Walsall vs Swindon Town Pre Match & Matchday Thread

[Anonymous77]

We can’t set up with the same starting 11 at home. Absolutely no flair/skill in that attack just work horses, would like to see Ameen start over Drinan.

[DV]

I thought Nicolls or Drinan would be the one to come off for Ameen tbh.

[Crozzer]

I thought Drinan was decent, flair and skill will improve with quicker moves and crisper passing.  Ameen should have started, though.  Tabor looked good when he came on, but faded when Walsall's defence camped in with no space to run into.  The major take away from this game is that the defence and midfield are disconnected while taking too long to get the ball to forward.  Pumping the ball up to Smith from wingbacks became far too repetitive and predictable far too easy for the home defence to deal with.  Ameen and Tabor both exhibited great movement, unfortunately they needed better service.

[Batch]

We've lost opening days heavily and got promoted. But you have to say what you see for the 90, even if that is an outlier and not reflective of the season.

So with that in mind ...

They was fairly poor under the circumstances.  11 v 11 we looked ploddy and lacking creativity. We didn't keep hold of the ball and hit too many nothing diagonal balls.

11v10 we tried to get width and move then around. It didn't really work. We created very little still though unlike some I thought we did look a bit better with the subs.

Both goals we conceded were poor. Not sure what the hell the wall was with a good free kick, but it wasn't effective. The second schoolboy crap defending.

So all in all an anticlimax, the midfield and lack of creativity worry me but there is so long to go it's hopefully a blip

Edit: quite liked the look of Munroe

[Jimmy Quinn]

Was their defender already on a yellow when he got sent off as I’m not sure it was an obvious scoring opportunity.

[Kinky Tom]

It was a straight red, definitely a clear scoring opportunity.

[Wobbly Bob]

A disappointing setback, but not the end of the world.
Plenty of food for thought for Holloway.
A dip into the market might be required.

Maybe too many rookies thrown in & the wide play was generally too passive throughout.
Can live with a slow start if the tempo gradually picks up.

Credit to Walsall for defending what was thrown at them well, even if was made a tad easy for them.
Should be a point at least in the bag.

Good pre & post match socials did mitigate the disappointment of the result somewhat.
Unfortunately points are not awarded for beer drinking.

Nevertheless, looking forward to getting up and running at the CG on Saturday.

[Jimmy Quinn]

It was a straight red, definitely a clear scoring opportunity.

Cheers Tim, I’ve only seen it once and wasn’t sure if he was going slightly away from goal towards the penalty area so need to see it again.

[Ƭ̵̬̊: The Artist Formerly Known as CWIG]

Looked undercooked, seems a bit of a common theme over the last 3 or 4 years. Our preseason friendlies do seem to lack sufficient tests, long gone are the days of home friendlies against better opposition it seems.

Think a lot of people have got carried away, as tends to happen every season. We've signed average L2 squad players and unsurprisingly we look like an average L2 team. We didn't deserve anything today.

We obviously won't be looking over our shoulders with this squad, but I don't think we have the quality or creativity to challenge at the right end either currently. It'll get better, but is a bit of reality check as well.

Main fear would be that we have a few weeks like this as we try to get up to speed. Not sure how Holloway would react if he starts to get questioned, so hopefully not.

I don't see how you can question Holloway after last years turn around.

It might make off the pitch issues have more of a light shone on it if/when Clem and Co's usual fuck ups arise, but honestly they should be seen s two separate issues, as much as many people (mostly on the Clem in side) are incapable of separating them.

[Anonymous77]

Finally calmed down, just feeling frustrated/disappointed. Countless times from Jan-May this year we have penned teams in for 30/40 minutes at the end of games and always felt we would get something. Confidence just didn’t seem there and other than a brief 5 minute spell it was all very dysfunctional/panicky. Lots of games to go so I think a few things i’ve read on X has been an over reaction. Hopefully Bodin is fit for some sort of cameo next week, missed attacking quality today.

[molepar]

Too slow today. Walsall looked like a good side but we didn’t move the ball quickly enough and stretch them when they were down to 10. Looks like the pen was a bit soft on the replays. Flint remains a top wind up merchant and near the top of the “players I hate but would love to have” list. Tabor looked lovely when he came on. Defending for their second was shambolic and I expect Ollie to get the hairdryer out!

[Ƭ̵̬̊: The Artist Formerly Known as CWIG]

Ashamed of a certain section of our fans today, hope whoever threw that chair gets locked up.  There was some really good stewarding on display today though.

Was a chair thrown? Fucking hell.

Right at the worst time as well. Don't been the game stopping there.

[Ƭ̵̬̊: The Artist Formerly Known as CWIG]

Hope he feels it was worth it when hes banned from football and potentially looking at a criminal record. Idiot.

He get nicked and carted out or just assuming from the likelihood of CCTV?

[Ƭ̵̬̊: The Artist Formerly Known as CWIG]

We've lost opening days heavily and got promoted.

Lost 5-0 or 5-1 opening day under Wilson vs Gillingham and ended up in play off final.

[Ƭ̵̬̊: The Artist Formerly Known as CWIG]

It was a straight red, definitely a clear scoring opportunity.

Absolutely. Pen was more questionable.