Walsall v Swindon Town Official Matchday Thread

[reeves4england]

Happy with a point tonight - tough place to go. Couple that with the fact Flint scored an own goal which helped keep City 23rd, Rovers lost at home to Accrington, and Oxford have rather predictably slipped from top to 5th, I'm in a fairly chirpy mood.

[THE FLASH]

Just got back...

We battled and got an unlikely point.

Positives: smith and Ranger looked good.

Negatives: Reckford wasn't positive. Midfield didn't exist...no wings/ crosses...

Ref was a wank homer....

Happy days anyway...

[Tails]

Walsall play how we should play. Clever in possession, off the ball movement is constant and very precise and they always looked like they were going to create something. Brandy was different class.

We were OK. Glimpses of decent stuff but generally we lacked creativity and the players all stood still too often when the ball approached Walsalls final third.  Louis did pretty well in midfield, Smith played just about every position and deserved his goal for his workrate alone. Rest were a bit meh, Branco threw himself at everything to his credit though.

they all worked hard for that though. Except Ranger, who is being very quickly overshadowed by Smith.

[Empathy Sloth]

Decent point against a very good side. We seem to have a higher than average percentage of spastic fans who should be taken out into a field and shot in the back of the head, at 1-0 down some of the things being said were pathetic. They soon shut up by the end. Branco played well but never looks too far from disaster, a bit like LJF. Fods good, Pritchard awful again, for every good game he has 3/4 shockers, tonight was one of those. 1 million? Even if you offered him to me for 200k I'd rather buy someone else. Reckord looked dodgy, but he's still getting to know his teammates so he deserves a bit of time. Smith looks a solid signing. Oh and one last thing, Cooper's been criticised for his tactics but today he got it spot on second half, with the change to 3 at the back, stopped their momentum for a good 20 minutes and got us our goal.

[Batch]

the change to 3 at the back, stopped their momentum for a good 20 minutes and got us our goal.

Then I shall be eating humble pie for lunch, that system was woeful against them at home. No two games are the same I suppose.

[Bathtime]

Well that was a big result - bloody marvellous. Didn`t see that coming - pleased to see that he did play Smith and Ranger it seemed to work reading the reports. Now need to get some away victories sorted and we might just might sneak in the final play off place. 

[Tails]

I didn't think Smith and Ranger worked at all. They combined to get us a goal on Saturday but they were normally either miles away from each other or going for the same ball. Smith spent a good portion of the game on the right wing as well.

The diamond doesn't really work as we are far too narrow and obvious so Coopers change worked pretty well. It was quite pleasing to see us not play totally into their hands as we knew they would hit on the break.

Oh and everyone seems to have gotten stuck in the traffic by us. We weren't even out of Swindon til 5.45 and we flew straight through!

[Reg Smeeton]

I didn't think Smith and Ranger worked at all. They combined to get us a goal on Saturday but they were normally either miles away from each other or going for the same ball. Smith spent a good portion of the game on the right wing as well.

The diamond doesn't really work as we are far too narrow and obvious so Coopers change worked pretty well. It was quite pleasing to see us not play totally into their hands as we knew they would hit on the break.

Oh and everyone seems to have gotten stuck in the traffic by us. We weren't even out of Swindon til 5.45 and we flew straight through!

Did it make us look any more secure at defending set plays?  This was my thinking for playing them both.

[Benzel]

4 "undeserved" points against Walsall and Posh whilst playing badly, pretty good sign and maybe a little bit of Karma for the points we undeservedly dropped earlier in the season when playing well.

[suttonred]

Did it make us look any more secure at defending set plays?  This was my thinking for playing them both.

One of the London lads who went, said once cooper realised Smith and Ranger aren't wingers, and moved them in we started playing better, he said it wasn't until around the hour mark though that the change was made.

[Benzel]

That was probably when Barthram came on and we switched to 352.  Not sure why we wouldn't play a straight 442 with Ranger and Smith upfront. With strikers like that, we're crying out for some wide play. Byrne has excellent delivery and good pace, he's perfect for that kind of role.

[Tails]

One of the London lads who went, said once cooper realised Smith and Ranger aren't wingers, and moved them in we started playing better, he said it wasn't until around the hour mark though that the change was made.

He's kinda right, IMO.

We started off quite brightly, kept the ball well and slowed the game which Walsall were determined to play at the quickest pace possible. This infuriated the hell out of the few shouty men by me but actually worked quite nicely. Walsall's goal came from an incredibly soft free kick (but Pritchards own fault after taking about 4 touches too many) and after that we weren't quite as fluid. In the second half we needed change, and the Barthram sub / switch in play did improve us.

It was quite frustrating seeing us have the two big men up top and almost point blank refuse to put the ball in the box. However, we actually looked a threat from set peices and we did defend them a hell of a lot better than we have been doing recently.

It was always gonna be hard. Walsall, for me, are the best team in the league. They are similar to Brentford, but play with a bit more honesty (I'll overlook the 3 or 4 quite blatant attempts from some of their players to win a penalty) and they've assembled their squad on a modest budget. The fact we actually put some hard work in and saw the benefit was pleasing, but there's a lot of room for improvement. Another factor working against us was the referee and linesmen, who made some incredibly poor decisions that worked against us. The most puzzling was their centre midfield hoofing the ball out of play, their striker running to the linesman to appeal for a corner and the lino looked as if he just went, "...yeah go on then". He also gave them a free kick for westcarr randomly barging Branco to the floor.

[kerry red]

Why is the Walsall manager banging on about a 'nailed on' penalty they should have had and that we were kicking lumps out of Brandy and he should have got more protection from the ref

[suttonred]

Sam said on twitter he thought Branco was lucky not to give away a penalty. Guess it's that.

[Red Frog]

Brief highlights up. Some more messy defending to lament, but at least the oppo looked fast and dangerous this time.