Rotherham United (A) League One 15 Mar, 3pm

[BAKOGEN?]

No way....... Lack of fitness. All because no money spent on quality. :x

[portlandbill]

We bring on the super sub.A minute later they equalise. Will we ever win again?

[Welsh_Saddler]

No way....... Lack of fitness. All because no money spent on quality. :x

If the Rotherham equaliser was a deflected shot, as has been suggested, what on earth has that to do with "lack of fitness"? I really do wonder which planet you're living on.

[Sadders]

Good solid point that, sounds like we were unlucky with a late deflected goal and Purkiss getting sent off never helps.

Improvements.

[TheSwift]

That had me worried there, winning. Luckily we put on a striker rather than a defensive player and that got us to the place we needed to be. Well done to the lads! :evil:

[sallian]

Good result on paper....but again the lack of goalscoring means they don't win....it was even a big thing to get one goal.

If Lalkovic goes...without bringing in a quality striker I can only see mid table next season at best....and I half expect a relegation struggle.

[Guest]

We bring on the super sub.A minute later they equalise. Will we ever win again?

Ngoo does seem to have that effect.

[BAKOGEN?]

No way....... Lack of fitness. All because no money spent on quality. :x

If the Rotherham equaliser was a deflected shot, as has been suggested, what on earth has that to do with "lack of fitness"? I really do wonder which planet you're living on.

I didn't know it was a deflection, timmy ten men.

If this was the case it was bad management after the sending off. Smith should of took all the forwards off and defended. Season over.

[TheSwift]

That's 3 sending off's in less than a month :shock:

[Fray Bentos is God!]

That's 3 sending off's in less than a month :shock:

And you're only supposed to go red once a month!

[BAKOGEN?]

That's 3 sending off's in less than a month :shock:

Yep.... Definitely a lack of discipline. Smith out. Graydon in.

[Guest]

That's 3 sending off's in less than a month :shock:

Bunch of cloggers...

[TheSwift]

That's 3 sending off's in less than a month :shock:

Yep.... Definitely a lack of discipline. Smith out. Graydon in.

I think Westley might do the job...

[Guest]

Still, look on the bright side. We're edging our way towards safety.

[BAKOGEN?]

That's 3 sending off's in less than a month :shock:

Yep.... Definitely a lack of discipline. Smith out. Graydon in.

I think Westley might do the job...

Snipes???.....

[Pheasey_Saddler]

Disappointed with the late goal, but the play-offs would still have looked very unlikely even if we had held on. I half expected a second Rotherham goal in injury time with their record of scoring goals in 90+ mins.

P'boro will have to have a big wobble to leave the door open for anybody else to claim 6th, and even if they did, there are other teams than us that are better placed to claim that last spot (Mk & Sheff Utd). Get one more win and then try a few new formations, different players and generally prepare for next season now.

[BAKOGEN?]

Without being negative, £300,000 or there abouts would've got us there.
Another year starved of success.
What happened to "this club will be able to challenge at championship level". :roll:

[Acuman]

300K
THREE YEAR CONTRACT, so less than a £1k a month, for a twenty goal a season striker no signing on fee, no bonus, no re settlement fee, no chance.
A striker who can play the loan striker role, hold the ball up win headers and is a fox in the box is what many say they want, sorry those are out of our price range.

[BAKOGEN?]

I think yeovil would've excepted around 300k.

I don't think peterboro' are good enough. Sheffield utd or crawley will catch them.

The only way we can do it is if smith instill's a disciplined different mindset into the players.

I don't think smith knows the word dicsipline.

Owner still required.

[chestersaddler]

I don't think smith knows the word dicsipline.

I'm not sure that many people do :lol:

[WFC_Rob]

A draw was probably just about fair on the balance of play, but frustrating to concede so late on. Up to then, they'd barely had a chance and we'd coped fairly well with their refusal to use the grass. No wonder their pitch looks in such good nick.

We fall short because we don't hold the ball well enough up front. Westcarr doesn't want to play with his back to goal and now looks knackered too, which makes things even more difficult. He still makes more of a contribution than Hewitt or Ngoo though, which says it all.

I thought Sawyers looked a lot better today and for most of the first half, caused them problems by finding space in that hole between their back four and midfield. For the goal, Lalkovic did exactly what the system we play him in needs him to do - make a clever run from wide into the middle, beyond the main striker. Low and behold, we scored with the only real bit of quality in the whole game.

The Purkiss sending off was harsh to say the least. The first yellow was for delaying a free kick by running off with the ball - arguably fair enough, but I don't think the ref would have booked him had the incident not happened right in front of Steve Evans. The second booking was just laughable - their midfielder knocked a ball past Purkiss, refused to run around him to get on the end of it, and the ref gave a free kick. That decision was bad enough in itself, let alone the decision to book him at the same time.

People who weren't there today will probably want to throw a load of criticism at Smith, especially now the playoff hopes are well and truly crushed, but a point at their place is a good result, and we were value for it if not more. What's more frustrating to see is a side like Rotherham get into the playoffs the way they play. Maybe Walsall's 'football DNA' has turned me into a snob, but at least we tend to go about things in the right way.

If there's one big plus point, perhaps it's that Smith now knows we'll definitely be in this league again next season, so can begin to prepare accordingly.

[BAKOGEN?]

A draw was probably just about fair on the balance of play, but frustrating to concede so late on. Up to then, they'd barely had a chance and we'd coped fairly well with their refusal to use the grass. No wonder their pitch looks in such good nick.

We fall short because we don't hold the ball well enough up front. Westcarr doesn't want to play with his back to goal and now looks knackered too, which makes things even more difficult. He still makes more of a contribution than Hewitt or Ngoo though, which says it all.

I thought Sawyers looked a lot better today and for most of the first half, caused them problems by finding space in that hole between their back four and midfield. For the goal, Lalkovic did exactly what the system we play him in needs him to do - make a clever run from wide into the middle, beyond the main striker. Low and behold, we scored with the only real bit of quality in the whole game.

The Purkiss sending off was harsh to say the least. The first yellow was for delaying a free kick by running off with the ball - arguably fair enough, but I don't think the ref would have booked him had the incident not happened right in front of Steve Evans. The second booking was just laughable - their midfielder knocked a ball past Purkiss, refused to run around him to get on the end of it, and the ref gave a free kick. That decision was bad enough in itself, let alone the decision to book him at the same time.

People who weren't there today will probably want to throw a load of criticism at Smith, especially now the playoff hopes are well and truly crushed, but a point at their place is a good result, and we were value for it if not more. What's more frustrating to see is a side like Rotherham get into the playoffs the way they play. Maybe Walsall's 'football DNA' has turned me into a snob, but at least we tend to go about things in the right way.

If there's one big plus point, perhaps it's that Smith now knows we'll definitely be in this league again next season, so can begin to prepare accordingly.

Respect and a decent report Rob but.......
Is everyone happy with second best when we don't have to be?????

[gerryhatrick]

I don't think smith knows the word dicsipline.

Bet he knows how to spell it.

[BAKOGEN?]

I don't think smith knows the word dicsipline.

Bet he knows how to spell it.

Don't blame me gerry .... Phone man. Nice name though.

[saddlerken]

What's more frustrating to see is a side like Rotherham get into the playoffs the way they play. Maybe Walsall's 'football DNA' has turned me into a snob, but at least we tend to go about things in the right way.

'football DNA'? Are you kidding me? You're easily pleased. It's a shame this DNA doesn't include a DNA string with the word striker in it. Little 1-2's and pissing about (you'd call it possession football probably) isn't exciting or necessarily effective.

If there's one big plus point, perhaps it's that Smith now knows we'll definitely be in this league again next season, so can begin to prepare accordingly.

Big plus point? You are having a laugh, right? You are giving him credit for staying in Division 3 and you are happy, nay, excited, that Smith can prepare for Walsall to be in division 3 for probably the 100th year in our history.

His prep work is already done in some respects, I mean, he's got Baxengazelle on a nice 3 year contract. Maybe he'll find a striker....... or maybe he'll bring in another bloke who passes no more than 14 yards, SIDEWAYS. #YAWN!

[BAKOGEN?]

Where has the money gone#again.

[BathSaddler]

A decent and unexpected point.

[JonnyOwen]

People should be shot for hashtaging, especially on a football forum.

Good perfromance today, very close to the win we needed and we were incredibly unlucky.

Sawyers, Brandy and Westcarr were all very good offensively today, especially Sawyers.

Ben Purkiss' red card is absolutely laughable, two of the softest yellow cards in footballing history, what a joke these referees are.

[saddlerken]

People should be shot for hashtaging, especially on a football forum.

I was trying to be young and hip, I failed.

People who think Baxendale is a good player and that it's a good idea to build a team around a dear should be shot.

[Sadders]

Seems Butler particularly impressed the opposition, not so many compliments about our 'style of play' - http://www.thefootballforum.net/index.p ... s-walsall/