Lincoln City (A) F A Cup First Round Saturday 3/11/12.

[DonningtonSaddler]

Aha! so Plan B is to put Taundry on for Paterson. Brilliant. FFS!

Fantastic tactical substitution. Taundry should play every week!

[Cully]

Thank fudge for that, we are absolute shite

[belgiansaddler]

Great, another replay before we go out on penalties. Sounded dire

[boringteacher]

my, I can't wait for the replay. Hope we have a 22 penalty shoot out again.

[latviancheese]

"Taundry is the reason we didnt win that game"

Oh hang on. :lol: :P

[saddlerken]

Cant wait for the replay when we play them off the park...

SURELY out total football will be enough

[Cully]

LLLLDLDD things are looking up, see you all on Tuesday - PERIOD

[WarsawPact]

The Road to Wembley starts with but a single step...

[SaigonSaddler]

[Ancient Moaner]

my, I can't wait for the replay. Hope we have a 22 penalty shoot out again.

Please noooooooooooooooo............Hang on a minute, out of 11 shots, thier goalie could slip and let our chip kiosk girls shot trickle over the line? nah, livin in cloud cuckoo land again. :(

[bangsection]

Clever stuff from Deano. A lucrative replay (including TV money) will fund the fresh bodies we clearly need.

[Cully]

Can we buy Jamie Taylor from Lincoln?

[boringteacher]

Clever stuff from Deano. A lucrative replay (including TV money) will fund the fresh bodies we clearly need.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GL6LH6ufhM[/youtube]

[KoloSaddler]

Ashley Hemming is a fudge joke.

[Fray Bentos is God!]

Can we buy Jamie Taylor from Lincoln?

What is this "buy" you speak of?

[PT]

Cant wait for the replay when we play them off the park...

SURELY out total football will be enough

Spot on. :wink:

It'll be the absolute opposite of a freezing cold night with barely 2,000 people there watching a game where it is difficult to tell the league side from the non-league side playing neither one thing or another football with a low scoring draw followed by a penalty shoot-out that two under 12 teams would be ashamed of. As you say - it'll be nothing like that as we sweep them effortlessly aside in front of a packed and adoring Bescot, basking in the warm glow of an Indian summer's evening.

[King Crimson]

Is that Douglas Bader?

Are you planning on getting legless on the back of tonight's stunning result? :idea:

;-)

[chestersaddler]

Didn't listen to the commentary today but more than happy that we are still in the comp.

Not all the late goals go against us. Their manager is probably an idiot :wink:

[Graydon48]

Hats off to Taundry. The way he heaved his overweight body over the wall to fetch the ball back and still have the energy for one of his special throws that made the goal was class. Never question Smiths substitutions again !

[hullsaddler]

We are very lucky to still be in the FA Cup. Lincoln thoroughly deserved to win. No-one would have known they were 2 levels below us.
We can obviously pass the ball around in our own half, sideways, backwards, but when there is no creative attacking product at the end of it, then it is a bit depressing. We certainly missed Flo & I just pray that his loan is extended.
Would not be at all surprised if we lose the replay... and not even on penalties!

[lichsaddler]

Just got back from the game, i've been pretty upbeat all season but I can find no positives at all after todays performance. Certainly missed cuvelier today, the midfield was absolutely abysmal. Hemmings deservedly got pillaried by the fans but I didn't think he was any worse than paterson who was AGAIN awful. Chambers and featherstone were sloppy on the ball all day long. We had the fair share of possession but none of it was in their final third with numerous passes going backwards. I've been one of the biggest admirers of our football style this season but today it didn't work and we were just devoid of ideas.

Defence was poor, particularly j chambers and holden. Grigg and Bowerman had no service all game so can't lay too much blame on them. The worst part of all wasn't the lack of quality - but the players didn't seem to care or show any fight at all.

Until today, I was still optimistic about the season in general but I am now pretty concerned after watching that dross two weeks in a row

On another note, their striker Jamie Taylor was a cut above anyone else on the pitch. Took his goal extremely well (worth watching the highlights for) and would be surprised if he wasn't picked up by a league club in the next few years.

[stourportsaddler]

Well just got back and that was so depressing we were a joke...............
Taylor ran rings around Butler and Holden he made them look stupid and scored a great goal, I can see why he has got Confrerence player of the month and he won't be there long.
We were clueless just passing left and right backwards left and right it was like we were playing in an August friendly just no ergency at all.
Groff kept us in it with a couple of decent saves whilst their keeper didnt have a thing to do and how come every other keeper seems to be able to kick the ball! where as Groff struggles to get it over half way.
Any how rant over as we survived but we looked like a bottom of the league side today with no confidence whatsoever.
Onward and Upwards....................................

[JonnyOwen]

We'll do a trade with Lincoln! Hemmings and Paterson for Jamie Taylor :D

[Whitters]

So when we're in the Conference it won't be as easy as people think....

[Sadders]

Pathetic, woeful, slow, pedestrian, un-creative, lacking pace, lacking defensive ability, lacking guile, lacking height, lacking presense. Tremendously crap, awful, David Dickinson, crap, lacklustre, childish. Lincoln hammered us, we were pathetic. Back to the dark days of Hutchings, perhaps even worse at times. I dont blame Smith (who by the way kept the players on the pitch at the end hopefully to give them a roasting of their life time) he had no Taylor, no Brandy, no Cuvelier - I'd have gone with the exact same system as him, the only thing I'd have considered was leaving Bowerman on the bench and putting Baxendale back into a 4-5-1. Smith made the right changes IMO, Jones looked lively when he came on and Williams is bigger in size than any other striker in our side. The players need to take a long look at themselves, no urgency, no passion, no 1st balls, no 2nd balls, no presence, no strength - they just werent bothered. We had all the ball in the 1st half, but continued to play it at training pace across the back four, despite repeatedly have opportunities to drive 10 or 20 yards further forward, this allowed Lincoln's 2 banks of 4 to sit in comfortably awaiting our mis-placed pass.

Hemmings is the biggest disgrace to play for this club in yonks. Not one jot of anything he showed today replicates that of a league player. He was weak, slow, couldn't be arsed, didnt track back, showed no effort, no pace, didn't beat his man, didnt break up play, didn't defend, didnt attack - he just brought nothing but an arrogant 'chip on the shoulder' attitude - loan list him or tear his contract up now, we'l soon see how arrogant he is when he repeatedly checks his phone for an agent's call - only to find Hednesford Town are the only team willing to give him a trial. The 'We want Hemmings off chant', the 'Hemmings is a barclays' and the huge goal like cheer when he left the pitch were 100% thoroughly deserved - if he plays in a Walsall shirt again, its a crime of managerial proportions.

Jamie Paterson, yes - The Messi of league one. The fancy flicks, the pace, the skills, the turns. Oh sorry? It was almost like I was standing in his boots then. Note to yourself Jamie, you play in league one, you need to pass the ball like a lower league player, you need to look up before you pass, you need to stop running into blind alleys, you need to stop playing with such a stroppy pathetic 'arrogant' attitude - if we release you, who exactly do you think is going to take a gamble on a young kid released by lowly Warsaw? Macclesfield? Barnet? Accrington? You'l be lucky.

As for the rest. Holden and Butler were caught too square frequently, Holden is over the hill sat on his farm. To slow, easily shrugged off the ball and totally not up to it - shame as I like the man. Butler once again couldn't keep his mouth in order and ended up giving 2 stupid fouls away because he'd wound himself up and got frustrated - note to self Andy, we as fans love you for you 'up and at them attitude' but please try not to get booked and give risky free kicks away because you can't as a captain of a football team keep your mouth shut for more than 3.2 seconds.

Adam Chambers worked hard and put a couple of spicy tackles in, but went missing like most of last season and found himself in 'crab mode' at numerous points in the first half - especially on 2 occasions where he decided to play a 10 yard pass sidewards or backwards when he had a pass forwards on. James Chambers was relatively solid, but his ball retention in the 2nd half was poor and he was not his usual composed self. Featherstone had his worse game, his ball retention was the worst of anyone and despite 'always' trying, he was thoroughly lightweight, thoroughly wasteful and the only thing he tried to do was get at my patience.

On to David Grof. Why on earth do half of our fanbase back this clown? 3 times today he nearly cost us, flapping for a corner, parrying a weak long distance effort to the feet of Jamie Taylor and not communicating with Butler almost causing a goal both in the 1st half and 2nd half. The man is a walking liability. He is very close at times to being on Jon Brain level of liability. He can't command his box, his kicking is generally hit and miss, his shot stopping is dire, he gets beaten from distance, he's a walking 'chip' candidate, he instills no confidence in the squad or the defence and he is a 'walking clanger'. Yet some people have him primed as the next candidate for Joe Hart's position at City. Talk about blinkers, he's mostly dire.

The only players that can take anything from the game are Grigg, who again tried hard, ran the channels well in the opening 20 minutes and did look like scoring for once. Bowerman works hard but doesn't really have any attributes to his game bar the actually scoring part (okay that's a good thing, but in a side like this it's really not) and Purkiss who was literally standing that far over on the right hand side at times he wasn't in the lines of play!

Sorry to sound so doomful and 'write slashy'. But today wasn't an off day like Bury was last week, this was 10 times as bad, this was lazy, un-motivated. This consisted of little attacking play, this consisted of arrogance from half of our squad and this consisted of quite frankly at times an embarassing lack of quality. This isn't a worrying sign, this is a sign that we really need to pull the trigger on some loans before we lose all momentum and memory of a very good opening start to the season.

Without Cuvelier we looked less than a conference side. We had no physical edge against a bigger Lincoln side and our football was more 'tippy tappy' and 'side to side' than a conference side. If you can't hoof it and get results, then you have to play football and get results - correct? We were frankly terrible at both today. Okay so Lincoln were up for it and had absolutely nothing to lose, but they were miles better than us, better on the ball, more penetrative, they had a classy looking little striker in Jamie Taylor, they had it over our backline all afternoon and for it - they looked far more threatening. If I was a Lincoln fan tonight, i'd be truly devastated. It says it all that I felt embarassed celebrating a Walsall FC goal.

This wasn't a bad day because we drew to a side 50 places below us, this was an embarassing day because we had a squad that thought they'd walk all over Lincoln City and they were well and truly taught a lesson. Not been this dissapointed/angry about a performance since the darkest of dark days under Hutchings. Finally, an apology to Lincoln fans - I apologise that you will have drive 80 miles to our ground on a cold Tuesday night in 2 weeks, I apologise you will have to spend your hard earned cash on playing a replay against us and finally, I apologise that you wont be sat tommorrow afternoon watching the draw in the comfy knowledge that you have a place in the 2nd round, as you justly deserved.

Positives?
- We get a 2nd crack at it.
- We can't play that badly again in any official fixture this season.
- Jake Jones looked lively.
- Hopefully Hemmings wont play in our team ever again.


Grof 1 - Useless excuse for a goalkeeper. A flying purple potato.

Purkiss 6 - Tried his best. Got forward at times, still frighteningly slow though.
Holden 4 - Given the run around by a BSP striker.
Butler 5 - Skinned too easily and gave fouls away, won his fair share of headers though. Nothing like captain fantastic.
J Chambers 6 - Solid enough at the back, frustratingly wasteful in possession.

Paterson 0 - Have fun in the reserves Jamie.
Featherstone 2 - The logic behind football is to pass the ball to one of your own players Nicky.
A Chambers 5 - Best of the midfield, tried hard but lacked the bite of recent weeks.
Hemmings 0 - Are you loan listed yet Ashley? Detestable little prat.

Bowerman 4 - Goal is a goal, but brings nothing else.
Grigg 7 - MOTM. Won a few headers, brought others in to the game and generally was a bright spark in an otherwise terrible occasion.

SUBS
Jake Jones 6 - Impressed, showed the energy and passion we lacked all afternoon.
Williams - Won 1 header, but isn't ready for pro football yet.

[Welsh_Saddler]

What a cracking summary - thanks Sadders.

The (local) BBC Radio Lincolnshire summariser's comment at the very end was along the lines of "Well, Walsall scored from a set piece, but that was the only way they were going to score today. There was no chance at all of them scoriong from open play".

Time to get the videos of Bournemouth, Preston et al out, Dean???

[Bernie]

Hemmings is the biggest disgrace to play for this club in yonks. Not one jot of anything he showed today replicates that of a league player. He was weak, slow, couldn't be bothered, didnt track back, showed no effort, no pace, didn't beat his man, didnt break up play, didn't defend, didnt attack - he just brought nothing but an arrogant 'chip on the shoulder' attitude - loan list him or tear his contract up now, we'l soon see how arrogant he is when he repeatedly checks his phone for an agent's call - only to find Hednesford Town are the only team willing to give him a trial. The 'We want Hemmings off chant', the 'Hemmings is a winner' and the huge goal like cheer when he left the pitch were 100% thoroughly deserved - if he plays in a Walsall shirt again, its a crime of managerial proportions.

Thanks for that report - really informative.

Hemmings will not worry too much about a call from his agent - Smith gave him a two year contract in the summer.

[philthesaddler]

Is this the same Hemmings that Neil Ravenscroft described as a "premier league player" after we signed him?

[MILO5]

Does anyone think that today's performance may have increased the odds of us winning the cup?

[JonnyOwen]

I agree we were worse than woeful, but I still can't see where all this hate for Grof comes from; he kept us in the game multiple times against Bury and today.