Yeovil Town (Away) League 1 Saturday 9/8/08.

[Gaz the Train]

1st point on the board and given that its the start of the season where there is no real form and its a bit edgy the first few weeks, I'll take an away point happily.

[saddlerken]

a solid start :D

[Wendy Mumford]

Don't get too excited. Today we were cack. Yes 2nd half we were better, but Yeovil are one of the favourites for relegation. Ricketts and Jabo are too similar. Roberts is a donkey and makes Roper look like Alan Hansen. Mullen left it too late to make changes. Overall first impressions, very poor, MULLEN OUT!

[dobbster71]

Well, after the doom & gloom surrounding the early part of the close season, I'm very happy to begin the long journey of this season with a point. A new team, 1 goal down away from home, that was a test & we've come through it. There's obviously a good spirit within the camp already. Credit to Mullen & Schofield.
Of course, we'll have to see how the home form is before solid judgement can be made but we should have an even stronger team in the coming weeks.
Can't wait for my 2 home games of this season, Southend & Orient.
UTS

[walsall606]

Overall first impressions, very poor, MULLEN OUT!

Give the guy a chance

[OldPenkSaddler]

A bit of a disappointing day all round.

Nightmare traffic on the way down meant we were about 20 minutes late getting in but at least we missed their goal.
What I saw of the rest of the first half through the driving rain in our eyes I thought we were very average.

A very big improvement in the second half. Sitter missed in the first minute and then Jabo reacted well to a poor backpass to equalise. We then basically bombarded them but without creating any other clear cut chances. We desperately need someone who can score out of nothing.

2 points lost rather than a point gained for me as Yeovil will be relegation fodder but a decent start.

Hope Dynamo Zuffle and his mates have got home OK as I know that they had a tyre blow out on the way back as we stopped for them as they were waiting for the AA

Shergal Farkey Rules OK.

[dinkydotsaddler]

I love Jeff Stelling - he supports a lower league club and is honest in his response to things. When Hartlepool score he can hardly contain himself and when they concede he is gutted. He is brilliant!!! The simple answer is if you don't like him don't watch the programme. If he were a Leeds fan I simply wouldn't watch I wouldn't spend my time bloody moaning about i!!! The James Brown doll is fab - not sure what is funnier, Jeff singing when JB scores or the doll!!!! As for today's result - it'll do as long as we build on it. I wasn't there so I can't comment on the performance - would love to think it was great!!!!

UP THE SADDLERS!!!!!!!!!! COME ON MULLEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[WFC_Rob]

Just got back from the game.

Our starting line up came as a bit of a shock, with Sansara playing ahead of Boertein who looked fully fit and Taundry playing instead of Mattis even though Bradley looked fine doing a bit of training with Deeney and Schofield. The weather was horrible to say the least, with us feeling the brunt of it as the rain lashed into our faces in the uncovered stand behind the goal.

To be honest, I thought we started reasonably well. Our willingness to try to keep the ball in difficult conditions proved tricky at times, and we were unlucky to go behind. Glass being half-empty, I'd say that Roberts missed a long ball which left their forward free to square the ball across for a tap-in. In his defence however, the wind had the ball moving all over the place, and the ball was skidding off the turf allowing for a lot of misjudgement.
They kept us under a bit of pressure after the goal and we struggled a bit to get into the game, with Ince having to make one great save from a Warne header. Whilst we weren't playing poorly as a team, Taundry had struggled to get into the game and Nicholls couldn't beat his man for toffee. They'd soon singled Palmer's height out as a weakness they could exploit - the fact that he often doesn't even challenge for aerial balls often gives his man that extra yard of space to get the ball under control.

We began the second half -pretty well as the conditions seemed to work with us rather than against us. Ibehre ran his socks off down the channels as he had been in the first half, but had more support from the midfield allowing us to get a fair few more balls into the box.
Ricketts missed a one on one after being played in by Ibehre, where he seemed to have all the time in the world after beating the offside trap.
Ibehre's goal was a bit fortunate as a short backpass by their defender allowed him to poke the ball past their 'keeper, but he'll make his own luck this season through sheer persistence as he did today.
One pleasing aspect of the game was the way we looked to hold the ball up front, get it wide and look to attack inviting balls into the box. Zaaboub certainly demonstrated his ability to whip some great balls into the box from both open play and corners.
We were by far the better side in the second half and arguably could have won the game.

In terms of a man of the match, I'd go for Ibehre closely followed by Sansara. Those Yeovil defenders will sleep well tonight after the time Ibehre gave them for pretty much the whole game. He's quick and really strong, earning our goal through sheer hard work. On today's display, Sansara will be the next product of our youth system to be sold on for big money - he looked very composed, strong in the tackle and not afraid to make forward runs to support attacks.

I don't think Yeovil will be pulling up many trees this season, but a draw in nightmare conditions at their place is a decent achievement even if it could have been more on another day.

[motty]

traffic was a joke missed half an hour of the game but glad i went! when my m8s an me sung singin i i ishy ishy i, an some fans replied singin lionel richies got one eye you are a legend whoever u are!. i would also like to congratulate all the fans like me an my m8s who was ribbin there goalkeeper we really put his nerves on edge an it had an impact on his game well done super saddlers!

[big baz 1]

Overall first impressions, very poor, MULLEN OUT!

Give the guy a chance

I agree , wendy its ridiculous ot say that after just 1 game in the league. He has to be given a chance and more time has brought a lot of new players and they need to gel together and they need to get used to mullen. I am very confident that mullen and this new look walsall team will be in the thick of the promotion race come the end of the season.

[tinned]

Overall first impressions, very poor, MULLEN OUT!

Give the guy a chance

I agree , wendy its ridiculous ot say that after just 1 game in the league. He has to be given a chance and more time has brought a lot of new players and they need to gel together and they need to get used to mullen. I am very confident that mullen and this new look walsall team will be in the thick of the promotion race come the end of the season.

Congratulations Wendy. One day into the season and you're already two wooshes to the good :wink:

[walsall606]

Overall first impressions, very poor, MULLEN OUT!

Give the guy a chance

I agree , wendy its ridiculous ot say that after just 1 game in the league. He has to be given a chance and more time has brought a lot of new players and they need to gel together and they need to get used to mullen. I am very confident that mullen and this new look walsall team will be in the thick of the promotion race come the end of the season.

Well said big baz! also we still have Mattis, Weston and Bradley to comeback and Ricketts , Hughes, Reich, Boertein are not fully fit

[YGA Saddler]

Well like OPS said we missed the first 20 mins so I will let others give you their opinion on that but I thought we did ok. Considering Roberts, Boertein, Hughes, Reich and Ricketts all look like they need a few more games to get match fit. I feel we badly missed Mattis today eventhough Taundry did ok.

Ince- Didnt have much to do. Certainly looked more composed than Begovic :lol:
Palmer- Was a little unsure at first but he did well in the second half, still prefer Weston.
Roberts- He's either not match fit or he is just as slow as Roper. He struggled in the first half and Gerrard had to help him out a few times.
Gerrard- Solid as normal
Satsuma- Was probably my MOTM. Was composed and wanted to get forward.
Nicholls- put in a few decent crosses but I still dont like him in that position.
Hughes- Was clearly unfit but did make a few good long passes. I just wish he would open his mouth a but more.
Taundry- Did ok but not outstanding. Lost possession a few times.
Ricketts- I hope he improves when he gets fit. He seemed like the Ricketts of old, missing a sitter and not looking interested.
Ibehre- Maybe it was the beer at Burton but he seemed a totally different player today. Everything stuck to him and he took his goal well.

All the subs didnt really have chance to impress. Reich, Boertein nor Ishy were on long enough to make an impact.

All in all a decent point, although Id expect most teams that go to Yeovil this year will leave with 3 points. Relegation fodder.

[walsallforprem]

I went today and thought we should have easily won. We were all over them like a rash in the second half and had them pegged back in there half for the last 15 minutes. This is my analysis of the players today:

Clayton Ince- Fairly solid made a decent save before Timlin tapped in to score. I suppose he could have parryed the ball somewhere else but the shot was quite powerful. Kicking was same as usual.

Chris Palmer- Had an average game but looked fairly comfortable overall. Had some nice touches here and there and played many good balls into the strikers. Sometimes lost possesion though on the odd occasion which maybe the conditions didn't help. Looked very pacey and his deliveries from some free-kicks with both feet were very good.

Steven Roberts- Imo worst player on the pitch. It was his mistake for the goal by letting the player who had the shot leading up to the goal. Wasn't tight enough to his man and wasn't comfortable in the air. Overall a very poor game. What i noticed a lot was his lack of pace.

Antony Gerrard- Wasn't really troubled and played like his normal self. I'm a bit concerned with his and Roberts partnership, i think Gerrard was a bit uncomfortable playing along side him. A CB definintley needed. Overall fairly solid.

Netan Sansara- Had a great game being his first competitive start. Didn't really look at all out of depth. Played some nice one,two touch passing with zaaboub and hughes. He made one or two good crosses and didn't get taken on at all. Put some good tackles in aswell. Was a very promising performance for him.

Alex Nicholls- Was a bit in and out of the game throughout the match but came alive in the second half the more the game went on. Gave the ball away a few times and didn't really attack the LB with his pace which he should have been. He only did this towards the end. Still very encouraging though.

Stephen Hughes- He had a very solid game. Was always open to receive the ball all the time and distributed the ball very well considering the conditions. Also not 100% fit so can only get better. He covered a lot of ground and put some great tackles all over the pitch. I think he would have been even better if he had someone with more experience in the middle than Taundry with him. He is a very key player for us this season.

Richard Taundry- Had a fairly poor game and felt we needed someone more mobile like mattis in the centre with Hughes. He wasn't really mobile enough in the middle of the park. He got stuck in with some great slide tackles and no one can fault his effort but when we had possession there wasn't really enough opitions. I thought he didn't have the best of games but he also isn't fully fit so he didn't play terribly.

Sofiane Zaaboub- Was also in and out the game like Nicholls but i thought that he was one of the only players who looked like creating something. His crosses and deliveries from corners and on the wing were of a very high standard. Tracked back aswell to help Sansara out aswell and showed some very nice touches. Took on his man and broke away from the midfield attacking the defenders. In this position though i felt he could have done a little bit better to play in Jabo.

Jabo Ibrehe- Many people complained when Mullen brought him to teh club but i think he could be one of the signings of the season. His hold up play is so good and every game i've seen him play in inc pre-season he has done it so well. Thoroughly deserved his goal latching onto a mis-judged pass back to the keeper. Will do his confidence wonders and hopefully can fire a few more in now.

Michael Ricketts- I know some people will disagree and think he's a lazy so and so but i thought he did alright today. He made some nice link-up play in the first half with Jabo and held up the ball well like Jabo also. He only had one real chance all game and it happened to be the best one of the whole of the game. He was through one on one played in by Hughes i think and had plenty of time to slot it passed the keeper but took to long over it and hit it straight at him. It really was begging to be put away and with his finishing ability it really should've been put away. Plenty more to come from him though i'm sure.

Subs-

Boertien- Came on with about 15 mins probably less. Looked very threatening and helped keep the pressure on in the last minutes. Didn't have any defending to do though.

Marco Reich- Came on with about 10 minutes left and didn't really have long enough to make a judgement of him. He got stuck in straight away but his decision making in his passing could've been better making the worng pass on one or two occasions. There was once right near the end when he could've had a shot on goal from 20-25 yards but elected to play it out wide. I'm still thinking what if? :)

Ishmel Demontagnac- Injury time sub, touched the ball only a few times. His name was being chanted by us fans for much of the second half but JM didn't bring him on till the end when he didn't have chance to do anything.

Overall a very encouraging display. Every player had a fairly good game apart from two disapointments in Roberts and Taundry. Sansara or Jabo would have got my MOTM or maybe Hughes. Yeovil looked an average side but there squad really is paper thin and they won't have any replacements for Injuries/suspensions etc other than youth players. We were by far the better side from our second half display where we were all over them for most of the half. I think the first half was fairly even but our second half display should've won us the game. We basically made one mistake which they scored off and that was there only real chance apart from a header Incey tipped over the bar. Anything can happen in teh first match od the season no matter who you face but i'm afraid to say it is two points dropped but an away draw is still an ok result. If we go into our next two home games positive and coem out with the results we will be off and running. Was a good game apart from standing up in the rain and the freezing cold. But what other way would i want to spend my Saturday. :D

[big baz 1]

Overall first impressions, very poor, MULLEN OUT!

Give the guy a chance

I agree , wendy its ridiculous ot say that after just 1 game in the league. He has to be given a chance and more time has brought a lot of new players and they need to gel together and they need to get used to mullen. I am very confident that mullen and this new look walsall team will be in the thick of the promotion race come the end of the season.

Congratulations Wendy. One day into the season and you're already two wooshes to the good :wink:

That isnt a wooshy fishy

[Graydon48]

Did anyone see Tony Adams at Yeovil today.
Was quite funny the Stewards didn't want to let him onto the carpark because his name wasn't on their list.
Wonder who he came to run the rule over.
Ps was driving 53 reg Merc thought Pompey would at least get him a new one !

[Graydon48]

Excellent result IMHO, and a big turn around to dominate the game throughout the second half after being second best by some distance up to half-time. Even sounds like we ought to have won it in the end. Mick Kearns suggested the wind was well in our favour in the second-half and influenced the game. Is it ever NOT windy at Huish Park? :?

An away point on the opening day is a good start, so well done to all concerned.

Geoff did you go to Yeovil ?
The first half was pretty even I would even go as far to say we shaded it.
We certainly had more possesion than them just lacked that cutting edge in the final third. I might be wrong perhaps your just boycotting home games but I doubt you was at Yeovil today so how can you comment on our 1st half performance ?

[WFC_Rob]

Excellent result IMHO, and a big turn around to dominate the game throughout the second half after being second best by some distance up to half-time. Even sounds like we ought to have won it in the end. Mick Kearns suggested the wind was well in our favour in the second-half and influenced the game. Is it ever NOT windy at Huish Park? :?

An away point on the opening day is a good start, so well done to all concerned.

Geoff did you go to Yeovil ?
The first half was pretty even I would even go as far to say we shaded it.
We certainly had more possesion than them just lacked that cutting edge in the final third. I might be wrong perhaps your just boycotting home games but I doubt you was at Yeovil today so how can you comment on our 1st half performance ?

Does it really matter whether he was there or not? Enough people have been able to report back from the game to suggest that we weren't exactly the better side in the first half.
I think it's fair to say that given the fact that their goal and a magnificent save from Ince came in the first half, whilst the best we could muster was a header wide from a corner, they perhaps just shaded it. That's not to say we played badly though - those conditions were a nightmare.

[Manchester Saddler]

Thats my problem. Ok we know hes a hartlepool fan, but by God doesnt he let us know EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I. TUNE. IN. Its like hes got something to prove, like hes one of those people who thinks they are better than other football fans because they support a lower league team, and there are a vast majority who are arm chair glory hunters.

I sense Im making a stick to be beaten with here, so Im going to politely make my point and then respectfully drop it. As well as the point made above, I feel quite sad watching him, as I get the feeling he wants to be 'one of the lads'. Watching a man of his age play around with that james brown doll today made me cringe.

In short: I dont mind him trying to inject humour into his show, its just never particuarly good humour and kind of leaves me wishing they hadnt. Ok, point made. End of my comments on the subject.

Well allow me just to make one comment (well maybe two or three) ...

If I were in his position I would be plugging Walsall every single minute. I would let the whole world know my allegiance if at all possible. I would give merson stick every chance I could for the poor mangement job he did - I would be a smug git every single time Walsall scored. I would dismiss the so-called "important" games as being poo compared to the Walsall game. In short I would be far far far worse than Mr Stelling.

Once again - I salute him. The only reason he isn't a true legend is the fact that he doesn't support the mighty Saddlers. Hartlepool fans must be proud.

[Graydon48]

Excellent result IMHO, and a big turn around to dominate the game throughout the second half after being second best by some distance up to half-time. Even sounds like we ought to have won it in the end. Mick Kearns suggested the wind was well in our favour in the second-half and influenced the game. Is it ever NOT windy at Huish Park? :?

An away point on the opening day is a good start, so well done to all concerned.

Geoff did you go to Yeovil ?
The first half was pretty even I would even go as far to say we shaded it.
We certainly had more possesion than them just lacked that cutting edge in the final third. I might be wrong perhaps your just boycotting home games but I doubt you was at Yeovil today so how can you comment on our 1st half performance ?

Does it really matter whether he was there or not? Enough people have been able to report back from the game to suggest that we weren't exactly the better side in the first half.
I think it's fair to say that given the fact that their goal and a magnificent save from Ince came in the first half, whilst the best we could muster was a header wide from a corner, they perhaps just shaded it. That's not to say we played badly though - those conditions were a nightmare.

The time of Geoffs post was before people had got back if you want to nick pick.
I respect Geoffs decision not to go this season, but in fact I can remember one of his posts saying he doubted if he would even bother to look out for our results this season. That was the reason for my response to his comment on our 1st half performance.

[geoffwhiting]

Excellent result IMHO, and a big turn around to dominate the game throughout the second half after being second best by some distance up to half-time. Even sounds like we ought to have won it in the end. Mick Kearns suggested the wind was well in our favour in the second-half and influenced the game. Is it ever NOT windy at Huish Park? :?

An away point on the opening day is a good start, so well done to all concerned.

Geoff did you go to Yeovil ?
The first half was pretty even I would even go as far to say we shaded it.
We certainly had more possesion than them just lacked that cutting edge in the final third. I might be wrong perhaps your just boycotting home games but I doubt you was at Yeovil today so how can you comment on our 1st half performance ?

Does it really matter whether he was there or not? Enough people have been able to report back from the game to suggest that we weren't exactly the better side in the first half.
I think it's fair to say that given the fact that their goal and a magnificent save from Ince came in the first half, whilst the best we could muster was a header wide from a corner, they perhaps just shaded it. That's not to say we played badly though - those conditions were a nightmare.

The time of Geoffs post was before people had got back if you want to nick pick.
I respect Geoffs decision not to go this season, but in fact I can remember one of his posts saying he doubted if he would even bother to look out for our results this season. That was the reason for my response to his comment on our 1st half performance.

No problem Graydon48 - no I wasn't there but I based my comments on what was said on WM by Mick Kearns and the WM commentator, who both made it sound like we were poor, getting over-run in midfield and therefore rarely in it first half. They described the 2nd half as a complete transformation and said we totally dominated.

Obviously different people see it different ways, so it's interesting to read the views of those who were actually there today, and most I've read seem to support the WM view.

I have to say I would usually be glued to Saddlers World on days like today, but never felt inclined to stay by the PC today, just grabbing the summaries. Maybe my previous level of interest will return, maybe not, but it sure ain't there at the moment and no sign of it coming back just yet.

[ws3]

Quick questions to those of you that missed the kick off. Which way did you go and what time did you leave?

We left at half ten and got off at J23. We got to the ground at about 2:15.

[Duke]

2 points dropped maybe , but taking everything into consideration , first game of a new season , away from home , key payers not yet match fit , poor weather conditions i'm reasonably pleased with the result .

it will take time we will get better

[Leonard]

According to the Yeovil supporters, Tony Adams was there with the Portsmouth goalkeeping coach to watch Ince. Keep your hands off matey!

Of course, the fact that Yeovil's keeper is on loan from Portsmouth could have something to do with it. :wink:

[Graydon48]

Quick questions to those of you that missed the kick off. Which way did you go and what time did you leave?

We left at half ten and got off at J23. We got to the ground at about 2:15.

Left at 7.00 pm Friday night, nice steady drive down arrived 9.30pm stopped in the wonderful Green Room in Yeovil. nice relaxing morning in Yeovil got to ground at 1.30.
Now thats the way to do it.

[bleed_red_n_white]

Bit of a bad day all round ruined by RIDICLIOUS traffic it took us over 4 hours to get there, and horrible weather conditions. The big dissapointment for me was Ricketts who never looked at the races for me, i will hold my hands up and appologise about mny missjudgment about jabba who i thought would never cut it but he was superb yesterday and it was a pitty nobody was up there with him, shocked to see mattis not even in the team, Taundry i felt was abit "on n off" so too was nicholls but he still played with his never say die attitude and kept ploddin on in the game which pleased me, i think this could be his year. Im not impressed with Roberts i think the centre back area could be a problem this year, the defence IMO isnt as strong as last years, my personal man of the match was Zaaboub who looked quality and sending endless dangerous crosses into there box and he can take a good corner, alot of people were knockin Palmer yesterday but he puts quite a few superb long 60 yards passes to feed zaaboub which was causing them endless problems, on the whole we started badly but we shown the willingness to fight back which in those conditions we could of easily folded and really we should of won the game, but too me a point away from home and the first day of the season is always a good result.

[Registered Saddler]

Summer Saturday southbound traffic on the M5 = awful. Put it down as a lesson learned. And I'm sure yesterday's weather was just a light breeze in comparison to last season's hurricane.

[Exile]

Match report now on the front page. Thanks metfan!

http://upthesaddlers.com/wp/archives/2008/08/10/yeovil-match-report-planes-trains-automobiles/

[m&m]

Left at 11am which was probably too late and arrived as the roar went up for their goal.Got off the M5 at Bristol but then crawled through Bath then Shepton Mallet where we stopped to get fuel.A Vicky Pollard type who served us seemed to have never heard of Yeovil when asked how long it would take from there.
We were all cursing whoever gave us this awful opening day fixture during the main holiday season!
Still glad I made it though as there are very encouraging signs for the new season.We really sould have won this one as we totally dominated a poor Yeovil side.My only real complaints are that we seemed to ease off after getting the equaliser when they were there for the taking and the lack of long range efforts in the second half.We seemed to want to walk it in.I would also have liked to see Ishy a little earlier than the 90th minute.

[WFC_Rob]

I would also have liked to see Ishy a little earlier than the 90th minute.

I would agree if it wasn't for the fact that Zaaboub was having a good game and getting a fair few crosses in. There's always a case to be made for bringing Ishmel on up front (as Mullen eventually did), but even when he plays there, he still finds himself wide on that side most of the time.
He could well start on Tuesday though, depending on whether or not Mullen is the sort of manager to mix things up a bit in the cup competitions.