Rovers 2 Saddlers 1

[Rockford's Love Child]

A good performance today against difficult opposition.

Walsall seemed to come with a game plan to get men behind the ball in the first half, go in level at half time, and then open the game out after the interval. However, I felt we deserved to be ahead at the break after dominating possession, and creating several good chances, notably two good efforts by Baxter, who was outstanding in the first 45 minutes, which produced great saves from their keeper.

In the second half we started slowly and hesitantly, and Walsall certainly posed much more of an attacking threat. However, although our play was bittier, and we had our anxious moments, I think the game becoming more stretched ultimately suited us, with our second goal in particular coming froma fluid counter-attacking move.

It was good to see the character we showed to up a gear after conceding the equaliser, and Les should be praised for the substitutions, with Bakayogo's pace down the left proving effective as their defenders started to tire late on. Despite facing two banks of four for the majority of the game, we generally stayed patient and tried to play our way out of defence, although this was not good enough for some of the home 'support' who barracked the players for going backwards, but also barracked Taylor and Goodison every time a long ball was lumped forward (work that one out).

My man of the match would be Robbie Weir, who played his best game for some time, and produced a great finish for the opening goal.

It was fantastic to see Tiryaki finally get off the mark, with the kind of poachers goal that Enoch would not be likely to score. That said, I thought Showunmi worked hard and had a good game today, and I would still start with him at Hartlepool.

It is great to see that we are finally in a league position which reflects our vastly improved performances this season. Incredible that we are above Preston and only two points off the play offs. So much for our poor home form, we have now won three and drawn one of the last four home matches, keeping three clean sheets in the process.

Roll on another massive game on Tuesday night......

 

[Ian]

Another home win against a tricky side. You've got to hand it to Les. Sometimes the football isn't pretty but we are getting the results. 8th position and 2 pts behind the play-offs. That's also with some key players out too. Getting Baxter in was an excellent move and really shows that touch of class with his passing. I hope we get him for another month.

Walsall get credit for the way they go about their game. They aren't afraid to attack and player some neat football on the floor. Their problem reflects ours in the fact that they don't have any punch up front.

Great game and finish from Wier, he had an excellent game in the middle with Baxter. I was delighted for Turyaki too. Hope he gets more exposure but he's a poacher so needs good service which brings me nicely on Bakayogo. Made a huge difference with his pace.

The defence was solid again and we have some great performers at the back. Raven and Buchanen continue to impress me.

Full marks to the ref too who let the game flow and wasn't looking to be centre of attention.

Great win and we are now in a great position and have real hope for this season.

 

[SonkORLY?]

I don't have too much to add really.

Baka looked good when he came on, benefiting from some quality service. I'm still not convinced he's any better than 3rd choice option in that position, but pleased he came on and had an impact. It's a shame that a player of his ability can only get a game playing out of position from the bench, but that's a testament to Buchanan who has been excellent in the left-back position this season. Still wonder if they would be better suited in reversed-roles, but the overriding argument would be that there is little reason to shake up a back 4 which has performed so well this season.

Enoch only really looked interested in the game when we didn't have the ball, and he's able to mindlessly chase people around knowing he won't have to face any difficult decisions in doing so. When we're in possession and looking to attack this willingness to be involved disappears quite drastically, and I get the impression that he rather shies away from the responsibility of receiving the ball under pressure/in situations where he will be expected to make a contribution. At times his movement is at best unintelligent, at worst non-existent. It is odd that a large section of our fanbase seem to have an endless amount of patience with the bloke, despite being so quick to scapegoat the likes of Taylor, Weir and Akins in the past.

Pleased that Tiryaki did well and would like to see him start a few games out of sheer principle, especially now that he's (officially) off the mark. Can he be much worse? What do we stand to lose? Though less athletic than Enoch, he certainly matches his work-rate, and the latter is not offering much more than that at the moment. The groin strain he picked up today might be a good reason to 'rest' him...

Nice to have competition for places, isn't it? Especially considering Parry's attempts to keep Baxter for another month.

Weir was very good today, and so was the ref, as Ian notes.

We're 8th. All hail Les.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Yes, I couldn't really object to Tiryaki taking Enoch's place now. If you include his 'goal' at Accrington his goals to games ratio has been pretty good, and as I said above, he definitely seems more of a natural predator in the penalty area than Showunmi. Who knows, he may just get on the end of some of the numerous deliveries McGurk puts into the box which we don't bother to attack.

On the Baxter front, from Les's comments it seems he could be staying for another month.

 

[bring back the cowshed!]

Thanks for three great reports. I could only follow the match on live text.

All I can add is that - in a way - that 2-1 result is better than if we had won 1-0 and kept a clean sheet. I thought we'd blown it when they equalised, but to regroup and "win it again" must be a great feeling for the team.

As Kevin Summerfield said earlier in the week, there's lots more belief within the team this season. Let's hope it continues.

 

[SonkORLY?]

Yeah, definitely. It was a stupid goal to concede, and we aren't exactly a free-scoring team so I expected the game to end 1-1 at that point. Credit to the players for grinding it out.

On the Baxter front, from Les's comments it seems he could be staying for another month.

Yeah, just had a look on the OS, and edited my post in light of that.

Muzzy has been scoring goals for the reserves too, and much like Akins last season, I get the impression that he is incredibly keen to impress and get involved. He's far from the finished article, but has talent imo.



OFW's distribution was very good today as well. What a signing he's been.

And we need to stop taking short corners. Someone probably needs to tell Welshy to stay away from set pieces in general, actually.

 

[DIW]

Agree with virtually all of that. Welsh should indeed stay well away from set pieces and the short corner routines are crap.

Really pleased we came back from the equaliser to get a winner, but we are still having immense problems scoring goals and that puts the defense under pressure although they have been excellent this season.

Baxter had another useful game and Robbie Weir played very well - what a finish that was for his goal.

On Enoch, I've been hoping that it would start to happen for him as he really did play well last season. Yesterday however he was horrendous and Sonkorly pretty much summed him up very well. Surely time to try something else. I honestly think we are only a goal scorer away from the play offs, or at least pushing hard for them. At the moment we simply are not looking likely to score enough.

Massive game on Tuesday and I would take a point from that.

 

[bigmart]

A workmanlike performance i thought we were the better team not by much but just deserved the win.

Enoch had yet another poor game and is too easily nocked off the ball and should be dropped for this weeks games

 

[Boz]

Agree with the consensus that it was a solid rather than spectacular performance and that we deserved the win. Also with the plaudits for the ref. I was a bit disappointed in Walsall, who might have been more of a threat if they'd started the way they finished, rather than simply trying to stifle us. Credit to our players for having the mental toughness to battle back after their goal and earn the win.

SonkORLY? asserts that OFW's distribution is very good. How can you tell? All he is doing (presumably under orders from Les or our goalkeeping coach) is belting out long balls to either Adam on the left or Lucas on the right and kicking back-passes as far as he can. I would like to see our keeper given more flexibility, roll the ball out to be carried forward from the back and the occasional long throw Achto-Parky style.

RLC makes reference to fans impatience at building from the back and long-ball. I have no difficulty in building from the back, but the general approach would be to pass the ball back to Ash, Goodi or OFW, who'd then lump the ball upfield. It has to be said that their radar was malfunctioning, as very few of these long balls reached a white shirt. Particularly exasperating was Buchanan and throw-ins. In the first 30 minutes, we had about 6 throw-ins, which instead of being thrown forward, he threw back to Goodi, who then just launched it forward. The one time the throw-in from Buchanan was taken forward it led to a chance.

Les was very honest, when he conceded we got lucky with the substitutions. A decent cross from Zoum is as rare as hen's teeth, but not only did we get a good one, but Mustafa got himself in the right place to bundle it home. Enoch had a quiet game. I wasn't following what he did as closely as SonkORLY?, so accept those remarks. However it seemed v Oldham, Baxter was much closer to him, giving him the ball, almost forcing him to take responsibility, whereas in this game Baxter was deeper and it didn't happen. My preference would be to look at striker rotation, with Enoch starting away games, where he'll have less possession and a lot of closing down to do, with Mustafa at home.

Agree with Weir as MoM.

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

My point regarding distribution from the back is that whenever we play four or five passes in our own half simply to keep possession rather than gifting it to the opposition, there are cries of derision from the people sitting round me because we haven't got into the opponent's penalty area in under five seconds. As a result, the defence get anxious and start hoofing it to try and force the game. Some of our fans don't seem to have the intelligence to realise that possession is nine-tenths of the law, even if that possession doesn't immediately reap benefits in the form of a string of goalscoring opportunities.

Away from home we very rarely play aimless long balls these days, and as a result we gradually build confidence in games, and in many instances get the upper hand in midfield (cf. Brentford, Preston, Charlton), even if goalscoring opportunities don't necessarily arrive in the first twenty minutes of games.

 

[Boz]

Mine was that yesterday we were doing far too much hoofing, though I accept the reason you put forward as to why the players do this. There is nothing wrong either with the occasional accurate long-ball, but very few seemed to find their target in this match

 

[Rockford's Love Child]

Yes, agreed. I still think we played decent football in spells yesterday, as we have in the majority of home games this season. Certainly much improved on last season anyway.

 

[SonkORLY?]

Mine was that yesterday we were doing far too much hoofing, though I accept the reason you put forward as to why the players do this. There is nothing wrong either with the occasional accurate long-ball, but very few seemed to find their target in this match

We've been worse than we were yesterday.

My point about OFW's distribution was mostly with reference to the consistency and accuracy of his kicking, even (and especially) under pressure, which is quite handy.

 

[Boz]

We've been worse than we were yesterday.

My point about OFW's distribution was mostly with reference to the consistency and accuracy of his kicking, even (and especially) under pressure, which is quite handy.

I missed the Carlisle game and Port Vale in the JPT, but of the remaining games this season, don't recall so much aimless long ball. The wind may have been a factor, but imo we should have looked at more shorter passes in the conditions.

Accept the point you make about OFW.