Saddlers v. the Dirty Dingles - 21/7/09

[King Crimson]

MANNY SMITH WAS EXCELLENT TONIGHT. SOME PEOPLE SERIOUSLY NEED A VISIT TO SPECSAVERS. IMO.

Looked dodgy for the first ten minutes. Two 'regulation' headers he managed to slice towards his own goal. Settled well later.

I was quite impressed tonight overall, but first half we were all a bit 'Dean Keates' - lots of running around but little vision and application. As said above, second half was much better. In my view, Deeney for Nicholls made a big difference, and we looked much better (in the later stages of the first half) when Vincent came on for Sansara - whose stupidity cost us the goal. He can't be our first choice left back in my view. Simply not good enough.

Liked the look of Grigg, thought Taundry and Bradley did well on the whole, and thought Hughes looked the part. Oh, and Clayton is still #1.

Positive performance overall. Well worth the money. :mrgreen:

[Magic Man Fan]

I stayed away last night. Do I get my medal in the post?

[saddlerken]

I stayed away last night. Do I get my medal in the post?

I got one, it's nice

I feel like 'one of the lads' now

....erm........Bonser out........where has all the money gone..............Im going to do something about it, not sure yet what, but I'm working on it, will keep UTS regularly updated with a new thread every month about my plan to do something

[big baz 1]

I stayed away also which may suprise a lot of people on uts :wink: i had my medal a long time ago 8)

[We-ARE-Walsall]

I stayed away also which may suprise a lot of people on uts :wink: i had my medal a long time ago 8)

Doesn't surprise me. You wouldn't get a medal anyway. You never got past your Apprenticeship as a Walsall fan.

[Exile]

I stayed away also which may suprise a lot of people on uts :wink: i had my medal a long time ago 8)

Doesn't surprise me. You wouldn't get a medal anyway. You never got past your Apprenticeship as a Walsall fan.

I thought he meant he stayed in the away end. Deserves a medal for that... :?

[big baz 1]

I stayed away also which may suprise a lot of people on uts :wink: i had my medal a long time ago 8)

Doesn't surprise me. You wouldn't get a medal anyway. You never got past your Apprenticeship as a Walsall fan.

I think did bs 8)

[windowman]

i also believe its fair, its closer to 20 on a normal day some people on here just like to moan.

your rigth there, some people even moan about someone else having a moan :mrgreen:

[Duke]

a good work out for both sides by most accounts.


onwards and upwards

[windowman]

Just out of curiousity, are the people complaining that £12 is too much to see us play Wolves the same people who were happy to fork out £10 plus travel expenses to watch us play Rotherham???

I'm not a Bonser sympathiser by any means, but I don't think its that extortionate. If I can get away from work in time then I'll go.

Just moaning for moaning sake most of the time with Walsall fans. Some people seem happy to pay £10, but the extra £2 makes them not interested.
If the Club made it 8 quid, we wouldn't get enough extra fans through the gate to compensate what we would lose from all the Wolves fans. I think they could have done a deal for kids, and maybe a deal for say the Wolves and the Albion game combined, but when the club do these offers, it usually gets shot down.

I'm not going because of lack of funds. Got a choice between Albion and the Wolves game really, and I think I'd prefer something to do on saturday , plus I know loads of Albion fans, so can meet up with them.

well i think £150 to read the "times" is cheap, but i dont read the times do i,but i think £12 and £6 is a bit stiff to watch walsall in a pre season game, take 4000 wolves fans off the attendance,dont think i am on my own,cant even get 2000 fans of our own,may have a moan about prices for the two home pre-season games,but at least it gives us a break from bonser bashing or bashing the bonser bashers

[We-ARE-Walsall]

Just out of curiousity, are the people complaining that £12 is too much to see us play Wolves the same people who were happy to fork out £10 plus travel expenses to watch us play Rotherham???

I'm not a Bonser sympathiser by any means, but I don't think its that extortionate. If I can get away from work in time then I'll go.

Just moaning for moaning sake most of the time with Walsall fans. Some people seem happy to pay £10, but the extra £2 makes them not interested.
If the Club made it 8 quid, we wouldn't get enough extra fans through the gate to compensate what we would lose from all the Wolves fans. I think they could have done a deal for kids, and maybe a deal for say the Wolves and the Albion game combined, but when the club do these offers, it usually gets shot down.

I'm not going because of lack of funds. Got a choice between Albion and the Wolves game really, and I think I'd prefer something to do on saturday , plus I know loads of Albion fans, so can meet up with them.

well i think £150 to read the "times" is cheap, but i dont read the times do i,but i think £12 and £6 is a bit stiff to watch walsall in a pre season game, take 4000 wolves fans off the attendance,dont think i am on my own,cant even get 2000 fans of our own,may have a moan about prices for the two home pre-season games,but at least it gives us a break from bonser bashing or bashing the bonser bashers

Are you still on about that ? Like I said, the club made more money by charging all those Wolves fans 12 quid, than the few extra that would have bothered if it was a bit cheaper. I think the kids price could have been a bit cheaper though.

[windowman]

only £12 for wolves fans,that was cheap :D

[Duke]

E&S Pics from last night.


http://www.expressandstar.com/2009/07/2 ... ictures-2/

[Jorge14]

Interesting to see Sansara's weak and directionless header which cost us the goal.

Pleased to hear such positive things about the new signings. How quick was Till?

[Wyrley_saddler]

Gilmartin - Apart from the goal, never had anything to do
Ince - Did well, stopped a couple of one-on-ones but other than that, had nothing to do
Weston - Was poor imo. He seems to have lost all confidence
Westlake - Came on, played alot better than Weston. He was energetic and gave us options going forward.
Smith - Didn't put a foot wrong. Superb performance
Hughes - Looked OK, but never won anything in the air. Solid all the same though.
Roberts - Solid
Sansara - Never realy got into the game before picking up an injury
Vincent - Very good. Solid defending and looked to get forward when possible.
Taundry - Looked good. I was dissapointed to see him go off at HT
Adkins - He looked out of position. I thought he was a CM? but he played LM. Still played well and didn't give up.
O'Keefe - Never realy got into the game.
Bradley - Did well. One of his best performances for a while
Mattis - Was very good imo. Battled away, got his foot on the ball and knocked it about.
Till - Poor in the first half but second half he came alive. The fullbacks struggled to deal with him.
Geddes - Not enough time to do anything
Parkin - Deserved MOTM. Got the ball to his feet, held it up and distributed it well. Unlucky not to score aswell
Nicholls - Looked uncomfortable upfront. He did abit of running but service to him wasn't very good
Deeney - Played well and with confidence. Looked to run at defenders and was a threat. Should have scored aswell.
Grigg - Fantastic. Came on and for a young lad had bags of confidence. He made Bolde (who had been solid all night) look like a fool. Probably should have scored but none the less a superb performance.

[Wyrley_saddler]

Interesting to see Sansara's weak and directionless header which cost us the goal.

Pleased to hear such positive things about the new signings. How quick was Till?

I wouldn't say he was quick, but he's not slow either. However he is a very tricky player and in the second half the Wolves fullbacks struggled to cope with him.

[philthesaddler]

Adkins - He looked out of position. I thought he was a CM? but he played LM. Still played well and didn't give up.

He's only 5ft! Where would you play him? Centre half?! :lol:

[matt-thesaddler]

First half crud. Second half better.

Taundry, Deeney, Smith , Hughes & Grigg were all excellent.

Nicholls worked very hard & looked asif he's gained a yard again.

Mattis & Weston were good & very solid.

Vincent looks calm & composed but lacks pace.


Down points :

Parkin didnt win a header in the first half & lacks pace which means he generally has to start play instead of moving it on.
O'Keefe struggled majorly to get into the game.
Till looked pretty crud to be honest, lacked pace & is very one footed.
Bradley hasn't improved & cannot pass.
Sansara is still awful also.

Was you watching the same game as everyone else? He won everythin in the air. He actually flicked them on towards the wolves goal and not towards our own for a change.

Grigg is a great prospect. Just a bit of confidence infront of goal and he will be a real pain in the ass for defenders in league 1.
I thought O'Keefe did ok. Hes never played a first team game and hes only 20. Didnt back out of any challanges.
Dont bother signing Till but Vincent i would give him a 1 year contract.
Sansara didnt do to bad but still a bit weak.

Overall a good solid performance by the lads.

[fatboyslim]

Sounds like a decent performance with some promising displays against what was a strong starting line-up from the Dingles.

Hopefully the next 2 against the Baggies and Hereford will enable the new players to gel even more. Shame that we won't get to see any more of Grigg though as he is away at the Milk Cup with Northern Ireland u20's until 1st - although i suppose might get the chance to come on against hereford if back in time.

is it only the 4 matches we have arranged for pre-season? thought we usually had more than that!

[stefano123]

First half unimpressive, second half much better, some intricate play at times, but as always little craft or creativity in the final third.

No one really stood out head and shoulders to be fair... But no one was awful either. Sansara and Manny Smith where the ones who i thought looked out of their depth, certainly not good enough to be anything but backups this year IF tonights performances are anything to go on.

From tonight i think we need at least one more striker, a left/right winger (possibly Till, who was much better on the right but is certainly not a world beater...) and a left back as a bear minimum.

ARE YOU BEING SERIOUS ABOUT MANNY SMITH!!!

He was solid tonight and didn't put a foot wrong!!

I think your a bit mixed up mate

You mean the same Many Smith that hoofed the ball aimlessly in the air which lead to their goal... the same Manny Smith that is incapable of being accurate with his long balls or short passes for that matter... the same many Smith who spent most of the night flashing the ball off his head in all directions after miss judging its flight...

Granted he is a ball winner but the modern game demands more than that. At the moment IMHO he does not have the technique or physical stature to be anything more than a very fit Ian Roper type player (which is not the worst thing in the world by the way). He is sporadic (sometimes great, sometimes not so great) which is not a verb i would wish to attach to a description of a centre half. Maybe with the recent eminence of Gerard and Dann we have been spoilt for quality centre halfs and that distorts my judgement?

I'm not saying we should sell him release him or anything like that, as some idiots on hear will interpret my comments to mean, but i think if we rely on Smith for long periods this season we will come unstuck very quickly. As always i would more than happily eat humble pie if he proves me wrong.

[Duke]

more pics from the OS.

http://www.saddlers.co.uk/page/Gallery/ ... 08,00.html

[Plastic Hawk]

This was a pre-season friendly, wasn't it? So you'd expect players to be a bit rusty and make the odd mistake when it comes to touch, judgement etc.

Because that's all any of the criticisms seem to amount to so far. So - it all sounds like it's going pretty well to me so far. Everyone (except Jones) has got some decent game time in the last two games, we've had a look at a triallist, there's been a chance to try out various combinations in all positions (something we didn't do last year because JM wouldn't make subs) and apparently Taundry looks like a professional footballer this season. And we even got 4000 Dingles to cough up the best part of £50k between them to see the game. Those are the aims of friendlies, not to win them or even necessarily to play well.

[scott_powell]

First half unimpressive, second half much better, some intricate play at times, but as always little craft or creativity in the final third.

No one really stood out head and shoulders to be fair... But no one was awful either. Sansara and Manny Smith where the ones who i thought looked out of their depth, certainly not good enough to be anything but backups this year IF tonights performances are anything to go on.

From tonight i think we need at least one more striker, a left/right winger (possibly Till, who was much better on the right but is certainly not a world beater...) and a left back as a bear minimum.

ARE YOU BEING SERIOUS ABOUT MANNY SMITH!!!

He was solid tonight and didn't put a foot wrong!!

I think your a bit mixed up mate

You mean the same Many Smith that hoofed the ball aimlessly in the air which lead to their goal... the same Manny Smith that is incapable of being accurate with his long balls or short passes for that matter... the same many Smith who spent most of the night flashing the ball off his head in all directions after miss judging its flight...

Granted he is a ball winner but the modern game demands more than that. At the moment IMHO he does not have the technique or physical stature to be anything more than a very fit Ian Roper type player (which is not the worst thing in the world by the way). He is sporadic (sometimes great, sometimes not so great) which is not a verb i would wish to attach to a description of a centre half. Maybe with the recent eminence of Gerard and Dann we have been spoilt for quality centre halfs and that distorts my judgement?

I'm not saying we should sell him release him or anything like that, as some idiots on hear will interpret my comments to mean, but i think if we rely on Smith for long periods this season we will come unstuck very quickly. As always i would more than happily eat humble pie if he proves me wrong.

It's funny that your the only person to really have this veiw of him :roll:

[scott_powell]

Gilmartin - Apart from the goal, never had anything to do
Ince - Did well, stopped a couple of one-on-ones but other than that, had nothing to do
Weston - Was poor imo. He seems to have lost all confidence
Westlake - Came on, played alot better than Weston. He was energetic and gave us options going forward.
Smith - Didn't put a foot wrong. Superb performance
Hughes - Looked OK, but never won anything in the air. Solid all the same though.
Roberts - Solid
Sansara - Never realy got into the game before picking up an injury
Vincent - Very good. Solid defending and looked to get forward when possible.
Taundry - Looked good. I was dissapointed to see him go off at HT
Adkins - He looked out of position. I thought he was a CM? but he played LM. Still played well and didn't give up.
O'Keefe - Never realy got into the game.
Bradley - Did well. One of his best performances for a while
Mattis - Was very good imo. Battled away, got his foot on the ball and knocked it about.
Till - Poor in the first half but second half he came alive. The fullbacks struggled to deal with him.
Geddes - Not enough time to do anything
Parkin - Deserved MOTM. Got the ball to his feet, held it up and distributed it well. Unlucky not to score aswell
Nicholls - Looked uncomfortable upfront. He did abit of running but service to him wasn't very good
Deeney - Played well and with confidence. Looked to run at defenders and was a threat. Should have scored aswell.
Grigg - Fantastic. Came on and for a young lad had bags of confidence. He made Bolde (who had been solid all night) look like a fool. Probably should have scored but none the less a superb performance.

Agree with all of that.
Especially what you say about Weston and Smith

[saddlerken]

Manny Smith is a great prospect

Some of our fans are blind

Some of our fans will hound him out I would have thought

Let the booing commence

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[Exile]

This was a pre-season friendly, wasn't it? So you'd expect players to be a bit rusty and make the odd mistake when it comes to touch, judgement etc.

Because that's all any of the criticisms seem to amount to so far. So - it all sounds like it's going pretty well to me so far. Everyone (except Jones) has got some decent game time in the last two games, we've had a look at a triallist, there's been a chance to try out various combinations in all positions (something we didn't do last year because JM wouldn't make subs) and apparently Taundry looks like a professional footballer this season. And we even got 4000 Dingles to cough up the best part of £50k between them to see the game. Those are the aims of friendlies, not to win them or even necessarily to play well.

I agree. It's pretty decent of our near neighbours to turn up at Bescot every Summer for what is effectively a fundraiser.

[Sadders]

Parkin didnt win a single header against Balde in the first half & i cant remember him winning more than 1 or 2 in the second. He did drop short on occasion though which was a good thing.

[We-ARE-Walsall]

This was a pre-season friendly, wasn't it? So you'd expect players to be a bit rusty and make the odd mistake when it comes to touch, judgement etc.

Because that's all any of the criticisms seem to amount to so far. So - it all sounds like it's going pretty well to me so far. Everyone (except Jones) has got some decent game time in the last two games, we've had a look at a triallist, there's been a chance to try out various combinations in all positions (something we didn't do last year because JM wouldn't make subs) and apparently Taundry looks like a professional footballer this season. And we even got 4000 Dingles to cough up the best part of £50k between them to see the game. Those are the aims of friendlies, not to win them or even necessarily to play well.

I agree. It's pretty decent of our near neighbours to turn up at Bescot every Summer for what is effectively a fundraiser.

Do visiting teams get any of the gate receipts, or are they just happy to have a work out ? Serious question, I don't know.

[Jorge14]

Manny Smith is a great prospect

Some of our fans are blind

Some of our fans will hound him out I would have thought

Let the booing commence

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Absurd, I agree. He was heralded as the best thing since sliced bread in the second half of last season. Now he can't win a header against a Premier League club. Ergo, he is clearly cack.

[Gaz the Train]

Manny Smith is a great prospect

Some of our fans are blind

Some of our fans will hound him out I would have thought

Let the booing commence

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Absurd, I agree. He was heralded as the best thing since sliced bread in the second half of last season. Now he can't win a header against a Premier League club. Ergo, he is clearly guano.

To be fair, he looked shaky under the high ball at first, but he grew as the game went on, and this is the same Manny Smith who took several games to bed in last season, so it was nice to see him need 20-25 mins of a friendly to get his bearings. I can see the beginnings of a good partnership at the back between him and Hughes.

With regard to Sam Parkin, I thought he won his fair share of headers against a big experienced centre half, he worked hard and was generally neat and tidy, also looked a lot slimmer than I imagined he would