Stoke City (A) League Cup 2nd rd 28th Aug 7.45pm

[luckyeddie]

same here. :lol:

[rogerem]

Leitao to Ronaldo on Portugal fm ... "Walsall pass better than Barca"....Ronaldo ... " I know".
Come onnnnnnnnnn !!!!!!!!!

[Pedagogue]

3-1 Jones hat-trick

[Welsh_Saddler]

10 minutes to save the game....................

Hewitt on for Westcarr
McQuilkin on for Baxendale

Edit - Too little, too late. :(

[BathSaddler]

3-1 Jones hat-trick

A good second half effort by the sounds of it, but that's game over now :( .

[Exile]

Damn. Flaws exposed, but by a very superior opposition...

[Welsh_Saddler]

4 minutes to go..... Morris on for Featherstone - this must be our secret weapon !! :wink:

[latviancheese]

Good to know we played well, except disappointing that it sounds like all three goals were complete gifts. :(

[bigbadsad]

proud saddler tonight...fans sound great out sung stoke all night long and the boys on the pitch haven't gave up and fought tooth and nail for the badge, yes we haven't got a striker we are desperate for but has long as they keep giving there all that's all I ask UTS

[Zaddler]

Good effort, hate losing to sjoke, need a striker ASAP

[rogerem]

Fantastic effort by the sounds of it, clear we need a striker though. Any idea how many made the trip up?

[stokiejoe]

We were pretty poor tonight. Although we fielded some non-starters, some of our worst players were some of our usuals.
You gave us a good game though and played decent football. We made a few mistakes at the back which should have been put away had your number 10 not been so greedy at times. Jones was as bone idol as ever. Dont know how he scored three.
Anyway, good luck for the rest of the season.

-Stokiejoe-

[Pedagogue]

Just got back in from the match and I still feel that this is going to be a very frustrating season unless the problem of shot-shyness is addressed as a matter of urgency. It's not just the absence of a "proper" striker that is the problem. The existing players have got to learn to "pull the trigger" instead of trying to walk the ball in. We had one shot on target tonight - and scored from it! It is all very well playing pretty, tippy-tappy football in midfield. We have got to show some bite and aggression in the attacking third of the field. The game is not a training exercise where the first team to put ten consecutive passes together is the winner. We need passing and possession with a purpose. As others have said, other teams have sussed us out now.

Stoke are a HUGE team - the Pulis legacy. Quite how Huth doesn't concede penalties in every match, I do not know. He is an all-in wrestler. As for Kenwyne Jones, he was gifted his hat-trick which he accepted gratefully! I seem to remember him scoring against us for Sheffield Wednesday, a few Christmases ago.

I have kept out of the Westcarr debate until now but I have now seen him enough times to form an opinion - he's crap! His movement off the ball is non-existent. Sister Dora's statue is more mobile! He shows no enthusiasm. His first touch is poor - oh, and to knock that urban myth on the head - no, he doesn't "hold the ball up" (the favourite mantra of some on this board) and bring team-mates into play. Simply, he just isn't good enough. I reserve judgement on Hewitt but Deano clearly has reservations about him.

I just hope that Uncle Jeff releases enough cash for Deano to bring in a striker, on loan if necessary, or we will massively under-achieve this season. Deano and ROK also need to work on the shooting skills of the rest of the team. If you don't buy a ticket, you'll never win the raffle!!!

[Dave Gittins]

Saddlers did us proud tonight. Poor defending cost us dear first half but we came out and took the game to Stoke in the second half.

On the whole second half we played the better football but the main difference between the two sides was the sharpness up front. We lacked punch but Stoke looked more likely to score.

A large and vocal Saddlers following did us proud apart from loosing a smoke bomb off in the second half. We can hold our heads up high. It was one of those passion filled cup ties we have had too few of over the last few years.

[ChopperWFC]

Proud of the team and the fans tonight. Play like that this season but with a much needed striker and we may just be playing that lot in the championship next season
Up the Saddlers !!!

[wednesburysaddler]

just got back in from game

firstly what a fantastic away support more than i thought wed take and very noisy id have said between 1500-1750

tonight was simply frustrating
at times if you were from planet zob youd have struggled at times to know who were the premiership side.
some of the passing and flicks are sublime at times but we do have this knack of giving the ball away in dangerous areas which caused stokes first goal from a bad pass whoch was intercepted passed to jones who shot past goalie.
then defending a corner we were again sloppy and allowed a second

2nd half was a lot better passing moving and sawyers seemed to be involved in linking it all together

i am convinced if we had a decent striker up front bit of quality we would be a complete team.
westcarr to me is very average and is not the answer

please bonser let us have sone of the money from grigg and let us have someone who knows where the net is.
trust me a decent striker and well hve a great season if we dont strengthen well fizzle out and have missed a great opportunity to be in with a realistic shout of a play off finish i raelly do think we can be that good.

onwards and upwards for saturday but well done walsall tonight although out i was very proud of their performance

[IHTC.]

Just got back in from the match and I still feel that this is going to be a very frustrating season unless the problem of shot-shyness is addressed as a matter of urgency. It's not just the absence of a "proper" striker that is the problem. The existing players have got to learn to "pull the trigger" instead of trying to walk the ball in. We had one shot on target tonight - and scored from it! It is all very well playing pretty, tippy-tappy football in midfield. We have got to show some bite and aggression in the attacking third of the field. The game is not a training exercise where the first team to put ten consecutive passes together is the winner. We need passing and possession with a purpose. As others have said, other teams have sussed us out now.

Stoke are a HUGE team - the Pulis legacy. Quite how Huth doesn't concede penalties in every match, I do not know. He is an all-in wrestler. As for Kenwyne Jones, he was gifted his hat-trick which he accepted gratefully! I seem to remember him scoring against us for Sheffield Wednesday, a few Christmases ago.

I have kept out of the Westcarr debate until now but I have now seen him enough times to form an opinion - he's crap! His movement off the ball is non-existent. Sister Dora's statue is more mobile! He shows no enthusiasm. His first touch is poor - oh, and to knock that urban myth on the head - no, he doesn't "hold the ball up" (the favourite mantra of some on this board) and bring team-mates into play. Simply, he just isn't good enough. I reserve judgement on Hewitt but Deano clearly has reservations about him.

I just hope that Uncle Jeff releases enough cash for Deano to bring in a striker, on loan if necessary, or we will massively under-achieve this season. Deano and ROK also need to work on the shooting skills of the rest of the team. If you don't buy a ticket, you'll never win the raffle!!!

I was in the 'Like' group of people but apart from the 1st game of the season he has been crap. Whenever we have a nice quick passage of play as soon as the ball is played to CW all momentum seems to disappear, and if we are to rely on him to score our goals then we could well struggle. We need a striker or at least give Troy a run out, He has not done much in the small cameo appearances he has had and im not sure if he is the answer BUT I thought this about Sawyers last year and I was gladly wrong.

p.s took ages to find out the attendance but apparently it was either 10,000 or 10,001 :D

[Bristol Fan]

Westcarr was outstanding last season in the "number ten" position. He's mostly played further forward this season and is far from outstanding in that position.

[JonnyOwen]

I thought both the players and us fans did the club a huge credit. Apart from scoring goals, we dominated them, with all three goals being gifts and mistakes from the defenders. As for Craig Westcarr, I have always been a fan of him, but recently he has frustrated me to no end and do feel that we need to bring someone in on loan.

As for the shot-shyness, I agree to an extent, we do seem to not want to pull the trigger. However, some of our fudge retarded fans start shouting "SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT" at any time we are in the final third of the pitch. There was a moment in the first half when Sam Mantom was under a ball that was dropping from 15ft in the air and falling at his head, with three defenders in front of him, to shoot. As well as times where players have the ball on the ground, but there is about 3 or 4 bodies in between ball and goal, and some idiots still shout shoot. Mongs. What we do need though is to hit them quicker, too often do we counter quickly with precision and quality, and end up getting stuck and letting the opposition pile bodies between us and the goal - so we never end up with the sights of goal in the penalty area, and end up having the ball outside it with three men in the way whilst your fans are screaming shoot.

In short, we played brilliantly and showed them up. We need a striker.

[Sadders]

Really enjoyed that, well the second half anyway. In the words of Paul Jewell on SSN 'Walsall are knocking it round like the Premier League side, but have no striker'. Kenwyne Jones was unplayable tonight, we didn't get a thing from him but Stoke didn't deserve to win 3-1 and certainly didn't deserve to be 2-0 up at half time. The first goal came from a Mantom mistake in his own area, the second goal was from a corner (shock) where Jones met a 50-50 first, the third was a nice nutmeg finish, but Stoke literally didn't create anything other than 1 save for O'Donnell and 2 offside goals that came from set pieces.

We really need even a half competent centre forward, Smith's done a great job replacing Brandy and Paterson and the football is superb, but we lack a little spark and a finisher or in other words a proper number 9. No Lalkovic or Adam Chambers tonight, two key players. Great atmosphere in the end, went mental when Hemmings scored and in fairness we ran them ragged for a 20 minute period of the second half but we couldn't create a goal scoring chance, rather a few half chances that Chambers, Taylor and Westcarr missed.

Proud to be a Saddler!

[We-ARE-Walsall]

I still haven't stopped laughing about the smoke bomb, best smoke bomb ever :lol:

Great effort second half, deserved better, we'll come again, hopefully both game v the Wolves.

Thanks to those who left me and Asps in Stoke to find our own way home, much appreciated. x x x

[Magic Man Fan]

I thought both the players and us fans did the club a huge credit. Apart from scoring goals, we dominated them, with all three goals being gifts and mistakes from the defenders. As for Craig Westcarr, I have always been a fan of him, but recently he has frustrated me to no end and do feel that we need to bring someone in on loan.

As for the shot-shyness, I agree to an extent, we do seem to not want to pull the trigger. However, some of our fudge retarded fans start shouting "SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT" at any time we are in the final third of the pitch. There was a moment in the first half when Sam Mantom was under a ball that was dropping from 15ft in the air and falling at his head, with three defenders in front of him, to shoot. As well as times where players have the ball on the ground, but there is about 3 or 4 bodies in between ball and goal, and some idiots still shout shoot. Mongs. What we do need though is to hit them quicker, too often do we counter quickly with precision and quality, and end up getting stuck and letting the opposition pile bodies between us and the goal - so we never end up with the sights of goal in the penalty area, and end up having the ball outside it with three men in the way whilst your fans are screaming shoot.

In short, we played brilliantly and showed them up. We need a striker.

Do you understand the word irony?

[gray]

Really pleased with the performance. The first goal we gave away was really sloppy.

We played Stoke off the park for a lot of the 2nd half but massively lacked a cutting edge. We pretty much continued from where we left off at Brentford and it was equally frustrating that we couldn't get goals that matched the possession we were getting.

I thought Nicky Featherstone was absolutely immense and should keep his place in the team. If we play like that against league 1 opposition I'm sure we will win most games but we need to start being more ruthless.

[Magic Man Fan]

Nice tippy tappy stuff again, and much more direct in the second half made us more effective. When I say direct, I mean getting forward in 5/6 passes instead of fannying around our own box and eventually giving it away.

[belgiansaddler]

Good to have a proper cup tie, great atmosphere from the travelling Saddlers, a bostin turnout. 2000? Gifted Sjoke the goals really and that is disappointing. Our defending let us down. You cannot give Premiership teams chances like we gave them tonight. Even at half time and 2-0 down I thought we were still in it and so it proved. We passed them off the park for a spell in the second half and thoroughly deserved the goal. Agree with others we are desperate for a striker. The squad is full of number 10s and the "hole" to accommodate them needs to be gaping (copyright FBIG) to fit them all in. But we have no number 9. Westcarr is not the answer. Hewitt might be (not had enough of a chance to judge him yet) but as Pedagogue says for whatever reason Deano doesn't seem to think so. I would definitely bring Hewitt in for a few games up front to see what he can do.

Sawyers looked class and always had time even against premiership opposition. Also thought Featherstone played really well and he must be pushing for a plce in the starting 11. We need to learn when to shoot and often we should have shot earlier but on other occasions we shot from stupid positions when we had players in the middle. Taylor in the second half shooting from wide left when we had 3 in the box being the worst example. Thought Taylor had a bit of a mare tonight, he hasn't played for a while and it showed.

Frustrating in that we really could have got something tonight. Yes yes yes I am proud to be a Saddler after the way the players and fans performed but at the end of the day I think this is a lost opportunity. They were there for the taking in the second half. Guess I have got the 30 year itch (and not just cos I sat on same chair as FBIG before the match) :D Tonight was a chance to do a bit of "giant" killing and go on a real cup run.

If we can add a clinical finish to our tidy football this could still be a great season. Hate to admit we mist the treacherous mop head Grigg but we desperately need to get someone in the starting 11 who can do a similar job.

[We-ARE-Walsall]

Nice tippy tappy stuff again, and much more direct in the second half made us more effective. When I say direct, I mean getting forward in 5/6 passes instead of fannying around our own box and eventually giving it away.

Tempo was far to slow first half, said this at half time. All very well passing for passing sake, cost us a goal too. Got to do something with the ball, or need to come up with a new plan, whatever the DNA.

[belgiansaddler]

I still haven't stopped laughing about the smoke bomb, best smoke bomb ever :lol:

Great effort second half, deserved better, we'll come again, hopefully both game v the Wolves.

Thanks to those who left me and Asps in Stoke to find our own way home, much appreciated. x x x

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Saw you both fannying around on the Harvester car park lol. It's the Walsall way :mrgreen:

[Sadders]

I thought Featherstone was very frustrating this evening and he was part of the reason it took far too long to get the ball forward for the most part. Everytime he gets the chance to go forward, he checks back or turns away from a player as he's too small, weak and paceless to beat the man and release the ball. He kept the ball okay but is frustratingly slow and lacking confidence when running with the ball that it's a detriment to the team. Chambers to come back in when fit. Thought James Chambers played well tonight and Sawyers simply has too start he's our best attacking threat on the ball. Westcarr is not the answer, he was absolutely awful tonight and his performance against Notts County a fortnight ago was shudder worthy, specifically in the first half and his chance squandering in the second half was dreadful.

A new centre forward, a starting place for Sawyers, Lalkovic wide and we are onto something.

[IHTC.]

From a Sjoke fan who obviously knows alot about football...

'Lets not kid ourselves, one or two promising performances but we were fudge eartha. Walsall look a bottom half league one side to me and we weren't much better.'

[We-ARE-Walsall]

I still haven't stopped laughing about the smoke bomb, best smoke bomb ever :lol:

Great effort second half, deserved better, we'll come again, hopefully both game v the Wolves.

Thanks to those who left me and Asps in Stoke to find our own way home, much appreciated. x x x

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Saw you both fannying around on the Harvester car park lol. It's the Walsall way :mrgreen:

Next time you want a lift from Luton airport phone a fudge taxi you northern Scunthorpe :lol: