The Muppet Show: Stoke 1-0 Walsall

Walsall crashed to defeat against bottom-of-the-table Stoke at the Britannia Stadium tonight after a dreadful first half. And to confound the misery, Stoke’s goal was scored by loan star Lee Mills – a player Colin Lee was unable to sign earlier in the season due to his extensive wages.

Colin Lee made one enforced change bringing in Tony Barras in place of Danny Hay who has a shoulder injury. Meanwhile, Jorge Leitao was left out of the 16 man squad due to a head injury sustained in training.

Stoke began brightest, forcing a corner inside four minutes which was cleared by Ian Roper. Both Lee Mills and Bjarni Gudjonsson then fired wide from distance before Jimmy Walker was forced into his first real save as he turned aside a drive from Gudjonsson. Roper again came to the rescue with a headed clearance. After 13 minutes, Walker saved from Mills and then Tony Barras bravely blocked a shot from fullback Wayne Thomas. From the resulting corner, Gudjonsson again fired wide.

Stoke’s incessant pressure finally paid off after 19 minutes when Mills opened the scoring, firing home from the edge of the box after a cross from Thomas. The game was becoming scrappy and a foul by Zigor Aranalde on Chris Greenace resulted in another Stoke free kick, this however was cleared by Darren Bazeley.

Walsall were being made to look like a side doomed for relegation, Stoke were pulling them to pieces, with two wide men who were playing with a positive attitude and intent on getting quality balls in to the box. Walsall onthe hand were playing like a bunch of Muppets with no co-ordination, communication, effort, desire, passion, Vision or movement.

The Muppets at last got forward in the closing stages of the first half but, after Thomas fouled David Zdrilic, Steve Corica’s cross was easily cleared by Sergey Shtanuk.

Half Time : Stoke 1 Vs 0 Walsall

The Muppets registered their first shot of the match two minutes into the second half, when Tony Barras fired over from 18 yards. The Saddlers had improved greatly since the first half and Aussie striker Zdrilic tried his luck from 25 yards after 52 minutes only to miss the target.

Stoke replied almost immediately as Brynjar Gunnarsson headed a cross from Dutch winger Hoekstra wide from six yards. Martin O’Connor then replaced the injured Simpson before Mills fired over from six yards.

With two thirds of the game gone, Walker saved from Gunnarsson before Wrack – who had taken a knock – was replaced by Matias. On 66 minutes, as the muppets desperately tried to salvage a point, Corica had a go from 25 yards but Steve Banks caught his effort.  Then Barras headed crosses from both Corica and Aranalde over the bar from close range. On 72 minutes, the two Australians combined as Zdrilic headed a Corica cross wide. It was to be the midfielder’s last contribution as he was replaced by Gary Birch as the Saddlers threw men forward in search of an equaliser.

Junior and Zdrilic both failed with shots from distance for the away side while Stoke replaced goal scorer Mills with Scot Chris Iwelumo. At last it seemed like Colin Lee’s team of Muppets had woken up and realized they were playing the divisions worst side full of Second Division inadequates who are certs to be relegated. Most worryingly for the large Saddlers following was that our team of Muppets were unable to compete against the divisions poorest team.

The Muppets in Blue actually looked like they could get out of Jail, Pedro gave us some width and we immediately looked like we could nick a goal, but our inability to whip an early ball in to the box or take a shooting opportunity resulted in City hustling us of the ball and hitting us on the counter attack.

It could have been all over with 5 minutes left to play when sub Iwelumo  had a 25 yard shot tipped around the post by Jim Walker, one of the few chances City had in the second half. In fact, the last five minutes saw the Muppets revival fizzle out, Hoekstra had the final shot of the game from a free kick, and again Jim Walker produced an amazing save.

Overall the Muppets had been out fought, out played and outclassed by the bottom the league. The vital component in the defeat  was passion and desire, and when you looked at Zdrilic, Simpson, Wrack, Junior, Corica, Bazeley, Barras and Robinson you could not see a desire to win.  We hope they read this and see it as a personal insult and attack on their supposed professionalism.

They need to follow the attitudes of Walker, Roper, Matias and O’Connor who particularly in the second half tried to grab the Muppets a draw. The absent Leitao and Hay are two players also renound for their commitment and work rate and should walk back in to the 11 when fit.

Other than this, we could be radical and call for Stanley, Wright, Hawley, Birch, Bishop, Caines and other promising youngsters to be thrown in at the deep end in the coming week and show the “senior professionals” in the Muppet ranks what commitment and desire is.

As for the relegation fight, at 7:45pm this evening, as I looked at the league table I thought, there are 4 or 5 sides here we are clearly better than (who we have taken points off so far), Stoke, Grimsby, Brighton, Sheffield Wednesday, then there is Preston and Bradford, two sides who we are more or less similar to in status regarding the relegation battle. At 11:30 this evening we have just lost the bottom the league and now face two away game against 19th and 8^th place. Can anyone see where the points are coming from?

Full Time : Stoke 1 Vs  0 Walsall