Preston North End (A) League One 24th Feb, 7.45pm

[chestersaddler]

Second half looks like continuing in the same vein - they hit the bar after 37 seconds.

[Welsh_Saddler]

Gallagher rattles the Walsall crossbar at the start of the second half...

Now they've hit the post......

[chestersaddler]

They have just hit the post.

[chestersaddler]

Gallagher rattles the Walsall crossbar at the start of the second half...

Now they've hit the post......

Pah, both were "off target" :wink:

[Welsh_Saddler]

60 minutes.... Sawyers on for Grimes

[BarnsleySaddler]

WALSALL SUB: Grimes OFF Sawyers ON

[motty]

Never fear we have the prolific grimes playing,sure to get a goal. In all seriousness though what on earth is deano playing at starting him? Did he get some sort of special at the bookies before hand to top his wages up,Cluesless. GOSOC

[Bristol Fan]

Today was not the time to go two upfront, Saturday definitely today no.

I very much doubt that we did. Grimes or Cook in the Sawyers role at a guess, not two strikers.

[chestersaddler]

They are still just shading it according to the stats

16 attempts v our 2

[Welsh_Saddler]

70 minutes, and we've had our first goal attempt on target !!!! Anthony Forde, long range shot.

75 minutes, Baxendale on for Forde

[BarnsleySaddler]

70 minutes, and we've had our first goal attempt on target !!!! Anthony Forde, long range shot.

But we have had 52% of possession :roll:

WALSALL SUB: Forde OFF Baxendale ON

[Sadders]

We were heading for an off night eventually, we need to keep Preston in business so that we can keep beat them again down the line! In fairness to Smith, Grimes did well when he came on at Bradford and if he had played Sawyers and we were 1-0 down still, then it would be 'Why not try Grimes'...so you can't win in football sometimes, unless you actually just win most weeks.

Sounds poor, but they are on good form, we have been poo since half time vs Dale at home and looked woeful on Saturday.

This was coming and 3/4 was a smashing price on the home win.

[Sadsfan]

We were heading for an off night eventually, we need to keep Preston in business so that we can keep beat them again down the line! In fairness to Smith, Grimes did well when he came on at Bradford and if he had played Sawyers and we were 1-0 down still, then it would be 'Why not try Grimes'...so you can't win in football sometimes, unless you actually just win most weeks.

Sounds poor, but they are on good form, we have been poo since half time vs Dale at home and looked woeful on Saturday.

This was coming and 3/4 was a smashing price on the home win.

:shock:

[BarnsleySaddler]

That`s your lot folks. 0-1. More possession but no goals to show for it. :(

[Andy_Petterson]

Saddlers Player "I'd love 9 points from the next 3 games but would take 7"

:lol:

[SoccerHQ]

Still only 4 points off the play offs incredibly. :lol:

Next three are Orient, Yeovil and Barnsley so I think it's far to say league season is over if 6-7 points aren't obtained from those three.

[m&m]

Forget the play-offs. We should be looking at getting to 50 points as soon as possible.
It would seem that it's all about Wembley which is fine as long as we don't go down!

Its about time our players took the league a little more seriously and stopped concentrating on avoiding getting injured for Wembley.We have been woeful since the first half against Rochdale.

If we lose to orient on Saturday it's only a 5 point gap. What type of line -up was that tonight?

Our squad is threadbare.Hopefully the wembley money will mean that we can afford a little more quality in depth --not signings like Grimes and Manset.

On another note for the last 2 games we have been told that Bradshaw was fit and starting. What's going on?

[BathSaddler]

Still only 4 points off the play offs incredibly. :lol:

Next three are Orient, Yeovil and Barnsley so I think it's far to say league season is over if 6-7 points aren't obtained from those three.

I think our league season is over already, SoccerHQ. A first away defeat in 9 is not a cause for concern, but I think we are already planning for next season, rather than this one. As others have said, with the money from the JPT we should be able to secure the spine of the team on longer contracts to be competitive for next season. With the sides coming down looking like more of the 'smaller fry' of the championship [Blackpool, Millwall and yes, Wigan, if they do get relegated] I see no reason why next season's League 1 should be any stronger than this one. However, we need to secure our safety first and tonight's line up was not necessarily the way to do that.

If we get more than 3-4 points out of the next three matches you mention, I'll be surprised.

I look forward to hearing the accounts of those who were at Deepdale tonight.

[dajw_my_son]

Still won 2-1 on aggregate over the three legs anyway, so we can still go to Wembley. Two of the matches were on their patch too!

[IHTC.]

Forget the play-offs. We should be looking at getting to 50 points as soon as possible.
It would seem that it's all about Wembley which is fine as long as we don't go down!

Its about time our players took the league a little more seriously and stopped concentrating on avoiding getting injured for Wembley.We have been woeful since the first half against Rochdale.

If we lose to orient on Saturday it's only a 5 point gap. What type of line -up was that tonight?

Our squad is threadbare.Hopefully the wembley money will mean that we can afford a little more quality in depth --not signings like Grimes and Manset.

On another note for the last 2 games we have been told that Bradshaw was fit and starting. What's going on?

No idea about the game tonight but its blatantly obvious why Bradshaw (if fit) did not play at Bradford, any manager worth his salt would have kept him as far away as possible from that pitch.

[stig231]

Would be interesting to here from someone who was there tonight about the incident in the build up to their goal. The commentator and Kearns complaining for a long time about a push on Rico Henry by their winger Humphrey which led to Henry going off with a serious sounding arm/shoulder injury.

They insisted it was a foul and the only two who carried on playing was Humphrey, and Johnson who scored.

Now IF it was a foul, and Smith usually finds a reason to complain bout the ref, but its hard when you have to come back from a gift of a goal away at the best defence in the league. Admittedly we haven't played great but we have 1 point from the last 3 games but with competent refs vs Vale and tonight we could have had 5 or 7 pts from those 3 games and be 6th instead of 14th.

So even if I'm trying to convince myself it's not the start of us tailing off like last season its not all doom and gloom ..yet...unless we fail to beat Orient on Saturday then it might be :?

[Welsh_Saddler]

They insisted it was a foul and the only two who carried on playing was Humphrey, and Johnson who scored.

All professional footballers, no matter what the rights and wrongs of the particular incident are, should follow the basic (really basic) principle of "Play the whistle". Just because a player stops what he's doing and holds his arms aloft, that isn't necessarily going to persuade the referee to stop play.

[Ancient Moaner]

Just got back...............................what a load of rubbish, what a waste of money, will the club refund all those who were there and had to put up with that performance?
We could, and should, have been 3/4-0 down within half an hour. It was men against boys, they made us look pathetic, every time they attacked it could have been a goal, their crosses were immaculate, without O'D being at his best again it would have been an embarrassing scoreline even at half time. What was Deano thinking about putting Grimes in? Lost the ball more times than ever.
Sure, their goal was as a result of a dreadful foul on Rico (who seems to have broken something, and will probably be out for the rest of the season) which went unpunished by a very weak ref. But this is clutching at straws. We huffed and puffed for the latter stages of the first half but never got past our own half. Shots on target?...NIL...attacks?....NIL.
Second half began like the first, they hit the bar and upright within minutes of the restart, but then got tired of the boredom of the repeated shooting practice, which annoyed the home fans beyond belief.
We then realised we were losing. Again we huffed and we puffed .. ....sideways/backwards/sideways/backwards/backwards/goalie/sideways/backwards/sideways/backwards...shots on target?...NIL...attacks?...threatened a couple of times, and then guess what?
sideways/backwards/goalie (ours).
We lack a cutting edge that is so obvious it is embarrassing. Deanos team choice was totally wrong.
Plus points?
Sawyers made an instant impact, and guess what? He made a couple of pretty beefy challenges!! Hiwula will never sign for us, he's too good for this league, but is totally starved of service playing for our lot, would probably be a sensation playing for a more attack minded club.
IMHO Preston are dead certs for the championship, we have to look over our shoulders at the bottom end of the league.
I'm angry, tired, and phissed off, goodnight all! :(

[stig231]

They insisted it was a foul and the only two who carried on playing was Humphrey, and Johnson who scored.

All professional footballers, no matter what the rights and wrongs of the particular incident are, should follow the basic (really basic) principle of "Play the whistle". Just because a player stops what he's doing and holds his arms aloft, that isn't necessarily going to persuade the referee to stop play.

I agree Welsh. My point wasn't really that a referee should need persuading to stop play , they are there to do a job and make decisions. I don't really care too much if they irritate me by insisting throw ins and free kicks should be taken from the exact spot as long as they make the big decisions and get the majority of them right. Too often than not it seems lately that they don't and they ain't.

[Mazza01]

Our line up suggested we wasn't going there for anything but a defeat!

It was kind of pointless.

[PT]

Next three are Orient, Yeovil and Barnsley so I think it's far to say league season is over if 6-7 points aren't obtained from those three.

It'll be close to being over if we get 3 or 4 points from those games.

The thing is though that the Smith era has been characterised by very hot and very cold streaks. If we finish this season as we finished last, then we'll be right in the mix of a relegation battle. In fact, take out the win at Bradford in last year's run-in and a repeat of that streak would probably see us relegated.

Unfortunately, our current form suggests that we are far more likely to be in cold streak mode than about to embark on the sort of run that would get us anywhere near the last play-off place that is realistically up for grabs.

[philthesaddler]

Once again, Dean Smiths weak, yet large squad and his managerial inability come home to roost.

One idea, one formation, one way of playing, it's roll the dice Deano and see what you get. Any team with any nous, and Deano is stumped.

Don't worry, he'll roll the dice another 14 times this season and by law of dean smith averages will win around a third of those games...so probably 4 more wins, and we'll end up around 54-57 points.

[belgiansaddler]

Just got back...............................what a load of rubbish, what a waste of money, will the club refund all those who were there and had to put up with that performance?
We could, and should, have been 3/4-0 down within half an hour. It was men against boys, they made us look pathetic, every time they attacked it could have been a goal, their crosses were immaculate, without O'D being at his best again it would have been an embarrassing scoreline even at half time. What was Deano thinking about putting Grimes in? Lost the ball more times than ever.
Sure, their goal was as a result of a dreadful foul on Rico (who seems to have broken something, and will probably be out for the rest of the season) which went unpunished by a very weak ref. But this is clutching at straws. We huffed and puffed for the latter stages of the first half but never got past our own half. Shots on target?...NIL...attacks?....NIL.
Second half began like the first, they hit the bar and upright within minutes of the restart, but then got tired of the boredom of the repeated shooting practice, which annoyed the home fans beyond belief.
We then realised we were losing. Again we huffed and we puffed .. ....sideways/backwards/sideways/backwards/backwards/goalie/sideways/backwards/sideways/backwards...shots on target?...NIL...attacks?...threatened a couple of times, and then guess what?
sideways/backwards/goalie (ours).
We lack a cutting edge that is so obvious it is embarrassing. Deanos team choice was totally wrong.
Plus points?
Sawyers made an instant impact, and guess what? He made a couple of pretty beefy challenges!! Hiwula will never sign for us, he's too good for this league, but is totally starved of service playing for our lot, would probably be a sensation playing for a more attack minded club.
IMHO Preston are dead certs for the championship, we have to look over our shoulders at the bottom end of the league.
I'm angry, tired, and phissed off, goodnight all! :(

Good to hear you are back on form AM :D Dr Belge prescribes more of that cider you had on Saturday before all Walsall matches you witness. :mrgreen:

[Tom_1992]

Once again, Dean Smiths weak, yet large squad and his managerial inability come home to roost.

One idea, one formation, one way of playing, it's roll the dice Deano and see what you get. Any team with any nous, and Deano is stumped.

Don't worry, he'll roll the dice another 14 times this season and by law of dean smith averages will win around a third of those games...so probably 4 more wins, and we'll end up around 54-57 points.

Genuine question here Phil, if you were made Chairman tomorrow what would you do to fix the 'problem'?

[Rushall Saddler]

Anybody considered that we just lost to a better, more consistent side who were probably well up for the game after we denied them a Wembley appearance, while we missed a couple of key players?

First away defeat since October and we've got people asking for refunds.

Got to love Walsall FC. :mrgreen: