Port Vale (H) Tues 25th April, 7.45pm

[Welsh_Saddler]

As we stumble towards the end of a season memorable only for achieving mid-table safety our penultimate game sees us entertaining the Vale, whose fixture list for next season can be decided by this match - realistically they have to take 3 points off us to have any chance of League One survival. They are currently 4 points adrift of Gillingham (effectively 5 points, looking at their goal difference of -6 compared to the Gills) and they have a final game at Fleetwood Town next weekend. It's indicative of how quickly fortunes can change when you consider that Vale beat Fleetwood in the reverse fixture in the middle of November and at that time they were actually in the play-off zone, but form since then has been very poor. Captain Ben Purkiss is on record as saying that the players are aware of the impact that relegation would have on the whole club - it's unlikely that we will see this ex-Saddler, as he was substituted in the 37th minute (injury) in the Sheffield United game and hasn't featured since. Another player we shan't see is Rigino Cicilia, their 6ft 5in striker, who came back from injury recently only to get 2 yellow cards last weekend at home to Bolton Wanderers. That game suffered from delays because of crowd pitch invasion, so we wait to find out how well the Walsall stewards cope ... the pitch invasion reflects the mood of Vale supporters in light of their current form:-

1 Apr A F C Wimbledon (H) Won 2-0
4 Apr Rochdale (A) Lost 3-0
8 Apr Chesterfield (A) Lost 1-0
14 Apr Sheffield United (H) Lost 0-3
17 Apr Oxford United (A) Lost 2-0
22 Apr Bolton Wanderers (H) Lost 0-2

Port Vale's season has also been memorable for one other achievement (unique in League One this season) - they managed to lose both games against Coventry City..........

Speaking of Coventry City, Jon Whitney made a public apology to the Walsall supporters after his team's abject performance in losing at the Ricoh last weekend, so it is to be hoped that we will see a significant improvement in the "effort and attitude" stakes for this game. One player who will not be on view is Scott Laird, who scored our goal when we came away from the reverse fixture with 3 points ... Laird's future involvement with the club will no doubt be revealed in due course. JW has also stated that he isn't going to push youth and fringe players into League One games for the sake of it, so we will probably see "same again" on Tuesday. He can trial the youngsters against a much-weakened Aston Villa side in pre-season - more of that anon!!

Prediction? Totally dependent upon (a) How seriously Port Vale think they can get the 6 necessary points from ourselves and Fleetwood, and (b) Whether the motivational skills of JW will make certain players look up from their Caribbean brochures...... As usual, I will forecast a 2-1 home win without a care in the world as to the goal scorers.

Footnote: (For the older members of the forum) - I still harbour something of a grudge against Port Vale in view of their signing of Tony Richards, who had been our top goalscorer for 3 or 4 seasons at that time. I wasn't to know then that he had become susceptible to injuries and was considered almost surplus to requirements at Fellows Park, and it was all the more aggravating when he topped their goalscoring lists for that season only having played for about 3 months of it. Grrrrrrrrr!!!!! :evil:

Anyway - UTS :D

[BathSaddler]

0-0.

Attendance 4,907, including 1,120 away.

[chunkster]

After saturday's no show against a team that have already relegated i predict 0-2 to the vile but i am going to watch anyway, i need to renew my saddlers club membership :mrgreen:

[wednesburysaddler]

going because I hate wasting my season tocket and who wants to watch holby city anway.

this has got draw all over it which wouldn't be good or vale and our lot will think its a great result that were unbeaten in 1 match.

1-1 both goals in 2nd half as we don't do 1st half goals at walsall

[scott_powell]

Who cares. We're rubbish

[Cheesebag]

4124 for a 0-0 snorefest

[chriss5471]

Right prediction for tonight. We start slow with Roberts, O'Connor and Preston as a back three, going 2-0 down before half time. Whitney goes absolutely bonkers and brings himself on at half time and scores a hat trick winning us the game 3-2 and relegating Port Vale. He then resigns as manager and goes into a career as a motivational speaker using this game as his main story on how if you believe and motivate a team they'll still play utter rubbish and you are best of doing it yourself.

[dobbster71]

Only one team with anything to play for, so 2-0 Saddlers!!!

[chriss5471]

Team :

MacGillivray
Edwards
O'Connor
McCarthy
Dobson
Chambers
Morris
Preston
Bakayoko
Roberts
Kouhyar

Subs:
Ganley
Kinsella
Sangha
Makris
Vann
Hayles-Docherty
Candlin

Formation:

Who knows

[Guest]

That bench just oozes inexperience.

[chriss5471]

That bench just oozes inexperience.

As does the starting 11...

[Micky Saddler]

I'm guessing he doesn't want vale to go down today then judging by that line up?

What happened to showing some pride?? We will get hammered tonight.

[Ancient Moaner]

Team :

MacGillivray
Edwards
O'Connor
McCarthy
Dobson
Chambers
Morris
Preston
Bakayoko
Roberts
Kouhyar

Subs:
Ganley
Kinsella
Sangha
Makris
Vann
Hayles-Docherty
Candlin

Formation:

Who knows

All looks a bit 'last game of the season'ish'
Lets throw in a number of fringe no hopers, to get the fans off our backs?
I'll go with the large number of 0-0 forecasts, one useless shambles of a team 'already on the beach' against a team almost certainly already relegated (on Saturday anyway) trying their hardest, but finding it difficult to rise above mediocre.
I think if I still lived back in Gods country, I would be forced to watch more 'gay promotion' (does anyone think the producer may be of that persuasion?) at the Holby gay club instead of the clueless rot down at the Bezza.

[EvenFlow]

While no-one would objectively describe this as a "good" season for WFC, this gives us something to reflect on:

With two third tier games to go, and not because of relegation, 11 of our matchday 18 are youth team graduates (plus one youngster taken from non-league that we've nurtured).

There have been times in the not-too-distant past- where we've been overloaded with mercenaries off the merry-go-round on one-year contracts, and playing some uninspiring stuff- where this was little more than a direction (the Crewe approach, if you like) we wished the club would take, and a bit of an aspiration.

[Ancient Moaner]

Think this may be Baky's last chance saloon, another stinker again tonight and his time with us will be numbered, then watch a 4th Division team snap him up (for our usual £3/5/6d + a bag of pork scratching's) to score 20+ goals for 'em next season. :(

[leics_saddler]

Thank you AM for answering my question, which would have been how does Bakayoko keep his place after Saturday?

[Ancient Moaner]

Early indications are that we are struggling to get out of our half against the might of Port Vale! :wink:

Indeed from the match stats it seems like a Training ground shooting practice match for Vale, but we ARE winning on the fouls count....hoorah, success! :?

[leics_saddler]

Right prediction for tonight. We start slow with Roberts, O'Connor and Preston as a back three, going 2-0 down before half time. Whitney goes absolutely bonkers and brings himself on at half time and scores a hat trick winning us the game 3-2 and relegating Port Vale. He then resigns as manager and goes into a career as a motivational speaker using this game as his main story on how if you believe and motivate a team they'll still play utter rubbish and you are best of doing it yourself.

This is quite possibly the best match prediction of the season.

[Welsh_Saddler]

After 15 minutes we're winning 5-0 (in terms of fouls committed.....)

[chriss5471]

Right prediction for tonight. We start slow with Roberts, O'Connor and Preston as a back three, going 2-0 down before half time. Whitney goes absolutely bonkers and brings himself on at half time and scores a hat trick winning us the game 3-2 and relegating Port Vale. He then resigns as manager and goes into a career as a motivational speaker using this game as his main story on how if you believe and motivate a team they'll still play utter rubbish and you are best of doing it yourself.

This is quite possibly the best match prediction of the season.

And most realistic, you'll see.

[Ancient Moaner]

After 15 minutes we're winning 5-0 (in terms of fouls committed.....)

It's just soooo hard for us to contain the mighty Port Vale!!

[Super Gabor]

Early indications are that we are struggling to get out of our half against the might of Port Vale! :wink:

Indeed from the match stats it seems like a Training ground shooting practice match for Vale, but we ARE winning on the fouls count....hoorah, success! :?

Not at all AM. Pretty even so far. Our man from Afghanistan is looking decent too.

[leics_saddler]

Right prediction for tonight. We start slow with Roberts, O'Connor and Preston as a back three, going 2-0 down before half time. Whitney goes absolutely bonkers and brings himself on at half time and scores a hat trick winning us the game 3-2 and relegating Port Vale. He then resigns as manager and goes into a career as a motivational speaker using this game as his main story on how if you believe and motivate a team they'll still play utter rubbish and you are best of doing it yourself.

This is quite possibly the best match prediction of the season.

And most realistic, you'll see.

Good, if it happens, I'll give you £5

[Welsh_Saddler]

23 minutes, and we rattle Vale's woodwork........... :shock: (Morris, with a left-foot shot from outside the box)

Cashed out my "no more than 2 goals in the game" bet on 26 minutes showing a 22% profit, so it's not all bad !!

[Welsh_Saddler]

Walsall yellow card, 31 minutes....... (Kory Roberts)

Oh....and Dingles :lol: :lol:

41 minutes, and we have our 5th corner (Port Vale nil on that front, so far)

[Super Gabor]

I hope the cameras captured Dobson's neat little manoeuvre a few mins ago. One for youtube. Looking so much better than he did earlier in the season

One way traffic at mo

[Welsh_Saddler]

Goal-less at half time .... predictable, or what?

And the draw is now clear favourite at Betfair for the final result.

Can we expect a rash of substitutes to start the 2nd half, I wonder?

[leics_saddler]

At least there are some young lads getting this sort of result and trying to do a couple of things.
Kouyhar and Dobson sound like they're playing quite well.

Mind you, we should fetch Bakayoko off if he can't muster up a performance.
Even the commentators are fed up with him.

[EvenFlow]

Random thought: it'd be fitting if Adam Chambers could notch one last career goal before he retires.

[Welsh_Saddler]

Can't fault our attacking attitude - the current corner count (58 mins) is 11 to the Saddlers, and 1 to Port Fail. Trouble is - we don't seem to be able to do much when we do get a corner!!