Walsall
Sad Saddlers Stutter in Sheffield
By 4two
February 16 2003
Despite having enough chances to take something from the game, The Saddlers crashed out in the 5th round of the FA Cup yet again. Individual errors stood out, and we must start to correct these during our fight for survival.
|
Sheffield United 1-0 Walsall |
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
|
Match Report by 4two
Between 3 or 4 thousand Saddlers fans made the trip to Sheffield to see the Walsall again fail to sparkle away from home. |
||||||||
|
It was a peculiar system that Lee set up, as we played a flat back four, with O’Connor and Simpson as deep central midfielders, Junior alone up front while Jorge and Wrack were shoved out on the wings. You could call it a 4-2-3-1 or whatever you interpreted it to be. The opening moments of the game saw both sides showing a willingness to get forward but no clear chances were carved out. Junior, Ndlovu and Mooney all went close, and seemed that it was going to be an exciting 90 minutes of football. In fact it was the Saddlers who had the upper hand during the first 20 minutes with Junior and both having good chances blocked by Kenny on the 10 minute mark. The home side did spring in to action on 20 minutes when Jim Walker was forced to pull off a great save from Peter Ndlovu shot from outside the box. Many fans would argue that this signaled the end of Walsall’s domination and United took control from here until they went two goals up. It soon became clear that Junior was going to be ineffective alone down the middle because he had little or no support from those who were there to help him. Corica buzzed around trying to get involved but he was too easily bundled off the ball. United began to press forward, tormenting both Walsall full backs who were left exposed by Lee’s new system and that allowed United to overload the wide positions. The Blades began calving out half chances and you sensed that sometime soon they were likely to nick a goal. The goal eventually came with 10 minutes of the half left to play. The Saddlers had failed to close down the ball on the edge of the area and allowed Brown to take a shot on goal, a shot that was initially saved by Jimmy Walker before falling to the feet of Tommy Mooney who slotted the ball in to the back of the empty net as Jim Walker was still recovering from the initial save. It was a shame for Saddlers who were doing their best to keep a talented United side at bay, and it was unfortunate that Jim Walker had palmed his save in to the feet of the advancing Mooney. You could argue that the initial Brown shot should not have happened, but the Saddlers had been slow closing United players down throughout the half and got what they deserved. Junior had a half chance straight after United scored, but it was Kabba and Brown for the Blades who went on to have other chances before the break. Going in at Half Time the Saddlers will not have been to disheartened, and would have though they could grab a goal at some stage because their had been passages of play were they had carved the Blades open Half Time: Sheffield United 1-0 Walsall The Saddlers started off the second half brightly but still looked like they lacked that cutting edge that would get them something from the game. Carbon (surprise, surprise) and O’Connor (surprise, surprise) had gone of injured at half time and were replaced by Matias and Roper. Matias went wide left and Wrack moved inside to replace O’Connor. It took 10 minutes of the half for the first real chance to fall to either side, and it fell to Sheffield United and resulted in a goal. Brown had crossed the ball in from the left flank and Ndlovu had met it at the far post to head home United’s second of the match. Deep, deep down every single Saddlers fan knew that we stood little or no chance of getting back in to the game let alone winning it. But, their were 35 minutes left to play and the Saddlers were going to give it their best shot. Junior had a chance cleared away by Page on 65 minutes, before Corica saw his shot parried by Kenny and fall in to the path of Leitao who shot in to the side netting, in a series of events that were similar to the Blades opening goal, although Mooney’s angle was not as tight. The more the Saddlers pushed forward, the more space the United forwards found and it wouldn’t have been surprising if they had got a third, but thankfully for the Saddlers neither Tongue nor Pescisolido had their shooting boots on. The game fizzled out with the Saddlers having failed to find the net, while United seemed to have played within themselves for much of the second half. Full Time: Sheffield United 1-0 Walsall |
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
|||||||||
.gif)
.gif)
- Aranalde, Simpson, Junior (Walsall)
-
Colin Lee (Manager).
.gif)
.gif)
Digg
Delicious
Facebook
Reddit
Stumbleupon