By Neil Ravenscroft
November 5 2004

Walsall's search for their elusive first away win of the season will take them to another new venue this weekend – the impressive new home of Hull City. The phrase "sleeping giant" is misused a lot in football, but is surely appropriate in the case of Hull, the biggest city in England whose League football team has never been in the top flight, but, following their severe financial problems of a few years ago, which almost led to the club going out of existence, Hull, under ex England under 21 Manager, Peter Taylor, seem to be going from strength to strength now. They are currently in third place in the table, having won nine of their sixteen games this season. They have only drawn twice, however, so they do seem to be a "win or bust" team.

Their main danger man has been Delroy Facey, well remembered by Saddlers' fans for his hat trick against us for Burnley when on loan there, but he is virtually certain to miss the game through injury, and is likely to be replaced by former Notts County man, Danny Allsopp. Former Hibbs defender Roland Edge will also be struggling to be fit. The creative spark, however, will come from their new(ish) signing, former England International Nick Barmby, one of the few players to have scored for five Premeirship teams.

Paul Merson should welcome back Simon Osborn to the squad, with him having recovered from the back problem which kept him out of the Cheltenham game, but Fryatt and Kinsella will probably miss out again.

Taylor has said that he is looking forward to the game:-

"It's a big game for us and it'll be nice for the supporters to see Paul Merson and Nick Barmby on the same pitch. Hopefully Nick will play better than Paul and we'll get the three points."
Their official site predicts Merson to be the main threat to the Tigers, but Taylor says he is more than conscious of the other experienced players in the Saddlers' side.
"They also have the likes of Simon Osborn, Michael Standing and Neil Emblen in the team who all have Premiership experience, so they have some very good players and we have to make sure that the poor record they have on the road this season continues".

This is a tough fixture, especially considering the Saddlers' poor run of away form at the moment, so I'm afraid I'm going to have to go for a 2 – 1 defeat. That makes our first away win of the season a stone cold certainty, then!