Plastic Hawk wrote:First up, the guard of honour and man of the match awards for Mooney were a disgrace. The bloke's the living embodiment of what's gone wrong at this club in the past 4 months. The sooner his cancerous influence is out of the dressing room the better for the team.
I disagree. We're talking about someone who has played over 700 matches in England over the course of his career, during which he has been a top player and a top pro for the mostpart. As I said yesterday on another thread, it's just convenient to use Mooney as a scapegoat. He's been surrounded by players who aren't good enough or months now and at 37 years of age, is probably justified in not treating every Walsall game like a cup final. Plenty of players have struggled since January, but Mooney gets slated because he's old and isn't fast.
As for the game, I would agree with Metfan that Dobson was excellent. He plays like he wants to win every week. Not the most gifted of players, but doesn't give the opposition an easy ride. Anyone who has ever played football to a half-decent standard will realise that every side needs someone like him. Those who don't understand the game won't see the way he wins the ball and passes it simple. It was just a shame that Mark "already in Mallorca" Bradley gave him no support whatsoever. Just to add, we only saw an end product from either of our wingers twice for the whole course of the game - that's not good enough either.
Smith was excellent. I think he should be given a new contract. He bases a lot of his defending on allowing his pace to get him in positions where he can make recovery challenges like Micah Richards does, but that's fine because pace isn't something particularly evident amongst League One strikers. Was just as dominant in the air as Gerrard, which was nice to see.
Taundry helped me to decide whether he's a defender or a midfielder today. Both goals came as a result of him not being tight enough to his man and he gets beaten both in the air and on the floor too often. He could probably do a better job on the right, but he generally doesn't do the basics well enough at the back.
Betsy gave another encouraging account of himself and I think he's someone we should look to sign for next season if possible. His mobility up front keeps defenders on their toes and makes space for others to use. Dobson's goal came as a result of that.
Just to add, the fact that we ended the game with a 17 year old who hasn't even played for the reserves yet on the pitch shows how far backwards we've moved. I'm not knocking the lad, but he looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights when he came on.
That game was a summary of our season. Half decent at times in the first half, but just plain weak in the second.
