now some people at the ground today where saying that the fans love Mooney to much and that we start chanting his name over any little thing, i'm sorry this lad is a 36 year old man playing the last couple of years of his career & he's playing brilliantly most every game so why shouldn't we praise him?


Unbelievable that anyone could single out a player to criticise today. That was an awesome performance throughout the squad, and although 3-0 was probably a bit flattering at half-time, by full-time 7-0 would not have flattered us very much.

As someone has already asked, who set-up two of our goals? As you obviously don't know or won't accept, it was RICKETTS, and he was always involved in the game. To say he doesn't move is total nonsense, his class was obvious. Even though at times things didn't come off for him, he still made a very telling contribution to this win, and like it or not, we have scored goals far more regularly since he came into the side.


This was always going to be an issue from the day he signed. Several of us said that day that we shouldn't be looking for him to run around a lot - that's just not his game. But when he does get involved he can add a bit of quality that we don't have elsewhere in the side. As you say, he set up two goals today - wha else can people ask for?

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Re: Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Sun Dec 23, 2007 6:41 am

Did'nt make the game today , delighted with 3 points and another clean sheet .

Can we now stop talking of the play offs , we are only 5 points from automatic promotion :wink:

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Re: Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Sun Dec 23, 2007 8:19 am

For me the most important stat was again the nil against.

In the last 12 games we have played since the Southend debacle in October in both the League and the FA Cup we have conceded just 4 goals.

1 v Bournmouth away in the League 1-1 draw 27th October
1 v Brighton away in the League 1-1 draw 6th November
1 v Nothampton away FA Cup 1-1 draw 1st December
1 v Leeds home League 15th December 1-1 draw

4 goals conceded in 12 games in gaining 7 wins and 5 draws is not playoff form, its automatic promotion form IMHO.

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Re: Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Sun Dec 23, 2007 8:21 am

I had every intention of going yesterday but something came up at about 1.30 that i just had to deal with....but it does look from all accounts that we have at last a team molded into a potent force very hard to beat and even begining to entertain...looking forward to the next few months now.

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Re: Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Sun Dec 23, 2007 12:51 pm

We were great yesterday; massive, total, a team as one organism. It has been a long time since I have seen us play so well. Millwall were poor, but for years and years we have been dragged down to playing poor football against poor sides. All hail DD - he really has done something special to the Saddlers. Fox is gonna struggle to get back in, so is Dobson, Roper stands very little chance of leaving the bench.


The Walsall youth system has produced some real gems.



All hail DD - a miserable sod but a damn fine manager



(yesterday he only had one 'issue' with the fans. When things were still 0-0 a bloke sitting just to my right shouted 'pick up your game Ricketts'. DD turned round and gave the bloke a mouthful - then when we scored (off a beautiful Ricketts cross) he turned round again to give the bloke a real f'ing and f'ing attack. Still - based upon what he has done for us I guess it is a minor issue really

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Re: Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Sun Dec 23, 2007 1:05 pm

Excellent. Promotion is on.

Clean sheets like last season but with more creativity with Wrack instead of Dobson and better football to watch. What more could anyone ask for?

Believe.

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Re: Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Sun Dec 23, 2007 1:21 pm

Managed to get down to the game yesterday. Extremely impressed with the performance and how all of our players now look like they want the ball and are extremely comfortable in possession. Just wished Mooney could have completed his hatrick which he totally deserved.

The only thing which I found slightly disappointing was our delivery from set pieces. Too many times the ball went straight to the keeper or was over hit. Also, just a bit concerned that we left Mooney on for the full 90 mins when we could have given him a rest in preparation for the busy xmas period. Then again, I suppose he was desperate to complete his hatrick and would not have wanted to come off.

However, things are looking extremly bright for the future and next year could be as exciting as this one has been! Well done DD!

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Re: Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Sun Dec 23, 2007 1:36 pm

The super saddlers are on their way to the play offs , and to think a lot people thought i was on drugs and laughed at me when i made my prediction at the start of the season, i think i might just be the one who will be laughing at the end of the season.

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Re: Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Sun Dec 23, 2007 2:06 pm

Magic Man Fan wrote:Excellent. Promotion is on.

Clean sheets like last season but with more creativity with Wrack instead of Dobson and better football to watch. What more could anyone ask for?

Believe.


I nearly believe! We definitely do look like last season's team but with a bit of added creativity at the moment. :D

Can't help thinking that wretched start is going to catch up with us though. This run can't go on for ever and if we miss out on either play-offs or automatic promotion by fewer than 10 points I'm going to be gutted. :cry:

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Re: Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Sun Dec 23, 2007 2:12 pm

big baz 1 wrote:The super saddlers are on their way to the play offs , and to think a lot people thought i was on drugs and laughed at me when i made my prediction at the start of the season, i think i might just be the one who will be laughing at the end of the season.

Any one of us could have taken the path of blind faith and said that we were going to walk away with the league title and 100 points in the bag. At the start of the season, there was nothing to suggest we could aim for anything better than a mid-table finish. Unless you knew we were going to get rid of Butler, Carneiro and Sonner, sign Ricketts, see the emergence of Bradley, the rejuvination of Wrack and the impressively consistent form of the back four, there was no way you had any reasoning behind what you said.

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Re: Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Sun Dec 23, 2007 2:15 pm

WFC_Rob wrote:
big baz 1 wrote:The super saddlers are on their way to the play offs , and to think a lot people thought i was on drugs and laughed at me when i made my prediction at the start of the season, i think i might just be the one who will be laughing at the end of the season.

Any one of us could have taken the path of blind faith and said that we were going to walk away with the league title and 100 points in the bag. At the start of the season, there was nothing to suggest we could aim for anything better than a mid-table finish. Unless you knew we were going to get rid of Butler, Carneiro and Sonner, sign Ricketts, see the emergence of Bradley, the rejuvination of Wrack and the impressively consistent form of the back four, there was no way you had any reasoning behind what you said.


Plus, Baz was insisting that we were going to win the title until the start of September when our one point from five matches made that very, very unlikely. To be honest, I still think a mid-table finish is more likely than a play-off place, but at least we can spend the second half of the season chasing promotion rather than looking over our shoulders at the bottom four.

I hope you are the one laughing by the way Baz. I think we'd all rather Walsall went up than that we get our predictions right.

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Re: Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Sun Dec 23, 2007 3:02 pm

Taundry can be pleased with his performance yesterday, but I wouldn't want to see him at left back too often - he was very right-footed which caused him to dwell on the ball while he shifted it onto his favoured side. A better side would have exploited that.

Nicholls did well when he came on - back to where he was before he broke his leg.

Imagine being in a defence facing willing runners like Mooney, Nicholls and Asbo - you'd never get a moment to settle on the ball!

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Re: Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Sun Dec 23, 2007 3:44 pm

That was a brilliant all-round performance. It was unusual in that we played better in the second half than in the first even though the goals all came in the first half.

Everyone deserves praise. I thought Deeney was excellent, and could not understand any criticism of him. I would really hate him to leave soon. Taundry did well, but is obviously not a left-back. I don't think he touched the ball with his left foot all match. It is surprising that Weston, with all his experience did not go to left back, so that Taundry could make his first start on a side where he is comfortable.

I really think that we can make a serious promotion challenge this season. The change that has come about once Richard Money cleared out some of the dead wood, made good loan signings, and gave some more of our own youth a chance is tremendous. I think that we have also been lucky in the injury to Dobson. He has made way for Wrack and Bradley to create a very useful partnership in midfield.

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Re: Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Sun Dec 23, 2007 3:51 pm

big baz 1 wrote:The super saddlers are on their way to the play offs , and to think a lot people thought i was on drugs and laughed at me when i made my prediction at the start of the season, i think i might just be the one who will be laughing at the end of the season.

You do deserve a lot of credit Baz if you knew how Richard Money was going to change things round.

Of course if you thought that: with a strike partnership of Butler and Mooney with Carneiro for back-up; and a midfield of Dobson and Sonner with Paul Hall on the right and Fox on the left, we would be pressing for promotion then you must have been on the whacky baccy.

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Re: Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Sun Dec 23, 2007 4:11 pm

Bernie wrote:That was a brilliant all-round performance. It was unusual in that we played better in the second half than in the first even though the goals all came in the first half.

Everyone deserves praise. I thought Deeney was excellent, and could not understand any criticism of him. I would really hate him to leave soon. Taundry did well, but is obviously not a left-back. I don't think he touched the ball with his left foot all match. It is surprising that Weston, with all his experience did not go to left back, so that Taundry could make his first start on a side where he is comfortable.

I really think that we can make a serious promotion challenge this season. The change that has come about once Richard Money cleared out some of the dead wood, made good loan signings, and gave some more of our own youth a chance is tremendous. I think that we have also been lucky in the injury to Dobson. He has made way for Wrack and Bradley to create a very useful partnership in midfield.


Agree entirely (apart from the bit about Taundry - he did touch the ball with his left foot a couple of times, to shank it out of play for a throw-in. That said, he looked to have real quality with his right and I look forward to seeing more of him).

However, I'm not sure we are quite there for promotion yet. We have as good a team as anyone else, what I haven't seen yet is what happens when we pick up injuries and suspensions to the key men or what happens when this tremendous run ends and we lose a match or two. I believe in DD and the players, they have my full support, and I really hope they prove me wrong!

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Re: Millwall (H) League 1 Saturday 22/12/07.

Sun Dec 23, 2007 5:50 pm

Image

Come on boys!!

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