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Nottingham Forest (H) Friendly - Tuesday 23/07/2013

Reports and reaction from the 2013-2014 season as Walsall finished 13th in League 1
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WarsawPact
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Re: Nottingham Forest (H) Friendly - Tuesday 23/07/2013

Tue Jul 23, 2013 9:25 pm

Mick Kearns said we had a really heavy training seesion yesterday, so the might have been feeling the effects of that.

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IHTC.
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Re: Nottingham Forest (H) Friendly - Tuesday 23/07/2013

Tue Jul 23, 2013 9:40 pm

Cannot believe one or 2 idiots thought it was necessary to boo Paterson, moronic idiots

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Exile
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Re: Nottingham Forest (H) Friendly - Tuesday 23/07/2013

Tue Jul 23, 2013 9:46 pm

IHTC. wrote:Cannot believe one or 2 idiots thought it was necessary to boo Paterson, moronic idiots

Their call, at least they went! As long as they sing for Walsall the majority of the time, no probs from me, even if I don't really agree with it.

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Deano_Saddler
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Re: Nottingham Forest (H) Friendly - Tuesday 23/07/2013

Tue Jul 23, 2013 10:01 pm

We played quite well in the 1st half, great finish from mantom. Like the look of Sawyers, not keen on Hewitt but time will tell i guess. 2nd half was more like a training sessions, Lalkovic looked lively and also thought the trailist who came on looked tidy on the ball. Thought O'Donnell looked good too. Glad to see Paterson get a good reception.

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Re: Nottingham Forest (H) Friendly - Tuesday 23/07/2013

Tue Jul 23, 2013 10:10 pm

Deano_Saddler wrote:We played quite well in the 1st half, great finish from mantom. Like the look of Sawyers, not keen on Hewitt but time will tell i guess. 2nd half was more like a training sessions, Lalkovic looked lively and also thought the trailist who came on looked tidy on the ball. Thought O'Donnell looked good too. Glad to see Paterson get a good reception.


I disagree re Hewitt I think he could be a very decent acquisition, holds the ball up well and is a lot quicker than Grigg. Haven't seen him get into many finishing positions yet but if that is of a decent standard I think we could have a good player on our hands.

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IHTC.
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Re: Nottingham Forest (H) Friendly - Tuesday 23/07/2013

Tue Jul 23, 2013 10:17 pm

Was not over impressed with Mcquilkin, seemed eager enough but lacked in any real quality, jury still out on Hewitt.

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JonnyOwen
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Re: Nottingham Forest (H) Friendly - Tuesday 23/07/2013

Tue Jul 23, 2013 10:22 pm

I think Hewitt is a real good prospect, but I would feel that he would be better used as an impact sub due to his high work rate and brilliant hold up play - late on that will cause huge problems for tiring legs.

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Re: Nottingham Forest (H) Friendly - Tuesday 23/07/2013

Tue Jul 23, 2013 10:22 pm

I think Hewitt is a real good prospect, but I would feel that he would be better used as an impact sub due to his high work rate and brilliant hold up play - late on that will cause huge problems for tiring legs who have been chasing Lalkovic all game.

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Re: Nottingham Forest (H) Friendly - Tuesday 23/07/2013

Tue Jul 23, 2013 10:27 pm

DYSaddler wrote:
Deano_Saddler wrote:We played quite well in the 1st half, great finish from mantom. Like the look of Sawyers, not keen on Hewitt but time will tell i guess. 2nd half was more like a training sessions, Lalkovic looked lively and also thought the trailist who came on looked tidy on the ball. Thought O'Donnell looked good too. Glad to see Paterson get a good reception.


I disagree re Hewitt I think he could be a very decent acquisition, holds the ball up well and is a lot quicker than Grigg. Haven't seen him get into many finishing positions yet but if that is of a decent standard I think we could have a good player on our hands.



I actually thought he was quite poor at holding the ball up in my opinion. I just didn't see him pose a real threat and seemed lightweight. But i may well be proved wrong and i hope i am by the way. I'd start with Sawyers behind Lalkovic

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Re: Nottingham Forest (H) Friendly - Tuesday 23/07/2013

Tue Jul 23, 2013 10:31 pm

That was the first I'd seen of our new-look side and I was pretty impressed, despite the result.

For the first half an hour or so, I thought we played some scintillating football going forward - the kind of football most teams in League One would struggle to match. Sawyers was the pick of the bunch, with everything going through him playing in that hole just behind Hewitt. Mantom's goal was a sublime curler into the top corner, and we possibly could have had one or two more had it not been for some solid, last-ditch defending from Forest.

We did start to look a bit more laboured as we approached half time, and the second half was just a case of being a typical friendly - not really that much of a spark from either side, but they kept the ball much better than us. Easy to do that when you have the likes of Greening, Reid, Lansbury, Cox & Majewski to bring on though.

If I was to take three things from tonight's game, they'd be:

1. For me, Lalkovic is more of a Paterson than a Grigg replacement. He doesn't look keen enough to play with his back to goal, but he's ridiculously quick.
2. McQuilkin is a neat and tidy player who I'm sure would fit in well, but do we really need him? I'd be verging towards no, purely on the basis that he's not as good as Mantom, Chambers or Featherstone in the middle, or as good as Baxendale out wide. I'm sure the budget could be better spent elsewhere...
3. ...Which brings me onto my final point. I think we still need another striker. Hewitt looks good, but if he doesn't quite do the business or picks up a knock, we're looking at Westcarr to play as the centre forward straight away. Last season showed us that Westcarr is probably best suited to the 'second striker role' so let's not change that. We need another focal point - not necessarily a big brute, but just another option to play with his back to goal.

All in all though, you have to credit the way Smith has kept us playing the same style of football as last year, despite losing three of the main reasons it worked so well. With a good start in the league, we could be really close to making a case for a top 10 finish again.

latviancheese
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Re: Nottingham Forest (H) Friendly - Tuesday 23/07/2013

Tue Jul 23, 2013 11:26 pm

Imagine if we didnt play with a proper centre forward though.

I reckon most League one dross would explode with confusion. :lol:

I suspect we wont sign another striker.

paddy
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Re: Nottingham Forest (H) Friendly - Tuesday 23/07/2013

Wed Jul 24, 2013 6:43 am

I doubt it would take much to confuse some of the defenders in this division :lol:

goalkeeper would be a priority, although if the correct player isn't available we still have Roberts as back up if O'Donnell is only missing for an odd game. if it's longer then we have the loan market if needs be

no point signing a keeper for the sake of it

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Re: Nottingham Forest (H) Friendly - Tuesday 23/07/2013

Wed Jul 24, 2013 3:20 pm

Typical of us to let Forest win when there's no points at stake 8) .
Wait til 20014 -15 when we play them in the Championship. Our 6 points, I think 8)

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Wyrley_saddler
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Re: Nottingham Forest (H) Friendly - Tuesday 23/07/2013

Wed Jul 24, 2013 4:11 pm

More positive signs last night, particularly in the opening 20 minutes where the football we played was superb. Forest could barely get near us and I think they were abit shocked. This was met by the recurring "sexy football" chant.

As you'd expect, a team with Forest's quality came back into the game and began to get on top after around ten minutes if it being fairly even. They equalised through what was a poor goal to concede from our point of view. I felt O'Donnel should've came for the ball in that area, but maybe that's abit over critical.

Second half was fairly poor. We suffered in midfield when Mantom went off and completely lost it when Chambers went off too. I think this highlighted how important these pair are to us as the pairing of McQuilkin and Featherstone were completely over run by Forest's quality. We regained abit mre composure in there when Baxendale switched to the centre.

The main points from tonight, Sawyers looks pure quality. If he can keep this up I think he'll be a real find.

I think some people have been over critical of Hewitt. I think he'll do a good job for us from what I've seen of him. Having said that, we definitely need another out and out striker as Westcarr, Sawyers and Lalkovic aren't out and out strikers.

As for the goalkeeping situation. I'd be happy with O'Donnell as first choice and Roberts as back up. Then we can use the loan market if needs be.

Morris impressed again, I think he'll be a big player for us this season if he's nurtured correctly.

So, to sum it up, a decent performance against a strong Forest side where we held our own for most the game. We can take a lot of positives despite the defeat.

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