Walsall vs Luton - Disgraceful - But Still Beaten

By Neil Ravenscroft
October 20 2004

I couldn't decide whether it was Wimbledon or the Chesterfield of old they reminded me of, but, thankfully, they went away with nothing.

For the second home game on the trot, Walsall produced their best performance of the season. This was in very different circumstances to the Colchester game, however, as there was only one team out there trying to play football.

Player-manager Paul Merson made two changes for the Saddlers, bringing in Michael Standing for the injured Mark Kinsella, and, as expected, giving Gary Birch a runout for the rested Matt Fryatt. Despite the enforced change, however, the formation stayed as 4 3 1 2.

Luton play with two telegraph poles up front. That's all you need to know about them and their "style". Life in the Middle Ages was described as nasty, brutish and short, they are nasty, brutish and tall.

The opposition's major defensive tactic seemed to be to deny Merson space, but that backfired on them from the start. Merson himself, while not seeing as much of the ball as usual with their tactics, was quite brilliant when he did get it and Wrack, Osborn and, especially, Standing were revelling in the extra space from the off. We also seemed to be trying to use the full backs more, in an attempt to get some width, and Wright benefited from that, although his crossing left a lot to be desired.

Walsall started off passing the ball extremely well, with some slick movement off the ball as well and it came as no surprise when they took an early lead. Merson placed a sublime pass inside the right back, Birch produced possibly the long range pass of the night to find Wrack on the right hand side of the penalty area and he waited before pulling the ball back for the arriving Merson to stroke into the far corner. A sublimely worked goal.

Luton’s reply was to fling the ball into the penalty area for the big men and the Walsall defence took a little while to come to grips with the tactic, which is more than can be said for Vine and Howard when it came to defender's shirts. Luton's best chance came a few minutes after the goal, when a blatant push on Emblen went unpunished and the resulting shot was tipped over the bar by Murphy. When the corner was taken the referee (Premiership – no wonder) totally failed to spot Howard hanging onto Murphy’s shirt and the ball was scrambled against the post.

Birch and Leitao both went close for the Saddlers as they dominated the decent possession in the rest of the half, but we also got another scare when Standing (still looking a little weak defensively) was robbed by Brkovic and Murphy did well to hold him up and Wright cleared.

The second half started off with Luton varying their tactics. They were obviously under orders to use the space down our flanks left by the 4 3 1 2 formation and get the ball in the box, where Howard and Vine could "rough up" the defence, in the mode of their assistant manager, Mick Harford. Emblen especially, and the rest of the back four, ably assisted by the superb Osborn in the defensive midfield role, handled the threat superbly.

In the meantime, Walsall always looked likely to score on the break. Birch and Leitao both went close again, before Leitao went off with what appeared to be hamstring problems, to be replaced by Fryatt.

Merson then went close and Birch just failed to pick out Fryatt with a cross from the left, while Luton keeper Seremet went walkabout a couple of times, before another fast incisive break left Fryatt with a shooting chance and his shot was deflected and trickled into the far corner. Game over.

Merson again found time to go close, but one of the pleasing aspects was the way the defence dealt with the threat of Luton substitute Enoch Showumni, who was even bigger than the original two up front, and the maturity shown by Birch and Fryatt as they ran the clock down.

Luton were a throw back to the worst days of Wimbledon and Chesterfield, albeit very efficient, so I was glad to see them depart with what they deserved. Nothing.

For the second week running, this was the best we have played this season. The sponsor's man of the match was Merson, but to me it should have gone to one of the spine of the side, Emblen, Osborn or Birch. Osborn for me, as he was quite magnificent.

Merson does seem to have learned his lessons with the side looking settled and playing extremely well, but the injuries are starting to mount (Leitao went off and Aranalde got a battering) and he may have some big decisions to make soon. Let's hope Barlow helps there.

Downsides? Very, very few. Still not convinced by Wright as a full back, Standing worries me when defending, although he can be brilliant on the ball, and we were defending too narrow in the second half and, perhaps, a little deep. That can be worked on, however.

As for Luton? If they are the best the Division has to offer, it's onwards and upwards for us!