Bury (A) League One, 28th Jan 3pm

[Welsh_Saddler]

A trip to Gigg Lane beckons for the Saddlers' faithful, to meet a Bury side that seems to have turned the corner from a disastrous run of form - just consider, they were in 2nd place in the table at the end of September then proceeded to lose their next 12 League One games, plummeting into the bottom four. The first signs of revival came at Christmas with respectable draws at Fleetwood Town and Bradford City, and in January Peterborough were on the wrong end of a 5-1 thumping at Gigg Lane with danger man James Vaughan scoring four times. Vaughan also got the 2 goals in Bury's most recent game at Vale Park.

Bury have been active in the January transfer window, signing defenders Taylor Moore, Reece Brown (brother of Wes), and Cameron Burgess (on loan from Fulham). That was early in the month, and since then 34-year old Jermaine Pennant has joined them, as has 38-year old Ryan Lowe in a player/coach role. These five signings join a squad that already numbered some 34 players, and I do wonder whether their average attendance (4,047 this season) can adequately fund this expansion. Bury's attendances for the last 2 full seasons, and this season so far:

2014/15 ... 3,774
2015/16 ... 3,751
2016/17 ... 4,047

Walsall's, by comparison: (and we do, of course, have the Sunday Market to beef up the income)

2014/15 ... 4,392
2015/16 ... 5,382
2016/17 ... 5,230

Recent League One form for Bury:

26 Dec Fleetwood Town (A) Drew 0-0
31 Dec Bradford City (A) Drew 1-1
2 Jan Sheffield United (H) Lost 1-3
7 Jan Scunthorpe United (A) Lost 3-2
14 Jan Peterborough United (H) Won 5-1
20 Jan Port Vale (A) Drew 2-2

Jon Whitney seems to have found something approaching the right basic formation on the pitch, judging from the most recent results. He has been reported as praising Erhun Oztumer's contributions (so why was he on the bench before?), and comments from the likes of McCarthy and O'Connell are extremely positive regarding the attitude and "gelling" of the team both on and off the pitch. One of the standard tenets of football is that you don't change a winning team, which must frustrate Scott Laird - he didn't figure in the August match at home to Bury, but those who did will undoubtedly be looking for "payback", this being the game where we were 3-0 up at half-time only to end up 3-3 at 90 minutes (and we could easily have lost). Bury were also behind twice at Port Vale last week and came back for a 2-2, so bearing in mind their recent form I'll be glad of a point from this one, thank you very much.

UTS :D

[coop63]

Cheers Welsh - insightful stuff as always

Have to agree about the inconsistencies of Bury and do they tend to bugger us about in our games with them :roll:

JW definitely is moving towards a settled approach to team selection (thankfully) so lets hope injuries or suspensions don't play any part for a while at least..

I wouldn't look purely at attendances when considering squad depth etc because at our level, the shape of the chairmans bank balance (and his willingness to extract some of what's in it) has as much to do with signing players as does home gates... Lets not be fooled into believing the line that comes out of our boardroom that the only factor is home attendancies and revenue from the Sunday Market etc - excuse my cynicism :shock:

I agree that a draw would be a useful return from this one so I'm going for a 2-2 with Ozzy and Makris to break his duck :? UTS

[NEWPORT SADDLERS DAD]

Usually if Pope starts we are one down to start with.
This time with our new tight defense he won't score.(but Vaughan might)2-1 to Jons boys. Onwards and upwards.

[LEE75]

Fancy a high scoring draw here. Hope the much sought after and in_form Vaughan leaves Bury before Saturday !

[chunkster]

I think JW will tinker with the team for this one as it is an away tie :( . i think that he has found plan A but i won't feel confident until he finds plan B as well. lets face it if we play the same formation every week we will get found out and teams will be set up for it, so we have still got to keep em guessing. that in mind i will go for a 1-1 with jackson on the score sheet

[Cheesebag]

1-2

[bleed_red_n_white]

Really not confident, simply because Bury are just a total bogey side too us

I hope and pray we win

[Mike Vale]

They weren't our bogey side at Gigg Lane last season. January 2016 we roared into a 3-0 lead by half time. Then Leon Clarke remembered he was a footballer and we clung on to win 3-2. But that first half performance was tremendous. I predict 2-0 to us including a very very rare goal from Adam Chambers

[swampysaddler]

They weren't our bogey team on the 4/5/95.
Remember that night like it was yesterday.
Stopping en route on the hard shoulder of the M6 for a piss between Sandbach and Knutsford (just pop the bonnet to look like we have broke down).
Happy days :mrgreen:
1-2.

[coop63]

They weren't our bogey side at Gigg Lane last season. January 2016 we roared into a 3-0 lead by half time. Then Leon Clarke remembered he was a footballer and we clung on to win 3-2. But that first half performance was tremendous. I predict 2-0 to us including a very very rare goal from Adam Chambers

Don't want to disagree Mike Vale but frankly we were very lucky to get out of there with 3 points last season - many thought even a point was looking unlikely as they mullered us in the 2nd half...

That said, a win's a win I suppose so I'll happily concede if we get the 3 points tomorrow :P :P :P UTS

[saddlerphil]

Our recent track record with the Shakers' is a bit shaky to say the least??
That said i'll go for a low scoring:-

ATT:4674 (358 Mighty Saddlers!!)

6-5

BURY
Bryan Small
Paul Hall
Adrian Littlejohn
Tony Bedeau
Pablo Mills

WALSALL
Colin Cramb
Dwayne Mattis
Andy Bishop
Peter Sweeney
Clive Platt

[Barren Flak]

I think we're on for a Desmond.

2-2

Otzumer and Bakayoko

Incidentally, will be my first visit to Gigg Lane since the infamous 0-0 and ball boy catching our best through-ball of the night.

[Andy W Taylor]

They weren't our bogey side at Gigg Lane last season. January 2016 we roared into a 3-0 lead by half time. Then Leon Clarke remembered he was a footballer and we clung on to win 3-2. But that first half performance was tremendous. I predict 2-0 to us including a very very rare goal from Adam Chambers

Yes, 3 up at half time and they came back in the 2nd half and they were unlucky not to get something out the game.

Fast forward to the home fixture against them earlier this season when we again went in at the break 3 up but this time they managed to get a point with a storming display from the restart and we were struggling to hang on.

If we go in for our slices of orange 3 to the good this time I fear the worst! :?

[dobbster71]

3-0 Bury

Makris hat-trick (of own goals!)

[swampysaddler]

I think we're on for a Desmond.

2-2

Otzumer and Bakayoko

Incidentally, will be my first visit to Gigg Lane since the infamous 0-0 and ball boy catching our best through-ball of the night.

It must be only me and you Barren that remember that night 8)
What a night :D

[chriss5471]

Not much going on in Bury at the moment, they did post on Twitter an hour ago that everything's going ahead as planned for the game even though it's rained through the night!

[ObiWan7]

Managaed for once to get to the game last week agaist the Rovers , first one since October so was suitably impressed by the boys performance. Still to be overly delighted by our forwards , Bako needs to put about a stone of muscle on as he was getting bounced off the ball too often for me , however Jackson looked lively when he came on. The Turkish Messi pulls all the strings, i'm amazed nobody has put in a cheeky bid for him during January so if we can keep him fit i can see us making a late dash for the playoffs!?

Sorry to go off track but the Dingles have just scored against the Dippers at Binfield 0-1 after one minute.

Anyway back to today , i see this being a test however on the crest of the last two very good wins , i see us winning it 2-0.

Ozzy and O.G on the score sheet.

Keep the faith

OBI :o

[pumajaguar]

Cheers Welsh - insightful stuff as always

Have to agree about the inconsistencies of Bury and do they tend to bugger us about in our games with them :roll:

JW definitely is moving towards a settled approach to team selection (thankfully) so lets hope injuries or suspensions don't play any part for a while at least..

I wouldn't look purely at attendances when considering squad depth etc because at our level, the shape of the chairmans bank balance (and his willingness to extract some of what's in it) has as much to do with signing players as does home gates... Lets not be fooled into believing the line that comes out of our boardroom that the only factor is home attendancies and revenue from the Sunday Market etc - excuse my cynicism :shock:

I agree that a draw would be a useful return from this one so I'm going for a 2-2 with Ozzy and Makris to break his duck :? UTS

I've been looking into the finances of League One clubs and based on revenue alone we are fairly competitive with most teams in the division. For example we bought in £6m last season compared to £4.7m for Coventry and £3.7m for Scunthorpe.

The difference is that most clubs run at a loss. For example, Scunthorpe lost £2.6 million last season and Bury lost £2.9m in their last published accounts.

For the teams currently in League One whose accounts I could find, only ourselves Chesterfield, Gillingham and Wimbeldon made a profit.

[Welsh_Saddler]

Starting line-up against Bury:

Etheridge

O'Connor
Preston
O'Connell
McCarthy

Chambers
Cuvelier
Osbourne
Edwards

Oztumer

Bakayoko

Substitutes: MacGillivray, Laird, Dobson, Jackson, Morris, Makris, Roberts

[Welsh_Saddler]

Full-time in the early kick-off - Bristol Rovers 1 Swindon Town 0

Bolton Wanderers 1 Charlton Athletic 0 (Charlton's Paige sent off, 12 min)

Oldham Athletic 0 Bradford City 1

Coventry City's woes pile up - Willis red-carded after 19 minutes at Northampton Town


As things stand we are already 11th in the table, with Oxford Utd and AFC Wimbledon not involved in league One action today!

EDIT.... We were 11th, but after 20 minutes we are a goal down!!! Bury 1 Walsall 0 :( ... Vaughan, who else? - assist from Tom Pope

[Welsh_Saddler]

Who was it said 10 men could play as well (if not better) as 11 men?? Bolton Wanderers 1 Charlton Athletic 1 (25 min)

[bleed_red_n_white]

At the game and my god we have been woeful, I'm expecting a rocket too this lot from Whitney at half time

[bleed_red_n_white]

They weren't our bogey side at Gigg Lane last season. January 2016 we roared into a 3-0 lead by half time. Then Leon Clarke remembered he was a footballer and we clung on to win 3-2. But that first half performance was tremendous. I predict 2-0 to us including a very very rare goal from Adam Chambers

Please remind me who gave out first defeat at home last season, while your at it what happened at home too them this season too?

I seem too remember us being 0-3 up at half time at there place last season and almost throwing that away too

And you say there not a bogey side :lol:

[Welsh_Saddler]

Fleetwood Town 0 Southend United 1 (36 min)

Bury get the first yellow card of the game, 37 minutes... (Burgess, full-back, for a foul on Bakayoko)

[bleed_red_n_white]

Fans here getting really frustrated this first performance has been dreadful

[Welsh_Saddler]

Scunthorpe United 0 Port Vale 1 (40 min) :shock:

Oldham Athletic 1 Bradford City 1 now

Gillingham 1 Shrewsbury Town 0

Bolton Wanderers 1 Charlton Athletic 2


... and on the stroke of half-time, we find ourselves 2-0 down :( :( :( :( (direct from a free kick)

[chriss5471]

The only quote that's stuck in my mind this first half, someone behind me said it's like a none league game. So so true.

[Welsh_Saddler]

Scunthorpe United have equalised against the mighty Port Vale, it's 1-1 now ... (EDIT - now 2-2, 61 minutes)

Peterborough United 0 MK Dons 1

Gillingham 1 Shrewsbury Town 1

Northampton Town 1 Coventry City 0

No substitutions to start the 2nd half at Gigg Lane - JW must think the starting 11 can achieve something...... :?

Attendance at Gigg Lane 3,280

Walsall yellow card, 57 minutes ... (Matt Preston)

[coop63]

They weren't our bogey side at Gigg Lane last season. January 2016 we roared into a 3-0 lead by half time. Then Leon Clarke remembered he was a footballer and we clung on to win 3-2. But that first half performance was tremendous. I predict 2-0 to us including a very very rare goal from Adam Chambers

Please remind me who gave out first defeat at home last season, while your at it what happened at home too them this season too?

I seem too remember us being 0-3 up at half time at there place last season and almost throwing that away too

And you say there not a bogey side :lol:

As I said in my original reply to Mike - very much our bogey side!!! Not there today but from all accounts, we were dire first 45 mins - lets hope for better in the last 30 mins or so!!

[PT]

Couldn't make it there today.

Just got in and saw the score and wasn't in the least bit surprised. We're a distinctly average third division side. There will be times we play above ourselves and times we play beneath ourselves.

This is progress as about a month ago I thought we were a poor third division side who had got away with it.