DPL v Walsall

Walsall don’t have a very good away record. However, if we beat them they can still get 2 more points than Rovers, so a win is an absolute necessity rather than a decisive end to their ability to out-do our points total.

I was amazed that Richard Wood played at Morecambe with six or eight stitches to close up the head wound and then was reported to have headed the ball. What a hero!

Having just watched the extended highlights, the last performance was most impressive. You forget how joyous our scoring can be when we are playing well. I don’t think that any goal that we scored under Schofield ever produced much emotion in me and it seems so long since the goals we got from Richards and John-Jules prompted similar emotions.

People are looking back on the criticism of Molyneux’s selfishness and suggesting that somehow it was not justified which is not so. His judgment has improved and that is why he is now making better decisions on positioning and team work. Obviously gifted players like Adelukan alongside make a lot of difference as well. And Craig at this level impresses me more than Kane. What a player he is! At last we have found not 1, but 3 excellent loanees. What a contrast with all the young forwards whose YouTube videos prompted great expectations which were never fulfilled.

So how do we rate Walsall? I think it might be fair to suggest that they are not as consistent as Rovers have been recently, although they have sustained fairly solid form for longer. What you could say is that they have faltered when they should have made the final push into the promotion places. When we last met them their previous form was probably sufficient to give them the confidence they needed on the day. However when faced with MKD whose drive to the top has been very sustained, they wilted and lost 5-0. So perhaps, based on our current reputation, they will crumble, especially as they do not have too good a record away from home. In the last 6 it has been WLDLWD. Faal has not been a regular starter, although when he hasn’t started he has been a regular substitute. I’m not sure what that means, but he must have some personal misgivings about the decision he made.

I think we could be more nervous about this game than any recently, so it may affect the performance. However we surely must have enough to get by them, so I’ll say Ironside or Biamou with the first of 3 with 1 in response.