Saddlers Social: Walsall fans have their say

Stuart Cox

Another great performance on Saturday against a team who are going be in the promotion mix at the end of the season. Something appears to have clicked in recent weeks, even when the personnel have been changed a little – James Clarke and Cameron Norman coming in on Saturday for example – and this bodes well going forward.

Unfortunately, this run has almost certainly come too late for this season as there’s just not enough games left, but hopefully it gives us a solid base to work from during the summer.

I do feel a little for the Exeter fans with that offside decision. If the linesman didn’t flag, then surely he hadn’t seen anyone offside? Not sure what a conversation between the two of them could possibly change that but, we don’t always have the rub of the green so it’s nice when we do.

Elijah Adebayo and Rory Holden look different players to the ones we saw earlier in the season – really hope we can keep hold of Holden again next season. MOTM for me was Josh Gordon though. His determination is a joy to watch and, if he can become more clinical in front of goal which I think he has the capability to do, then we could have one hell of a player. Let’s hope we can continue this run of form and finish the season on a high.

Ian Newbold

Another enjoyable Saturday, at home. Goals at the Homeserve End. Well I never. A pretty cohesive performance too despite the five changes made to the starting XI. Consistency is something we’ve yearned for all season, and I should clarify, it’s consistently good we are looking for chaps.

Well we have been for five halves of home football and counting I reckon.

When we’re at it, we can match anyone in this league, which may say more about the league than us, but still it can’t be sniffed at. You can only play what’s put in front of you, and like Darrell Clarke says ‘It’s League Two and we shouldn’t be losing sleep over playing anyone’.

I’d like to see Shay Facey and Mat Sadler return, as we’re a better defensive unit with them in it. And Wes McDonald needs some coaching on how to help our left back when he’s overloaded. But apart from that, there wasn’t a lot going wrong on Saturday.

The only dross I witnessed was the dreadful half-time entertainment routine we seem hell bent on persisting with.

Jack Talbot

What a win that was!

At half-time, being 1-0 up when it should have been more. I was interested to see whether we could carry on the performance into the second-half which we have failed to do on a number of occasions this season. However, we were brilliant and thoroughly deserved the three points.

I believe that we are a little too far behind the top seven, however, if we can keep up the momentum going into next season and keep most of this squad together with a few new additions then next season has to be our year where we really challenge for promotion.

The next three fixtures are very winnable against Macclesfield, Oldham and Mansfield who all sit below us in the table. With our momentum, we should be picking up a few points from these games and see where we are in the table.

James Kenealey

With the exception of James Clarke and Liam Kinsella, all of the players that featured against Exeter at the weekend also featured in the hopeless home defeat to lowly Morecambe just six weeks ago. Hard to believe. We ran rings around a team going for automatic promotion in the first-half and arguably should have been 3-0 up at half-time. What have they been putting in the water at the training ground?

The continued blossoming of Elijah Adebayo into a player that seems to be on an almost personal vendetta to prove me wrong is an absolute delight to watch. It’s scary that basically the same squad of players that gave me the inpotent horror of Oldham (a) now look so dangerous and coherent going forward.

Crucially though, the last three home games seem to have re-ignited something that’s been missing from matches for at least two years. They were fun. Exciting. We played some very good football. We refused to be beaten. It felt like every Walsall fan in the ground was behind each player. Twelve months ago the atmosphere was so toxic you could barely breathe. Now I face the long-lost feeling of being disappointed that there are only a few home games left.

The 2020/21 season is going to be another season in League Two, of that we can basically be certain. Not the most enticing prospect on paper perhaps, but the last few games with their associated good feelings and cautious optimism might just have done something to push a few of the ‘maybe I’ll buy a season ticket’ crowd into a commitment. It’s been enjoyable again. However fragile and ultimately fleeting the feeling might be, it’s been ‘Walsall’ again and I speak as someone who just a few months ago confessed in this column to be seriously losing heart with the whole thing.

We aren’t perfect, on or off the pitch. We aren’t there yet. But (whisper it quietly)… we might just be on the right path.

Nick Etheridge

Time seemed to move so slowly since the last time we played. The fact that I’m now looking forward to games rather than feeling glad of having a ‘week off’ indicates that the team are playing really well. Saturday was a different kind performance to the free flowing stuff served up over our previous two home games

Don’t get me wrong, we still attacked with plenty of vigour and flair, but there were times that we had to dig deep and ride our a bit of a storm. We may have got lucky with the disallowed goal but other than that, and their equaliser, Liam Roberts had very little to do between the sticks. Lots of that praise should go down to James Clarke. He may not be everyone’s cup of tea, he may not even be our first choice centre half or right back, but he marshalled our defence superbly and should get some praise.

Cameron Norman is someone who can feel unlucky not to get more playing time ahead of Clarke at right back. He was excellent again on Saturday and showed that it’s a real close fight between him and Shay Facey. Healthy competition can only bring good things next season

At the other end of the pitch Caolan Lavery, despite missing an absolute sitter had a brilliant game in the lone striker role. He held the ball up superbly and brought others into play. He plays that role better than either Josh Gordon or Elijah Adebayo for me. The difference when Adebayo plays though is that his movement out wide means that Gordon or Wes McDonald will drift centrally, Rory Holden will also float around anywhere and the opposition don’t know who to pick up, which is what happened once the big man was introduced on Saturday. It’s a really good headache for the manager to have and long may it continue

It’s also nice to see us have so many match winners on the pitch. We no longer have to rely on Wes McDonald for a bit of magic, although he looked back to his best again at the weekend. If he’s having an off day, Holden, Gordon, Adebayo or Lavery now look for more able of creating something, taking all that pressure off Wes. I really have got a feeling that it’s all coming together now. That summer break is going to be a long one!

Chris Saunders

It’s nice to go to a home game and enjoy the football. Regardless of results it’s been a while since performances have been present but the last few home games have certainly changed that in the attacking half of the pitch.

It’s very obvious that the team has started to settle and other than the odd soft goal we really seem to be clicking going forward. If we can keep the majority of this squad and just add one or two tweaks we can hit the ground running next season and really push for promotion.

Key to this will be retaining Josh Gordon, Wes McDonald, Caolan Lavery and the Elijah Adebayo of the last few weeks, all of them look dangerous at the moment and replacing that chemistry would be difficult. If we could keep Rory Holden as well next season could be a very positive one for the club.

Dan Price

Can we play you every week ? Initially when I had seen that we had made five changes to the starting XI from the Port Vale match I was worried, but only three minutes in Rory Holden gets us off to a dream start before Dan Scarr and Caolan Lavery should have put 3-0 up and well out of site with Exeter not really having a clear cut chances.

You always have at the back of your mind will those chances come back to haunt us and six minutes into the second-half I thought here we go. The referee and linesman played a blinder to not award their second goal for offside before DC decided to unleash the beast that is now Elijah Adebayo.

Firstly what a ball by Cameron Norman but Adebayo nodded home to send us 2-1 up before sealing with the win after Josh Gordon’s great work at the death for his brace. Exeter are right up there in the mix of the promotion race but again we showed on our day we really can mix it with the top teams in this league and now just need to find the consistency to give us a real push next season.

One little groan, being a season ticket holder in the Lower, we have now been given no option to have the half-time obligatory beer with the Bescot Bar under refurb and the stadium suite now closed to us. Could this building work not have started when the season finishes and if not then why isn’t it possible to give us a pop up bar and a quarantined area behind the stand like you see at Salford? I just think we're on the chase for season tickets for next season but decisions like these really do turn fans away.

Rob Harvey

Well, another good performance against a team that are in the race for promotion. Hopefully this type of performance is going to become regular and we can have a great season in 20/21. I have to admit I wasn’t sure when Darrell Clarke made five changes but it worked extremely well and his subs were spot on. It was also good to see Elijah Adebayo come off the bench to net two more goals - fingers crossed his purple patch continues.

Looking at our upcoming games and our game in hand I’d be lying if I said that I wasn’t keeping one eye on seventh, but to have any chance of that we will have to put a massive run of results together and more than a couple of draws will kill any hopes this season for good. Looking ahead to those next few games, out of the next four, based on how we’ve played recently I would say we have a chance of 10 points. That said, we all know it’s not the Walsall way to do that normally.

Whatever happens for the rest of this season, the signs are now becoming encouraging and it seems like we are starting to drag ourselves out of the abyss that has been the last 18-20 months.

Onto Macclesfield this Saturday for my birthday weekend game – what a dose of reality that is – last year it was Sunderland away - how times have changed.

Jon Taylor

Another Saturday at the Banks's and another great performance by the team who at 3pm were only outside of the automatic places on goal difference. We were the dominant team and should have been out of sight in the first-half and apart from a 10 minute spell in the second half were the better side. It was the most complete team performance I have seen this season and a difficult one to pick who was the man of the match.

The signs are there that if we keep this squad together we could be in for a promising season next year, we have given the teams above too much of a head start this season to creep in dispute playing three of the teams above us in the play-off hunt in the last three home games and coming away with seven points.

Whilst Caolan Lavery missed a golden opportunity in the first half his hold up play was excellent on Saturday, Josh Gordon continued to work hard up top which is now a staple of his game. The midfield looked solid and creative in equal measure and the back line begins to look more solid.

Saturday sees us play Macclesfield where based on the last couple of weeks performances we should pick up three points but we have seen this season we have struggled against teams below us. Fingers crossed we can keep the positivity and good run going.

Robert Dearn

Well what a win, we certainly like scoring three against Exeter. That makes it five unbeaten in a row, and we now have a great opportunity to extend that run with three more games that are winnable, on paper.

We do not have the best record against teams below us in the league, but with our attack firing on all cylinders, we have a chance to get nine from nine. Macclesfield will pose a different test. Behind the scenes, things aren't going well, and with the threat of more points being deducted due to missed matches, they will be scrapping for every point they can to put them as far ahead of Stevenage as possible.

We need to start on the front foot, and not give them a sniff of any points.