Saddlers Social: Walsall fans have their say

Nick Etheridge

A solid away performance at Portsmouth saw us pick up a good point given both sides’ home and away form.

It could have been even better had Amadou Bakayoko not missed a glorious chance at 1-0, or Mark Gillespie been penalised for a dubious penalty claim.

One thing that has been brought to light, following a – ahem – robust challenge from Adam Chambers in the first few minutes, is that we have somehow developed a mean streak over the summer.

For me, this is something we’ve lacked for a few seasons now, and may well be one of the reasons why we didn’t get promoted two years ago.

The challenge for Jon Whitney is to find a balance between this mean streak and playing good, attacking football.

Time will tell if it can be achieved.

Kevin Paddock

It’s been another promising week with a well-earned point at Portsmouth followed by the news Mitch Candlin has signed his first professional deal.

What pleased me about the result at Fratton Park was we achieved it with a nasty streak.

Afterwards, the Pompey fans were crying that we bullied them. But we got the balance right in my opinion.

I always felt under Dean Smith we were too nice and lost points because of it.

Now I don’t want us to become the 90s Wimbledon with someone sent off every week or to give away a penalty every week (we have given three away already) but being a bit rough won’t hurt.

We now face Bradford at home and with confidence slowly improving we can easily get all three points!

Dan Gilbert

The football we played under Dean Smith may have felt a long time ago if you watched us on the south coast.

But the tough-tackling Saddlers gained a good draw at Portsmouth and if that’s what it takes to get points I’m all for it!

It was our best away performance under Jon Whitney in my opinion and for that he deserves credit. We looked lively and confident.

The problem, yet again, was the lack of quality up front.

I was also slightly concerned that we seemed to fade towards the end of each half. O

n the whole though, a good performance and one that possibly deserved all three points.

Hopefully we can grab a win in one of our next two games. If not, I’ll be worried if our only win is against an Oldham side everyone is beating.

Tom Miner

After a very creditable draw away at Portsmouth, the low expectations might just be helping towards that pint of Banks’s looking half full right now.

A lot was made both before the season and during the fans’ focus meeting of an apparent lack of a scouting system, but if Dean Smith received a lot of praise for travelling to West Brom’s training ground to watch youngsters like Romaine Sawyers and Sam Mantom then Jon Whitney certainly should be given credit for those long evenings spent crossing the Scottish border.

Luke Leahy and Nicky Devlin really look the part as wing-backs, and can easily replace fan favourites Jason McCarthy and Scott Laird.

At this rate, some fans will be giving him credit as a good scout, as well as a good physio!

Pete Green

For points from nine demonstrates a steady start to the season, particularly with the team in some what of a period of transition.

Defensively, we look a solid unit which can only improve and it once again demonstrates, despite his detractors, Jon Whitney' s impressive player recruitment.

There are though still some question marks over his in-game tactical abilities.

If he can work his magic and bring in some further quality into the final third, along with a certain Matty Fryatt waiting in the wings, the squad will have more than enough to compete this season.