Rick's Super Saddlers

Welcome ladies and gentlemen to my attempt at turning Walsall into a quality side who shall eventually return to the Championship, The highest level the Saddlers have ever achieved, Here is the initial squad I have at my disposal in my first year at the Banks's stadium;

Goalkeepers

Jimmy 'Wacka' Walker is a Walsall legend with over 500 appearances in the Saddlers goal, However at 39 I need to think about replacing him sooner rather than later, Hungarian stopper David Grof is a good shot stopper but is prone to the odd lapse of concentration.

Defenders

Central defense is not a worry at all for me, Inspirational captain Andy Butler should form a brick wall with new signing Dean Holden, Paul Downing and local born teenager Matt Preston provide decent rotation options in the middle.
I have two solid full backs in Andy Taylor and James Chambers but I would have reservations about having to field rookie Malvind Benning in league games should Taylor get injured, Behind Chambers at RB there is Ben Purkiss and Richard Taundry, I would however prefer to utilize Taundry in midfield.

Midfielders

Probably the weakest area of my team, Belgian Flo Cuvellier is undoubtedly the star, The Stoke City loanee provides creativity which is sadly lacking elsewhere in this department.
I will have to look for wingers on both sides as James Baxendale, Ashley Hemmings and Jake Jones just aren't the finished articles for me and will struggle if forced into the spotlight right now.

Forwards

We possess plenty of firepower and have the potential for goals if Cuvellier and the other midfielders can maintain a good supply line, Will Grigg is a Northern Irish international who knows where the goal is and former Manchester United trainee Fabian Brandy has explosive pace which many League one defenses will struggle to cope with.
Jamie Paterson and George Bowerman are young but are already experienced first teamers with several goals to their names.

To conclude I believe my squad is a very reasonable one, It will need some strengthening in certain positions such as left back and on the wings but I am confident we have more than enough quality to stay clear of another relegation battle. Famous last words?

Pre-Season 2012/13

My preparations for 2012/13 are now complete and have given some very positive indications;

No defeats in our five games is encouraging stuff, particularly impressive was our resilience against Cheltenham where we thrice came from behind to earn a draw. Beating Welsh champions TNS was also a good result as we gear up for the new campaign.

Transfer wise I have been very conservative with my use of the clubs fragile finances and have opted to instead make use of the loan market;

A former Birmingham City winger who has spent time with fellow Midland clubs Burton Albion and Cheltenham before joining his current club Stevenage. Unfortunately after linking up with us he promptly went and got injured for two months.


Experienced midfielder who was part of the Huddersfield side which won promotion to the Championship last season, However he now finds himself in the Terriers reserve side.

I haven't allowed anyone to leave the Banks's stadium permanently, I' keen to keep the squad together as a unit, at least to start with.


With all our friendly's now out of the way we can now look forward to our opening game, A League cup tie with Sheffield United at Bramall lane, Certainly this is not an easy first game for me but a good challenge. Following the Sheffield game we welcome Colchester to the Black country for our opening league game before a trip to Scunthorpe three days later.

My first month in charge of the Saddlers has not gone to plan at all as we succumbed to defeat in all four of our opening fixtures.

We just didn't get off the ground against Sheffield United at Bramall Lane, We allowed the Blades far to much time on the ball and were duly punished for it as we head out of the League cup having fallen at the first hurdle.
We weren't too bad against Colchester in the opening league game of the season, However sloppy defending from Dean Holden twice allowed the Essex club in and cost us dearly, A late James Chambers strike gave us a a glimour of hope with eight minutes to go but even with my unconventional 4-2-3-1 formation applied Colchester held firm to deny us a share of the points.

I again shuffled the formation for the trip to Scunthorpe, This time employing 4-1-2-1-2 in the hope of neutralizing the Iron's own unorthodox tactic, For quite a while it was working fine until again a ridicously defensive error cost us, An awful back pass was seized upon by Mike Grella who made no mistake in rounding a helpless Jimmy Walker, From there on the home team were in almost complete control.
Finally i reverted back to good ol' 4-4-2 for the visit of Doncaster which supplied the most encouraging results off all my experimentation as we more than matched the visitors until Richard Taundry went from goal scoring hero to villain by giving away a late penalty as we again shot ourselves in the foot.

So the table doesn't make for good reading for Saddlers supporters, particuarly as we're forcast to go down in the media;


After all this doom and gloom I had to use deadline day to try and lift spirits by bringing in one or two new faces who can make a difference, which I believe I have done;

Signed from local rival Coventry on loan, I hope the big lad can help snuff out all the defensive mistakes we have been making this season.


A big signing for the club, albeit on loan, Davies will hopefully provide the ammunition that Ashley Hemmings has failed with on the left flank, Davies combined with Robin Shroot who is now back to match fitness should really give us some width.

September 2012

From one extreme to another. After failing to pick up a single point last month we certainly needed to improve in September to avoid being marooned in the relegation zone even at this early stage, However I never foresaw the rather incredible turn around our form has undergone this month.


With morale low I wasn't relishing the prospect of visiting Notts County who are one of our closest geographic rivals in this division, Until half time it was pretty much one way traffic with the home side bossing the game, However shortly after the restart Fabian Brandy managed to accelerate away from his marker to fire us into the lead against the run of play, The former Manchester United man used our new found momentum to devastating effect when he doubled the lead eight minutes later with an almost identical goal to more or less seal the points for us, That didn't stop debutante Ben Davies from getting his name on the score sheet though as the winger coolly clipped the ball in late on.
Things didn't look good when we went behind after less than 20 minutes to promotion contenders Preston, However against the odds we didn't falter and equilised 13 minutes after through young striker George Bowerman, from there on it was a very even affair as both teams had good chances to win, however a draw was probably fair.

Our new confidence and resilience was evident again in our next two fixtures as we battled back from a goal down against both Portsmouth and Swindon with Ben Davies scoring in each, It looks as if he may well be a fantastic loanee.
With us now in the top half of the table I was hoping for another good result against Bournemouth, However we seemed to run out of steam on the South coast, succumbing as we did to a 2-1 defeat, We did come close to a comeback, however Fabien Brandy's late equiliser was ruled out for offside.
A point with Brenford prevented us losing back to back games before we followed up with a good win at home to Oldham, Winger Robin Shroot giving us an early lead with his first goal for the club.

So after that fantastic month we have maneuvered ourselves out of the relegation places all the way up to tenth If we can finish the season there I will be very happy with my first term in charge.

October 2012

October 2012 shall henceforth be known in the Black country as George Bowerman month, The twenty year old has been in blistering form this month, netting an impressive nine goals in seven games, including a stunning five strikes in a single game against Bury. Those nine goals combined with his two early efforts make him League one's leading scorer at the moment. Clearly we are looking at the Midlands Messi here!<3


It was a bit disappointing to go out of the JPT at the first hurdle as in our current vein of form I felt it was a winnable competition, However with several of my key players rested Tranmere we able to come away with the win.
Our only league defeat came at the hands of West Midlands rivals Coventry City in heartbreaking circumstances, My boys battled back from two goals down only to let the Sky Blues back into the game and take the points. The absence of a established goalkeeper didn't help, Both Wacka and David Grof were out injured, forcing me to debut 17 year old local lad Liam Roberts between the posts, He did a reasonable job both against Coventry and Crawley but is still far from the finished article, besides which he has now broken his wrist.> To cover this problem I have loaned Fulham's Finnish stopper Jesse Jorenen for the next couple of months.

In the league we have shot up the table, right up to second, behind only our neighbors Coventry, Not bad for a side who just two months ago were in the relegation zone eh?
Undoubtable the key to our turn around has been that man Bowerman's goals, but behind him Flo Cuvellier has been providing him with chance after chance, as have wingers Robin Shroot and Ben Davies, At the back Andy Butler and Nathan Cameron have formed a near air tight defense to give us a real backbone and drive.


When the good people at nPower were asked to pick their player of the month they really didn't have to think too hard...

Here's a quick look at the man of the hour;


Can we stay in our current position? Honestly I highly doubt it but if my players can keep up their current form levels then who knows? Certainly if we continue in this way it won't be too long before we can put that old ghost of relegation well and truly to the back of our mind.

Another page on the calender turned and we are still right up there in the league and still looking like title challengers despite our pre-season billing as doomed to relegation, Are we just a flash in the pan or the real deal? Honestly I don't know at the moment but if we can maintain this kind of momentum then surely the teams around us will have to take us seriously.


If last month was George Bowerman's month, This month it is Will Grigg who lends his name to the accolade, The Northern Ireland international has netted five times in November, taking his tally so far this term to eight, Three behind his strike partner who's form has dropped somewhat recently.
On loan winger Ben Davies has also been a key player this month, assisting as well as chalking up a couple of strikes of his own, His contract with Derby County is up this summer and I would dearly love to add him to my squad permanently.
Between the sticks Fulham loanee Jesse Joronan did a reasonable job in the four games in which he donned the gloves for us but I was pleased to welcome back David Grof and Liam Roberts against Leyton Orient, First choice keeper Jimmy Walker is also almost back to health so I have sent the young Fin Joronan back to Craven Cottage.

Going out of the FA cup to League Two side Aldershot was rather infuriating, especially as we had the lead for most of the game before my heavily rotated side capitulated under pressure, This exit means we have now fallen at the first hurdle in all three cup competitions. Although I am of course focused on maintaining our staggering league position it is still a bit disappointing not to get a run and some prize money in any of the knockout competitions.
Conceding an injury time equiliser to hated rivals Shrewsbury was also gutting, We had battled back from 2-1 down only to blow it with virtually the last kick of the game, Ah well, you live and learn right?

So as I alluded to earlier, we are still clinging onto second place in nPower league one as we head into the festive season, We also have a game in hand over leaders Swindon so we could cut their lead to just two points, and with a game against the Robins coming up in January we could even be top of the pile before long!


Deservedly Will Grigg has collected some accolades this month;

What happened to this one??

Here's a look at the tactic's I have been utilizing in order to get the best out of a very average bunch of players;

4-4-2



My default formation, Very simple but still probably the best tactic in football, I like to have my full-back's press up and overlap the wingers, In order to keep the side anchored I set both of my centre backs to the following;


4-2-3-1



A great formation if you are struggling to break a team down, especially if they have holding midfield players, The two advanced midfielders and the inside forward really help bypass anchormen and five man defenses, The downside is obviously having such a gap between your midfield and back four so the two box to box players need to have good stamina and determination to help out defensively which thankfully both Anton Robinson and Adam Chambers do.

Using the 'play through defense' shout works wonders with this tactic as either Grigg or Bowerman will play on the defenders shoulders as the three supporting players combine to play them through.

4-1-2-1-2



This is my way of countering teams with one or more advanced midfielders, it also prevents any deep lying play-makers from launching attacks as Flo Cuvellier can close them down, This is a very narrow formation so it is a good option to switch too just to see out games and despite the lack of wingers it's surprising how well opposition wide players are shackled as Davies, Robinson and Chambers work their socks off to close down. None the less I use the retain possession and work ball into the box shouts to avoid losing the ball unnecessarily and risking a counter down the flanks.

Good luck with this, very good start

The festive period didn't begin too well as a draw with Colchester coupled with a defeat at MK Don's meant we had gone three games without a win for the first time since our disastrous start to the season where lost the opening four matches.
Thankfully we did manage nip the winless streak in the bud before things really began to deteriorate with wins over Doncaster and Preston in particular standing out as impressive.


In the table we are still hanging on in there with regards to the title race, we have however slipped a place allowing Coventry to sneak above us on goal difference and Swindon threatening to pull away, However as I mentioned before we face the Robins in January so we could well rope them back to within touching distance.


I've been impressed with Jamie Patterson's return to form, the striker had largely been a feature of the second string under me after a thourougly underwealming start to the season, However injuries to Will Grigg and Fabien Brandy forced me to give him a second chance, The youngster has seized the opportunity with both hands by scoring four goals in the two matches in which he has featured, Including a mouth watering hat-trick at Preston.

January will be important in more than just big matches, Both Flo Cuvellier and Ben Davies's loan deals end during the month, If we can't renew these loans I can easily see us sliding down the table as both have been vital to our startling performance thus far.
I'm also on the lookout for a new goalkeeper on the transfer market after effectively retiring Saddlers legend Jimmy Walker, 'Wacka' returned from a broken hand which had kept him out for two months, only to re-break it in his comeback game for the reserves, The 39 year old will now become my goalkeeping coach as I'm keen to keep one of the clubs Favorite son's at the Bescot.

Well, after months of sitting on the fence I have now accepted that we are genuine title contenders and not just a flash in the pan, Largely due to the fact that 'little' perennial relegation battlers Walsall now occupy first place in League One!
My lads have performed magnificently and of course above all expectations so far this season and now with just thirteen games left to play we are in the driving seat, can we hold on to it? I'm under no illusions, it won't be easy and there will probably be set backs but if the players can maintain the form and show the kind of grit that got us here in the first play then why not? It's been almost a decade since the club was relegated from Division One, Since then they have plummeted to the depths of League Two and come back up, Will this be the season the Sadders finally stop having to endure being the butt of jokes from Aston Villa, Birmingham City, Wolves and West Brom fans?


The new year got off to a poor start as we let a lead slip against Brentford and went down 3-1 to the Bee's, However we bounced back in some style, Winning our other four games, including beating then top of the table Swindon.
George Bowerman has returned to form after going a bit quite in December by adding another six goals to his tally, Taking the youngster to 18 goals for the season, Just one behind Brentford's Clayton Donaldson in the golden boot race and earning himself young player of the month for the second time this season.


The Crewe game saw the deserved debut of 17 year old Jake Heath who hails from just down the road in Wolverhampton, Even though Jake has made the appalling choice of supporting the yellow stained shirts from his home town, his introduction was well received by Saddlers fans who have obviously been as impressed by his fantastic form in the reserves as I have, A bright prospect for the future.
Unfortunately I was unable to get left back Andy Taylor to agree to a new deal, He has now left the club after only having joined us back in the summer, Taylor had been a very solid defender who will be sorely missed, Youngster Malvind Benning will be his long term replacement but I don't think he's quite ready to step up just yet so I drafted in a loan until the end of the season;

Liam joins us from Huddersfield, He joins another Terrier in Anton Robinson at the Bescot. Florent Cuvellier also headed back up the M6 this month as his loan spell from Stoke came to an end at the start of the month, despite my best efforts we were unable to convince the Premier League team to allow the Belgian to stay until the end of the season, I thought his creativity may be missed however Nicky Featherstone has proved an adequate replacement so far, The aforementioned debut of Jake Heath also gives us another option in the creative midfielder department.

I've also been busy securing new deals for several first team players, Captain Andy Butler has agreed a one year extension, as have George Bowerman, Richard Taundry, Matthew Preston and Jamie Patterson. Ben Davies and Robin Shroot also agreed to make their loan moves from Derby and Stevenage permanent which is great news. On the other hand we still have some key players who as of yet have not agreed to stay on, Will Grigg being the biggest name but a worrying 15 first team players could be approached by other clubs with regards to a pre-contract deal, something needs to be done soon.

Our good form this month has earned me my first award;

I'm rather more concerned with a League One winners medal at this point but it's always nice to win something!

February is usually a dour wet patch on the calender, and so it proved for us, a calamitous performance at home to Bournemouth cost us our place at the head of the League One table, We slipped to third after a mediocre display at struggling Yeovil before two goals in the last five minutes saw us come from behind to beat Bury and reclaim pole position with ten games to go.

I can't eloquently put into words just how frustrating our capitulation against Bournemouth was, After having lead for most of the first half my team simply collapsed and rolled over for the Cherries, Lee Barnard was merciless as communication between the defense and goalkeeper seemed to break down. New loan signing Liam Ridehalgh had a particularly shocking game and was dropped for the trip to Yeovil in favor of Malvind Benning who in turn also had a stinker. Left back is defiantly a priority for me come summer whether we clinch promotion or not.

It looked as if we were going to slip up again at home during the visit of Bury to the Banks's stadium as David Healy put the Shakers ahead after 20 minutes, George Bowerman had a 75th minute header ruled out when the referee adjudged the 21 year old to have fouled the goalkeeper. With just three minutes of the ninety remaining Bowerman again rallied forward and ended up rounding the keeper to equilise as he netted his 20th league goal of the campaign.
With just two minutes stoppage time to be played surely we would have to settle for a drawn now? As if! With the referees whistle to his lips, winger Ben Davies cut inside the full back and curled a beautiful shot over the goalkeeper and into the top corner to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, lift the side back to 1st place and send WS1 into a state of euphoria.


Now that we have the title back in our grasp we have to now hold on, Easier said than done but with just ten games to go it is imperative we pick up our performance levels from this month.
In other news Bury and former Crystal Palace midfielder Tom Soares has agreed to join us in the summer which is a good capture for the club as he is a current International player with his native Barbados but still relatively young.

Another mediocre month has seen us again relinquish our lead at the top of the table and slide down to third in the table, Have we blown our big chance after working oh so hard?



The gap is only three points so the title is still very much attainable if we can use the magnificent 4-1 win over Sheffield United as a springboard, We were bolstered by the return of Ben Davies on the flank, The winger just makes us so much more creative when he is fit, I'm hoping he can supply the ammunition for a final push over the top. I'm not even too bothered if we win the title, Just as long as we secure second, I really don't fancy having to endure the play-off's.

The heavy 4-0 loss to West Midlands rivals Coventry was by far the lowest point of an otherwise wonderful season, We just didn't show up at the Ricoh, Nathan Cameron wasn't allowed to play as per his loan agreement with the Sky Blues which forced me to put 20 year old Matthew Preston in alongside Andy Butler, They did well enough but were let down by dreadful performances by their supporting fullbacks who time and again were left lagging behind the Coventry wingers. It was a game to forget for us. Conceding a late equiliser to Crawley certainly didn't lift morale and neither did going down 2-0 to struggling Hartlepool at home. Thankfully we picked up the aforementioned battling win over Sheffield United at Bramall lane which hopefully has put our bad patch to rest.

The league is all to play for here, keep it up bud

April 2013

Well folks it's all come down to one game, Back in August the only way most people would have predicted our final day trip to Stevenage to be significant would be if it was to decide relegation matters, As it happens it will decide if we end a decade of wandering the wilderness of England's two basement divisions or not.
The win over Sheffield United sparked a revival, sending us on a five game unbeaten run, which brings us to this;


A draw with Stevenage will be enough to see us cross the line and clinch one of the most unlikely promotions in football league history, We will need Bournemouth to slip up in order to take the actual title but I'm not in the slightest bit bothered about that as long as we are in the top two at the end of ninety minutes!

Did we manage it?

Brilliant stuff.

Cheers mate, Not seen you around here for a while.

With our stunning promotion written into club lore I moved quickly to build a squad capable of coping with life in the Championship, That is not something the popular media or the bookies give us a chance of doing, We are forecast to finish dead last, Although we were supposed to come 23rd last term and that didn't quite pan out did it?
In all seriousness it is going to be a monumental challenge to avoid a swift return to the third tier, We have very limited finances as well as the second smallest ground in the division, ahead of only Bournemouth who came up with us via the play-off's.
Well let's take a look at the players who have come in, tasked with keeping us up;

I'm very pleased with my captures this summer, I got every name on my shortlist and all for free. Tom Soars and Jeff Hughes should form a good industrial partnership together in the middle of the park, Lee Miller will provide some much needed height up front and I now have a pair of solid full backs in Man City academy product Ryan McGivern and the experienced Paul Connelly.
Nathan Cameron has moved to WS1 permanently following his season long loan from Coventry last term, His strong partnership with captain Andy Butler could be crucial for our survival hopes.
Between the sticks Stuart Tayor is a proven keeper who will go straight in at number one. I also snapped up a couple of youngsters in Corby Moore and Jack Bryne, both of whom are attacking midfielders who could well become stars with the right guidance.

Heading the other way...

Some of you may be surprised to see me allow Fabien Brandy go, True enough the forward got a few goals last term but on nowhere near consistently enough and I was happy let his contract run out. It wasn't an easy decision for me to let Nicky Featherstone go after he scored the crucial late goal against Stevenage to send us up, However with Soars and Hughes already lined up and Adam Chambers and Richard Taundry established in the squad his chances of first team football were not good.

So here's a look at my full squad;

Goalkeepers

Stuart Taylor will undoubtedly be my #1, However David Grof still deserves first team football after his performances in the second half of last season when he had to step up and replace Jimmy Walker who's career was ended by a re-occurring hand injury. Young Liam Roberts provides decent cover should we get any injuries.

Defenders

Probably our most vulnerable area, I have four fairly strong first choice defenders in Connolly, Cameron, Butler and McGivern but we lack depth and could struggle if and when injuries and suspensions rule out those four. Matthew Preston proved himself a reliable young center back when he was called upon last season, however there is a big difference in quality between the kind of players he will face this season and the ones from League One.

Midfielders

Like defense I have a strong four first choices but I'm not sure if my youngsters are yet ready to step up, Kieron Morris on the left flank in particular is a concern, I am considering loaning him and bringing in a new loanee of our own.

Forwards

I'm very happy with my strike force, Will Grigg and George Bowerman were both deadly last season, notching up 38 goals between them, They may find goals harder to come by against the higher quality of defender in this division bit the addition of big target man Lee Miller should ensure we get enough goals, The 30 year old joins from Carlisle and himself bagged ten goals last season despite his sides relegation to League Two. Jamie Patterson showed glimpses of his ability in 2012/13 but will need to score on a more regular basis if he is to ever gain a permanent place in my line up.

The friendly's threw up a mixed bag of results as we gear up for the season ahead;

A draw with Yeovil was a decent enough result to kick off with as Corby Moore showed the kind of skill he possesses by rifling home late on to rescue the draw.
We improved at our feeder club Tamworth and ran out worthy winners 5-1 thanks to a brace from George Bowerman as well as goals from Jamie Patterson, Kieron Morris and new boy Lee Miller.
We were mighty unfortunate not to take anything during the visit of Charlton who have just been relegated to League One, We outclassed the Addicks for long periods of the game, conceding only two sloppy second half goals. I cannot say the same for our game with Arsenal however, We were behind after just two minutes to the Gunners and never looked like pulling it back, The Premiership side could have had double figures by the end of 90 minutes.
We gave a better account of ourselves as the Saddlers faithful were treated to some Continental flair as Portuguese outfit Academica visited the Banks's stadium, Having lost an early goal my side rallied and controlled most of the game, queuing up to pepper the foreign visitors goalkeeper with shots, He however was equal to them all and prevented what would have been a deserved leveler.

Whilst the results were not particularly brilliant we did perform well in all the games with the sole exception of Arsenal where I wasn't expecting much anyway so I am encouraged and believe that my squad is ready ahead of what will likely be a long and hard season for us. A good start is all so important for newly promoted teams, we have been handed an ideal chance to get off to one as we face Swindon who we ultimately pipped to automatic promotion last season, We beat the Robins both times we met in the third tier, can we do it again?
Following the trip to the County ground we hit the road again for a League Cup clash with League Two side Southend United before taking on Hull in our opening home fixture of the season in the League.

And in other news...

This is brilliant news for my long term vision at the club, Hopefully I will get a few gems to polish as I look to build a team capable of going up into the promised land of the Premiership in the future. That is a long way off yet though so for now we must keep our feet firmly on the ground.

August 2013

We're off to a very reasonable start to life in the Championship, Just one defeat in our opening five games is exactly the sort of form which will keep us in the division.

The opening day clash with fellow Championship newcomers Swindon Town ended in a stalemate at the County ground before we traveled to Essex for our Capital One cup tie with League Two outfit Southend, An upset looked on the cards as the Shrimpers enjoyed much of the possession against my heavily changed side which featured several youth and reserve players, However an injury time winner from debutante Corby Moore broke hearts at Roots Hall, The former Southampton man looks like he has bright future ahead of him despite being released from the Saints in the summer.

The first visitors to the Bescot were Hull City who's attack was spearheaded by former Saddlers Favorite Matty Fryatt, Fryatt was kept under wraps by Nathan Cameron and Andy Butler as Will Grigg's header mid way through the second half proved sufficient to hand us our first three points.
What followed was an unbelievable result at Ewood park against one of the hot Favorites to take the Championship crown this season, Blackburn completely dominated us from start to finish but goalkeeper Stuart Taylor was in inspired form after two consecutive clean sheets, The veteran time and again pulled of outstanding saves from the likes of Formica, Rhodes and Pederson to deny Rovers, We hardly troubled his opposite number Paul Robinson all game, apart from Jeff Hughes's wonderfully taken goal which was fashioned in utterly bizarre circumstance.

Blackburn's dominance in this game was absoloute, I genuinlly don't know how we managed to win this game.


Following that shocker you might have expected us to do well against Bristol city who are another side tipped to go down this year, However you can never predict football, Former Villa man Darius Vassell's 55th minute goal was enough to give the Robins an away win.
Next up was a League cup second round tie with Leeds, We held our own against them for much of the game, that was until Matthew Preston's 68th minute sending off for bringing down Luciano Beccio who was bearing down on goal, Leeds took full advantage of the extra man and ended up running out 3-0 winners, Beccio getting two of them.
Finally came the visit of Barnsley who are the sort of team we have to take points from if we are to avoid a relegation battle, This time it was our turn to have an extra man when Marcus Lanz was sent off after just 20 minutes, We had just fallen behind before the dismissal but bounced back almost instantly afterwards as Ben Davies netted his first of the season, I was a bit disappointed that we couldn't muster up a winner with an extra man for 70 minutes but still every point counts.

So after five games we sit in a very respectable tenth place, there's an awful lot of football to be played yet though.
I'm happy with all of my new boys, Stuart Taylor in particular has been fantastic in goal, Youngster Corby Moore also looks like a future star for us.

I'm going to take a stab in the dark here...But I reckon you managed to win that game by scoring one more than Blackburn did?

Your logic adds up. Flukiest win I've ever gotten away with on FM though, especially with that bizzare goal.

Hahaa wooo

Anyway glad your enjoying this career, doing very well buddy

congratulations with promotion mate, really beating the odds!

Cheers gaffer, hopefully that continues.



Whilst our performances haven't been bad this month, quality hasn't necessarily transpired into results;


A draw at Huddersfield was a decent result for us, however a second defeat this season at the hands of Leeds meant we had gone five games without a win, the last four were all against Yorkshire based clubs, We'll avoid booking a holiday up there then.
Next up came my first West Midlands derby game as Walsall manager as we made the short journey across Birmingham to St.Andrews were we gave a good account of ourselves against the Blues but were ultimately undone by a wonderful 30 yard strike from Senegal international Morgaro Gomis.
There was another all midlands fixture for us next, This time West Vs. East as we faced Nottingham Forest, producing one of the finest performances in the club's history (for 40 minutes at least) When we found ourselves 3-0 down in the 55th minute all seemed lost in Nottinghamshire, However my players rallied, Ben Davies pulled one back just after the hour to make the scoreline a little less embarrassing, Lee Millers first league goal for the Saddlers had Forest fan's suddenly sitting less comfortably with 15 minutes to go before Ben Davies, who had been getting a lot of stick from the home fans due to his previous club, Derby County, pulled us level in the 84th minute to complete a spectacular turnaround which we can be proud of

Finally came the visit of Middlesbrough to the Bescot, and I had a new face to unveil;

Obviously at 38 years old the former Premier League, Serie A and UEFA cup winner isn't going to be a driving force up front, however if we can get the right balls in to him I'm sure he can score the goals that we've found difficult to come by so far this season, Will Grigg has two strikes to his name, Lee Miller only scored his first in the Forest game and both George Bowerman and Jamie Patterson are yet to register their first of the season.
There is a history of Latin players doing well here, Zigor Arenalde, Jorge Leitao and Emmanuel Ledesma all enjoyed great popularity in this part of the world, Hopefully Crespo can do the same.
The Argentine started the game with Boro on the bench, The veteran did end up playing his part however as he replaced the misfiring George Bowerman just after the hour mark, He showed a few classy touches and tested the Boro keeper before setting up Lee Miller to score his second goal in as many games, Precisely the sort of impact I wanted from him.

So after sliding down to 16th on the back of that winless run, Victory over Middlesborough lifts us back up to twelfth place, If we can stay in this sort of position throughout the campaign I shall regard our return to the Championship as a great success.

I'm not only happy with our progress on the pitch but off it too, Our bank balance has just passed the million pound mark for the first time, helped by near capacity crowds each week now we are in the second tier as well as improved sponsorship and TV money. Things are looking up for Walsall football club.[/b]

Great work, love a story like this

Thank's matey, keep reading!



October was a bad month for us in the league, Four defeats out of six saw us plummet down the table to 20th place, just above the relegation zone. However a battling performance against fellow struggles Leicester spring-boarded us all the way back up to twelfth, a sign of just how tight the Championship is and how we simply cannot afford a bad streak as despite now having returned to the top half of the table we are still only three points above the relegation spots.

We began the month well, following up on our win over Middlesbrough by easing to a victory against Watford, Lee Miller's third goal in three games coupled with captain Andy Butler's first goal of the season had the game wrapped up within twenty minutes.
Unfortunately things quickly went down hill as my usually reliable defense seemed to evaporate into thin air, conceeding eleven goals in four games, given we had only let in eight throughout all of our previous fixtures so far this season it was a shocking drop in form, The display against Burnley was so terrible that I hauled off goalkeeper Stuart Taylor and center back Nathan Cameron at half time in favor of youngsters David Grof and Matthew Preston to show my displeasure, The message seemed to sink in as our performance did improve in the second half although it was obviously far to late.
Sheffield Wednesday was also a devastating result as they were bottom of the table at the time. We did improve against West Ham at Upton Park and looked on course for a surprise point after Hernan Crespo scored his first goal in English football since 2006 to level things up in the 71st minute following Kevin Nolan's opener mid-way through the first half. However Carlton Cole sent us back to the Black Country with nothing after he was given far to much time to rifle home from just outside the box with two minutes left on the clock.

Finally came the visit of Leicester, The Foxes had had a terrible season so far and hadn't won since playing Swindon at the end of August, If we were to end our losing streak this was the time to do it, Andy Butler was suspended so 18 year old Matthew Preston came in at centre back with Paul Connolly taking Butlers captains band. Connolly marked the occasion by netting his first goal for the club when a poorly cleared ball fell to him, the fullback cut inside and belted the ball past Kasper Schmiechel for a precious three points.


Robin Shroot has suffered a serious injury which has ruled him out until at least February, forcing me to bring in a loanee;

He's not been too impressive so far since making his debut against Sheff Wed, In fact we were distinctly more creative with young James Baxendale on the right flank against Leicester. Perhaps he just needs some more time.

I other news;

Great news for the club if the deal does get concluded as we won't have to keep stumping up over £400k in rent every year, This coupled with the announced improvement of our youth facilities points to a brighter future in WS1.

Very tough month however Hernan Crespo finally has his first goal!

having a good go at it in the championship, very good this far!

I was never expecting him to win the golden boot or anything but I was expecting a slightly better goal ratio than what he has achieved thus far.

Thank you mate.



Just as with last month our results surmounted to two wins and four defeats from our six games, Things began wonderfully as we followed through on our win over Leicester by walking over Cardiff away, Will Grigg breaking a dry spell in the process which stretched back to the start of September.
Lee Miller took home the match ball after a superb performance against Brighton at the Amex, the striker scored a hat-trick to take his tally for the season up to eight.

After three wins on the bounce against quality side you might have expected us to continue the run against fellow promoted club Bournemouth, We had the Cherries on the back foot for considerable periods, However I concentration waned right when it mattered most, Miles Addison whipping the ball past Stuart Taylor from 20 yards in the 93rd minute. Balls.
The last minute heartache was back and perhaps even more devastating then last week as we fought back from 3-0 down against Millwall following a shocking first half display, This being the second time we've come behind from this deficit this season. (The other being at Nottingham Forest) George Bowerman finally scored his first of the season to give us some faint hope, Lee Miller got the second to get the cockney's looking very nervous before David Bell found himself in acres of space to finish beautifully past Maik Taylor to save a point for us, or so we thought, I shall claim responsibility, I should have pulled my men back and settled for an unlikely point, however after our 88th minute equiliser I told them to keep pushing in search of a winner, This backfired spectacularly as Najim Abdou sprinted away from my high defensive line and rounder Stuart Taylor to give the Lions the win.

The defeats against Ipswich and Derby also followed a similar pattern, we took an early lead in each only to go and blow it in the second half as my defense struggled to cope, Paul Connelly is injured and James Chambers is suspended for three games following a two footed lunge against Ipswich, This forced me to play 17 year old local lad Ben George who certainly didn't have the dream debut, he just couldn't get to grips with Derby's wingers. Ryan McGivern has also being struggling for form on the other side of the back four, I've been gradually giving Malvind Benning more and more playing time as I think he's going to be a good player eventually.
Speaking of defenders with potential, Matthew Preston has made his debut for the England U19's against Slovakia before playing again against Denmark, His attributes are really improving, He's also getting more chances in the first team and has probably been our only solid defender this month.

Captain Andy Butler has signed on for another year at the club, in addition he has also joined my backroom staff as my defensive coach as well continuing his playing duties.

So we're one game off the half way point of the season and we've slid down to 15th, Not exactly security as we hove four points above the relegation places, In fact we have lost more games then Leicester who are 23rd. Worrying times. The festive period is going to be crucial for us.