The Week That Was (4)

The Week That was....

Last Saturday, listening to the local radio on the way home from Sheffield, Wednesday fans were talking of their hopes of retaining on loan midfielder Carl Robinson. The 26 year old Welsh international had impressed at Hillsborough having failed to reclaim his place in the first team of high flying Portsmouth due to the form of new signing Tim Sherwood.

Whilst the reasons for choosing us are more to do with travelling distance and our manager than our league position and stadium size, signing an international from under the noses of our rivals is still a big coup.

And look at our international stars (!) now…Danny Hay, Steve Corica, David Zdrilic, Carl Robinson, Fitzroy Simpson (or has he retired?) and didn’t Martin O’Connor represent the Caymen Islands ??!!  And wasn’t Darren Bazeley an England U21??!!

O’Connor, Simpson, Sonner, Corica, Wrack, Stanley, Smith, Robinson…and now Samways. At least Colin Lee will never go short in the midfield department. After constant speculation that Vinny Samways would be swapping the sun of Spain for Walsall’s….for Walsall, Colin Lee eventually got his man on Thursday of this week. The move was not without drama however, as Las Palmas, on their official website, reported that Samways had in fact spurned Bescot to rejoin his former club. True to his word though, the former Spurs and Everton midfielder signed for the Saddlers until the end of the season, when he will return to Spain and continue both his playing career and his successful empire of bars.

Neither players are intending to stay on at Bescot permanently, with Robinson admitting: “ I signed a three-year contract at Portsmouth and I will go back there in the summer. Hopefully by then Portsmouth will be in the Premiership. I want to force my way in at Portsmouth.”

Robinson impressed yesterday after a shaky start as Walsall won for the first time in ages, defeating Watford 2-0 at Bescot. Robinson even came close to a debut goal having one header cleared off the line and another tipped over. Instead the goals fell to our strikers, Junior with a rare headed goal and Jorge with a bullet header after a great run and cross from substitute Pedro. The second goal was almost perfection. A Watford corner was met with a good defensive header, Corica won the ball on the edge of the area, Fitzroy showed great vision to release Matias, Pedro showed pace we never knew he had and supplied a great cross. Jorge couldn’t really miss and if he had have, then Carl Robinson – almost a complete box to box midfielder – was there and would have been able to notch the second.  Hopefully, Jorge getting dropped will cause him to buck his ideas up because he has been a bit off the boil recently. Perhaps he should watch a video of the Charlton FA Cup tie from last season. And if Lee is getting out the old videos…how about the highlights video of our first promotion under Sir Ray - it might remind Darren Wrack of how to take players on. Not that I’m complaining of course, Wracky has been playing well this season (but there’s always room for improvement!).

Ahead of our clash with the Hornets, I decided to have a look at a few of the Watford sites and came upon a piece of writing which can be viewed via the above link. Whilst Colin Lee was hounded out – somewhat unfairly – at Molineux, he performed miracles (!) to keep both us and Torquay in our respective divisions and is a well respected manager…except in Watford! The article labels Colin Lee the worst Watford manager of recent times and is far from complimentary on his and our team. At least we won and one comment came back to haunt the writer: “…Pedro Matias, whose lack of pace is cited as a bit restrictive…” I believe it is a bit like the ‘commentators curse’. One thing for certain is that he won’t forget Pedro’s pace in a while. Despite this, the article was well written and researched…I just wonder which Saddler’s fan he got his information from – a very pessimistic one from what I can see!

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