A Point in the right direction : Match Report

Daylight at last....

Walsall 0-0 Coventry Ciy

Nationwide League Division 1

Bescot, Walsall

Saddlers Latest

Goals

- Aranalde (Walsall)

- None

Match Report By 4two 

It was the same eleven that had beaten Gillingham on Saturday for the Saddlers. The opening half was full of chances for the Saddlers who looked the better of the two sides.

Junior waltzed around the Coventry backline within the opening 10 minutes but scuffed his shot because he was forced to shoot with his weaker right foot. Lawrence had a shot blocked on 6 minutes, while a wonderful sweeping move on 20 minutes resulted in Darren Wrack flashing a volley right across Montgomery's goal.

Carbon was forced to go off injured (again !), which meant Bazeley had to replace him and the Saddlers had to switch from 3-5-2 to 4-3-1-2

O'Connor and Junior both went on blaze efforts over the bar, while Samways saw a whole host of good opportunities from set plays wasted because their was no one of converting what were good deliveries.

The best chances of the game fell to Junior and Leitao, and were both in similar circumstances. Both players had lunged at balls that came across the penalty area during the first half, but Leitao had slipped and Junior his timed his shot. As the players went in at half time the Walsall fans were confident that more of the same would bring goals during the second half.

Half Time : 0-0

The second half saw the Saddlers lose their grip on the game, but Coventry failed to take control. The Saddlers  only mustered 2 decent chances all half.  1 fell to Lawrence whose mazy run from the half way line resulted in him lifting his shot to far over Montgomery, and the other from a long throw from the right flank which was flicked on beyond the reach of Montgomery but drifted wide.

Despite fielding the lively Matt Jansen and promising Jay Bothroyd up front, the Sky Blues created very little. Their best chance of winning the game came towards the end of the 90 minutes when Gary McAllister's far post header was saved by Jim Walker.

Jamie Lawrence had a good first game at Bescot with a number of good runs and bursts during the match. He seemed to struggle when the ball was played in the air, but he isn't best known for his aerial ability.

Colin Lee angered the majority of the home fans when Junior was replaced by Simpson. Bringing on a midfielder for a striker with the scores at 0-0 was seen as a negative move, despite Lawrence moving up front. What  made it worse was that on 90 minutes Matias replaced Lawrence leaving Jorge as the only recognised striker.

2 points lost or 1 point gained? its a point in the right direction.

Full Time : 0-0

Form

• Walker - When called in to action did his thing.
• Wrack - Some poor crossing, but not that bad
• Aranalde - Never put a foot wrong all game, best crosser of the ball.
• Carbon - Got injured
• Roper - Kept their forwards quiet, distribution was awful at times.
• Barass - Quiet and effective.
• O'Connor - The best midfielder on the pitch.
• Lawrence - Excellent coming forward, shame he played 2 or 3 different positions.
• Samways - Always around, sloppy passing at times.
• Junior - One minute great, the next hopeless.
• Leitao - Great first half performance. Unlucky not to grab a goal.
• Simpson & Matias - Not enough time.