Saddlers Social: Walsall fans have their say

Ian Newbold

If you look at the League Two table, we aren’t where we want to be, yet we’re only a short run of form away from the top seven.

If you look at the matches, performances aren’t generally at the level we want and expect, yet we’ve players not doing a lot wrong and clearly putting a shift in.

This is me trying to be positive. As with most things at present, it is a bit of an effort to focus on the good.

The front four looked decent on Saturday, without producing any end product. Though, it was pleasant to score first for a change, as despite our first half dominance it would have been all too familiar to go behind again.

None of the subs or tactical tinkering made us any better, in fact we tired and the performance wilted. Strange given the rest the squad has enjoyed. On to the second half of the season now, where Darrell Clarke’s teams usually fair better. Fingers massively crossed.

Rob Harvey

Another frustrating result on Saturday especially considering that we were leading at half time, believe it or not, for the first time this season apparently.

The first 45 minutes was a good watch, we played well and looked like a good team and deserved to be going in at the break ahead. Second half, not so good. After about 60 minutes we started to look a bit leggy and tired, and Oldham came back into the game and made us pay eventually with their equaliser.

A big criticism about Saturday is that the substitutions we made appeared to make us weaker and weaker and distorted our shape further with each one that happened. We took Jack Nolan off for Emmanuel Osadebe who isn’t a winger, when we had Tyreik Wright on the bench who would have been a like-for-like replacement and it doesn’t really make sense when we were the better team up until that point arguably.

Anyway, the transfer window is still open and hopefully we can make a couple of signings that can boost our squad and provide a bit of inspiration as we seem to be drastically missing that with Rory Holden on the sidelines. Fingers crossed.

Looking ahead, we’re at Morecambe on Tuesday and they’ve won their last four league games at home so that’s going to be a tough game for us, and then on Saturday we travel to Port Vale for another tough game. Hopefully we are still within touching distance of the play-offs after these two games. I feel it’s more wishful thinking than optimism at the moment.

Nick Etheridge

Normal service seems to have resumed following our brief hiatus with us drawing yet another game. Again it was an individual error that played a huge part in us only picking up the one point. This week however, it wasn’t the fault of anyone wearing a red shirt as everyone had a decent game and we looked well in control for the first hour.

The turning point came when the brilliant Jack Nolan was understandably substituted due to the fact he hasn’t played all season (God knows why on the back of that) and was dead on his feat. Emmanuel Osadebe entered the fray meaning Josh Gordon was again pushed out to the right, even the though he looked as dangerous as he has all season through the middle. We lost all the fluidity we had in attack and rapidly let Oldham dominate the remainder of the game.

On the plus side though, we looked a real threat without Rory Holden for the first time this season, hopefully this can continue but only time will tell.

Chris Saunders

Well at least we’ve stopped the losing streak! Our first half performance was one of the best this season so far. The forwards pressed really well and that pressure forced Oldham mistakes. The problem is keeping that up for 90 minutes is hard so when you are doing it more than one goal is needed.

Individual performance-wise, Jack Nolan did really well and if he repeats that he is undroppable. Alfie Bates and Zak Jules also had good games alongside steady performances from the rest in the main. Up front the previously mentioned Nolan, as well as Elijah Adebayo, Josh Gordon and Wes McDonald pressed the opposition so well that it looked like a league between us at times. Unfortunately the final ball and finishing was absent.

That leads me to the Rory Holden news, if it turns out he is back soon then it’s a massive boost, what worries me more is the number of knocks we are sustaining in training.

Robert Dearn

Well it was a better performance than the previous games. I have been a big advocate for the 4-2-3-1 formation, and I think that it worked at the weekend. But one thing it needs, is time. Its a slightly different role for Josh Gordon, and it was Jack Nolan's first league start, so Darrell Clarke needs to allow the side a run of games in it.

I look to the 4-1-4-1 formation that was so successful earlier in the season. It worked because there was some consistency there. I feel that Elijah Adebayo and Gordon linked up well, although they didn't create anything too clear-cut, but again, its a system that needs a little bit of time to grow.

Finally, I have been saying for a long time that I feel Nolan deserves a chance. His few appearances off the bench, and in the cups haven't been great, but he showed what he is about. A direct player, who will get the ball in the box, is exactly what we need. Well done Jack! We hope to see it continue.

James Kenealey

We just can’t see games out can we? The biggest issue we have is the fact that we can’t keep a clean sheet. This has become a worrying trend and there doesn’t seem to sign of this changing.

I was bit nervous going into the game given that Oldham seem to have a habit of scoring a lot of goals on the road and we have a habit of conceding all the time. For the most part I thought we played pretty well. There were flashes of good play throughout the first half and it seemed to be just the final ball that was letting us down. I thought Alfie Bates played particularly well and was my man of the match.

Oldham switched gears in the second half and changed things up with the introduction of Dylan Bahamboula, a player who caught my eye as a threat in the reverse fixture in December, and we never really had an answer. We were camped in our own half for far too much of the second half, frankly, and the goal when it came was another complete gift.

The whole game felt a bit like the Scunthorpe one to me, and I’m convinced if there had been another 10-15 minutes we’d have lost that in much the same way.

Another frustrating weekend all told.