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Luton (a) - 22nd February 2005

Reports and reaction from the 2004-05 season as Walsall finished 14th in League 1
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Neil Ravenscroft
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Wed Feb 23, 2005 7:47 am

It's a good job everyone is being philosophical about it, as I've just seen it on Sky Sports news and? Sorry, - Penalty - definately. Emblen got wrong side of his man, he was going to have a free header and Emblen pushed him, both hands, in the back. If it had been the other end, I'd have been screaming for it.

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Stu
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Wed Feb 23, 2005 9:35 am

Neil, it was a 'home' penalty and an away team wouldn't have got that in my view.

I'm usually very objective, much to the annoyance of some folk on here at times, but if that had been in our end it wouldn't have been given. The Luton ST holder I sit next to here sits behind those goals and he didn't think it was, as he said "it was nothing more than goes on at every corner".

Strictly speaking to the letter of the law, it may have been a penalty and as somebody said, Sky said "should would have given it, some wouldn't".

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Magic Man Fan
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Wed Feb 23, 2005 11:34 am

Anonymous wrote:Unlucky this, unlucky that. The team lost AGAIN. Nice to see some of you accepting mid table mediocre drivel. NOT ME. This club is goin nowhere while this idiot remains in charge


Its quite obvious that this idiot didn't go the game.

My positive comments will follow later when I'm back from work.

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cal's a saddler
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Wed Feb 23, 2005 11:42 am

Dont think Merse was very impressed by the referee's decision to give a penalty to them either. Heard him saying on WM this morning that the ref gave them everything and that if theirs was a penalty then we should have been awarded one for a foul on Emblen!! But its a case of when your leading the division decisions go for you!!!

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YGA Saddler
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Wed Feb 23, 2005 1:17 pm

have the biased people forgot Neil gave away a foul saturday that should have been a penalty whereas last nights wasnt but was given. Its swings and roundabouts if you make stupid time jumps or tackles in the box then you should be punished.

I didnt think we played too bad last night but as I was travelling home I thought to myself, what is our ambition as fans now?
we have seen this club go from div 3 to div 1 and back now in div 2, we have lost to Slough and Leyton Orient and have players that dont compare likes of Rambo and Walker that we had. What do we honestly think will happen to walsall?

My guess is we will do a cambridge. Weve had our good times through fortune of having decent managers but the money is getting tighter, the fans are getting more restless, its the inevitable that within 5 years we will be plying our trade back in the basement of english football.

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Neil Ravenscroft
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Wed Feb 23, 2005 1:26 pm

Sorry, Stu, it looked like one to me on the box this morning and, I have to say, the pictures also show the ref was in the perfect position to see. Whether one or not anyway, it was poor defending though, considering what had gone before, as he had lost Emblen.

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WarsawPact
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Wed Feb 23, 2005 1:27 pm

I really can't see that.

We're one of the wealthier "standard-sized" League 1 clubs due to our commercial activities, and we should have assimilated the ITV Digital losses over the next year or so, and finished paying Jeff back for the Purple Stand (I would hope).

Once all of that is out of the way, money will again be available for improving the playing squad.

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KJC
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Wed Feb 23, 2005 2:57 pm

A take on the game by a few Lu'on fans...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/h2cluster ... n2&sort=Te

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Wed Feb 23, 2005 3:44 pm

I was seething in anger during my short trip back home to the capital. We played against 12 men and virtually every 50-50 decision went Luton's way. I wasn't in the best position to judge whether it was a penaulty but judging from the general consensus, some think it was and some think it wasn't. As referee you have to absolutely sure if you are awarding a penaulty in the last few minutes as the decision settles the match. It was an inevitable decisison from the clown who was pretending to referee

Defensively yet again we were excellent and apart from a couple of chances in the 1st half, Murphy had very little to do. In the 2nd half despite dominating, we had no one in midfield who could play the killer final ball. Also we got into loads of wide positions but the crossing from the full backs and midfielders was abysmal. Fryatt was regularly caught offside and I think yesterday's game illustrated that if we are going to play with one up front, it has to be Jorge. Parts of the game reminded me of last season under Colin Lee. Playing for a 0-0, creating very little, getting deeper and deeper and finally conceding a late goal

At the end of the day, the lads gave 100% and you can't argue with that. But we did not create a single chance all game. If we play the same defensive formation against Bradford, I can see another boring dire game as we had to suffer last Saturday. Bradford are no great shakes. They were thrashed at home by the Franchise recently and yesterday lost to another struggling club Blackpool. At home: (1) Merse has to play (he has created about 90% of our goals this season) and (2) We need to play 2 strikers up front in Jorge and Fryatt

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Magic Man Fan
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Wed Feb 23, 2005 4:41 pm

I don't understand the pessimism from people who went to the game last night.

I thought we were excellent and very unfortunate not to take a point if not all three. The energy and determination from midfield was something we have lacked since the Colin Lee days and it was fantastic to see people throwing themselves into tackles. Kris Taylor and Surman were excellent.

We were lucky in the first half in that Luton should have taken one of their chances but I feel we earned our luck as we also defended very well. Its a joy to see Roper back in the team and the fact we have conceded just 1 goal in 3 games tells all those idiots who think he is just a donkey what they know about football.

I agree we didn't create enough chances but I don't blame the formation entirely, the fact is Matty was always trying flicks to get away from the defence instead of holding the ball up and waiting for midfield to catch up with play. I said it last week and I still feel we haven't got the right kind of striker to play the lone role.

As Merson admits himself in tonights Express and Dingle this has taken a long time to come to fruition but we finally now know what we need to be successful away from home.

To all those disappointed that we lost, then I share your disappointment but take heart from the performance which is something we have lacked in almost every away game this season. Make no mistake if we'd performed like we have at Bristol City and Luton we would be easily in the top 6 which is encouraging for next season.

Winning away isn't a MUST, if you win the majority of your home games and get a point away you will get promoted so hopefully we now have the promotion formula needed for next season.

As I also said after the Bristol City win, this isn't the way to play at home. We have done well at home playing the 4-3-1-2 so there is no need to change it. We might get away with the 4-5-1 at home if we had a striker more suited to the role but we haven't.

As for whoever said some parts of the game were like under Colin Lee then I have to disagree. Some of our football and crisp passing was excellent to watch and it wasn't like the sideways and backwards passing we often saw in away games under Lee which I think you are referring to.

The pen was definitely a pen in my eyes, it was the other 30 odd decisions that went against us that I was most p1ssed off about. Talk about a homer of a referee!
Last edited by Magic Man Fan on Wed Feb 23, 2005 5:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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KJC
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Wed Feb 23, 2005 4:46 pm

Great post MMF, totally agree 100% with everything u said.

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Neil Ravenscroft
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Wed Feb 23, 2005 5:24 pm

You have to fight for the right to play in this division - they did it last night and were robbed of a point by one late lapse of concentration, playing away at a team seven points clear at the top of the table. I think we've way under achieved this season, but to be disappointed with that is too much! The last two away games have given me a bit more hope, but Merson now needs to learn when to swop tactics to suit the opposition.

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Wed Feb 23, 2005 5:25 pm

Once again the question must be asked, what has happened to the standards of refereeing in this country?

10 year olds know that you cannot be offside from a throw-in...even Paul Danson and his band of merry men wouldn't have got a decision that basic wrong. It beggars belief to be honest. If a referee and his assistants can't get something to simple right, they should be struck off the list. But I presume that this referee will be in the Premiership in a couple of seasons, as he is probably being "fast-tracked".

On the game, it sounds like we were impressive in the second half. But I'm not worried about the penalty, they have evened themselves out.

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WS1
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Wed Feb 23, 2005 8:39 pm

All three match officials where crap from start to finish, end of story.

MMF the penalty that was given we have had worse than that turned down and that is what is so annoying.

My man of the match was yet again Osborn.

:roll:

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Magic Man Fan
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Wed Feb 23, 2005 8:43 pm

WS1 - Where did I say the officials weren't crap? I just said the pen was a pen which it was. I don't think we had a clear pen shout last night.

And as wfc_2uk says, we were very fortunate not to concede an obvious penalty against MK on Sat. You win some, you lose some.

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WS1
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Wed Feb 23, 2005 9:19 pm

MMF there have been a few blatent penalties that we should have had this season, thats what I was referring to.

Cast your mind back to the home game against Doncaster Rovers, two we should have had one on Jorge Leitao and another on Matty Fryatt.

Not having a dig at you just making my comments on the match at Luton Town.

8)

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Thu Feb 24, 2005 1:57 pm

MMF,
An extremely accurate and well balanced report in my opinion, as most of your reports are.

I think that a point would have been a richly deserved outcome from last Tuesday, because the game was very much a game of two halves,with Luton dominating proceedings in the first half, with ourselves reducing Luton to kick and rush tactics throughout the majority of the second half.

I was very encouraged by the whole hearted performances of Surman & Kris Taylor in midfield, who threw themselves into every tackle. Simon Osborn was outstanding.The last three games he has played, (even with an injured foot!) , have been the best performances I have seen from him.

The frustrating part about watching the team on Tuesday was the thought that, if we had displayed anything like the same amount of commitment & determination in earlier matches,we might have been nicely tucked in the Play Off places by now,& have enjoyed a Cup run to boot!

One very disappointing factor was the last ten minutes however.
For 35 minutes of the second half, we were totally dominant, & Luton didn't have a clue how to worry us.Suddenly,like a light bulb being switched off, we became nervous, yielded mdifield possession,camped on our own 18 yard box,& started hoofing the ball away in a seemingly panic stricken fashion.
Luton suddenly realised that they might get something & began to exert more pressure. This downward spiral resulted in our absorbing even more pressure &, inevitably, losing the late goal.

I was too far away to see if it was a penalty, & haven't seen the TV highlights, but there didn't seem a huge appeal from the Luton players at the time , so am willing to accept that we might have been hard done by, especially by the "homer" referee who gave them everything. Mind you, MK should have had at least one penalty last week, so win some lose some.

No. My concern here is what suddenly happens to us 10 minutes from time.
Why surrender the initiative when we are operating perfectly well ? It happens time afterr time. After all, Bristol City hit the woodwork in the last minute after we froze and retreated once again.
Am I alone in being so frustrated when we change our entire mindset with ten minutes to go & surrender the initiative? How many goals, & points, has this cost us over the last couple of seasons?

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geoffwhiting
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Fri Feb 25, 2005 12:49 am

Well I'd say the last-ten-minute syndrome hit us very hard last season, but this season it's hardly been apparent at all - so although it might have happened at Luton, I'm rather surprised that you've related it to the rest of the current season.

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