Saddlers Social: A point on the board but more to come from Walsall

Ian Newbold

Aesthetically pleasing, some perfect synergy, wonderful patterns, both symmetric and asymmetric at various points, and that was just the green spots on all the empty seats.

It may have been in vain so far (sign the #LetFansIn petition if you haven’t already) but the team behind the social distance fan mapping should have been amongst the Birthday Honours List this past week. Sterling work.

Whilst I was sad looking at all those green circles and thinking I could be sat on one perfectly safely watching with my family, it really is a beautiful, OCD pleasing, piece of visual work.

The football wasn’t bad either, bar conceding a couple of golden opportunities to Colchester we were excellent. Like Darrell Clarke has said, a point looks great if you win your next game, and by my back of vaping packet calculations a win on Tuesday would take us into the play-off positions.

Up The Saddlers.

Stuart Cox

Well that was better! Almost a mirror image of last weekend.

On reflection (no pun intended), a point against another unbeaten team is a good result but after our ‘daylight robbery’ of a point at Forest Green Rovers last week, karma came back to bite us as we should have all three on Saturday after making Colchester look pretty ordinary.

Some of our passing was superb, and the vast majority of the players look extremely comfortable on the ball. Rory Holden continues to grow into that position and we saw glimpses of an attacking threat from Wes McDonald again which had been lacking recently.

The positive this season though has to be Elijah Adebayo who has looked unplayable at times. He is now holding the ball up well, winning more physical battles and generally being an absolute pain for opposition defenders. You can see he is starting to believe in himself more this season and the goals will continue to help in that way. The negatives though have to be the centre half pairing of Dan Scarr and James Clarke.

An early slip from Scarr should have cost us a goal and poor defending from Clarke did. It’s not the first time this season that both have looked way off the pace and in my opinion need to be taken out of the firing line for a while. We have excellent replacements in Jules and Sadler who could slot into the team easily at centre half and fill everyone with more confidence than the current pairing are doing at the moment.

It’s a shame for Scarr as he showed signs of improvement last season but appears to gone backwards. Clarke was responsible for goals last season but still kept his place in the team when fit. Let’s also hope that Josh Gordon’s injury is not too serious as he gives us some bite in the attack which so far Caolan Lavery has not shown when he’s been involved. If we play like that against Leyton Orient on Tuesday I’m sure that we will be seeing three points on the board. UTS!

Nick Etheridge

It’s crazy how your emotions can fluctuate in football from one game to the next. Last week we were all delighted with the point that we had absolutely no right to have secured. Saturday the shoe was firmly on the other foot where we outplayed a much fancied Colchester team, only to come away with the same outcome as the prior game.

The two performances couldn’t have been further apart as we pressed really well from the front, took the game to the opposition and created plenty of chances. For me it was our best performance of the season so far. It’s no surprise that Saturday and our next best performance (the second half against Harrogate) both featured Danny Guthrie.

His signature in the summer really did, and still continues to divide opinion with his impact on the pitch weighing against the amount of time off it. For me it was a no brainier as when he plays, the team more often than not performs better. Liam Kinsella had his best game of the season by a mile as he was able to concentrate on what he does best. Our forward players saw far more of the ball in dangerous areas because for the first time this season, we controlled the play through the middle. If we are to have a successful season we either need to keep Guthrie fit for long periods, or find a combination that works as an alternative.

Chris Saunders

Different day, same result. Even though the performance was a world better than last week, I still feel we haven’t really hit our flow that we had found just before the shutdown.

Josh Gordon going off injured is very worrying, we could really do with some good news on that one as he is such an important part of the team now. One thing him going off did allow us to see was more Caolan Lavery and the big thing he offers and does well is hold the ball up with his back to goal. Not only can that help with building attacks but it can also help at the other end as if you have a striker holding the ball you are not seeing the ball constantly come straight back at you.

Finally a mention to Elijah Adebayo, he may not have had the best start to life at the club but he eventually hit his stride earlier this year and looks to be continuing with that already this season. If we can keep grinding results out and then really take it up a gear as the season wears on I think we will really be competitive this year.

Rob Harvey

What a frustrating afternoon that was! We were much the better team for most of the game yet find ourselves coming out of it with only a point. If only we could finish our chances off we would be flying. That said, we are still unbeaten which isn’t to be sniffed at and the longer that run goes the more confidence the players should get.

It was good to see Elijah Adebayo get on the scoresheet again and I have to say he’s much improved from the player we saw for most of last season. I’m excited to see what he can do given a full season as he is now.

Rory Holden was again outstanding, passing, creating, causing problems for the opposition. I’m glad he’s here as he’s a cut above this division.

Mentions too for Danny Guthrie and George Nurse who I thought had great games, especially Guthrie who dictated the midfield whilst he was on.

On the negative side, we were nearly caught out at the start by some sloppy defending, and we were then punished for more when Colchester scored. That needs to be cut out as soon as.

Moving forward, we have Leyton Orient and Exeter at home and I’ll be hoping for six points. There’s no reason to fear them and we should be beating teams at home if we are looking to go up.

Feeling very optimistic about this season, let’s hope I’m right! UTS!

Robert Dearn

What a much improved performance that was! Last season, there were games and runs where Darrell Clarke was openly unhappy about the performances, and yet nothing really changed the next week. This time though, a vast improvement. Hopefully a sign that players and manager have a better understanding of each other.

I want to pick out 'The General', Danny Guthrie. I was very impressed with his performance at the weekend. I felt he was calm and composed on the ball, and offered a real presence in midfield. He was also getting stuck in, making tackles and tracking back well, which is a part of his game that often goes un-noticed. He looked sharp, fit and full of energy, and if we get another 25 starts out of him like that, then I think we will be on for a good season.

James Kenealey

After the Forest Green match, I distinctly remembered thinking, “I would like next Saturday to be the complete opposite of that in every way.”

In fairness, I got exactly what I asked for, it’s just that it was literally the opposite. Instead of clinging on for a point somehow, we were all over a Colchester side who while solid enough weren’t really threatening beyond occasionally catching us on the break (like the goal, poor defending that). It was a frustrating watch, because we did enough to win that comfortably if we could have just been a little bit more clinical in front of goal.

Still, we remain unbeaten and a couple more home fixtures in a row provides us with a good basis for progressing. If we keep playing with that intensity and just sharpen up a little bit in the final third, then I think we’ll do well.

A lot of teams early on in the season get badged up as a side ‘that’ll be up there’, before ten-or-so weeks pass and the table starts to take some sort of shape. If we’re going on last season, then Colchester were indeed one of those ‘up there’ so I guess we can take the positives that we’ve more than matched a top six side. Then again, Morecambe currently are top, so who knows what surprises this season might have in store.