Andrew Stephen - Hot off the Habbin Walsall Programme Article

 There was nothing wrong with the performance, apart from throwing away the game”. Glenn Hoddle.

I don’t often agree with the eccentric Mr Hoddle. He certainly wasn’t very complimentary about us when we demolished his fancied Swindon Town team some years ago. His comments about disability place him somewhere alongside David Icke and other misguided saviours of mankind. For all that, he was a wonderful player in the days when Spurs played attractive and compelling football and his comment above could have been made about our last home game. There is not much between many of the teams in our league and most games are a battle. Despite that, we outplayed Scunthorpe and , on chances, should have won comfortably. Any long term football fan knows that sometimes things don’t go your way. Scunthorpe never looked like scoring but did. We all know that winning away when you don’t deserve it is one of the great pleasures of football. I love it when we win like that.

Do I think that our promotion push is over? Certainly not. A couple of poor results don’t ruin what is turning into a very good side. I am no tactician but I do know that our front two, effective as they are, are not blessed with blistering pace. I think we miss Hannant when he is injured or out of form. The thought of him and Dunk and , sometimes, a third pacy winger is one to bother any defence. Our forwards missed a few on Tuesday but they don’t often. Creating chances is a guarantee that we will win most matches. It is strange how pessimistic fans are. I wonder if they are gnashing their teeth at chequebook wonders FGR or primitive Newport. I imagine so. To say that we can’t play without Wes, the Boat or anyone else is insulting to the other players. We generally have a strong bench now and a couple of youngsters champing at the bit. I hope we see Worman and Simper soon but I am getting ahead of myself. The point is that the club are financially sound, we have a great manager and a team to be proud of. Apart from that, everything is awful. At least when we’re struggling , we can listen to Jonno and Doug coming up with new ways of saying that it’s not going well or endless variations thereof.

And so Walsall, who I remember from their Fellowes Park days . They remain the Saddlers, a profession once common in that part of Birmingham apparently. Now its all motorways and IKEA but the accents and traditions have not changed. I have a bit of a soft spot for them. Alan Buckley was one of the most cultured players I have ever seen at any level. Mr Entertainment, alias Richard Money, managed there and Dave Serella, another seriously good player, I knew from my schooldays. They are a bit of a sleeping giant who seem to draw a lot of their matches this season. Like most opponents, they will be tough to beat but its time to get back on track now. Earlier this season we were being told that we only played well on I Follow. This Saturday we will and capricious Fortune will smile on us once again!
 
Andrew Stephen

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