cumbria-saddler wrote::D Brilliant!
Thats the best 90 minutes ive seen Walsall play for ages!
Great team performance, all worked for each other. Special mention to Julian Gray, Butler, Nicholls and Gill who i thought were all great today. Butler or Gray for my MoM. Neither keeper had many saves to make though, think we must have scored all of our shot on target because i dont remember their keeper doing anything.
What a difference to the style of football aswell, everythings on the floor now.
Walker - Did what he had to do, which wasnt that much. Pulled off a great save in injury time though which would have put us under a lot of pressure if they'd have scored.
Westlake - Did well, looked good going foward aswell.
Lancashire - Did well too, looks more solid than Manny Smith did when i last saw him play.
Butler - Won everything in the air today, and made a few important tackles too. Great leader, get him signed up for next season now!
Lescott - Best ive seen him play. Made a few errors when he tried to pass the ball out of defence and gave the ball away towards the end of the game too. He looked good going foward at times too. But today also showed that we need a left footed left back because this is what let him down most.
Taundry - I dont know if he was meant to be playing in the right or in the middle. Very quiet, but put the cross in for the first goal i think.
Richards - anonymous today. Didnt really get on the ball. Gave the ball away often when he did get it. Definatly our worst player today(..and im not part of the anti-Richards group either)
Gray - brilliant. He was everywhere in the second half. Left wing, Right wing, through the middle. He linked up well with Nicholls at times aswell. When ive seen him before he's not being bothered but today showed what he can do and what the team can do when they get the ball on the floor.
Macken - held the ball up well at times. He seemed too hesitant to shoot though. When we were 3 up the ball came across to him in the area and instead of hitting it first time he took a touch and lost it.
Nicholls - again, another one who was good today. His touch let him down a few times, but he chased everything and deserved a goal, i thought.
Marshall - strange substitution i thought, I'd have taken off Richards instead of Gill, but then again, im not the manager. but when he came on he got foward a few times. Did what he had to/
Grigg - didnt have a lot of time to do much.
Well done to all the Saddlers who made the long trip up here aswell. Singing all the way through the game.
Up the Sadlers! :D
This is pretty much the way I saw todays game, so a very good summary from Cumbria_saddler.
I think the reason for taking Gill off was more to do with his fitness levels rather than his performance.
Also, special mention to Deano's tactical changes. We switched to a 4-4-2 diamond in the second half which worked a treat.