Saddlers facing striker crisis
Wednesday 24th November 2010, 11:28AM GMT.
Walsall were today facing a striker crisis after Reuben Reid and Jon Macken became their latest casualties.
The Saddlers are sweating on the fitness of the duo after they limped out of last night’s 3-0 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday.
Macken suffered a reccurrence of his calf injury and Albion loanee Reid has a hamstring strain.
Skipper Darren Byfield is already out for at least another month with a knee injury while Liam Dickinson’s loan expires next week.
And boss Chris Hutchings faces an anxious wait to hear about the extent of the injuries ahead of Saturday’s FA Cup trip to Torquay.
“Reuben had a little problem with his hamstring. He said he felt it mid-way through the second half and we’ll have to wait and see what he’s like,” said Hutchings.
“Jon has tweaked his calf again, we’ll have to see what he’s like and he’ll have a scan. It’s normally 48 hours before you can give a true reflection on the injury.”
There was better news on Martin Devaney, who could return for the trip to Plainmoor after being sidelined for almost three weeks with a hamstring problem.
UK Sport
Latest Blog — Same again for West Brom
What a strange two weeks it has been since our last game. I haven’t looked over my neighbour’s fence with as much interest since Pamela Anderson moved in next door and regularly used her trampoline, writes Albion blogger Jarrod Hill.
Albion Blog
Business Awards
Book a Business Awards table
Join our celebrations of the region's best in business on Thursday March 22 - book your table now
Lifestyle
Interactive Dining Out map
Hundreds of reviews by the Express & Star and Shropshire Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.
entertainment
All the film reviews
Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases
OUR NEW APP
Get the new E&S app
Download the Express & Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.
expressandstar.com
Popular sections
Useful links
Well,Well,Well CH has even more excuse for his shoddy work. if he had done is work in the summer rather then panic we wouldnt be in this mess….
I bet he will have even more excuses the injuries was unlucky and that we will be okay one all is fit… hmmmm get out CH
Report abuse
Clearly the solution is to loan some more strikers, Chris? never mind that the midfield is too weak to provide the service, never mind the defence is so weak they can’t keep a clean sheet (Fleetwood excepted), never mind we have only 1 trustworthly goalkeeper (that apparently Preston are looking at). And most importantly, never mind we have such an inept manager that can not see the real issues within the team.
Time for another clear the air talk before Saturday, don’t mention Torquay are undefeated in 7 and about 5 places behind us.
Report abuse
Maybe Will Grigg will get a proper opportunity and Alex Nicholls in his “best” position especially if Devaney is fit.
Report abuse
I agree that their are no excuses for our shocking run over the last couple of months but mates of mine who actually went to Hillsborough last night said we played well. They said the difference was the finishing obviously but we lost Macken and Reid at times when we were on top and having to change it disrupted us a bit but we still dominated for long spells and created chances. While our headers and strikes went just wide and over Wednesday’s were going in. I disagree that we don’t have the creativity, especially on last nights reports and the Carlisle game we just need to be a bit sharper in front of goal. I think wednesday showed that last night as we didn’t defend badly from what I’ve been told. I fancy us to at least get a replay from what will be a tough game at Torquay and we’ve still got options up front even if Reid and Macken are out, maybe it’ll be a good thing and Nicholls, grigg and co will take their chance.
Report abuse
RESULTS COUNT WE ARE GETTING THE WRONG ONES NO MATTER HOW WE PLAYED C H..OUT..
Report abuse
Striker crisis? I’d back us lose by the odd goal in three against China Crisis at the moment.
Report abuse
Oh no! All the goals will dry up… hold on a minute…
Report abuse
We’ve got a striker crisis now have we?
Ignoring the two games against the might of Fleetwood we have to go back a month (6 league games) since a striker scored for us (Maken against Tranmere). It’s hardly like we’re really going to miss their regular scoring is it?
Last Saturday we didn’t look like scoring in open play and had to rely on two set pieces to give us any chance of netting.
Let’s face it, Hutchings (the sub-standard manager) has built us a sub-standard squad that isn’t good enough to stay in this league.
And still the board of directors sit around and watch it happen!!!!! Shame on them.
Report abuse
Striker Crisis ?…surely not, remember telling us back in August Chris that we had “lots of options up front”…?
..and that was before we signed 63 players on loan.
Stick some of those 12 yr olds in that you tried to fool us into thinking were up to the job then.
Report abuse