Saddlers v No more Dickov

[DearneValleyRover]

Hard to call just hope we give it a go nothing could be worse than the last 2 years

 

[Bartonyellow]

2 1 super saddlers for me

 

[Fedora Dale]

I fancy Donny to win this, the release of the Dickovian shackles inspiring them to get the better of very good opponents.

 

[Saddlerrad]

We will lose this, confidence has sapped a little bit after a couple of defeats where we did everything but score in both. The Chelsea game will have a mental affect on the players and Donny will take confidence as does every team under new management syndrome.

0-2 Butler to score 1 of them from a set piece.

4,211 with 485 from Donny.

 

[DearneValleyRover]

Well we aren't losing and we've had six attempts at goal, half on target in the first half, massive improvement already.

 

[Saddlerrad]

Well, much better in the second half. Last season or over the last couple of years we would have gone on to draw that 0-0, or lose 1-0 via a late set piece. This season we have a natural goalscorer on the pitch and we take 2 late chances. Brillant. Great start to the season that is. Tough game at Posh next week.

Bad luck Donny, at least it was an improvement.

 

[SaddlerJonny]

Super Tom

 

[Hooped Wizard]

Bit disappointed really, not much of a difference at all but then again Jones has only had 2 training sessions. Lund seems to be improving game by game but Main is just dire completely dire.

I find Walsall's poor attendance rather mystifying considering where they are... our worst ever crowed at the Keepmoat isn't as bad as that! Reasonable side though, could do well with it been such a weak league this season.

 

[Saddlerrad]

Bit disappointed really, not much of a difference at all but then again Jones has only had 2 training sessions. Lund seems to be improving game by game but Main is just dire completely dire.

I find Walsall's poor attendance rather mystifying considering where they are... our worst ever crowed at the Keepmoat isn't as bad as that! Reasonable side though, could do well with it been such a weak league this season.

Our gates are shit. Poor attendance though you are right, they will only start picking up properly if we are where are, or are threatening a challenge by November/Christmas time. Fans can't get passed the whole Fox/Dann thing from 2007, well over 2,000 of our fans dissapeared slowly after that and most won't come back until Bonser leaves. We are down to the hardcore 3,500.

We weren't really very good by all accounts but had the only natural goalscorer on the pitch who delivered with 2 excellent finishes. It will be a joke if he isn't in the next Wales squad ahead of Simon Church.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=10&v=4ebSGo7ltuI

- Bradshaws first.

 

[SamScfc]

What happened in 2007? I'm guessing something massive if 1500 fans don't show up for 8 years. Bit of a stupid reason, clubs have been through 100x worse and still show up.

 

[SkyBlueElephant]

Our gates are shit. Poor attendance though you are right, they will only start picking up properly if we are where are, or are threatening a challenge by November/Christmas time. Fans can't get passed the whole Fox/Dann thing from 2007, well over 2,000 of our fans dissapeared slowly after that and most won't come back until Bonser leaves. We are down to the hardcore 3,500.

We weren't really very good by all accounts but had the only natural goalscorer on the pitch who delivered with 2 excellent finishes. It will be a joke if he isn't in the next Wales squad ahead of Simon Church.

Both quality finishes but second goal looks offside

 

[WFC]

We aren't a well supported club full stop, take away the chairman problems and all that shite, even given success people just didn't turn up previously, Championship days we averaged 6/7K and that's including away numbers which would have been significantly higher than in League One, Think we averaged under 6,000 in the League Two winning season, though we killed it away numbers wise. We carry on doing well we'll soon get to about 5,000 home fans but after that it doesn't really increase much unless it's a 'big' game, towns too busy supporting other local clubs like Wolves, West Brom and Villa.

I've been to the Keepmoat to be fair and it was just as empty on that visit, we were on the side (around 400) and behind the goal was closed, the rest of our side stand was very spare and it was only populated in the centre of the main stand and behind the goal. Blame our massive home end for the empty look though, it certainly doesn't help things.

What happened was bad though and certainly don't blame some for staying away, sheer lack of ambition shown from the club, who didn't need the cash.

Sold Scott Dann and Danny Fox last day (?) in January when we were in the Play-offs, no replacements and totally ruined promotion chances, we fizzled out and finished mid-table. The manner in which it was done upset supporters massively, and since then we've just been either shit or boring to watch, both home and away figures have gone down to the minimum, it's only really this season where non-regulars are piping up again.

 

[SkyBlueElephant]

What happened was bad though and certainly don't blame some for staying away, sheer lack of ambition shown from the club, who didn't need the cash.

Sold Scott Dann and Danny Fox last day (?) in January when we were in the Play-offs, no replacements and totally ruined promotion chances, we fizzled out and finished mid-table. The manner in which it was done upset supporters massively, and since then we've just been either shit or boring to watch, both home and away figures have gone down to the minimum, it's only really this season where non-regulars are piping up again.

Fox came a couple day before the end of January, Dann joined him on deadline today.

 

[Saddlerrad]

Walsall fans only ever got told about Fox and Dann at almost 11pm on deadline day. When no replacement was available, Michael Ricketts wasn't re-signed on a short term deal and the positive vibe around the club was snatched away for the fans at the very last and most important time. Richard Money then got £0 to strengthen a side that had obviously been hugely weakened, in the midst of a play-off push, 4th at Christmas and pushing on after winning league 2. We dropped like a stone, Money quit before the end of the season and the rest is history. We averaged about 6,000 at home up until that point in League 1/2.

Bonser charges us £365k a season to use the Bescot (all of which goes in his back pocket), despite the club turning a small profit each season (normally 5-25k for the books), despite being a wealthy business man etc. Not just that example, but there was Deeney too, Fryatt before that, then Grigg, Paterson etc. We turned a small profit in ALL of those seasons, yet the profit was only registered on the books as standard, not including fees we had received for players, but the squad wasn't invested in on both occasions (if anything, the budget became smaller each season as the fans dwindled)..fast forward a few years, and we'd gone from regularly breaking 6k at home, to barely mustering 3,500. Basically the impression that the fans were given was that, any success would be met by players being sold, for cheap prices, relative to quality and absolutely zero pence would be re-invested into the squad at all times, meanwhile Jeff would take every penny for himself, including the rent each season and give any remaining fans absolutely zero hope of ever having a squad to compete, or keeping assets.

Fortunately for him, he's shown signs of understanding what another cheap sale, or mass exodus during a promising run could do to the remaining fan base (or he did this last window/pre-season). Smith has probably the largest squad, certainly of forward players I can remember since pre-league 2, the money from last years Wembley run - or certainly at least a very tiny percentage of it has actually be reinvested this season. Smith said we couldn't afford Lalkovic previously and might not be able to after this season. Osbourne won't have come cheap. Our better players are currently tied down. Sawyers, Mantom and the big one...Bradshaw extended his contract by a year in the summer. Sadly, a decent start and a few promising young players won't put bums on seats after years of protest against Bonser (who doesn't attend home games now, for fear of abuse).

It will take until Christmas time for us to be doing well for us to gain 500-1000 fans back and for most people, it won't be until Bonser goes that our support picks up.

 

[SkyBlueElephant]

Walsall fans only ever got told about Fox and Dann at almost 11pm on deadline day.
.

Fox joined 2 or 3 days before Scott Dann did, Fox made his Coventry debut before transfer deadline day.

 

[Saddlerrad]

Fox joined 2 or 3 days before Scott Dann did, Fox made his Coventry debut before transfer deadline day.

Fair enough, my memory may be a little sketchy - I was only 15. The general point remains though in reference to Sam's question.

 

[SkyBlueElephant]

Fair enough, my memory may be a little sketchy - I was only 15. The general point remains though in reference to Sam's question.

Dann was deadline day and Fox was a few days before so your point about selling them late on with no time to replace is still relevant. I'm just pedantic about details.

 

[Hooped Wizard]

We aren't a well supported club full stop, take away the chairman problems and all that shite, even given success people just didn't turn up previously, Championship days we averaged 6/7K and that's including away numbers which would have been significantly higher than in League One, Think we averaged under 6,000 in the League Two winning season, though we killed it away numbers wise. We carry on doing well we'll soon get to about 5,000 home fans but after that it doesn't really increase much unless it's a 'big' game, towns too busy supporting other local clubs like Wolves, West Brom and Villa.

I've been to the Keepmoat to be fair and it was just as empty on that visit, we were on the side (around 400) and behind the goal was closed, the rest of our side stand was very spare and it was only populated in the centre of the main stand and behind the goal. Blame our massive home end for the empty look though, it certainly doesn't help things.

What happened was bad though and certainly don't blame some for staying away, sheer lack of ambition shown from the club, who didn't need the cash.

Sold Scott Dann and Danny Fox last day (?) in January when we were in the Play-offs, no replacements and totally ruined promotion chances, we fizzled out and finished mid-table. The manner in which it was done upset supporters massively, and since then we've just been either shit or boring to watch, both home and away figures have gone down to the minimum, it's only really this season where non-regulars are piping up again.

Our stadium always looks empty because of how large it is. It's a little misleading tbh.