Saddlers up, we're off to Walsall (A) 17/8

[plymouth wanderer]

fecking hell. One defeat in eight games, and here come the pelters, the doomsayers, the miserable fecks.

Our support really is as shit as they say.

[Bruce Rioja]

on a similar theme...

what is the league football ground nearest the Mersey river?

(STOP REACHING FOR THAT GOOGLE!!)

On the assumption that it's not Everton or Liverpool, then I'm guessing - as the Mersey goes as far as Stockport - that it's ManUre.

The Goyt and The Thame merge in Stockport (right by where I used to work) to form The Mersey. Go and inform Mrs Domingo of this. Let us know how you get on.

[TonyDomingos]

on a similar theme...

what is the league football ground nearest the Mersey river?

(STOP REACHING FOR THAT GOOGLE!!)

On the assumption that it's not Everton or Liverpool, then I'm guessing - as the Mersey goes as far as Stockport - that it's ManUre.

The Goyt and The Thame merge in Stockport (right by where I used to work) to form The Mersey. Go and inform Mrs Domingo of this. Let us know how you get on.

Mrs Domingos - who is a London born Italian - told me to "Fack aff you kant". Not quite sure how that translates into English, but I'd wager it's not favourable.

[Devon White]

fecking hell. One defeat in eight games, and here come the pelters, the doomsayers, the miserable fecks.

Our support really is as shit as they say.

Did you go to todays game ?
Tell me how you viewed it.
I want to know why I am a pelter ? doomsayer ? and hahahah a miserable feck !
oh and a shit supporter.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Hmm.

Very odd that we didn't get at least a point. There were times especially in the second half where a goal felt inevitable. Much kudos to a young Walsall team for holding out, but also for playing some decent football, popping the ball around nicely. One great accolade I can give them is that we very rarely looked like we had a man more.

Before the game our Twitter feed showed the No.10 shirt to say the little man's back, but to this viewer an even littler No.10 ran the show. 5ft3in Ehrun Oztumer was superb for Walsall, first playing in the position named after his shirt number but then digging in brilliantly when they were down a man. When he was subbed off late on – and took his time, in one of very many Walsall timewasting moves – I applauded him off, and I was far from the only one in the away end doing so.

The fact that Oztumer wasn't man of the match, but goalkeeper Neil Etheridge was, shows how much we dominated. Getting six efforts on target is enough to win most matches.

But hmm.

Hmm because I'd like us to have made more chances, had more shots. I'm very far from agreeing with everything Peter Thompson says, and I certainly don't agree with everything he's said today, but he's bang on that when you have a man advantage you should make it count by stretching the play, passing from side to side and tiring the buggers out. We didn't do this nearly enough, and for much of the second half the delivery was dominated by David Wheater crossing from deep. David Wheater! Crossing! Now, I'm by no means against having your centre-backs join in with the passing moves, especially if the oppoes have retreated, but it's rarely a good sign if said centre-back is the one delivering the attempted killer balls. Although there seemed to be a definite attempt after half-time to play wider in the middle third of the pitch – probably to try to tempt them out – we still went too narrow in the final third.

In absentio Spearo, Josh Vela was the go-to man at the back of the midfield and did it well enough. He was always available, frequently breaking up attacks and – sorry, PT - working really f**king hard. And then after half-time he worked even harder, up and down the right flank. Trotter covered some miles too, albeit in his usual manner of uncertain confidence.

Speaking of confidence, James Henry is obviously capable of being a fine player. A couple of times he ran at Walsall and glided past their terrified faces, but in our initial flat 4-4-2 he lacked someone to link up with, and in the 2nd-half diamond he wasn't quite sure where to be (and wasn't being used wide enough).

Sammy Ameobi... as my mate said, there's a reason he hasn't made it. There were at least three times in the first half when Proctor was Proctorishly beavering away and getting into the box, and Ameobi was watching on from somewhere in midfield. Whether it's attitude, fitness or gormlessness, he looks far too inconsistent to get a start. He also ruined a couple of promising second-half pass-and-stretch-'em exercises by making the sort of under-thought under-hit pass that would disappoint the coach of a schoolboy team.

Ameobi can't start against Bradford. Clough must. Clough was Clough, battling away with ability but not often finding a way through. He skied a half-chance from a corner that judging by his face he knows he should have finished – were that any other player he'd have had abuse aplenty – but he also created chances from positions where no other current BWFC player would have a prayer or a clue. Clough must start, with Proctor, who you all know by now – he'll never be the world's best but he will run and probe and try, dammit.

Chris Taylor will also try. In fact, he was trying too hard, which is why he got subbed for Keshi Anderson. Taylor is already something of a boo-magnet (and not just to the local lamppost-lickers who objected to him being elbowed in the head) but that seemed unfair to me. He produced a couple of dangerous crosses and rarely stopped working, eventually getting so rattled that a second yellow card seemed likely – ironically it ended up being shown to his replacement, Keshi, who showed the odd good touch but didn't seem to have a specific plan.

Andrew Taylor looked alright. Probably less suspect defensively than Moxey but I understood why Mox came on for him late on, not least for the long throws. Buxton, Beevers and Wheater were their usual dependable selves.

Howard made a couple of decent saves but made a right arse of the goal. Although I haven't seen it back I suspect Wheater may have been involved, passively or otherwise; even so, Howard's fault for me, from seeing it just the once live.

There was plenty of good on show. We continued to press forward and we did genuinely look like scoring – you could feel the fear from the other end. But we should be better. I worry that we didn't have the basic nous to stretch a tiring team. I also worry that Parky switched back to his comfort-blanket midfield diamond when we needed width. I have no doubt the diamond will return (along with Spearing and probably Clough) in what should be a frighteningly fascinating game with Bradford next week.

[truewhite15]

fecking hell. One defeat in eight games, and here come the pelters, the doomsayers, the miserable fecks.

Our support really is as shit as they say.

Did you go to todays game ?
Tell me how you viewed it.
I want to know why I am a pelter ? doomsayer ? and hahahah a miserable feck !
oh and a shit supporter.

No, I didn't. With a small daughter I tend to find I don't have an awful lot of spare cash (or spare time) for away games.

But I've seen this sort of bullshit coming for weeks. There are very large portions of our "support" who are just waiting for some sort of feck up, so they can jump on and assume some sort of superiority because "I told you so". And when no feck up arrives, they invent one where none exists, or prophecy an imminent feck up so they can break out their "told you so" banner and do their "we're so shit" dance.

My viewing of today's game was limited to Twitter, but from there I can glean that we created far more chances than Walsall and that it was a terrific goalkeeping performance and sheer dumb luck that we didn't get a point or more. For a balanced view on here, I like to read the views of a professional (kudos to you, DSB) as I think he offers a much more realistic interpretation of proceedings than the usual doom and gloom. DSB believes that, yes, we could and should have done better. But also submits that on another day we'd have thumped them.

Meanwhile, the doom-mongers circle, proclaiming that our manager's shite, we're shite, all our players are shite, we're in for a long arduous season blah blah etc. After one defeat. When we're 2nd in the league.

How is it that our fans jump on any little down period, any blip, any poor performance, and mark it as an example of enduring and everlasting shite, as though our four wins on the spin were by accident?

[malcd1]

Thanks for the well written report DSB. Anyone would think you knew what you were doing

[irie Cee Bee]

Thanks DSB. Living overseas and not able see the matches, its good to get a balanced report of the game without the anger emotions. Shows that some of us are seriously hurt when things don't go our way which also translates to: they care, however, I do depend on the objective analysis more than the emotional outburst to understand what really transpired.

The team is doing well. Don't agree we are in a false position. We lost yesterday without 3 of our midfield starters... Pratley, Spearing and Mark Davies. Newcomers need time to understand their roles. We still bombarded their goal albeit with a man advantage most of the game. We are the team to beat in the Division and every other team will come guns blazing to do that. We will lose some along the way. Yesterday was the first.

[jetsetwilly]

fecking hell. One defeat in eight games, and here come the pelters, the doomsayers, the miserable fecks.

Our support really is as shit as they say.

Did you go to todays game ?
Tell me how you viewed it.
I want to know why I am a pelter ? doomsayer ? and hahahah a miserable feck !
oh and a shit supporter.

No, I didn't. With a small daughter I tend to find I don't have an awful lot of spare cash (or spare time) for away games.

But I've seen this sort of bullshit coming for weeks. There are very large portions of our "support" who are just waiting for some sort of feck up, so they can jump on and assume some sort of superiority because "I told you so". And when no feck up arrives, they invent one where none exists, or prophecy an imminent feck up so they can break out their "told you so" banner and do their "we're so shit" dance.

My viewing of today's game was limited to Twitter, but from there I can glean that we created far more chances than Walsall and that it was a terrific goalkeeping performance and sheer dumb luck that we didn't get a point or more. For a balanced view on here, I like to read the views of a professional (kudos to you, DSB) as I think he offers a much more realistic interpretation of proceedings than the usual doom and gloom. DSB believes that, yes, we could and should have done better. But also submits that on another day we'd have thumped them.

Meanwhile, the doom-mongers circle, proclaiming that our manager's shite, we're shite, all our players are shite, we're in for a long arduous season blah blah etc. After one defeat. When we're 2nd in the league.

How is it that our fans jump on any little down period, any blip, any poor performance, and mark it as an example of enduring and everlasting shite, as though our four wins on the spin were by accident?

I was there and gave my support to the team. However, it is silly to have blinkers to think we are great because we are 2nd.

Yesterday, other than one excellent save by their keeper, you never really thought we would equalize. 'Crosses' from just inside the halfway line by Wheater was our main form of attack. Proctor worked hard but struggled, but was totally isolated until Clough came on. Ameobi looks to be on a different planet, maybe he has short attention span?

I can see Henry improving with match time. Ameobi, not so.

Bradford will be tough, and if we lose, then we will be very nervous against Rochdale. A real potential of making it 6 without a win.

Our season relies on Spearing and Clough staying fit. Without them, we are a very poor side in a very weak division

[BWFC_Insane]

fecking hell. One defeat in eight games, and here come the pelters, the doomsayers, the miserable fecks.

Our support really is as shit as they say.

Did you go to todays game ?
Tell me how you viewed it.
I want to know why I am a pelter ? doomsayer ? and hahahah a miserable feck !
oh and a shit supporter.

No, I didn't. With a small daughter I tend to find I don't have an awful lot of spare cash (or spare time) for away games.

But I've seen this sort of bullshit coming for weeks. There are very large portions of our "support" who are just waiting for some sort of feck up, so they can jump on and assume some sort of superiority because "I told you so". And when no feck up arrives, they invent one where none exists, or prophecy an imminent feck up so they can break out their "told you so" banner and do their "we're so shit" dance.

My viewing of today's game was limited to Twitter, but from there I can glean that we created far more chances than Walsall and that it was a terrific goalkeeping performance and sheer dumb luck that we didn't get a point or more. For a balanced view on here, I like to read the views of a professional (kudos to you, DSB) as I think he offers a much more realistic interpretation of proceedings than the usual doom and gloom. DSB believes that, yes, we could and should have done better. But also submits that on another day we'd have thumped them.

Meanwhile, the doom-mongers circle, proclaiming that our manager's shite, we're shite, all our players are shite, we're in for a long arduous season blah blah etc. After one defeat. When we're 2nd in the league.

How is it that our fans jump on any little down period, any blip, any poor performance, and mark it as an example of enduring and everlasting shite, as though our four wins on the spin were by accident?

I was there and gave my support to the team. However, it is silly to have blinkers to think we are great because we are 2nd.

Yesterday, other than one excellent save by their keeper, you never really thought we would equalize. 'Crosses' from just inside the halfway line by Wheater was our main form of attack. Proctor worked hard but struggled, but was totally isolated until Clough came on. Ameobi looks to be on a different planet, maybe he has short attention span?

I can see Henry improving with match time. Ameobi, not so.

Bradford will be tough, and if we lose, then we will be very nervous against Rochdale. A real potential of making it 6 without a win.

Our season relies on Spearing and Clough staying fit. Without them, we are a very poor side in a very weak division

Not so sure about Clough. Madine has scored goals in this league before and is currently our top scorer. We look worse without him.

I think the problem is that what you say may be true but it comes down to expectations. We battled our way to a good start and since then have added a few players who in theory should let us win games more conventionally. Hasn't quite worked yet.

But going into this season most sensible people felt we were more in danger of bottom 6 than top 6. The start perhaps had people convinced we'd storm the league but that was never on the cards. Is say we are in the pack and have to scrap for every point like everyone else. We don't have the strongest squad nor probably the best first 11. But we can compete.

Yesterday was disappointing but I think highlights our lack of a goal scorer and possibly also shows the new players aren't quite adjusted yet.

I think Parky perhaps erred in judgement starting Ameobi. He's too inconsistent as I said last week.

We need Madine fit as I think we look best with him and Proctor up top together and then we can introduce our pacier players into the game later on along with Clough if needs be.

Soearing out is also a massive miss. He's our best player by a way.

I still think it will be reet.

[officer_dibble]

TW15 - I've read the thread again and you are seeing things that aren't there pal. Other than a couple of posts on the back of the usual boo boys (trotter, vela, soon to be taylor) no-one seems to be overreacting to a piss poor defeat against a 10 man team which has been coming. So no, our support isnt shite mate.

[officer_dibble]

Clough has to start next week I think, hopefully with Madine. Best two we have at finding the net, which sums up our issues I think! Procter and madine? Too 1 dimensional for me.

[TANGODANCER]

Reality check 77.

Just an observation based on nothing more than commentary, highlights and taking in to account the views of everybody, but I can see this being the way it'll be all season. We're not a better team than the rest or we wouldn't be in this league with Fleetwood Bury and Rochdale etc.. It's where we're at. We can't buy our way back, that's for sure, so scrapping our way there is the only way and we sure aren't going to win all our games. We've made a decent start and if we are no better than the rest, then we are also no worse. It's welcome to the real world guys and dreams of Bayern Munich are a rosy memory in the scrapbook. We need to scrape some points as we go and that means every game is as important as the rest. Going to be tough and probably get tougher still, but most of the teams we play seem to see the reality Bolton as joining them in the hard times league rather than our own great expectations myth. What the Dickens.....COME ON YOU WHITES.......

[BWFC_Insane]

Reality check 77.

Just an observation based on nothing more than commentary, highlights and taking in to account the views of everybody, but I can see this being the way it'll be all season. We're not a better team than the rest or we wouldn't be in this league with Fleetwood Bury and Rochdale etc.. It's where we're at. We can't buy our way back, that's for sure, so scrapping our way there is the only way and we sure aren't going to win all our games. We've made a decent start and if we are no better than the rest, then we are also no worse. It's welcome to the real world guys and dreams of Bayern Munich are a rosy memory in the scrapbook. We need to scrape some points as we go and that means every game is as important as the rest. Going to be tough and probably get tougher still, but most of the teams we play seem to see the reality Bolton as joining them in the hard times league rather than our own great expectations myth. What the Dickens.....COME ON YOU WHITES.......

That is absolutely correct TD. But whereas most on here have seen this before, a significant portion of our fanbase have only really known the top two divisions. With many still thinking we are in the world where Eddie is pumping millions in to sign Anelka etc.

Their expectations are formed based on Wigan going down and coming straight back. But Wigan had a poor start. Far poorer than ours. They also had a much better squad, more money and were free to make signings.

Frankly the view that if we avoided the bottom half itd be a good year still stands. Our problems did not go away by scrapping a few results. It just helped a bit.

But we've seen enough to think that we can compete every week. But so can the other team we are playing. Weren't Wallsall up there last year near promotion?

[TKIZ!]

Thought it was poor finishing/good goalkeeping that kept us out yesterday.

I'm still optimistic, I always am where this team are concerned.

Onwards and upwards. The records still state P8 W4 D3 L1.

[officer_dibble]

I know its 2 yellows but that sending off has to be overturned? Absolute joke. That refs joined the Riley and Knight c*nt list - should never ref us again clearly has something against us.

[bobo the clown]

I know its 2 yellows but that sending off has to be overturned? Absolute joke. That refs joined the Riley and Knight c*nt list - should never ref us again clearly has something against us.

Maybe sending a complaint video in about how badly treated we are isn't helping. Didn't help BSA & he's England manager now.

The first booking sounds ludicrous and down to the ref & 4th official's communications. But I'm not sure you can appeal a yellow ... though maybe a ref can withdraw it. Either way the lad needed to be careful ... & wasn't.

[Bijou Bob]

Clough has to start next week I think, hopefully with Madine. Best two we have at finding the net, which sums up our issues I think! Procter and madine? Too 1 dimensional for me.

I'm not sure what evidence you're basing that on in the case if Clough. Poor again yesterday I believe.

[Nicko58]

Clough has to start next week I think, hopefully with Madine. Best two we have at finding the net, which sums up our issues I think! Procter and madine? Too 1 dimensional for me.

I'm not sure what evidence you're basing that on in the case if Clough. Poor again yesterday I believe.

His goal scoring record?

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Think a double-yellow can only be overturned if the ref admits in his report that he dropped a bollock. So we've no chance with that bent cretin.