Northampton v Walsall

[SaddlerJonny]

Awful, just awful. Started ok first 20 minutes then they scored from a defensive mistake (surprise) and it was shit from then on.

Big changes needed, it isn't working Whits.

 

[Shropshire Shoe]

That was really really easy. Etheridge stopped that from being embarrassing and it felt like we were back in League 2 dominating games. Walsall didn't have much anywhere on the pitch, apart from Otzumer who was by far the best player in the team. Walsall should be worried.

We were superb, defensively sound and McCourt and Matty Taylor oozing class in midfield. Revell did what Revell does, Gorre was frustrating, and Anderson and Beautyman were busy and creative. First goal was a great ball in from Beautyman and a lovely flicked header from Matty T, and the second was a definite handball and Revs tucked the penalty away.

31 league games unbeaten, unbelievable.

Spot on, agree with all of the above.

 

[Saddlerrad]

That was really really easy. Etheridge stopped that from being embarrassing and it felt like we were back in League 2 dominating games. Walsall didn't have much anywhere on the pitch, apart from Otzumer who was by far the best player in the team. Walsall should be worried.

We were superb, defensively sound and McCourt and Matty Taylor oozing class in midfield. Revell did what Revell does, Gorre was frustrating, and Anderson and Beautyman were busy and creative. First goal was a great ball in from Beautyman and a lovely flicked header from Matty T, and the second was a definite handball and Revs tucked the penalty away.

31 league games unbeaten, unbelievable.

It sure was.

We were like 11 strangers, playing individually, creating very little, no threat, didn't force the keeper into making one single save in 90 minutes. There was no cohesion, no direction and no tactics whatsover. We literally just passed the ball around to a player in the same shirt and relied on finding a lucky bobble or a pot shot to try and score. It was a shot back to the Hutchings era. I can only rank that as in the top 5 most lifeless Walsall performances that I've ever seen, similar to Barnsley away and Chesterfield away around Wembley the other season for anyone that didn't go today but went to those. Lifeless being the correct word as nobody was particularly horrendous bar McCarthy and Kinsella, who was an absolute passenger. We didn't pick our best side, we can't get our best side on the pitch fit together and we just look likely to concede from nothing, like today even when we do start a game okay, we hand the opposition a goal with lapses.

I thought it was an absolutely awful game with nothing really happening until we literally gift wrapped a goal for Taylor and bar 1 camera save and a half decent stop from a regulation header/free kick Etheridge had nothing to do. I was expecting more pace and dynamism from Northampton, although you looked a well organised team, hard to break down and resolute at the back, you will need more than balls to Revell's head to do well (Depending on what you consider well) over the course of a season. Not to take anything away from Northampton, but I'd have backed our side last season to win that quite comfortably today, for a team 31 games unbeaten, I expected more and having watched last weeks game vs MK Dons, thought you were miles better last week.

Most worrying for us is, the injuries show no sign of improving, the fans are against Whitney already, fighting amongst ourselves today, on the players backs, whether they are young or experienced. It's all going to contrive in what looks like a very long season, especially when you consider we haven't played a side yet that will finish anywhere near the play-offs (IMO).

Fair play to Northampton, 31 unbeaten is absolutely superb, I hope they do well, clubs such as ourselves, Oldham, Orient, Northampton, Scunthorpe etc have to enjoy the good times as they don't come round so frequently so it's worth enjoying when they do.

I won't call Whitney out yet as that's just OTT and this season was always going to be one of transition, but so far, we look awful, his signings look mostly awful and the shit he spouts, is well..precisely that.

 

[AnotherSaddler]

Horrible day, awful performance, horrid little chavs near the station too, luckily they had no balls when they realised I wasn't taking a punch unanswered. Not what I want to get involved in, especially as I'm clearly the wrong side of 50..

Northampton were easily the better team, which isn't much of a compliment considering how clueless we were.
I think we will regret our recruitment in the summer, we've signed too many injury prone players on permanent contracts and too many inexperienced loaness. We still need a dominant centre half

 

[Strawberry_Jam]

I wasn't there but the guys on Radio Northampton were saying there was no need for us to be good today. It was comfortable without having to take risks or go into 2nd gear.

 

[EricSabin]

It sure was.

We were like 11 strangers, playing individually, creating very little, no threat, didn't force the keeper into making one single save in 90 minutes. There was no cohesion, no direction and no tactics whatsover. We literally just passed the ball around to a player in the same shirt and relied on finding a lucky bobble or a pot shot to try and score. It was a shot back to the Hutchings era. I can only rank that as in the top 5 most lifeless Walsall performances that I've ever seen, similar to Barnsley away and Chesterfield away around Wembley the other season for anyone that didn't go today but went to those. Lifeless being the correct word as nobody was particularly horrendous bar McCarthy and Kinsella, who was an absolute passenger. We didn't pick our best side, we can't get our best side on the pitch fit together and we just look likely to concede from nothing, like today even when we do start a game okay, we hand the opposition a goal with lapses.

I thought it was an absolutely awful game with nothing really happening until we literally gift wrapped a goal for Taylor and bar 1 camera save and a half decent stop from a regulation header/free kick Etheridge had nothing to do. I was expecting more pace and dynamism from Northampton, although you looked a well organised team, hard to break down and resolute at the back, you will need more than balls to Revell's head to do well (Depending on what you consider well) over the course of a season. Not to take anything away from Northampton, but I'd have backed our side last season to win that quite comfortably today, for a team 31 games unbeaten, I expected more and having watched last weeks game vs MK Dons, thought you were miles better last week.

Most worrying for us is, the injuries show no sign of improving, the fans are against Whitney already, fighting amongst ourselves today, on the players backs, whether they are young or experienced. It's all going to contrive in what looks like a very long season, especially when you consider we haven't played a side yet that will finish anywhere near the play-offs (IMO).

Fair play to Northampton, 31 unbeaten is absolutely superb, I hope they do well, clubs such as ourselves, Oldham, Orient, Northampton, Scunthorpe etc have to enjoy the good times as they don't come round so frequently so it's worth enjoying when they do.

I won't call Whitney out yet as that's just OTT and this season was always going to be one of transition, but so far, we look awful, his signings look mostly awful and the shit he spouts, is well..precisely that.

I don't think we got out of second gear today and we didn't need to. Pretty comfortable the whole way through, MK last week was the game we came out of the traps in a higher gear. Definitely had a lot more in the tank had we needed it but we didn't really. You're right about the smaller clubs enjoying success too, in 10 years we'll be looking back on this run and reminiscing about all the games we attended etc.