Notts County (H) League One Friday 3 Apr, 3pm

[Welsh_Saddler]

Yeovil 2 Chesterfield 3 now, having been 2-0 up.

Oldham Athletic 0 Bristol City 1

[chestersaddler]

Cook hits the bar with a short range shot following a corner......

..and now the post :evil:

(Edited accordingly (already!!)) :wink:

Without it stating that you edited it - is that a mod thing?

[BathSaddler]

Forde on for Morris...

and Grimes for Cook...

[Welsh_Saddler]

Forde on for Kieran Morris, 73 min

...and Grimes on for Cook a minute later. Go SuperSub !!!

Scunthorpe 2 Peterborough 0 now

Oldham equalise at home to Bristol City.... now 1-1

Port Vale 0 Colchester United 2

[DavidWFC2010]

Bristol City back to the only team letting my coupon down again now 1-1.

[BathSaddler]

Port Fail 0 Colchester 2...

Bakayoko on for Hiwula...last throw of the dice

[Welsh_Saddler]

With 10 minutes to go, Amadou Bakayoko replaces Jordy Hiwula......

Port Vale 1 Colchester 2 now

Edit: Full time, 0-0. It's a point.

[BathSaddler]

Nothing whatsoever reported on Twitter since the 3 attacking changes were made.

In three minutes added time...

[BathSaddler]

0-0 FT.

The mind numbing tedium of mediocrity continues, but at least we didn't lose.

[Ancient Moaner]

A pathetic display of boredom for the Bank's's crowd again. Two relegation candidates scraping the bottom of the barrel. Smiths tenure must end soon...

[hullsaddler]

Could have been worse but 0.0 leaves me feeling this could go badly wrong. 3 goals in 9 games they've just said!

[BathSaddler]

Could have been worse but 0.0 leaves me feeling this could go badly wrong. 3 goals in 9 games they've just said!

It's 4 in 11 games - a slightly better ratio :lol: !

[hullsaddler]

Could have been worse but 0.0 leaves me feeling this could go badly wrong. 3 goals in 9 games they've just said!

It's 4 in 11 games - a slightly better ratio :lol: !

Only Yeovil have scored fewer league goals than us .... is this significant?

[BathSaddler]

Could have been worse but 0.0 leaves me feeling this could go badly wrong. 3 goals in 9 games they've just said!

It's 4 in 11 games - a slightly better ratio :lol: !

Only Yeovil have scored fewer league goals than us .... is this significant?

Yes. Just one goal per game when you average last season and this [85 goals in 85 league games].

[JonnyOwen]

We were okay, not good, not alright, but okay. Improvement on Chesterfield and Wembley, but still not great.

Cook's movement and link up play was very good, finishing and final ball ATROCIOUS.
Morris was promising, liked him a lot, needs to work on his passing discipline in our own half though.
Hiwula non existant.
Sawyers was good first half, decent for most of the second half but suffered and started to play poorly after the subs.

Sub's made us worse not better, Grimes and Forde weren't in the game at all.

[coop63]

Could have been worse but 0.0 leaves me feeling this could go badly wrong. 3 goals in 9 games they've just said!

It's 4 in 11 games - a slightly better ratio :lol: !

Only Yeovil have scored fewer league goals than us .... is this significant?

Yes. Less than one goal per game when you average last season and this.

Firstly, I have to confess to not being there today so I can't comment directly on the game..

4 in 11! I've resisted moving into the 'Smith out' camp during recent weeks but it's not gettin any better is it?

I just don't know how any club can excuse or defend a record like ours - how much do they expect fans to put up with?

Someone mentioned in a separate thread that if (and I appreciate it is an 'if') we go down it'll be a completely unnecessary relegation - the players are not that bad that we should be in this position but the tactics and approach of the manager are frankly unacceptable..

Time to move on I think - I know it's precarious to get rid now but to be honest either the lads need a boot up the a*** and Deano can't do it ot someone else needs to come in and adopt a different approach - I'm for the latter :cry:

[boringteacher]

County were complete and utter gash. Cook should have had a hat trick in the first half hour, Jordi showed true premier league control and class to waste another sitter. County tried to give us another 2 or 3 in the 2nd half, but we were too mediocre to take them up on the offer. After more masterful tactical changes by the ginger special one, County were actually the better side for the last 20 minutes, a feat that only a truly dreadful manager could engineer.

Looking forward to the next fairy tale press conference.

First time: SMITH OUT. I'd like some entertainment in the 4th division next season.

[SWS1]

I find myself relieved we didn't lose, and I don't like the feeling :(
Mind you, infinitely better than the losing feeling :) .
We could end up with the worst scoring record in the division - but I can't quite work out what our problem is winning games. Could it be goal scoring, perhaps? (Give me a PhD in the Bleedin Obvious, please).
Aside from a couple of atrocious home reverses, the defence has done well, considering (the loss of Butler in particular).
Oh for a Tony Richards or an Alan Buckley - or even a George Kirby! They knew the way to the net!
8)

[philthesaddler]

As boringteacher says, County were dreadful - they really reminded me of our season in League 2 a few years back - they had 2 old, fat, slow lumps up front - yet we nearly conspired to concede to them on a couple of occasions. O'Donnell made 3 terrific saves, whereas Caroll only had to make the one decent save.

Sadly, we weren't much better than County. Man of the Match Ben Purkiss showed his tremendous ability by failing to beat the first man once when crossing during the 90 mins, then managed to pass the ball out of play from 10 yards late on in the 2nd half.

Sawyers once again wasteful - had the most touches of the ball, but his retention of possession is probably the worst in the team. In fairness, he is probably the only player who tries to pass forward, but the majority of his wastefulness is the short simple passes. In the 90th minute today, he got the ball in the penalty area, it's imperative in that situation that you dont tap the ball to the opposition. Guess what he did?

Again, O'Connor looked solid, unspectacular - but I'm sure there will be some people saying he looked awful. No doubt Smith will drop him for the next game to bring back Downing.

2 years of awful home performances, this is not about luck, this is attitude, tactics, approach and lack of flexibility.

SMITH OUT

[boringteacher]

Clueless

http://www.bescotbanter.net/2015/04/post-match-quotes-dean-smith.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+bescotbanterfeed+%28Bescot+Banter%3A+An+independent+look+at+Walsall+Football+Club.%29

I look forward to similar comments when we're 23rd in the division of death next season

[Sadsfan]

Unbelievable quotes by Smith, how can he have no complaints when we failed to beat one of the worst teams that I've seen this season? Terrible performance again, Smith out.

[SoccerHQ]

As poor as Walsall were apart from that 10 minute spell in the second half, Bradshaw would've scored two goals today with the chances Cook missed, particularly that lob after 30 seconds.

Notts County are a poor poor team. If Walsall can't finish above them they deserve relegation.

[WFC_Rob]

Those 90 minutes summed up the plights of two relegation scrapers pretty well in the end. We were marginally the better side, which was just as well because County were atrocious - comfortably the worst team I've seen us play this season. The fact it ended 0-0 shows just how lacklustre we are in the final third.

On a positive note, we were considerably better than at Chesterfield, which was probably down to that bit more impetus Cain and Morris gave us. O'Connor was solid again, the fullbacks were nowhere near as wasteful, and in Morris we had someone capable of beating an opposition player - something I genuinely think none of his teammates are capable of at this moment in time.

Our struggles are down to a combination of factors - tiring legs and poor recruitment. The Chambers twins both seem to be really struggling, yet they also seem shoe-ins for a place in the side each week. With Adam I can understand - club captain and has the kind of defensive discipline Cain and Mantom don't. With James however, it doesn't seem to make quite so much sense. The only thing I can put it down to is how shaky Downing looks when he plays alongside O'Connor - who now seems to have bizarrely found his the first name on our teamsheet.

Hitting the woodwork three times in two minutes and missing two great chances in the first half isn't unlucky - it's the result of very poor recruitment followed by a weak team selection. Why play an out of form winger on his own up front, when you've got two strikers sat on the bench - and another looking like a fish out of water on the left wing? Yes, Bradshaw was injured, but to be relying on him so heavily in the first place is a daft gamble.

I'm not quite in the Smith Out camp, but my patience is starting to wear pretty thin. The 'sexy football' of 18 months or so ago has now dissolved into a style of football with no purpose, we have nothing resembling a plan B, and the team selections have become so erratic I genuinely don't think a lot of the players know what their jobs are. Which one of O'Connor and Chambers is the ball-winner and which is the one sweeping behind? Is Adam Chambers the one sitting in front of the back four, or is that Cain's job? The spine of the team looks all over the place all of a sudden, which is playing its part in a really worrying run of form. 18 months ago, while we were by no means prolific scorers, you could at least see a method and a style in there somewhere. Now, it's come to the point where the formula probably needs rewriting from scratch in the summer, whether we stay up or not.

[tinned]

Apparently Smith has said we were the aggressive attacking side and deserved to win. Does he make it up as he goes along?

Sack the useless prat now.

[WFC_Rob]

Sack the useless prat now.

Do you think Richard O'Kelly would keep us up?

[Sadsfan]

Those 90 minutes summed up the plights of two relegation scrapers pretty well in the end. We were marginally the better side, which was just as well because County were atrocious - comfortably the worst team I've seen us play this season. The fact it ended 0-0 shows just how lacklustre we are in the final third.

On a positive note, we were considerably better than at Chesterfield, which was probably down to that bit more impetus Cain and Morris gave us. O'Connor was solid again, the fullbacks were nowhere near as wasteful, and in Morris we had someone capable of beating an opposition player - something I genuinely think none of his teammates are capable of at this moment in time.

Our struggles are down to a combination of factors - tiring legs and poor recruitment. The Chambers twins both seem to be really struggling, yet they also seem shoe-ins for a place in the side each week. With Adam I can understand - club captain and has the kind of defensive discipline Cain and Mantom don't. With James however, it doesn't seem to make quite so much sense. The only thing I can put it down to is how shaky Downing looks when he plays alongside O'Connor - who now seems to have bizarrely found his the first name on our teamsheet.

Hitting the woodwork three times in two minutes and missing two great chances in the first half isn't unlucky - it's the result of very poor recruitment followed by a weak team selection. Why play an out of form winger on his own up front, when you've got two strikers sat on the bench - and another looking like a fish out of water on the left wing? Yes, Bradshaw was injured, but to be relying on him so heavily in the first place is a daft gamble.

I'm not quite in the Smith Out camp, but my patience is starting to wear pretty thin. The 'sexy football' of 18 months or so ago has now dissolved into a style of football with no purpose, we have nothing resembling a plan B, and the team selections have become so erratic I genuinely don't think a lot of the players know what their jobs are. Which one of O'Connor and Chambers is the ball-winner and which is the one sweeping behind? Is Adam Chambers the one sitting in front of the back four, or is that Cain's job? The spine of the team looks all over the place all of a sudden, which is playing its part in a really worrying run of form. 18 months ago, while we were by no means prolific scorers, you could at least see a method and a style in there somewhere. Now, it's come to the point where the formula probably needs rewriting from scratch in the summer, whether we stay up or not.

To me, his team selection today smacked of desperation and that of a manager who doesn't know what to do to improve things - a bit like our bad runs of previous seasons we played the same formation until we eventually scraped a win. The formation and the style of play need to change, but I don't really see that happening as the players have the system so ingrained in them. Desperation all round.

[Sadsfan]

Sack the useless prat now.

Do you think Richard O'Kelly would keep us up?

No, it would be just more of the same. One word about him as a manager: Hereford.

[WFC_Rob]

Sack the useless prat now.

Do you think Richard O'Kelly would keep us up?

No, it would be just more of the same. One word about him as a manager: Hereford.

Which is one of the reasons I'm not sure there's not much point calling for Smith's head right now. There's your alternative.

[boringteacher]

Apparently Smith has said we were the aggressive attacking side and deserved to win. Does he make it up as he goes along?

Sack the useless prat now.

Too late. It's O'Kelly's team as well - we go down or stay up based on these two. A dramatic change post-Chesterfield might have been justified (Gary Johnson for me), but not now.

I've had enough of Smith, but still think we'll just stay up as 5 points (which I think we'll scrape) should still be enough.

[Pedagogue]

The frustrating thing is that everyone can see what is wrong (even DS!) but DS and ROK seem incapable of doing anything about it. Listening to DS on BBC Radio Dingle tonight, he says that our poor finishing is letting us down - well, no cack, Sherlock!



Cook was was moved into the middle to replace Bradshaw and went on to miss 3 good chances in the first 25 minutes. One is left with the feeling that Bradshaw would probably put at least one of them away. At least he had a go but when you consider that the only other Walsall player who looked likely to score was Adam Chambers, you can see how desperate we were! Hiwula is very much an "icing on the cake" player. He will score goals in a team in a team playing well and with confidence but without that backing, he contributes nothing. This would presumably explain his failure at Yeovil Town, last year. It might help, of course, if DS actually played him as a striker, rather than a winger or midfield player!

The goal return of our midfield players/wingers is appalling. Quite frankly, Cook, Forde, Mantom, Cain, Baxendale, Adam Chambers and, most of all, Sawyers should all hang their heads in shame - not just for their almost non-existent contribution to the goal-scoring but also for the total absence of attacking moves off the ball or penetrative passing. This is the area that DS and ROK should be addressing as a matter of urgency. If they can't do it, then maybe it will soon be time to look for someone who can.

This was one of the poorest Notts County teams that I have seen for some time (truly dreadful), yet we struggled get a worthwhile shot on target. I can only recall one save that Roy Carroll had to make. In contrast, O'Donnell had to make 3 decent saves despite us being on top for most of the game.