Walsall Blog: Away the lads
It was starting to be a bit of a concern, but Tuesday night's win at Yeovil has hopefully brought our worrying mini-slump to an end...writes blogger Mark Jones
Yes that one defeat in ten away from home was simply unacceptable!
Seriously our form on the road has been seriously good, the points per game ratio would be enough to put us on the fringe of the play-offs (into the top six if you count our cup successes). And that's despite not winning any of our first seven aways.
It was an odd night down in Somerset. We were outdone on possession yet created enough chances for 19 attempts on goal (that's one every five minutes). We've kind of come to expect heroics from Richard O'Donnell but a penalty miss from Super Tom? We live in strange times.
Which brings us to the tricky question of why are things so different at home? One win in seven, four points gleaned out of 21 and Saturday's defeat to Orient was easily the worst performance of the season.
Clearly there are anxieties emerging in our play, that was even evident in the win over Rochdale. Teams come with a game plan, they don't necessarily need to have a lot of possession and we are not great at retrieving games when the opposition scores first.
And naturally this has an impact on the crowd, Deano was clearly frustrated post-match last week but the vast majority have stuck with this team, and rightly so, so it follows that staff and players have to show a bit of patience when people vent their frustration.
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This is a real pity at a time when there is so much to be positive about. There was a time when I'd never have dared to dream of over 25,000 of us converging on Wembley but it is really happening and it's getting closer and closer.
One feature of recent games has been the careful and gradual squad rotation. Players who've looked a bit knackered have been given a break and we've seen some of our younger prospects getting a chance.
This is no bad thing, the likes of Flanagan and Bakayoko will be desperate to make an impression prior to the JPT final, Jordy probably comes in to this category now his loan has been extended too. It also has the pleasant side effect of giving a little nudge to anyone who might have considered themselves a shoe-in for the starting eleven on March 22nd. This is no bad thing either.
So is there a solution to our home troubles? Well we could try swopping dressing rooms, playing in our away kit, stopping in a hotel (calm down there Jeff), anything that makes us treat the next home game like it's not a proper home match; and after all it is against the mk scabs who aren't actually a proper club.
It's more likely however that it will just come together for us, we've played our way back into form before we can do it again. Let's just hope the away run keeps on going.
RIP
Sad to hear of the passing of two of our own in Geoff Morris and Dave Mackay. Geoff is the youngest player to have made a league appearance for the Saddlers and scored twice in a 3-0 win over Villa in a Division 3 game. Which is a pretty cool thing to be remembered for.
Dave Mackay is rightly remembered as a legendary player, George Best rated him as his hardest opponent, but he was also a manager who led Derby to the league title in 1975. He followed that up with an FA Cup semi-final and a place in Europe the following season.
After being sacked the following year astonishingly he was appointed as Walsall boss in early 1977. Can anyone imagine a Mancini, Ancellotti or a Ferguson (Snr) rocking up in League One now?
It was a short but decent spell before he left for Kuwait and I remember he was a fairly regular visitor to Fellows Park when he was back in the UK.
Farewell to you both.
