Crawley Town (A) League One Tues 21 Oct, 7.45pm

[Welsh_Saddler]

After the embarrassing home defeat at the hands of Crewe Alexandra we travel to Crawley, possibly more in hope than anything else. Crawley are only two points ahead of us in the table and currently lie in 15th place with 14 points. There is one similarity between this game and the Crewe game - both of our opponents have been leaking goals of late (not that it did us much good last Saturday). Crawley's recent form:

20 Sep Preston North End (A) Lost 2-0
27 Sep Yeovil Town (H) Won 2-0
4 Oct Coventry City (A) Drew 2-2
7 Oct Luton Town (A, F.A.Trophy) Won 0-1
11 Oct Peterborough United (H) Lost 1-4
18 Oct Notts County (A) Lost 5-3

Crawley's manager John Gregory is understandably unhappy at shipping 9 goals in the last 2 games, having kept 8 clean sheets so far in the League, and he may well recall first-choice keeper Jamie Ashdown. Top scorer with 6 goals the known quality of Izale McLeod, and a more familiar face likely to play is Mat Sadler, whose loan spell has recently been extended.

The questions facing Walsall supporters can be refined into 2 main areas - (a) Is there any hope of seeing any of the long and short-term injured players actually playing?, and (b) what kind of mental attitude can we expect from the XI on the pitch? I'm hoping that Bradshaw and maybe Mantom could be on view............ :? There is one further development.....it now seems that we've seen the last of Andy Butler, as Dean Smith has obtained the services of Michael Cain, a 20-year old midfield player from Leicester City on a one month loan. Described as "a box-to-box player", let's see if he can put some "oomph" into what is currently a weak area.

On the assumption that Dean Smith has not "lost the dressing room" and his motivational skills have been fully employed since Saturday, I'll stick my neck out and say we will come away with a draw. Don't care what the actual score is, just let's have a point !!!

[paddy]

Can't see anything other than a home win, even though Crawley have been stuffed in last 2 games.

2-0

[BathSaddler]

I think we'll sneak a point, so 1-1, in front of a sub 2,000 crowd, including 100 or so of us.

[belgiansaddler]

Fancy a win tomorrow night. Then again I always do :lol:

[SoccerHQ]

1-1 but very unconvincing.

[Tom_1992]

1-0 to Crawley

Mcleod nailed on to score unfortunately :(

[otiswfc]

Fancy a win tomorrow night. Then again I always do :lol:

Well you are right 1 out of 15 times.
I think we will draw 0-0. Thank god I'm working afternoon shift and can't go.

[kshammer]

1-0 to us.

Manset to blow the ball into the by panting so heavily after running 5 yards.

[derbysaddler]

Hell, if he goes with that team and set's them up for a nil nil keep it tight he needs executing with a rampant badger, considering the amount of goals Crawley have shipped in of late.

[Ancient Moaner]

Hell, if he goes with that team and set's them up for a nil nil keep it tight he needs executing with a rampant badger, considering the amount of goals Crawley have shipped in of late.

Then obviously it will be a 'Crwho lookie likee' performance, 1-0 defeat inevitable.
Perhaps if we went with a 1/8/0/0/ set up...........then again with this howling wind, we would still lose 1-0 with a deft flick back to O'Donnell by Sawyers again, as he makes a spectacular dive in completely the wrong direction. :?
Would love to come away with a result, even one point from a dullard 0-0 draw, but then again, I would love to win the lottery...the latter being more likely.

[latviancheese]

This has 0-0 written all over it.

John Gregory the villa barclays though, hope we stuff em.

Would like to see us go back to 3 up front with Cook and Forde playing wide, both can dribble and shoot, and when Cook was on loan here before we played that system with him shooting on sight. If Bradshaw isnt fit then Manset can be the fat git in the middle.

[derbysaddler]

Hell, if he goes with that team and set's them up for a nil nil keep it tight he needs executing with a rampant badger, considering the amount of goals Crawley have shipped in of late.

Then obviously it will be a 'Crwho lookie likee' performance, 1-0 defeat inevitable.
Perhaps if we went with a 1/8/0/0/ set up...........then again with this howling wind, we would still lose 1-0 with a deft flick back to O'Donnell by Sawyers again, as he makes a spectacular dive in completely the wrong direction. :?
Would love to come away with a result, even one point from a dullard 0-0 draw, but then again, I would love to win the lottery...the latter being more likely.

You'm a miserable ole bugger aye ya

[derbysaddler]

This has 0-0 written all over it.

John Gregory the villa barclays though, hope we stuff em.

Would like to see us go back to 3 up front with Cook and Forde playing wide, both can dribble and shoot, and when Cook was on loan here before we played that system with him shooting on sight. If Bradshaw isnt fit then Manset can be the fat git in the middle.

John Gregory is at a superior level of bellend. If that doesn't motivate the team to beat his outfit heads should roll.

[Ghostofwalsallpast]

Crawley 3:1 Walsall

Wild celebrations as we score a goal

Smith to take advantage of the weather and blame Gonzalo

[ws9swift]

0-0 in a dire footballing display.

[JonnyOwen]

Sam Mantom on the bench.

Cain starts.

O'Donnell

Purkiss
Downing
J Chambers
Taylor

A Chambers
Cain
Baxendale
Sawyers
Forde

Cook

[Sadders]

O'Donnell

Purkiss
Chambers
Downing
Taylor

Forde
Cain
Chambers
Baxendale

Sawyers
Cook


No Bradshaw, be interested to see how the back 4 look and if Cain provides anything going forward.

[Welsh_Saddler]

It's to be hoped that we get SOMETHING out of tonight's game, because if we lose we are certain to drop down the table even further, as the two teams immediately below us are up against each other....... :(

(Substitutes: O'Connor, MANTOM !!!, McGillivray, Benning, Morris, Grimes, Manset.)

Pre-kickoff odds: Home 19/10, Draw 23/10, Away 11/8 (I find it difficult to understand why we're favourites!!) :shock:

[Welsh_Saddler]

Elsewhere, after 55 seconds....... Colchester United 0 Chesterfield 1

More earlies....... Doncaster 0 Leyton Orient 1

Port Vale 0 Scunthorpe United 1

So we've slipped down one place tonight already!!

[Sadders]

We've had 3 corners and 3 shots after 6 minutes... :shock: Que a Crawley goal.

[Welsh_Saddler]

As you were..... Port Vale have equalised at home to Scunny.

6 minutes gone, and we've had 3 corners!!!

Goals flying in all over the place:

Bristol City 1 Bradford 1
Barnsley 2 Notts County 1
Oldham Athletic 2 Coventry City 0 (which pushes us up out of the bottom 4, Coventry take our place!!) :D

(Matt Richards has scored for Cheltenham)

EDIT....we go up another place, thanks to Sheffield United 1 Yeovil Town 0

[yoda]

According to my little gambling app thing that I'm 'watching' the game on, we've never beat Crawley in the league.

[Welsh_Saddler]

Crawley defender Oyebanjo gets himself a nice yellow card.....

Crewe Alex 1 Peterborough 0 ...... Crewe off the bottom, and Posh down to 10 men.

[Sadders]

Sawyers just missed a 'sitter'. Dominating, but need to make it count or else you can guarantee it'l turn into one of 'those nights'.

[derbysaddler]

I see Bayern are spanking Roma, scary team.

[Cully]

It's to be hoped that we get SOMETHING out of tonight's game,

This is fast becoming a SMITHOUT cliché followed by various optional excuses. I'm sick of him not doing anything about it and 35 plus games later, nearly a whole season, and it's the same old same old. It would appear that SMITHOUT's DNA is just stuck on AAA and he obviously hasn't got a clue how to progress.

Spoke to 'someone' at the club today [I sound like MMF :D ] and they said that the whole club feels like it's just spiralling down and stuck in a rut with SMITHOUT.

Meanwhile in deepest Sussex a Walsall team that's only 9 points off a play off place or more realistically and deservedly 1 point off the bottom of the table heroically battles against the heathen Crawley scum by hitting one shot on target for every five. I'm not surprised that we've had 10 shots and no goals.

Cook just heads one over the bar.

[BathSaddler]

Dominating in terms of shots on/off [3/11 to 1/3] according to the BBC, leading on corners too 3-1.

[BarnsleySaddler]

Dominating in terms of shots on/off [3/11 to 1/3] according to the BBC, leading on corners too 3-1.

Think they need some sights on their boots!

[Cully]

Half time...........still 0 - 0 Unbeaten for 45 mins, is this the start of a 90 min run?

[Welsh_Saddler]

Baxendale booked on the stroke of half-time.

Lord only knows what Dean Smith's pre-match talk was about, but I can't recall us ever having 14 goal attempts in a whole game, let alone the piggin' first half....... :shock: