Saddlers Social: Time to turn these draws into wins

Ian Newbold

Another point on the road, proving tough to beat. And this despite we seem to have the terrible habit of giving one golden chance or goal away every 90 minutes.

I said before the game I don’t like the look of us in a 3-5-2, and James Clarke going off injured forced us into a better shape. Darrell Clarke admitted that much after the game.

I don’t think we should over complicate League Two. Play your best XI, allowing for rests, and play a way that everyone’s job is obvious and becomes second nature.

No point being subtle if we can’t go 90 minutes without a howler. Win on Tuesday and this point looks great. Anything less and we could be blaming our October form at the end of the season again.

Rob Harvey

Two games, two draws. It looks good on paper that we are still unbeaten but realistically it's not great. We should have had a minimum of four points from those two games, but we find ourselves shooting ourselves in the foot once again.

Don't get me wrong, I think we are playing really well for the most part, but the amount of individual errors we've made already this season is concerning. We've had errors from Liam Roberts, Dan Scarr, Liam Kinsella and Cameron Norman at the very least and most of these have led to goals against us which is leaving us having to try and score two or three a game to win which over the course of a season is going to be impossible to do on a consistent basis. I do have faith in Darrell Clarke to get these errors ironed out, and I expect that we will see better performance as time goes on.

Back to the games and on Tuesday against Bradford, I felt that overall a point was probably fair but it was very disappointing that after we stood up well against a bit of an onslaught in the second half it was only Liam Roberts having a rush of blood to his head that cost us in the end. The Barrow game was disappointing as I felt they were there to be had when you look at their start to life back in the Football League. Tactically Darrell Clarke got it wrong, which he admitted, but we stood off them too much and gave away another soft penalty leaving us having to scrape two goals to get a draw. Props to Caolan Lavery for his two goals and for stepping up and slotting after missing his last one though.

Moving forward, Tuesday against Cambridge should be a good game considering the blistering start they've had and I think there will be goals in that. It's a home game, so we should be winning those regardless if we are serious about going up, but a draw wouldn't be the end of the world if we can win away at Mansfield on the Saturday (you know Andy Cook is going to score again if he plays, so we will need two goals there!). Four points per two games should be the minimum we are aiming for.

Let's see how we go. Up The Saddlers!

Stuart Cox

Another draw, another point, another frustrating afternoon. There were chances for both teams but, had it not been for Liam Roberts we could have conceded another two in the first half. We badly missed Rory Holden (never thought I’d say that 12 months ago) and we look a far better side with Danny Guthrie on the pitch.

I’m hoping Zak Jules gets a decent run in the side now and show what he is worth as I think he was unlucky earlier on in the season not to keep his place in the side. Also have to give a mention to the referee - he’s been through a lot recently in his career and I thought he handled the game superbly well, letting the game flow and not giving a free kick every two minutes when someone dared to touch someone else.

Cambridge will be a real test for us though. They are scoring goals for fun at the moment and we are lacking that bit of quality in the final third at the moment. A heavy defeat or another draw to add to the tally? Who knows with us at the moment!

Chris Saunders

Drawing away is always a good result and against a team who are unbeaten at home it should be seen as a great result. So why does it feel deflating to some degree? I still think this is a good start to the season but I really think we need to start converting a few more of these draws to wins, whether that’s home or away.

I always defend changes of tactics even when they don’t work out as it is purely hindsight being a wonderful thing. I do wonder however if maybe we should settle with one formation for a while longer and get a few more wins on the board before we tinker with formation changes to counter our opponents.

Even though it’s early days of the season I do feel like we need to push on a bit more now and get some more points on the board. It’s this stage of the season where gaps between top and bottom of the table can start to form and we want to keep the top in sight. Whilst not critical it takes the pressure off needing a post New Year wonder run, even if I do think we may be capable of it.

Nick Etheridge

Another game, another draw. It does feel like a monkey on the shoulder this unbeaten run. On the plus side we are showing some real resilience, either hanging on at the end of games or digging in to score against the run of play. If you turn the clock back twelve months, we would have been right in the thick of that six game losing streak. Given that the squad is pretty much the same, the mentality has certainly improved. I’ve no doubt that this time last season we would never have hung on for a point at Bradford or equalised twice at Barrow

What we desperately need now is to turn a couple of these draws into wins. The unbeaten run feels like carrying a weight around at the moment and has left us in a slightly precarious position. Don’t get me wrong, a couple of back to back wins would see us shoot up the table, but lose a couple on the spin and we’d be further adrift than we’d like. We just need to stay within touching distance of the play-offs. A win against Cambridge on Tuesday would certainly be a step in the right direction, but I’d rather draw than lose!

Robert Dearn

We have gone from a team that barely draw, to one that always look like drawing! It is frustrating, especially given the fact that a few of those I feel were winnable.

I then look back 12 months, and see how much we would have loved a few more draws instead of that six-game losing streak. Not losing isn't a bad thing, especially in games where we haven't played as well as we can.

With James Clarke and Rory Holden out with injuries, it gives other players chances to step up and show what they can do, and with the squad depth we have, I am not concerned like I would be in seasons gone by. Lets hope they can, and that were talking about wins next week instead of draws.