Crewe Alexandra (H) League 1 Saturday 20/10/12.

[Willenhall Saddler]

I did notice on the highlights that for their equaliser Purkiss didn't jump high enough! He's tall enough to jump more than an inch off the ground :evil: jump a bit higher and he would have cleared it.Taundry was at fault as well, if he hadn't have been beaten so easily the player wouldn't have put the cross in.

[Optimistic]

Well from my recollection we have not won a game since we dropped Purkiss and we have not won a game since we brought in Taundry.

Coincidence, I don't think so.

[latviancheese]

They both have massive deficiencies, if you sexed them together your spawn would probably be an ace right back. If Taundry gets skinned hes a "useless bellend", if Purkiss gets skinned then its because the other player is Matty Ronaldo Robson.

Purkiss is a good footballer, but about as athletic as Peter Crouch on ketamine.

Id rather play Purkiss anyway, but with some protection in front of him. Preferably someone who can run faster than 0.0000001mph.

[Bernie]

Well from my recollection we have not won a game since we dropped Purkiss and we have not won a game since we brought in Taundry.

Coincidence, I don't think so.

I know that correlation does not prove causation, but is it a coincidence that Taundry's whole career at Walsall has come at a time when we have often played rotten football?

[WFC_Rob]

They both have massive deficiencies, if you sexed them together your spawn would probably be an ace right back. If Taundry gets skinned hes a "useless winkie", if Purkiss gets skinned then its because the other player is Matty Ronaldo Robson.

As that's quite clearly aimed at me, I'll respond.

I've seen yesterday's goals again and yes, Purkiss was probably as much to blame for the equaliser as Taundry. Aside from that though, where are all these other goals Purkiss has been at fault for? Yet again, people say Purkiss isn't good enough, he's a non-league player and all the rest of it, but can't deliver the facts to support their argument. Take the mickey out of my comments on Matty Robson all you like, but he's as good a left winger as any one of our defenders will face this season.

Taundry was repeatedly torn apart yesterday. In fact, I'd say he was torn apart in a worse fashion than Purkiss was two weeks ago. Despite that happening before Smith's very eyes, all he did was shift him from right back to left back. Their manager couldn't believe his luck.

[latviancheese]

They both have massive deficiencies, if you sexed them together your spawn would probably be an ace right back. If Taundry gets skinned hes a "useless winkie", if Purkiss gets skinned then its because the other player is Matty Ronaldo Robson.

As that's quite clearly aimed at me, I'll respond.

I've seen yesterday's goals again and yes, Purkiss was probably as much to blame for the equaliser as Taundry. Aside from that though, where are all these other goals Purkiss has been at fault for? Yet again, people say Purkiss isn't good enough, he's a non-league player and all the rest of it, but can't deliver the facts to support their argument. Take the mickey out of my comments on Matty Robson all you like, but he's as good a left winger as any one of our defenders will face this season.

Taundry was repeatedly torn apart yesterday. In fact, I'd say he was torn apart in a worse fashion than Purkiss was two weeks ago. Despite that happening before Smith's very eyes, all he did was shift him from right back to left back. Their manager couldn't believe his luck.

It wasnt really aimed at you, although it was your comment on Matty Robson i referred too. :wink:

I dont need facts, we are the best team he has ever played for. Says a lot in itself. Ill say it again, he can play football and suits our "style", but he cant defend very well, and he will get "skinned" more times than Taundry.

Its nothing against Purkiss either, but the criticism aimed at Taundry most weeks is borderline ludicrous, and half the time the loudest thing you will hear from the stand on a Saturday is the glee in which the morons cheer Taundrys first mistake. Its really quite pathetic. Infact, i remember some boo's when he returned from injury of the bench? WHY? Why has it become a handicap if your from Walsall too? He will never win, Dean Keates had the same problem even though he was superb for us for 80 percent of the time.

We have more glaring issues than Richard Taundry anyway, like powderpuff players, fitness, dodgy subs, and the fact as soon as someone applies pressure we fold quicker than a paper bag. We will lose the next game too, and that will probably be his fault.Rather than blame the manager they can just call Taundry every name under the sun and defend our "style".

Onwards and upwards.

[Ancient Moaner]

Saarland is right, taking featherstone off and going 4 in midfield lost us 2 points.

Additionally, our fitness is not good enough, for the last 25 minutes they were blowing out of their backsides.

All this pretty passing football is well and good but we're not clinical, we lack a presence upfront and we're easy to work out - all you have to do is squeeze up on cuvelier, Paterson and baxendale and our passing game falls to bits.

Totally agree, we just can't finish teams off! If we scored enough goals which the chances we create merit, we wouldn't need to worry about the defence.[/quote]

Totally and utterly agree, everyone seems to be running down either Purkiss or Taundry, but it's about time we got beyond this, other teams (WITH STRIKERS) will always score goals against us, its the written law..BUT, if we had a decent striker ourselves, instead of relying on Butler to bludgeon another headed consolation, we would have been 'out of site'
in the majority of matches we have lost or thrown away this season..'playing well' but losing/drawing constantly, aint gonna win the pundits hearts for very much longer! Or indeed swell our meagre attendances!

rant over , bring on Sheff United....UTS

[SWS1]

I'm too cheesed off to comment - again.
:evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil:

[TWM1962]

Totally agree with what I have read. We blame the defence, however is Darlowe the answer. No. We continually blame the back five. We create more chances than MUFC, but don't score. Surely that's the problem. As mentioned on previous rants DS needs to get a 6" striker. JABO...... How many has he scored with the 'hoof' boys from Koldchester???. Any way a decent point from Chefeeld will be nice.

[WFC_Rob]

We have more glaring issues than Richard Taundry anyway, like powderpuff players, fitness, dodgy subs, and the fact as soon as someone applies pressure we fold quicker than a paper bag. We will lose the next game too, and that will probably be his fault.Rather than blame the manager they can just call Taundry every name under the sun and defend our "style".

With respect, I thought you were capable of getting your point across without the hyperbolic presumptions. Taundry was one of our best players last week and was probably my MOTM, but yesterday he got completely destroyed. That was there for all to see, so you can hardly suggest people have ulterior motives for laying a fair bit of the blame at his door.

Plenty of criticism has been directed at Dean Smith and the way he handled yesterday afternoon - and rightly so. Unfortunately however, Taundry's performance has shared some of the blame because it was the epitome of everything we've tried to move on from since last season.

[Cowshed]

one bright spot on the weekend just saw Chris Baird ex saddler score the winner against Villa :lol:

[Mal]

Taylor - Injured
Featherstone - injured

Subs ?

The shape changed as we had no choice, don't understand the furore around Smith, over the top as always

Lets just say it is August again and I offer you where we at, 99% of fans would have been chuffed

[4143]

The Hereford rejects are back. 8)

[WFC_Rob]

Taylor - Injured
Featherstone - injured

Subs ?

The shape changed as we had no choice, don't understand the furore around Smith, over the top as always

Lets just say it is August again and I offer you where we at, 99% of fans would have been chuffed

Neither of them were injured, Mal - or at least, there's been no mention of either of them being injured. If they really were, I'm sure Smith would have made it clear in his post-match interview as it'd mitigate what was a disasterous half an hour of management from our leader.

[Neuromantic]

Taylor was tired. Featherstone wasn't injured - he looked a bit miffed as to why he was coming off to me - but I could be wrong.

I see Registered Saddler hasn't commented on Smith's amazing tactical decisions and subs recently ;)

But in all honesty - I am pleased by what DS has done so far this season however the last 4/5 games have been very worrying. If there is money available then why aren't we spending it?

We have a massive chance to climb the table and put bums back on seats an I don't know whether it's lack of ambition or that the management just can't see what is blatantly obvious.

I am still fuming over what happened on Saturday. Sort it out Smith - this is your best chance to make a name for yourself.

[WelshWalsallBen]

First game for me in a while been snowed under with work and moving Wales.

Played some good stuff 1st half and should have scored more. The Grigg chance in the 2nd half where the GK saaved was the turning point for me.

Think people need to see the bigger picture its allright blaming the defence and the GK but if we took our chances we wouldn't be putting pressure on ourselves.

[WFC_Rob]

Think people need to see the bigger picture its allright blaming the defence and the GK but if we took our chances we wouldn't be putting pressure on ourselves.

i think the vast majority of us have been calling for a striker to be brought in ever since the start of the season. If there's one criticism of our front two, it's that they're not very good at defending from the front.

Also, we did take our chances on Saturday - two thirds of them, anyway. Having torn Crewe apart and found ourselves 2-0 up, we fell to pieces.

[Willenhall Saddler]

First game for me in a while been snowed under with work and moving Wales.

Played some good stuff 1st half and should have scored more. The Grigg chance in the 2nd half where the GK saaved was the turning point for me.

Think people need to see the bigger picture its allright blaming the defence and the GK but if we took our chances we wouldn't be putting pressure on ourselves.

That's my point exactly! We need to score at least 3 goals a game at the minute because i can't see where the next clean sheet is coming from.

[IHTC.]

First game for me in a while been snowed under with work and moving Wales.

Played some good stuff 1st half and should have scored more. The Grigg chance in the 2nd half where the GK saaved was the turning point for me.

Think people need to see the bigger picture its allright blaming the defence and the GK but if we took our chances we wouldn't be putting pressure on ourselves.

That's my point exactly! We need to score at least 3 goals a game at the minute because i can't see where the next clean sheet is coming from.

As much as I love Cuvelier, if he stopped shooting from 30 yards at every bleeding opportunity we may carve out even more chances

[tinned]

Lets just say it is August again and I offer you where we at, 99% of fans would have been chuffed

While I agree with what you've written, let's not let that fact be something to let Smith off the hook for a series of absolute blunders. Just because we're better off than we expected doesn't mean we shouldn't be attempting to push on from here instead of settling for what we've so far achieved.

[Fray Bentos is God!]

Lets just say it is August again and I offer you where we at, 99% of fans would have been chuffed

While I agree with what you've written, let's not let that fact be something to let Smith off the hook for a series of absolute blunders. Just because we're better off than we expected doesn't mean we shouldn't be attempting to push on from here instead of settling for what we've so far achieved.

Indeed. I for one am one of the ones who would snap a hand for a top half of the table finish, and I bloody love the way we try to play teams off of the park.

But... The taking off of Featherstone was a blunder that even I could see. The change in formation while we were playing quite well and those other little tweaks that weaken us could be Dean's downfall.

[saddlerJP]

I was ill saturday so couldn't make the match, watching the game unfold on Twitter. as soon as I saw the sub Bow, for feathserstone I knew we'd end up conceding. Why go 4-4-2, all the comments about our play at the time were so positive. Preston aside, 4-4-2 hasn't worked this season, our midfield is 2 puny to play with 4. featherstone is our main ball retainer - taking him off (unless injured) made absoultly no sence at all, I like Dean Smith but that was a rotten decision. Oh and Walsall did my accumulator for £860 (my own fault, i never usually throw us in)

[Registered Saddler]

I see Registered Saddler hasn't commented on Smith's amazing tactical decisions and subs recently ;)

I'm flattered that you hang on my every word but I don't feel qualified to randomly slag off intricate details of how the match panned out when I wasn't there to see it for myself. However, having seen the highlights, it was just as I thought - that putting Taundry at left-back for the last 10 minutes was basically settling for a point. His defending for the equaliser was an embarrassment. He was bad enough against Shrewsbury when at least he only had to use his right foot.

[latviancheese]

We have more glaring issues than Richard Taundry anyway, like powderpuff players, fitness, dodgy subs, and the fact as soon as someone applies pressure we fold quicker than a paper bag. We will lose the next game too, and that will probably be his fault.Rather than blame the manager they can just call Taundry every name under the sun and defend our "style".

With respect, I thought you were capable of getting your point across without the hyperbolic presumptions. Taundry was one of our best players last week and was probably my MOTM, but yesterday he got completely destroyed. That was there for all to see, so you can hardly suggest people have ulterior motives for laying a fair bit of the blame at his door.

Plenty of criticism has been directed at Dean Smith and the way he handled yesterday afternoon - and rightly so. Unfortunately however, Taundry's performance has shared some of the blame because it was the epitome of everything we've tried to move on from since last season.

The epitome of everything we have tried to move on from? I think thats a bit harsh in all fairness. What is it we have tried to move on from? Defensive shoddyness? Because even when we were flying high, that was still there. Now we arent scoring a goal from 35 yards every game its starting to show.

Im gonna have to stop this little argument though because people will start to mis interpret me, i dont think Taundry is a great player, i just think the criticism he gets is way over the top. Purkiss, over all, is no improvement in my opinion.

:oops: