Luton (A) friendly - Saturday 1 August 3pm

[Exile]

Last outing before the season seriously kicks off. Great away day for those going, although some football may interrupt their enjoyment/be the icing on the cake (delete as appropriate).

[Asps]

Should be a good test for us and a proper gauge of our combat readiness for the new season.

180 saddlers in a crowd of 1321

2 -2 scoreline

[Guest]

I'll be there. Flying to London tomorrow.

[We-ARE-Walsall]

Going on the Asps bus. Will be a great day, regardless of the football. I predict we will play well, and lose 2-0.

[saddla]

Important for those planning to go on Saturday:

Luton Borough Council have announced that Hatters Way will be closed on Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd August for 'drainage and maintenance works'. The road will be closed from the roundabout at Chaul End Lane / Dallow Road to the Telford Way roundabout between 5am and 7pm on both of these days and a diversion will be in place.

[Cheesebag]

Have they still got their fatty defender?

[Sadders]

Spanish trialist 'Adrian Pozo' is playing at centre back alongside Downing and Preston. It's 3-4-1-2 again with Morris in the hole, Cook and Bradshaw upfront and Henry/Demetriou as wing backs. Inventive. I like it.

[IHTC.]

0-1 Bradders :D

[Darth Vader]

Hot Tom 8)

[Saddlers at Hertford]

Anyone know where to park?

[Saddlers at Hertford]

way to make me first post. I'm in now - hi all.

[IHTC.]

way to make me first post. I'm in now - hi all.

Hi and Welcome

[Lovemuffin]

Finished 0-1. That'll do for now.

[chestersaddler]

Playoff contenders :D

[IHTC.]

Playoff contenders :D

Luton?

[chestersaddler]

Playoff contenders :D

Luton?

:mrgreen:

If we win next week it'll change to "promotion" contenders :D

[IHTC.]

Playoff contenders :D

Luton?

:mrgreen:

If we win next week it'll change to "promotion" contenders :D

are you sure you are not Optimistic? :lol:

[Saddlers at Hertford]

thanks exile. Wish I'd got there to see the first half as second half was a little disjointed with all the subs and Luton got into the game and they stretched and tested the defence without really threatening. We are going to be treated some footage on the football league show with our keepers balletic poses. Made some very nice looking saves though. Nice movement going forward from the wings, not sure who the other 5 scorers are Deano mentioned though. Milan and Rom not at the races in the time they got although Rom did muscle someone off the ball, which is a first for me. Crowd 2180, not sure many worsul but we made all the noise :)

[Darth Vader]

Good enough result, Etheridge sounded very decent and glad to see Bradshaw scoring, who else though really!

[IHTC.]

Lets me get my Monocle

[Darth Vader]

Scunthorpe























:mrgreen:

[IHTC.]

Scunthorpe























:mrgreen:

charming

[Saddlers at Hertford]

haha sorry, not used to this lark on my mobile. My posts I promise will be rather less garbled as well, I'm usually more articulate. Following posts before we signed up, and agree we won't miss o'D.

[BathSaddler]

149 Saddlers at Kenilworth Road, according to Luton's twitter feed.

[otiswfc]

I didn't go but I reckon we won because Sawyers's was on the bench (obsessed) please Mr Smith start with this side and we will beat Oldham, why change a winning side? you know it makes sense 8)

[Noggin]

haha sorry, not used to this lark on my mobile. My posts I promise will be rather less garbled as well, I'm usually more articulate. Following posts before we signed up, and agree we won't miss o'D.

A Walsall fan in Hertford?

Really?

I'm in Hoddesdon.

[JonnyOwen]

Quite promising performance. First half we were really quite good, especially the two wing backs in Rico Henry and Jason Demetriou who put in some fantastic balls and looked solid at the back too. I really like the 352 formation, it provides more bodies for the man in the hole to pass too, especially in the penalty area, which means we have less men on the edge of the area to slowly pass around each other in a semi circle - and more men in the danger zone where we want them. Also having more men in the box means Tom will find himself not being targeted or on his own so much because they will have a lot more to think about. Felt Cook played quite well too, could of had 2 or 3 from beautifully delivered crosses round the back of the Luton defence that he was whiskers away from a couple of times. Sam Mantom played quite well too, a gorgeous ball from him straight after intercepting a Luton pass sent Tom clean in for our goal. Adam Chambers' crab like play may not be as present or noticeable either since his job will just be to break up play and help and distribute.

Downing looks a lot stronger to me in the back 3 when he is the central defender of the 3, as he looks ropey and slow when he gets dragged wide, looked a lot more solid and positionally aware when he was the anchor than when he is one of the wider centre backs. Pazo looked decent, big, strong and loves a good pit of sign language (can't speak english). He lost his man at one set piece and some times dragged himself too far wide, but Deano said today that was his first ever time playing in a back 3, so considering that he did okay. A word on Matt Preston, probably my new favourite player, big, strong, loves a heavy tackle and surprising nimble for his size. He has a great chance of making it.

20 minutes into the second half when the wing backs came off as well as Tom we became really loose on the ball and invited pressure, we were then forced to switch to 4 at the back with Preston picking up a knock and didn't really look the same. Came close from long distance multiple times though and never really had any clear cut chances at the other end of the pitch to deal with.

Lastly Etheridge just took all doubts I had about him and threw them out the window, a couple of O'Donnell esc saves, especially in the first half to push a header round the post. Quick, strong and determined when he rushes out and sweeps loose balls as well. He looks like quite a decent goalkeeper, I think the thing that seperates him and MacGillivray (who I rate) is Neil seems to stand taller than MacGillivray who when getting ready to save seems to be too low; but this can be coached into him. Only problem I have noticed so far with Etheridge is his kicking is god fudge awful :lol: Throws seem decent though.

Negatives were Lalkovic looking lost up front, think he is better when he has the ball at his feet with players to take on, not trying to get round the back where he looks like a headless chicken. Sawyers was also quite poor, shied out of a couple of challenges as well.

[We-ARE-Walsall]

Not exactly sure how much to take from this game, not really going to ever analyse it, but a few things of note.

Looks like we might have found another good keeper. Early days, but he pulled off some O'Donnell-esque saves, but he looked far more assured when the ball was put in the box, his positioning and sweeping balls up was also better in my opinion As mentioned his kicking wasn't good, but he mainly rolled or threw the ball out anyway. Really pleased with this, as he will almost definitely get better working with Cutler.

The new system was interesting. It's not a system I am keen on actually, the reason being that the wing backs often get turned in to full backs most the game (Think the end of Colin Lee's reign) I had no reason to expect any different under Smith. I was wrong, Rico looked more like a winger most the game, and also looked very promising. I really hope he gets some game time this season. Sawyers was actually pretty woeful when he came on, but in the bigger picture, if we could get him playing behind a front 2, in a system that still allows us to have the 2 holding midfielders, it could be really could. There is one very big problem here though, we only have one striker, Bradshaw is still the only one likely to find the net on a regular basis. The more I see of Cook, the more I don't like him, he is not the answer. The fact Bakayoko never made it on to the pitch, tells me he is all but done now, can't see him changing Smith's mind. How well Lalkovic can play the role is debatable, guess he has little choice, but I'm not convinced that's his best role.

So the problem remains the same as last season, we played well again, without ever really looking like scoring goals. If we are to have a good season, this needs to be sorted, or it will end up being much the same. I thought Flanagan had a fine game, without doing anything spectacular, it is very promising indeed how some of these lads are progressing, I hope we see a lot more of them this season.

Conclusion, reason to be optimistic, but that feeling that we will still struggle to score enough goals.

[Exile]

haha sorry, not used to this lark on my mobile. My posts I promise will be rather less garbled as well, I'm usually more articulate. Following posts before we signed up, and agree we won't miss o'D.

Our first ever default miniature! :D

What sort of mobile do you have that does that :?:

[Fish]

haha sorry, not used to this lark on my mobile. My posts I promise will be rather less garbled as well, I'm usually more articulate. Following posts before we signed up, and agree we won't miss o'D.

Our first ever default miniature! :D

What sort of mobile do you have that does that :?:

Default miniature? I think it must be the new Samsung Walsall 11.