Sat Dec 14, 2013 11:19 pm
I absolutely jinxed Tom Eaves by saying we should sign him a few weeks ago, I still feel sorry for him. I hope Graham Turner gave him a cuddle after.
Exactly the kind of win we needed. A hard fought, well earned victory against a Shrewsbury side that reminded me of us 2-3 years ago. Feeding off scraps from the hoof but robust and strong enough to beat enough sides to stay in the division. I'm not sure whether it's the beer but I thought Westcarr was outstanding today, used space well, made the pitch wide and ran the line quite well - it's a shame that he got caught offside 11 times in the game (that rivals Michael Ricketts at Northampton 4-5 years ago) but I thought he was alongside Butler as our best player on the day - if he does that weekly, I'm more than happy to swallow any of the seeming codswallop I spoke about him weeks ago.
We started very slowly and could have been 2-0 down after a few minutes. Thereafter I thought we dominated the 1st half and should have scored 2-3 goals. It seems weird to me that I thought Sawyers was reasonable and Westcarr excellent, yet we seemed to lack a centre forward. I can't remember EVER seeing a Walsall side get to the near byline and square it across the box to absolutely nobody - I thought it wasn't going to be our day at 1 point. The 1-2 between Sawyers and Westcarr for the chance late in the 1st half was excellent - it could have graced any football pitch worldwide.
Nicely taken goal from Lalkovic just after half time, and we played well until roughly 60 minutes when we seemed to change to a mentality of 'can't lose a goal, must defend' which is a robust but occasionally risky strategy - and so it proved. Eaves miss was probably the worst I have ever, ever seen live. I still can't quite understand how he didn't score. 3 yards out, open goal, nobody near him, no pressure and he spoons it over the bar. I thought we struggled after that point and rode our luck playing very deep.
We saw it through and played the last 5-6 minutes out superbly, very professional. I don't want to moan after a victory, but there are still obvious deficiencies in the side. We still NEED stiker, someone to score the tap-ins. I thought both our wingers were very poor again. Lalkovic can't seem to control a football and when he does so, he seems to try and trick an invisible player before laying off a bobbly or over-hit pass. We are carrying Baxendale at the moment and have been for weeks - he is young and obviously not a winger, which is Smith's fault but he is so weak, so lacking in willingness to stick his body on the line that it's frightening at times - his passing was so wasteless, you can tell his confidence is zilch. He did precisely this last season and that issue needs rectifying again. The back heel down the right hand side late in the second half was so frustrating.
Everyone else was solid. Adam Chambers grew in to the game and Mantom did everything with the usual competence. Westcarr has his best game in a Walsall shirt, Downing was very solid and isn't it a great feeling to have a player in Purkiss that is equally solid as James Chambers at right back? Andy Taylor was his usual solid self, though he hasn't quite reached his orgasmic levels of 4-6 weeks ago in recent times. As Smith pointed out on the radio - the ball was literally a magnet to Butler's head in the second half - he is so appreciated and yet his basic defending goes under the radar for the side, he is so vital it's incredible - can't describe how much I love the man.
Overall, a good win. Hard work and a ground out result we vastly needed. Some nice football and some ugly football, another cleansheet and proof that we can dig deep and win ugly when required to do so. A big few weeks coming up. If we take 7 from Carlisle, Bristol City and Gillingham we have a HUGE shout of sneaking 6th place.
Decent atmosphere - did Shrewsbury have any fans in the ground? Silent.
