Couldn't put it better myself. We pulled off a win today, which is absolutely great, but there a bigger challenges to come and we need back up for the inevitable losses through injury/suspension.
Followed on ifollow and had @KillersBeard and co. Valley Pass commentary alongside it. I though the first 30 minutes we played some really exciting and fast flowing football and opened them up at will. Then last 15 minutes they got into the game and the second half was completely different, wasn't a surprise when they scored. We stopped playing and begun to sit back and give them a chance to come forward. Overall with such a young and inexperienced side on the park I thought we did well, but reinforcements are a MUST. If, as has been reported, potential new owners were watching, then we need them to buy us NOW and make the most of the transfer window. Happy with the win and 3 points but more bodies are needed.
Played like Man City for 40 minutes and United of Manchester reserves for next 50 minutes. Had Wallsall on the ropes after 10 minutes but decided to give them time to recover without applying the KO. The 3 youngsters had mixed fortunes, Morgan had a very decent game, Stevenson shows promise but Dijksteel was wobbly today but did keep going but may need to go back to the bench with Solly back next week. Taylor and Grant were both superb today, with their runs and hold up play. Fosu is an enigma but must be allowed some slack as he can be a match winner. Special mention for both Phillips and the nabster who were immense today. A vital 3 points, before the real McCoy turn up on Saturday. The wearsiders will take some stopping and we will have to play for 95 minutes not 45.
Couldn't put it better myself. We pulled off a win today, which is absolutely great, but there a bigger challenges to come and we need back up for the inevitable losses through injury/suspension.
Ref and Lino on the left both a joke. Awful decisions all game and no clue why goal 3 disallowed.
Stevenson also played well. Him and Morgan good prospects for next season when all our senior pros are out of contract and we are fighting to stay in League One
They then went defensive so while we waited to catch them on the break the waited for us to attack and the rest of the half was like PSF bar a header of the line from Sarr.
They scored very quickly 2nd half and then we look ragged.
Only got back in control when the weak Reeves went off and the Morgan (very promising) came more central.
Philips did everything well, no chance with the goal, few other saves to makes but came and claimed crosses and looked to distribute quickly. One great throw to Fosu to the other half that should have lead to a sending off.
Stephenson looked more comfortable than previously, Dijksteel didn't but was up against they best player on the day (Ferrier).
Morgan can pick out a pass, Sarr did well, Grant and Taylor worked hard and both scored.
It was a patched up side but we won and deservedly so. Just need to hang in there until the sick and wounded return.
Why did we take our foot of the gas when it went to 2-0? Did the same thing against Gillingham. Could’ve blown them away and killed it first half instead of having to spend the entire second half on the precipice.
Vital vital win. Concerned about that team for Saturday though.
Brilliant first 30 minutes. When we're on the front foot Stevenson and Morgan looked very good technical players. Dijksteel looked tidy. Naby Sarr's ability to play our from the back would have been so helpful against Coventry and Barnsley. He is so good with the ball at his feet.
And then we seemed to take our foot off the gas and looked sloppy.
A soft goal from a punt, perhaps a little unlucky it goes through Bauer's legs but Phillips looked very slow to react. And we were largely hanging on from there.
Huge credit to Bauer, Bielik, and Sarr who kept getting in the way of things despite having fullbacks who were unreliable. For as frustrating as his decision making on the ball is at times, Fosu covers a lot of ground, wins it back, and his ball for the opener was brilliant. If we can just get him playing more one and two touch he'll show he's too good for this league.
Something to watch for: the goals Phillips conceded against Sunderland and Southend, both of which he was at fault for, involved him being slow to get down low to his left. It was the same today both for their goal as well as for the shot from distance that he awkwardly palmed with one hand in the first half. Caveat that both of today's came through legs and may involved him seeing it late. But I think it's something to look out for.
I didn’t think the team was that bad on paper. For me, on paper at least, Grant-Taylor-Fosu is one of the best front 3s in the league. Just a shame Fosu doesn’t play to his ability. Taylor was rightly furious he didn’t get played in towards the end when Fosu won a cheap free kick.
Stevenson looked good, one very dangerous delivery and not afraid to put a tackle in at the back.
Morgan did well first half but faded. No surprise when he was playing in the middle of that tight diamond.
Phillips distribution was very good. Steer was good but we have a solid replacement. Just no replacement for if/when Dillon suffers an injury.
Referee not great again. How is going backwards 20 yards an advantage...
Any time two of the other teams in the top 6 play each other it’s important we get a win, no matter how.
Harder work than it needed to be. Inexperience showed a bit at times - the nouse of Marshall, Pratley, and, particularly, Taylor got us over the line.
Fosu is still struggling with his decision making. I’m never upset at attacking players trying things in the final third, but he just needs to take the simplest option a bit more often - we lost good opportunities because of him overplaying today. His pass for Grants goal was excellent though - similar to his assist for Reeves vs Gills - that needs to be the blueprint for him because he 100 % has it in him.
Midfield still looks lightweight and teams are figuring out that if you press us, especially with our best midfield missing, we can be got at. Coventry and Barnsley both did it successfully. Walsall tried today and it didn’t work out for them, but let’s not pretend this game couldn’t have easily gone another way today.
Personally think we need a tweak to the shape/system as teams are figuring us out. I’d like us to be using a 352 while we’re missing so many midfielders, I think we’d benefit from having the extra man in midfield and we do have the players to play that system.
Also, we played 442 vs Barnsley and got overrun in midfield.
Yes because we had a poor 20 minutes, not necessarily because of numbers. I definitely do not want Dijksteel playing CB, looks dodgy to me
When you're two nil down at half time, and in the first half you make your opponents look like Manchester City, and you have been architects of your own downfall, what you want to do is get an early second half goal to give yourself some hope, make it interesting, and unsettle your previously cruising along opposition. That is what Walsall did. The buggers. So we had to endure a second half mainly full of stress and worry. To the credit of what can only be described as a makeshift team, they all dug in and competed. It might have been kind of easy to feel sorry for ourselves that an honest Walsall side turned out to not be a willing punchbag after all, but started to cause us a bit of pain, but the players absorbed the pain more or less, and voila! Three juicy points. Bowyer frequently goes on about the virtue of hard work, he has said the squad has to dig deep, and he was proved right today. The general competitive culture the Bow and Jacko have instilled, even with the sometimes poor results, has carried this squad through quite a few matches this season, and we haven't seen that kind of virtue very much since the days of Powell. Walsall gave it away and Tarique played in Karlan, bosh a goal. There was both a dangerous free kick to us, and then a penalty given, and I can't honestly say i saw what happened either time. Lyall took his pen like that one career wonder Harry Kane. Now Naby Sarr posted an affectionate tweet about Lapslie after that Portsmouth game that left our George with concussion, so for Walsall's one dangerous moment in the first half, Naby seemed to take one smack in the face right on the line like a George Lapslie tribute act. We have some memorable characters in our squad this season. I am sick of saying how gloriously entertaining Lyall Taylor is each game, and today he was at it all again. Taylor is not a bloke to go unnoticed, but neither is Naby, Pearce, certainly George, and definitely Belik, and some of their general footballing hutzpah is rubbing off on Fosu and Karlan and a few others. It all reminds me of the positive (and negative) influence players can have on one another. Ajose didn't feature today. I don't know if Roland knows this, but we are in the middle of a sporting season, with professional athletes giving it as a team, against other decent teams, all to both to entertain and see what we can see. We are not counting pennies, and organising this year's tax returns and stocktaking, but playing sport. Geddit Roland? Yet? Ever? For the players, I was pleased for Dillon, no blame for their well finished goal, Toby got away with a steady game where he wasn't really pressured, Bauer stepped up to the Captaincy, and we won, job done. Sarr was very good throughout the whole game, Reeves has enough space to do what he wanted first half. Albie Morgan was a bit of a twinkling smile of a player, looking to get it forward quickly, showed nice passing range and good decision making until he tired a bit, mind you he saw the game through well in the end. Tarique draws players to him because he is so skilled, but it leaves space for others, I also thought his workrate was good, and the same can be said for Karlan. Karlan could now be approaching the tipping point where he goes from promising to proper.
Harder work than it needed to be. Inexperience showed a bit at times - the nouse of Marshall, Pratley, and, particularly, Taylor got us over the line.
Fosu is still struggling with his decision making. I’m never upset at attacking players trying things in the final third, but he just needs to take the simplest option a bit more often - we lost good opportunities because of him overplaying today. His pass for Grants goal was excellent though - similar to his assist for Reeves vs Gills - that needs to be the blueprint for him because he 100 % has it in him.
Midfield still looks lightweight and teams are figuring out that if you press us, especially with our best midfield missing, we can be got at. Coventry and Barnsley both did it successfully. Walsall tried today and it didn’t work out for them, but let’s not pretend this game couldn’t have easily gone another way today.
Personally think we need a tweak to the shape/system as teams are figuring us out. I’d like us to be using a 352 while we’re missing so many midfielders, I think we’d benefit from having the extra man in midfield and we do have the players to play that system.
Also, we played 442 vs Barnsley and got overrun in midfield.
Yes because we had a poor 20 minutes, not necessarily because of numbers. I definitely do not want Dijksteel playing CB, looks dodgy to me
It was more like an hour, and thing got better when we ditched the 442.
iFollow. Walsall in my opinion unlucky to come away with nothing as they were the better team for the majority of the game. But, that's football. Needed that win immensely! Go on the lads!
Behave. We were discussing what our record win was after 20 mins. If our perfectly good 3rd goal wasn't disallowed, we may still have scored 4 or 5. Granted we were hanging on a bit at the end, but a thoroughly deserved win for me.
Made heavy weather of that, however going into the match, I would of settled for a tight scrappy win, so overall I'm delighted. It just gives us a few days to take a deep breath before we go into the lions den with Sunderland on Saturday. It was seemingly easy to begin with. We were Barnsley in disguise going 2-0 up early on. It was a lovely first goal with a great through ball by Fosu for Grant who finished well for his 12th goal of the season. It was a lovely ball in by Albie that led to the penalty. He didn't let us down at all today coming into this injury ravaged team. At 2-0, Charlton were playing some nice calm football but then slowly the tide started to change. Walsall got into a different gear following Naby Sarr's brilliant clearance off the line from Josh Gordon's volley. They followed this up with a deflected shot that Phillips saved well. We didn't take heed after the break as their goal poacher Andy Cook reduced the arrears. It had all seemed so easy, now it had all changed. Throughout the rest of the 2nd half, we couldn't regain that fluency we had when it was daylight. There was a failure to keep the ball and we seemed to go very deep. Nevertheless we survived and for now, that's all that matters.
Good win with another makeshift side, first half we were very good, 2nd half we were a bit ragged at times. Would be nice to get a 3rd goal, too many times we've been 2 nil up and then make it nervy for ourselves.
Brilliant first 30 minutes. When we're on the front foot Stevenson and Morgan looked very good technical players. Dijksteel looked tidy. Naby Sarr's ability to play our from the back would have been so helpful against Coventry and Barnsley. He is so good with the ball at his feet.
And then we seemed to take our foot off the gas and looked sloppy.
A soft goal from a punt, perhaps a little unlucky it goes through Bauer's legs but Phillips looked very slow to react. And we were largely hanging on from there.
Huge credit to Bauer, Bielik, and Sarr who kept getting in the way of things despite having fullbacks who were unreliable. For as frustrating as his decision making on the ball is at times, Fosu covers a lot of ground, wins it back, and his ball for the opener was brilliant. If we can just get him playing more one and two touch he'll show he's too good for this league.
Something to watch for: the goals Phillips conceded against Sunderland and Southend, both of which he was at fault for, involved him being slow to get down low to his left. It was the same today both for their goal as well as for the shot from distance that he awkwardly palmed with one hand in the first half. Caveat that both of today's came through legs and may involved him seeing it late. But I think it's something to look out for.
Blaming Phillips for the goal is a complete joke. Thought he had a good game and looked very confident, particularly considering he hasn't played for ages.
Comments
Couldn't put it better myself.
We pulled off a win today, which is absolutely great, but there a bigger challenges to come and we need back up for the inevitable losses through injury/suspension.
Happy with the win and 3 points but more bodies are needed.
Had Wallsall on the ropes after 10 minutes but decided to give them time to recover without applying the KO.
The 3 youngsters had mixed fortunes,
Morgan had a very decent game, Stevenson shows promise but Dijksteel was wobbly today but did keep going but may need to go back to the bench with Solly back next week.
Taylor and Grant were both superb today, with their runs and hold up play.
Fosu is an enigma but must be allowed some slack as he can be a match winner.
Special mention for both Phillips and the nabster who were immense today.
A vital 3 points, before the real McCoy turn up on Saturday.
The wearsiders will take some stopping and we will have to play for 95 minutes not 45.
Fantastic block by Sarr,
Ref and Lino on the left both a joke. Awful decisions all game and no clue why goal 3 disallowed.
Stevenson also played well. Him and Morgan good prospects for next season when all our senior pros are out of contract and we are fighting to stay in League One
Warsaw were decent but suddenly were two down.
They then went defensive so while we waited to catch them on the break the waited for us to attack and the rest of the half was like PSF bar a header of the line from Sarr.
They scored very quickly 2nd half and then we look ragged.
Only got back in control when the weak Reeves went off and the Morgan (very promising) came more central.
Philips did everything well, no chance with the goal, few other saves to makes but came and claimed crosses and looked to distribute quickly. One great throw to Fosu to the other half that should have lead to a sending off.
Stephenson looked more comfortable than previously, Dijksteel didn't but was up against they best player on the day (Ferrier).
Morgan can pick out a pass, Sarr did well, Grant and Taylor worked hard and both scored.
It was a patched up side but we won and deservedly so. Just need to hang in there until the sick and wounded return.
100% win rate in 2019.
Vital vital win. Concerned about that team for Saturday though.
Great 3 points Dijksteel had a shocking game overall but I thought Stevenson did well. Solly in for Dijksteel against Sunderland for me.
Midfield were Good for 45 minutes but tired badly after the break.
Brilliant first 30 minutes. When we're on the front foot Stevenson and Morgan looked very good technical players. Dijksteel looked tidy. Naby Sarr's ability to play our from the back would have been so helpful against Coventry and Barnsley. He is so good with the ball at his feet.
And then we seemed to take our foot off the gas and looked sloppy.
A soft goal from a punt, perhaps a little unlucky it goes through Bauer's legs but Phillips looked very slow to react. And we were largely hanging on from there.
Huge credit to Bauer, Bielik, and Sarr who kept getting in the way of things despite having fullbacks who were unreliable. For as frustrating as his decision making on the ball is at times, Fosu covers a lot of ground, wins it back, and his ball for the opener was brilliant. If we can just get him playing more one and two touch he'll show he's too good for this league.
Something to watch for: the goals Phillips conceded against Sunderland and Southend, both of which he was at fault for, involved him being slow to get down low to his left. It was the same today both for their goal as well as for the shot from distance that he awkwardly palmed with one hand in the first half. Caveat that both of today's came through legs and may involved him seeing it late. But I think it's something to look out for.
Stevenson looked good, one very dangerous delivery and not afraid to put a tackle in at the back.
Morgan did well first half but faded. No surprise when he was playing in the middle of that tight diamond.
Phillips distribution was very good. Steer was good but we have a solid replacement. Just no replacement for if/when Dillon suffers an injury.
Referee not great again. How is going backwards 20 yards an advantage...
Any time two of the other teams in the top 6 play each other it’s important we get a win, no matter how.
When you're two nil down at half time, and in the first half you make your opponents look like Manchester City, and you have been architects of your own downfall, what you want to do is get an early second half goal to give yourself some hope, make it interesting, and unsettle your previously cruising along opposition. That is what Walsall did.
The buggers.
So we had to endure a second half mainly full of stress and worry.
To the credit of what can only be described as a makeshift team, they all dug in and competed. It might have been kind of easy to feel sorry for ourselves that an honest Walsall side turned out to not be a willing punchbag after all, but started to cause us a bit of pain, but the players absorbed the pain more or less, and voila!
Three juicy points.
Bowyer frequently goes on about the virtue of hard work, he has said the squad has to dig deep, and he was proved right today. The general competitive culture the Bow and Jacko have instilled, even with the sometimes poor results, has carried this squad through quite a few matches this season, and we haven't seen that kind of virtue very much since the days of Powell.
Walsall gave it away and Tarique played in Karlan, bosh a goal. There was both a dangerous free kick to us, and then a penalty given, and I can't honestly say i saw what happened either time. Lyall took his pen like that one career wonder Harry Kane.
Now Naby Sarr posted an affectionate tweet about Lapslie after that Portsmouth game that left our George with concussion, so for Walsall's one dangerous moment in the first half, Naby seemed to take one smack in the face right on the line like a George Lapslie tribute act.
We have some memorable characters in our squad this season. I am sick of saying how gloriously entertaining Lyall Taylor is each game, and today he was at it all again. Taylor is not a bloke to go unnoticed, but neither is Naby, Pearce, certainly George, and definitely Belik, and some of their general footballing hutzpah is rubbing off on Fosu and Karlan and a few others. It all reminds me of the positive (and negative) influence players can have on one another.
Ajose didn't feature today.
I don't know if Roland knows this, but we are in the middle of a sporting season, with professional athletes giving it as a team, against other decent teams, all to both to entertain and see what we can see. We are not counting pennies, and organising this year's tax returns and stocktaking, but playing sport. Geddit Roland? Yet? Ever?
For the players, I was pleased for Dillon, no blame for their well finished goal, Toby got away with a steady game where he wasn't really pressured, Bauer stepped up to the Captaincy, and we won, job done. Sarr was very good throughout the whole game, Reeves has enough space to do what he wanted first half. Albie Morgan was a bit of a twinkling smile of a player, looking to get it forward quickly, showed nice passing range and good decision making until he tired a bit, mind you he saw the game through well in the end. Tarique draws players to him because he is so skilled, but it leaves space for others, I also thought his workrate was good, and the same can be said for Karlan. Karlan could now be approaching the tipping point where he goes from promising to proper.
Great to get a win today.
Dijksteel had a poor game.
It was seemingly easy to begin with. We were Barnsley in disguise going 2-0 up early on. It was a lovely first goal with a great through ball by Fosu for Grant who finished well for his 12th goal of the season. It was a lovely ball in by Albie that led to the penalty. He didn't let us down at all today coming into this injury ravaged team.
At 2-0, Charlton were playing some nice calm football but then slowly the tide started to change. Walsall got into a different gear following Naby Sarr's brilliant clearance off the line from Josh Gordon's volley. They followed this up with a deflected shot that Phillips saved well.
We didn't take heed after the break as their goal poacher Andy Cook reduced the arrears. It had all seemed so easy, now it had all changed. Throughout the rest of the 2nd half, we couldn't regain that fluency we had when it was daylight. There was a failure to keep the ball and we seemed to go very deep.
Nevertheless we survived and for now, that's all that matters.