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Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Reports and reaction from the 2013-2014 season as Walsall finished 13th in League 1
We-ARE-Walsall
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Re: Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Mon Apr 21, 2014 4:57 pm

latviancheese wrote:
We-ARE-Walsall wrote:Couldn't beat a donald egg.


Classic :D

Just want the season to finish i do, im that uninterested i feel guilty.


I'm the same really, I couldn't have gone today anyway, but if I could I wouldn't have. Have knocked Stevenage right on the head too. Sad times.

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Re: Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Mon Apr 21, 2014 5:17 pm

If ever 90 minutes could sum up a season, it was that. Despite being a bit lethargic in the first half, we were comfortably better than them - even more so when we decided to go up a gear in the second half. Still, if you don't put your chances away, you risk someone like Cody McDonald making you regret it. Put him in a read shirt rather than a blue one and I think we'd currently be talking about who we'll be playing in the playoffs.

It was a bit like the Bristol City game, but Gillingham were worse opposition. We looked neat and tidy, Lalkovic and Benning were a real handful down the left, and Westcarr improved us slightly up front. The only thing we lacked was that ruthlessness in the final third. Smith should give Sawyers a shots bonus for next season, because if he actually had a shot from the edge of the box once in a while, we'd probably score a few more goals. A Westcarr shot created our goal, and another smashed the post, yet he's the only one who ever tries his luck.

Frustrating afternoon but on the plus side, I thought Benning looked the business at both ends of the pitch and was comfortably my man of the match. Lalkovic looked fired up and threatening too, which makes me wonder who he was trying to impress - Dean Smith, or the scouts in the stands. The rebuilding process needs to start as early as it possibly can.

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Re: Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Mon Apr 21, 2014 5:23 pm

Cully wrote:Just decided to put my lottery winnings tonight on a Walsall win on Monday - I will be rich come 5 o'clock Monday :D

:shock:

So, so tedious, unexciting, dreadful, uninspiring dross. We don't cross the ball when we get the chance, we hardly ever shoot, our first shot of the game was greeted with loud cheers and jeers in the 44th minute! one shot in 45mins it was that bad.

Second half we had about 10 mins of slightly threatening football ie we had a few shots/chances which we failed to put away, the rest of the time we had to suffer the usual pass it around the entire team before eventually returning the ball to Butler or Downing to hoof it or pass it to O'Donnell to blast upfield.
My bet was looking good for a while until they brought on a Gary Birch lookalike [fat blob] who played a great pass over his head into the path of McDonald who finished it like no Walsall player would ever be capable of.

I have no idea what Dean Smith and Richard O'Kelly are hoping to achieve with our dreadful uninspiring playing style.

If anyone wants to sponsor the last home game then they are offering not only the usual match sponsorship package [good value] but also the chance for four people to spend a day at the training ground watching the team training, chat with Dean Smith and the rest of the management over lunch and some other stuff contact the club [Karen Donoghue] - I'm not.

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Re: Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Mon Apr 21, 2014 5:30 pm

Whats worrying is that we are going backwards - thats 2 wins in 16 games, pretty much relegation form for nearly half the season.

We're worse than we were this time last season, and there's worrying echoes of the Hutchings era in todays display. No urgency, no pressing when we didnt have the ball, no movement off the ball when we did have it, no movement across defenders when crosses were coming in, just statues - and a sloppy goal conceded.

We were easily better than Gillingham, I mean FFS they brought on Akinfenwa who is an effin pub player, can barely run.

I'd like to put it down to players already "on the beach", but it's been like this since the end of Jan. Sawyers just couldn't be bothered today, he backed out of headers when he could have scored, was sloppy with his passing in the first - it's so frustrating, because on his day, Sawyers is better than anyone in this division.

Smith also pissed me off, why bring on Ngoo with 30mins to go when he'll almost certainly go back to Liverpool and you've got a young lad (Bakayoko) who should be pushing for the first team next year. Then to top it off, he brings him on in the 90th minute. Today was a chance to give him a clean slate "go out there and have a go", "show me what you can do" kind of day. Ngoo just doesn't fit in to our style of play. This is why I said when people were asking what type of player we should sign, we should avoid signing a beanpole. He's too ungainly, no pace, no movement, no stealth about him whatsoever, so while we're trying to play tippy-tappy football, he's busy sending signals to his legs to move.
Last edited by philthesaddler on Mon Apr 21, 2014 5:35 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Mon Apr 21, 2014 5:33 pm

Cully wrote:My bet was looking good for a while until they brought on a Gary Birch lookalike [fat blob] who played a great pass over his head into the path of McDonald who finished it like no Walsall player would ever be capable of.


Akinfenwa makes Gary Birch look slim!

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Re: Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Mon Apr 21, 2014 6:55 pm

Same old

YAWN

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Re: Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Mon Apr 21, 2014 6:57 pm

philthesaddler wrote:
Cully wrote:My bet was looking good for a while until they brought on a Gary Birch lookalike [fat blob] who played a great pass over his head into the path of McDonald who finished it like no Walsall player would ever be capable of.


Akinfenwa makes Gary Birch look slim!

Health and Safety . I have never seen such a overweight "footballer". There can't be a professional footballer in the world as wide as him.

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Re: Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Mon Apr 21, 2014 7:07 pm

Graydon48 wrote:Health and Safety . I have never seen such a overweight "footballer". There can't be a professional footballer in the world as wide as him.


You're probably right. But I'd like to see him in a swimsuit competition with Steve McNulty...

Image

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Re: Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Mon Apr 21, 2014 7:16 pm

Graydon48 wrote:
philthesaddler wrote:
Cully wrote:My bet was looking good for a while until they brought on a Gary Birch lookalike [fat blob] who played a great pass over his head into the path of McDonald who finished it like no Walsall player would ever be capable of.


Akinfenwa makes Gary Birch look slim!

Health and Safety . I have never seen such a overweight "footballer". There can't be a professional footballer in the world as wide as him.

I looked over to the St Johns and their defib and thought that they definitely could be in the game. Made Merscum look like a model pro

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Re: Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Mon Apr 21, 2014 7:21 pm

philthesaddler wrote:Ngoo just doesn't fit in to our style of play.

Strikers don't fit our style of play.

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Re: Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Mon Apr 21, 2014 7:25 pm

We've not had a "striker" in the team for the majority of this season. Westcarr was superb last season playing in the position that Sawyers now occupies.

We should have signed a Julian Joachim style player in January, someone to run in behind, pull the centre backs left and right to create space for Brandy or Lalkovic to run in to. Instead we signed a cumbersome 6ft 7 target man who spends most of the time with his back to goal, exactly what we didn't need.

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Re: Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Mon Apr 21, 2014 7:35 pm

Not sure I've ever seen a Walsall side so poor at taking chances as this one. It seems the best we can hope for is to score once in each game, which, as we saw today, often isn't enough to beat even average sides like Gillingham.

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Re: Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Mon Apr 21, 2014 7:39 pm

pumajaguar wrote:Not sure I've ever seen a Walsall side so poor at taking chances as this one. It seems the best we can hope for is to score once in each game, which, as we saw today, often isn't enough to beat even average sides like Gillingham.


Gillingham were average? I think that's being kind!

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Re: Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Mon Apr 21, 2014 8:08 pm

philthesaddler wrote:
pumajaguar wrote:Not sure I've ever seen a Walsall side so poor at taking chances as this one. It seems the best we can hope for is to score once in each game, which, as we saw today, often isn't enough to beat even average sides like Gillingham.


Gillingham were average? I think that's being kind!

And Carlise & Bristol City, they were all there for the taking. 9 easy points and we took 2.

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Re: Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Mon Apr 21, 2014 8:33 pm

I'd like to say today's borefest was the product of an 'on the beach' mentality, sadly it's closer to the rest of the season than is comfortable to admit too. Dah, dah, dah, dah sexy football seems a hell of a long time ago now.

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Re: Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Mon Apr 21, 2014 8:46 pm

Any sensible person would have gone there today expecting to be disappointed.

Given this, the first half was in line with those expectations. The second half was a pleasant surprise. I thought it was reasonably entertaining.

Agree with those who say Cody Macdonald would have made a difference if he played for us rather than them.

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Re: Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Mon Apr 21, 2014 8:49 pm

In 44 games this season we have scored 47 goals and conceded 45 goals. Therefore today summed up our season pretty accurately! We would struggle to score more than 1 and are likely to concede one therefore a 1-1 draw. 6th in the league on goals conceded and 19th on goals scored!

The fact we could be losing Butler and Taylor from that defence puts even more pressure on next season in terms of quality replacements. I have more faith in Deano finding a decent defender than I do in him finding a decent striker.

Roll on 4th May!

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Re: Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Mon Apr 21, 2014 9:26 pm

philthesaddler wrote:there's worrying echoes of the Hutchings era in todays display. No urgency, no pressing when we didnt have the ball, no movement off the ball when we did have it, no movement across defenders when crosses were coming in, just statues - and a sloppy goal conceded.

I think you're being a bit melodramatic there if I'm honest. We did press when we needed to, and while I'd agree with you about movement off the ball when we attack, we kept the ball well enough to make Gillingham chase the game for large periods. Our one problem - and our only genuinely major problem - is our impotency in the final third. Yes, that's a significant problem, but signing one or two strikers to fit into a style of play is a hell of a lot easier (in theory) than recruiting 11-15 players from scratch.

Say what you like about our current side, but at least we play with some sort of plan, which is more than Hutchings ever even tried to implement. Yes, this season's been frustrating, but it's really starting to get on my wick how over the top the criticism's been.
Last edited by WFC_Rob on Mon Apr 21, 2014 9:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Mon Apr 21, 2014 9:33 pm

We are consistently very frustrating with our inability to put teams away .

Just a thought though. After witnessing today's game would you rather have gillinghams team or ours?
They had one attempt and scored. Although we were very poor in the first half we did at least create about half a dozen decent chances in second half.
They had one shot in 90 mins.
Today was not as bad as many on here are making out.

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Re: Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Mon Apr 21, 2014 9:40 pm

The most frustrating of games. Typical end of season affair, no atmosphere whatsoever, and especially in the first half no urgency at all. We picked it up a bit in the second half, granted, and Brandy should have scored before he did (3 yards out!) and Westcarr was unlucky with his shot off the post. At least he seems like he wants to have a pop at goal these days. Lalkovic, Brandy and Benning all played well, as did the Chambers twins.

Honestly, what is it about this team and their lack of shooting? 44 minutes before a decent shot at goal- the jeers tell it all. It's the most frustrating set up I've had to watch in years, and nobody can blame this on being because its an end of the season, nothing-to-play-for game, because this has been the story of most of 2014.

Also, something is clearly up with Sawyers because he looks like half the player he was. Good cross in in the second half today and he actually ducks out the way of the header for the goalscoring chance. Unbelievable.

The stench of apathy is overpowering. Roll on the end of the season, big changes to be made I think. :roll:

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Re: Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Mon Apr 21, 2014 9:46 pm

WFC_Rob wrote:Say what you like about our current side, but at least we play with some sort of plan, which is more than Hutchings ever even tried to implement. Yes, this season's been frustrating, but it's really starting to get on my wick how over the top the criticism's been.


My only criticism is that its boring tedious football, and often we accept draws. Smith seems to have a reluctance to go for the win sometimes.

We always look solid enough at the back, but we are now too reliant on it to pick up wins.

Its probably over the top, but only because people dared to believe we were building a top 6 side. Its the hope that kills ya.

I still maintain my opinion that a striker wouldnt have solved our problems, because the other "forwards" just dont get in the box. The front three rotates throughout the game and it still doesnt solve the problem. We cant cross because there is no one to cross too. They fail to get the concept that if Westcarr(the striker) is forced out wide, they need to take up the space he has vacated.

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Re: Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Mon Apr 21, 2014 9:46 pm

m&m wrote:Just a thought though. After witnessing today's game would you rather have gillinghams team or ours?
They had one attempt and scored. Although we were very poor in the first half we did at least create about half a dozen decent chances in second half.
They had one shot in 90 mins.
Today was not as bad as many on here are making out.

That's exactly the point I made to someone near me who moaned about our performance for 90 minutes. Give me our team, manager, and style of play over theirs any day of the week - even with its blatant flaws.

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Re: Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Mon Apr 21, 2014 9:50 pm

latviancheese wrote:
WFC_Rob wrote:I still maintain my opinion that a striker wouldnt have solved our problems, because the other "forwards" just dont get in the box. The front three rotates throughout the game and it still doesnt solve the problem. We cant cross because there is no one to cross too. They fail to get the concept that if Westcarr(the striker) is forced out wide, they need to take up the space he has vacated.

I don't disagree, and the stats back you up. Sawyers, Lalkovic, Brandy, and Baxendale (the other forwards) have got about the same number of goals as Westcarr between them. That's an issue in itself.

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Re: Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Mon Apr 21, 2014 9:55 pm

WFC_Rob wrote:
m&m wrote:Just a thought though. After witnessing today's game would you rather have gillinghams team or ours?
They had one attempt and scored. Although we were very poor in the first half we did at least create about half a dozen decent chances in second half.
They had one shot in 90 mins.
Today was not as bad as many on here are making out.

That's exactly the point I made to someone near me who moaned about our performance for 90 minutes. Give me our team, manager, and style of play over theirs any day of the week - even with its blatant flaws.


Amen brother

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Re: Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Mon Apr 21, 2014 10:10 pm

WFC_Rob wrote:
latviancheese wrote:
WFC_Rob wrote:I still maintain my opinion that a striker wouldnt have solved our problems, because the other "forwards" just dont get in the box. The front three rotates throughout the game and it still doesnt solve the problem. We cant cross because there is no one to cross too. They fail to get the concept that if Westcarr(the striker) is forced out wide, they need to take up the space he has vacated.

I don't disagree, and the stats back you up. Sawyers, Lalkovic, Brandy, and Baxendale (the other forwards) have got about the same number of goals as Westcarr between them. That's an issue in itself.


Yet Westcarr gets all the flak for not being perfect.

I dont know how many he has scored, probably around 15. So why isn't he the "well we need a 15 goal a season striker" we have been waiting years for?

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Re: Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Mon Apr 21, 2014 10:11 pm

Infact, we have stumbled across a bloke that scores more then ten goals a season, for no transfer fee, and numbskulls think he is cack and we should release him. Its actually beyond belief.

Bring back Tommy Mooney eh? At least he got the crowd going.

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Re: Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Mon Apr 21, 2014 10:19 pm

latviancheese wrote:
WFC_Rob wrote:
latviancheese wrote:
WFC_Rob wrote:I still maintain my opinion that a striker wouldnt have solved our problems, because the other "forwards" just dont get in the box. The front three rotates throughout the game and it still doesnt solve the problem. We cant cross because there is no one to cross too. They fail to get the concept that if Westcarr(the striker) is forced out wide, they need to take up the space he has vacated.

I don't disagree, and the stats back you up. Sawyers, Lalkovic, Brandy, and Baxendale (the other forwards) have got about the same number of goals as Westcarr between them. That's an issue in itself.


Yet Westcarr gets all the flak for not being perfect.

I dont know how many he has scored, probably around 15. So why isn't he the "well we need a 15 goal a season striker" we have been waiting years for?

Westcarr does a great job as the link man, and he is a good finisher. We just don't have that quality out an out striker. You would think from the money from Patterson and Grigg we might have been able to get one.

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Re: Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Mon Apr 21, 2014 10:32 pm

Not bad for someone who has played on the wing all his career eh?

sawyers should have been dropped back in January, he needs a kick up the arse, its his first full season in his career though so we have to make allowances for that, but he has been poor for a while.

Westcarr should have been dropped back there, with a bit of freedom behind a striker. He was immense there last year, just ask Jamie Paterson.

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Re: Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Tue Apr 22, 2014 6:53 am

latviancheese wrote:Not bad for someone who has played on the wing all his career eh?

sawyers should have been dropped back in January, he needs a kick up the Arsenal, its his first full season in his career though so we have to make allowances for that, but he has been poor for a while.

Westcarr should have been dropped back there, with a bit of freedom behind a striker. He was immense there last year, just ask Jamie Paterson.


I think dropped is a harsh word, but Sawyers should have been given a break, especially when we have Baxendale busting a gut to get a start in that position. The one position we really have competition for places, and he has pretty much stuck with Sawyers the whole season.

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Re: Gillingham (H) League One, Monday 21 Apr, 3pm

Tue Apr 22, 2014 7:30 am

Anyone know why Purkiss wasn't on the bench?

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