Saddlers Social: A good point – but fans want to turn draws into wins

Ian Newbold

Mild disappointment at five points from three home games, despite going eleven games unbeaten, shows how far this team has moved on. A solid performance, well matched by Exeter, a point gained, more than two dropped, like last Saturday against Colchester.

We got away with what seems to becoming a mandatory defensive foul-up this time. The

Grecians thankfully failed to take advantage of Liam Roberts’ slip in the last five minutes. That would have been very cruel on the Saddlers, but we really need to cut those mistakes out.

I’d have one other mild criticism this week, and that’s of our midfield selections. I like all four of our senior options. Liam Kinsella, Alfie Bates, Danny Guthrie and Stuart Sinclair. But we started – and finished – with the wrong pairings. Kins and the Viking shouldn’t play together, and likewise neither should The General and the Van man. Any other combination is fine, cover and creativity.

Stuart Cox

A hard fought game between two fair evenly matched sides ended with what should be seen as a pleasing point gained.

From the comfort of my own front room (along with a steak and ale pie for that added match day feeling) it looked like we will be a hard team to beat this season. Special praise to George Nurse who I thought was outstanding and looked so comfortable with and without the ball.

The iFollow service for me is working well although it is no comparison with actually being there and supporting your team. I feel really sorry for the people at the club too who spent so long making preparations for a return only to be told it wasn’t going to happen.

For me, the plans, including the social distancing of fans inside and outside the stadium were spot on and wouldn’t be any higher risk than some of activities that are still permitted.

If non-league clubs are allowing fans back in, it makes no sense that a carefully thought out plan for a League Two club can’t be put into place. I hope the financial package is sorted soon as I fear we will be losing quite a few clubs at the end of this season.

Finally, Josh Gordon will be a big miss over the next couple of months. He was beginning to form a really solid partnership with Elijah Adebayo and he continued to work so hard for the team. Hopefully he will recover quickly and be back in the side before the end of 2020.