Chesterfield (A) League 1 Saturday 17/12/11.

[brackley]

"Peterlin - who?
Chambers - see Peterlin - if Peterlin and Chambers are the answer, what on earth was the question?"

DS singled them out for special praise "Pets and Chambo", apparently.

Got to say I thought they were ok......... they got behind the ball and defeded resolutely and also played the ball around into the right areas without making any glaring mistakes - they were just ok........

The bigger problem as it has been all season is up front. Without any question Paterson frightens the life out of defenders with his pace and the fact that he is prepared to run at them - he is without doubt one major plus that has emerged since the start of the season.........the movement of Nicholls and Macken off the ball however is weak, which is where it falls down time and time again and is reflected by our goals scored tally to date.

We need an Ibehra or Ricketts (in his prime) type centre forward for Nicholls and Paterson to play off..........someone who can hold the ball up, give their back-line a game and have pace and an eye for where the goal is..........

If we can add this player to the team our results will be far different. Everything breaks down in the final third as we dont have a cutting edge....... we can always muster a goal but this is simply not enough of a lead to defend and then expect to take home 3 points, we needed a second goal yesterday to put the game beyond them and we just dont have it in the locker!!

[Jonmarlow]

"Peterlin - who?
Chambers - see Peterlin - if Peterlin and Chambers are the answer, what on earth was the question?"

DS singled them out for special praise "Pets and Chambo", apparently.

Got to say I thought they were ok......... they got behind the ball and defeded resolutely and also played the ball around into the right areas without making any glaring mistakes - they were just ok........

The bigger problem as it has been all season is up front. Without any question Paterson frightens the life out of defenders with his pace and the fact that he is prepared to run at them - he is without doubt one major plus that has emerged since the start of the season.........the movement of Nicholls and Macken off the ball however is weak, which is where it falls down time and time again and is reflected by our goals scored tally to date.

We need an Ibehra or Ricketts (in his prime) type centre forward for Nicholls and Paterson to play off..........someone who can hold the ball up, give their back-line a game and have pace and an eye for where the goal is..........



If we can add this player to the team our results will be far different. Everything breaks down in the final third as we dont have a cutting edge....... we can always muster a goal but this is simply not enough of a lead to defend and then expect to take home 3 points, we needed a second goal yesterday to put the game beyond them and we just dont have it in the locker!!

Jp is not a striker he is not a good enough finisher to be a striker and floats about to much, he is a winger or left or rightside forward, and yes he does run at players and scares them a bit, but he also makes slot of bad decisions in games with his final ball and doesn't do the simple thing enough, I like the lad and he is a good player but he needs to start doing the basics better and he will go on and play at a higher level but not as a striker!!! Walsall have got a good goalscorer in Bowerman who has scored alot of goals for the reserves and 2 at senior level which is only 2 behind Nichols who is walsall leading scorer and again not a goalscorer the lad just need to be given an opportunity from the start it is no gods keep throwing the lad on for 10 or 15 min when Walsall little bit of creativity they have got has gone due to tired legs? I think if you look at bowermans recored for preseason, reserves and firsteam he has something like 14 goals!!!!!! There is not another player at Walsall close to that. Should we be giving this young lad a start instead of keep playing players on name and not playing them on merritt

[belgiansaddler]

Chatting to a Chesterfield an beore the game and he was moaning about going to Fellows Park, seeing Ernie Moss score a hatrick and we still beat them 4-3 :D

Remember that match well, think it was on Star Soccer as well.

[Duke]

Relegation

Without any doubt .

[portlandbill]

What is interesting is as bad as they are they get similar gates to what we attracted in the Championship when we had some really good players, and good local derbies

[We-ARE-Walsall]

deleted double post.

[We-ARE-Walsall]

"Peterlin - who?
Chambers - see Peterlin - if Peterlin and Chambers are the answer, what on earth was the question?"

DS singled them out for special praise "Pets and Chambo", apparently.

Got to say I thought they were ok......... they got behind the ball and defeded resolutely and also played the ball around into the right areas without making any glaring mistakes - they were just ok........

The bigger problem as it has been all season is up front. Without any question Paterson frightens the life out of defenders with his pace and the fact that he is prepared to run at them - he is without doubt one major plus that has emerged since the start of the season.........the movement of Nicholls and Macken off the ball however is weak, which is where it falls down time and time again and is reflected by our goals scored tally to date.

We need an Ibehra or Ricketts (in his prime) type centre forward for Nicholls and Paterson to play off..........someone who can hold the ball up, give their back-line a game and have pace and an eye for where the goal is..........

If we can add this player to the team our results will be far different. Everything breaks down in the final third as we dont have a cutting edge....... we can always muster a goal but this is simply not enough of a lead to defend and then expect to take home 3 points, we needed a second goal yesterday to put the game beyond them and we just dont have it in the locker!!

Although there are some good points in there, I think there are a fair few wrongs too.

Firstly, if a side like Walsall is going to do well, it needs to be able to win games 1-0, Graydon did it to such an extent, the majority of our wins were 1-0, especially away from home. Money's sides did the same. Not that I expect anything like the results those to got, but the way we go about things should be the same. The game was there to be won Saturday, regardless of if we had more fire power (which we do clearly need no doubt) A Graydon, or a Money, would have seen that game out for a win 9 times out of 10, where as it seems inevitable the equaliser will come with this side, alot of the time down to poor decisions by the manager, who to be fair is still learning his trade, but needs to start to get a grasp on it quickly now.,

You want a striker who can play up front, hold the ball up, have pace, and an eye for goal, if we had 40millon to spend , we still may struggle to find someone like that. All those attributes make an all round striker, which every club in the land would die for. Macken is more than capable of holding the ball up, and bringing players in, infact I doubt we would find anyone better at it. He doesn't have the muscle of a Jabo, but you can't have everything in a lower league player, he certainly is far more intelligent footballer. Problem is, his age, and the niggling injurys he picks up, we have no one else like that. + he has been a little bit out of sorts recently.

First thing is first, and the soft late goals we are conceeding need to be stopped. Had we done this over the past few weeks, we would now be in the FA Cup 3rd round, and have an extra 2 points on the board from Saturday. The signing of Jarvis,was a huge boo, boo, and used up vital recources on a complete nothing footballer, when blending in Bowerman, and Paterson, who really seem to have something about them, would have been far better, and actually signing a half decent center midfielder.

[Registered Saddler]

Totally agree with those comments Blazing. The match was there to be won in the first half when we should have opened them up more often. But even in the second half we could have held out if only the manager knew how to churn out a Graydon-esque 1-0. We've failed to do it at the worst team in our division and the worst team in the division below. It doesn't look hopefuly that he's going to learn that most vital of managerial tasks at any point soon.

Couple of extra comments that haven't been mentioned above. Peterlin - set up our goal with a sweet through ball and set up our second best chance which Macken fluffed. He was anonymous? Baffling. What's he got to do to earn a proper run in the team, preferably without Taundry getting in the way?
Paterson - has potential but is just not getting the right coaching at the moment. He had a lot of the ball in the first half and didn't know whether he should run, pass, cut inside, cross it. He needs better input otherwise his talent is going to be wasted.
Halliday - so he's now behind Nicholls, Paterson, Taundry, possibly Hurst and Gnakpa when it comes to wingers in the current squad? Terrific signing, really great use of funds :roll:
Walker - he's, what, 37 years old, right? And he's still getting booked for time wasting? And how often has that time wasting helped us this year? And how often has it just wound the home crowd up and sparked them into getting behind their team? Grow up. The sooner he retires the better IMO. Behaves like a silly little boy.

[Pedagogue]

Peterlin - set up our goal with a sweet through ball and set up our second best chance which Macken fluffed. He was anonymous? Baffling. What's he got to do to earn a proper run in the team, preferably without Taundry getting in the way?

It is true that he created our only two chances of the match ... but he did little else - and Chambers did even less. However, in my original post I did defend all our midfield players (including Taundry! :mrgreen: ) by expressing sympathy for having to play in front of a "hoofball" defence and goalkeeper. This is the root cause of our problems. I could not believe my ears when, three times in the second half against Dagenham & Redbridge, I heard Deano praising Butler for hoofing the ball aimlessly upfield, to arrive at head height (or higher) to a Walsall striker who stood no chance of controlling it. The ball then came straight back at us. We play with the tactics of a Sunday morning pub team - and a poor one at that! :evil:

Paterson - has potential but is just not getting the right coaching at the moment. He had a lot of the ball in the first half and didn't know whether he should run, pass, cut inside, cross it. He needs better input otherwise his talent is going to be wasted.

He is wasted out wide. We need him in opponents' penalty-areas where, if he didn't score, he would win us some penalties (oh, hang on, I've just spotted a problem with that! :( )

Halliday - so he's now behind Nicholls, Paterson, Taundry, possibly Hurst and Gnakpa when it comes to wingers in the current squad? Terrific signing, really great use of funds :roll:

Agreed

Walker - he's, what, 37 years old, right? And he's still getting booked for time wasting? And how often has that time wasting helped us this year? And how often has it just wound the home crowd up and sparked them into getting behind their team? Grow up ... Behaves like a silly little boy.

Agreed.

[Aldridge_saddler]

Just watched the highlights and noticed the following;

Our defensive positioning is terrible, 8 men on the 18yard line or something?
Nicholls has yet again proved that he can score goals with the correct service.

Chambers or Peterlin are to blame for not closing down the initial shot quick enough, how many times has this happened now? 3 or 4 to my recollection. I still think we wont go down this season but we need to learn the basics. For instance;

Close down your men - CM's should prevent shots and fullbacks should prevent crosses. I don't have enough hands to count the number of times Chambers drops into the back four allowing their players a free pass/shot.

Do not dive in - too many times our wingers dive in for challenges and the opposition full back gets a free pass to another player.

Keep the ball - Every time we get the ball we don't have to be looking to score, we are not playing 5-a-side for crying out loud! Bore the hell out of the opposition with 20 side passesI don't care just keep the damn thing(somewhere I believe Peterlin is an asset)! every minute we have the ball is a minute they don't!

Don't rush/Force passes - Football is 90 mins there is no need to get the perfect hollywood ball every time.

On the deck! - Unfortunately our defence do not have the intelligence to play a good ball out of defence, however saying that there is no movement to initiate a pass.

[brummie saddler]

Just watched the highlights and noticed the following;

Our defensive positioning is terrible, 8 men on the 18yard line or something?
Nicholls has yet again proved that he can score goals with the correct service.

Chambers or Peterlin are to blame for not closing down the initial shot quick enough, how many times has this happened now? 3 or 4 to my recollection. I still think we wont go down this season but we need to learn the basics. For instance;

Close down your men - CM's should prevent shots and fullbacks should prevent crosses. I don't have enough hands to count the number of times Chambers drops into the back four allowing their players a free pass/shot.

Do not dive in - too many times our wingers dive in for challenges and the opposition full back gets a free pass to another player.

Keep the ball - Every time we get the ball we don't have to be looking to score, we are not playing 5-a-side for crying out loud! Bore the hell out of the opposition with 20 side passesI don't care just keep the damn thing(somewhere I believe Peterlin is an asset)! every minute we have the ball is a minute they don't!

Don't rush/Force passes - Football is 90 mins there is no need to get the perfect hollywood ball every time.

On the deck! - Unfortunately our defence do not have the intelligence to play a good ball out of defence, however saying that there is no movement to initiate a pass.

makes you wonder just what the hell is going on at training and team talks.

[nottmsaddler]

Immensely disappointing but, somehow, inevitable. We lost out on our opportunity by not yaking full advantage of Chesterfield's awful first half performance. I was baffled by Smith's decisions regarding substitutions. Patterson should be doing 90 minutes unless he's injured as he's the only one in the squad with both pace and ball control. Having him and Nicholls on the pitch surely must be good, especially away from home. Grigg was anonymous and with Macken going off as well as Patterson we had little cohesion up front. Surely Bowerman should have replaced Macken.

Oh, and as regards Peterlin; whilst acknowledging he has no pace and is about as defensively solid as a candyfloss wall, if he's given the opportunity he can pick a pass. I think it was his through ball that led to Nicholls scoring and he was also responsible for the pass that set up Macken to shoot just wide in the first half.

Similar to how I saw it and I think the reaction to Saturday is OTT and based more on Tuesday's performance. First half Saturday was pretty good and received a deserved applause but for whatever reason, we (Smith) decided to sit back and defend rather than go for a another goal which would have killed them off because they looked like they lacked confidence early on but we gave them some by allowing the entire second half to be played in the final third. And we still defended well for most of it until a somewhat lucky deflection went straight to Lester. But it was inevitable given the fact we gave them so much of the ball. But had they not scored we would have been celebrating wildly so it was interesting to see how the goal changed the atmosphere so much. And how much better the support was generally compared to that at home games.

As for centre midfield, I thought Chambers had a decent game and won the loose ball a lot especially first half. Peterlin had a poor game overall but still provided the two best passes of game for us and if Macken had scored, we would have been talking about that build up for months. They were not anonymous as the front page suggests although they did as much that was negative as positive (Peterlin especially) and I don't think the wide midfield offered much support defensively either.

But for me the three points were lost because we never held the ball up once in the second half. It came straight back every time (regardless of the forwards on the pitch at the time) and therefore we had to spend so much time chasing them and defending. We just don't have a striker who can hold the ball until others support him, or one who had the pace to get behind a defence. So we end up with neither happening and with us conceding possession too easily.

Until we sort that, the opposition will always get more chances (Dagenham?) and more goals more often than not. But I think there is still time to turn it around with a couple of decent loans and way too early to get Smith out at this stage. What are we going to do, keep swapping the manager every year because we are near the bottom? He got us out of it last year so he DOES know what he is doing and this squad is capable of more as we have seen in rare glimpses this season against the top sides.

[Registered Saddler]

Peterlin - set up our goal with a sweet through ball and set up our second best chance which Macken fluffed. He was anonymous? Baffling. What's he got to do to earn a proper run in the team, preferably without Taundry getting in the way?

It is true that he created our only two chances of the match ... but he did little else - and Chambers did even less. However, in my original post I did defend all our midfield players (including Taundry! :mrgreen: ) by expressing sympathy for having to play in front of a "hoofball" defence and goalkeeper. This is the root cause of our problems. I could not believe my ears when, three times in the second half against Dagenham & Redbridge, I heard Deano praising Butler for hoofing the ball aimlessly upfield, to arrive at head height (or higher) to a Walsall striker who stood no chance of controlling it. The ball then came straight back at us. We play with the tactics of a Sunday morning pub team - and a poor one at that! :evil:

There is some cause and effect here. I think the hoofball is an effect of the tactics, not the tactics themselves. If you watch the defenders then pretty much all of them (bar Smith) will try to play a pass if there's a pass on. They resort to long ball rubbish when there is no one available to take the ball off them. This could either be because: the midfield are scared of showing for the ball (Taundry/Nicholls when he's on the wing) or because they are dropping so deep that the opposition midfield can press high up the field, leaving no short option available. This is what happened in the last hour at Chesterfield. When Chambers, Nicholls and Macken were pressing the opposition in the first half, there was a lot more room for Peterlin to play the much-maligned Simon Osborn role and try to get on the ball in the middle, hence our goal.

I'm a rank amateur and even I can see what the problem is. As you say, it's Sunday league tactics.

[WFC_Rob]

He got us out of it last year so he DOES know what he is doing and this squad is capable of more as we have seen in rare glimpses this season against the top sides.

I'm starting to wonder if last season's heroics were as much down to him motivating a previously under-performing group of players as anything else.

This season, he has largely assembled his own group of players and many of his signings have shown so far that they don't have enough quality. Turning this season around will be a completely different task to what was required last year.

[We-ARE-Walsall]

He got us out of it last year so he DOES know what he is doing and this squad is capable of more as we have seen in rare glimpses this season against the top sides.

I'm starting to wonder if last season's heroics were as much down to him motivating a previously under-performing group of players as anything else.

This season, he has largely assembled his own group of players and many of his signings have shown so far that they don't have enough quality. Turning this season around will be a completely different task to what was required last year.

+ The squad we had at the end of last season, was much stronger than what we have now (in my opinion) Totally agree, the only way was up when he took over last year. Still did very well to even give us a chance in the end, but as you say, this season is a whole new ball game. He has already wasted loan signings, although Wilson was a good one. We need some quality in, in certain areas, and for Sml dith to start making better tactical decisions, otherwise, the inevitable will happen this time around.

[SheffieldSaddler]

Immensely disappointing but, somehow, inevitable. We lost out on our opportunity by not yaking full advantage of Chesterfield's awful first half performance. I was baffled by Smith's decisions regarding substitutions. Patterson should be doing 90 minutes unless he's injured as he's the only one in the squad with both pace and ball control. Having him and Nicholls on the pitch surely must be good, especially away from home. Grigg was anonymous and with Macken going off as well as Patterson we had little cohesion up front. Surely Bowerman should have replaced Macken.

Oh, and as regards Peterlin; whilst acknowledging he has no pace and is about as defensively solid as a candyfloss wall, if he's given the opportunity he can pick a pass. I think it was his through ball that led to Nicholls scoring and he was also responsible for the pass that set up Macken to shoot just wide in the first half.

Similar to how I saw it and I think the reaction to Saturday is OTT and based more on Tuesday's performance. First half Saturday was pretty good and received a deserved applause but for whatever reason, we (Smith) decided to sit back and defend rather than go for a another goal which would have killed them off because they looked like they lacked confidence early on but we gave them some by allowing the entire second half to be played in the final third. And we still defended well for most of it until a somewhat lucky deflection went straight to Lester. But it was inevitable given the fact we gave them so much of the ball. But had they not scored we would have been celebrating wildly so it was interesting to see how the goal changed the atmosphere so much. And how much better the support was generally compared to that at home games.

As for centre midfield, I thought Chambers had a decent game and won the loose ball a lot especially first half. Peterlin had a poor game overall but still provided the two best passes of game for us and if Macken had scored, we would have been talking about that build up for months. They were not anonymous as the front page suggests although they did as much that was negative as positive (Peterlin especially) and I don't think the wide midfield offered much support defensively either.

But for me the three points were lost because we never held the ball up once in the second half. It came straight back every time (regardless of the forwards on the pitch at the time) and therefore we had to spend so much time chasing them and defending. We just don't have a striker who can hold the ball until others support him, or one who had the pace to get behind a defence. So we end up with neither happening and with us conceding possession too easily.

Until we sort that, the opposition will always get more chances (Dagenham?) and more goals more often than not. But I think there is still time to turn it around with a couple of decent loans and way too early to get Smith out at this stage. What are we going to do, keep swapping the manager every year because we are near the bottom? He got us out of it last year so he DOES know what he is doing and this squad is capable of more as we have seen in rare glimpses this season against the top sides.

What?
You are suggesting that Smith "DOES know what he is doing"?
My god, please take off your rose tinted specs.

[belgiansaddler]

Didn't see you there Saturday Sheff? Or maybe you had been thrown out by the time I got in a la Doncaster :D

[tinned]

Didn't see you there Saturday Sheff? Or maybe you had been thrown out by the time I got in a la Doncaster :D

Wasn't it Donacaster where he went of his own accord (rather hastily), rather than chucked out? :D

[SheffieldSaddler]

Didn't see you there Saturday Sheff? Or maybe you had been thrown out by the time I got in a la Doncaster :D

Perhaps you had too much ale in the Derby Tup and had your ale tinted specs on instead of your usual rose tinted specs? :roll:

[SheffieldSaddler]

Didn't see you there Saturday Sheff? Or maybe you had been thrown out by the time I got in a la Doncaster :D

Wasn't it Donacaster where he went of his own accord (rather hastily), rather than chucked out? :D

You obviously wasnt there, either that or you are completely blind. :roll:

[belgiansaddler]

Didn't see you there Saturday Sheff? Or maybe you had been thrown out by the time I got in a la Doncaster :D

Wasn't it Donacaster where he went of his own accord (rather hastily), rather than chucked out? :D

Nah Tinned he was definately pushed before he could walk :wink:

He just seemed confused when the steward took objection to being insulted followed by the word 'FACT', and to make matters worse Sheff seemed to be trying to type on some sort of imaginary keyboard :D

So does that mean you were there on Saturday or not Sheff?

[We-ARE-Walsall]

Where did you go to Saturday Belg? You seemed to just disappear, cheers for the pint you left me though!

You fancy Bury ?

[addo]

Did anyone at the game see this ?

http://www.teamtalk.com/chesterfield/73 ... -FA-charge?

It's a bit of a sickener if it was a sending off offence that the ref missed, when the bloke went on to score the equaliser.

[belgiansaddler]

I left the majority under the stand and went back to watch the match :D

Yes I'll be at Bury. Just trying to work out if the trains are running normal that day. Probably be with a Man City supporting mate, show him some proper football :D

[We-ARE-Walsall]

I left the majority under the stand and went back to watch the match :D

Yes I'll be at Bury. Just trying to work out if the trains are running normal that day. Probably be with a Man City supporting mate, show him some proper football :D

Should be there mate, all being well. Look forward to seeing you there.

[SheffieldSaddler]

Didn't see you there Saturday Sheff? Or maybe you had been thrown out by the time I got in a la Doncaster :D

Wasn't it Donacaster where he went of his own accord (rather hastily), rather than chucked out? :D

Nah Tinned he was definately pushed before he could walk :wink:

He just seemed confused when the steward took objection to being insulted followed by the word 'FACT', and to make matters worse Sheff seemed to be trying to type on some sort of imaginary keyboard :D

So does that mean you were there on Saturday or not Sheff?

unfortunately I had to witness the rubbish, yes.

[brummie saddler]

Didn't see you there Saturday Sheff? Or maybe you had been thrown out by the time I got in a la Doncaster :D

Wasn't it Donacaster where he went of his own accord (rather hastily), rather than chucked out? :D

Nah Tinned he was definately pushed before he could walk :wink:

He just seemed confused when the steward took objection to being insulted followed by the word 'FACT', and to make matters worse Sheff seemed to be trying to type on some sort of imaginary keyboard :D

So does that mean you were there on Saturday or not Sheff?

unfortunately I had to witness the rubbish, yes.

did you not enjoy being apart of a great walsall atmosphere like old times, it doesnt beat chelsea at home on your sound system i know but still :)

[brackley]

"Peterlin - who?
Chambers - see Peterlin - if Peterlin and Chambers are the answer, what on earth was the question?"

DS singled them out for special praise "Pets and Chambo", apparently.

Got to say I thought they were ok......... they got behind the ball and defeded resolutely and also played the ball around into the right areas without making any glaring mistakes - they were just ok........

The bigger problem as it has been all season is up front. Without any question Paterson frightens the life out of defenders with his pace and the fact that he is prepared to run at them - he is without doubt one major plus that has emerged since the start of the season.........the movement of Nicholls and Macken off the ball however is weak, which is where it falls down time and time again and is reflected by our goals scored tally to date.

We need an Ibehra or Ricketts (in his prime) type centre forward for Nicholls and Paterson to play off..........someone who can hold the ball up, give their back-line a game and have pace and an eye for where the goal is..........

If we can add this player to the team our results will be far different. Everything breaks down in the final third as we dont have a cutting edge....... we can always muster a goal but this is simply not enough of a lead to defend and then expect to take home 3 points, we needed a second goal yesterday to put the game beyond them and we just dont have it in the locker!!

Although there are some good points in there, I think there are a fair few wrongs too.

Firstly, if a side like Walsall is going to do well, it needs to be able to win games 1-0, Graydon did it to such an extent, the majority of our wins were 1-0, especially away from home. Money's sides did the same. Not that I expect anything like the results those to got, but the way we go about things should be the same. The game was there to be won Saturday, regardless of if we had more fire power (which we do clearly need no doubt) A Graydon, or a Money, would have seen that game out for a win 9 times out of 10, where as it seems inevitable the equaliser will come with this side, alot of the time down to poor decisions by the manager, who to be fair is still learning his trade, but needs to start to get a grasp on it quickly now.,

You want a striker who can play up front, hold the ball up, have pace, and an eye for goal, if we had 40millon to spend , we still may struggle to find someone like that. All those attributes make an all round striker, which every club in the land would die for. Macken is more than capable of holding the ball up, and bringing players in, infact I doubt we would find anyone better at it. He doesn't have the muscle of a Jabo, but you can't have everything in a lower league player, he certainly is far more intelligent footballer. Problem is, his age, and the niggling injurys he picks up, we have no one else like that. + he has been a little bit out of sorts recently.

First thing is first, and the soft late goals we are conceeding need to be stopped. Had we done this over the past few weeks, we would now be in the FA Cup 3rd round, and have an extra 2 points on the board from Saturday. The signing of Jarvis,was a huge boo, boo, and used up vital recources on a complete nothing footballer, when blending in Bowerman, and Paterson, who really seem to have something about them, would have been far better, and actually signing a half decent center midfielder.

You are absolutely right in what you refer to re Money and Graydon sides of the past, however I think you slightly misunderstood my point; the side at the moment are actually quite solid at the back, its whats in front of them.........and because of that to try and defend a 1-0 lead for 90 minutes is almost impossible with this current side, cos we will always eventually concede as the pressure that ends up mounting up is too great. We need a Keates in the middle of the park desparately and a bloke up front who has the ingredients of a striker who can net >15 goals a season, someone with pace, presence, youth and an eye for goal........

The sides of Money and Graydon we had a solid midfield and someone who could bag goals..........

[WFC_Rob]

In all fairness, I think Chambers is a solid enough midfielder when that's all he has to do - his performance against Charlton proved that. We've never really paired him with someone who'll link up with the strikers though, which leaves him too often trying to fill that void.

[We-ARE-Walsall]

In all fairness, I think Chambers is a solid enough midfielder when that's all he has to do - his performance against Charlton proved that. We've never really paired him with someone who'll link up with the strikers though, which leaves him too often trying to fill that void.

Agree, Chambers is quite capable of doing the basics in midfield, but we are just crying out for either someone who can play a defence splitting pass, or even better, someone who can link up with, and get beyond the forwards. Guess those kind of players don't come cheap.