Wednesday 11 January 2023
I’m not going to lie, I still feel a little bit gutted. A Tuesday or Wednesday night in Walsall might not be the most appealing prospect, but in the 88th minute on Sunday, it was something to relish. We were still in the cup; still in the hat for round four. If you lose a league game you can put things right within seven days. The wounds from exiting the FA Cup via a 95th minute penalty cut a little bit deeper. At least Leicester at home wasn’t the juiciest apple in the fruit bowl, and we’ve had a bit of that already this season. Northampton’s the big one now. All the build-up to a huge clash with the Cobblers will be on the website over the next few days. For now, here’s a look back at Sunday with Pop Sider Sandy McGregor and One Pod Beyond co-host Gary Ellison, plus a little bit of a photo dump off my camera.
There’s not long to go until ‘A Curry with Colin Woodthorpe’ - our first live event of 2023. It’s taking place at Last Monsoon in Stockport on Monday 30 January at 7.30pm. Come and join us for an entertaining evening with one of Gary Megson’s first County signings ahead of our first season in Division One in 1997-98. Colin’s an absolutely lovely bloke, and having made 171 appearances for County, he’s got some fantastic stories from his five years at Edgeley Park.
You’ll also get poppadoms, mixed starters, curry, rice and naan breads. As well as a full colour souvenir programme. All for just £20. Fancy it? Send me a text or give me a call on 07816 111150, or you can email desmondhinks@hotmail.co.uk
Finally, today’s edition is sponsored by N.J.D Waste Removals. A big thank you to Jamie. If you need any waste removal or house clearance services this year, give N.J.D a call. Further details below.
Des Junior
Sunday’s match in one word:
Sandy - Sobering.
Gary - Ridiculous!
Pre-match thoughts:
Sandy - Wasn't sure if we were going to reproduce our dominant performances against Crewe and Walsall or not get out of second gear like we did at Grimsby.
Gary - After the match in December, I was pretty worried. I’d have been happy with a replay. There was also a bit of hope when I realised that Horsfall was out - he did us a lot of damage in the previous game taking the ball out of defence. I was also thinking about Rydel getting in behind Knowles. Safe to say, at best, I was expecting a replay.
Post-match thoughts:
Sandy - Totally frustrated. We had somehow got our way back into the game and then instead of going for the jugular we were pinned into our own area. Their winner had an air of inevitability about it.
Gary - Ecstatic! We’ve easily beaten a League One team away (Wycombe) in round one, before last minute winners against a play-off team (Carlisle) and now a form team in yourselves in the last two rounds. It’s been a wild run so far. This kind of thing hasn’t happened to a Walsall team for quite a while, so I’m just trying to enjoy it. Walsall have certainly shortened my odds of a heart attack in the future with this run.
Verdict on County:
Sandy - Disjointed. I think Horsfall, Croasdale and Madden are our most influential and consistent players. We really missed them.
Gary - You looked like a team that had an illness running through it. You still moved the ball around well, but it seemed like we did our homework and learned from the match at the Bescot. Madden does a great job of dropping deep and making centre-halves question their positioning, but Wootton seemed like he wanted to go toe-to-toe with our centre-halves and that seemed like a mistake, even though he’d done well in the previous game making an effort to keep just out of reach of them.
Verdict on Walsall:
Sandy - Unrecognisable from their performance at the Bescot in the league and their performance at EP earlier. They were on the front foot throughout. They looked like a proper handful.
Gary - Within the first five minutes, we’d set our stall out to get forward. After watching the replay, we should have been 1-0 up after James-Taylor’s chance. Gordon and Knowles did a great job of bombing down the wings, doing the same as your wingers at our place and Comley did a quiet job of blocking through the midfield - basically, we did all the things we should have done in the last match! Thought we deserved the win and it could have been more, although I’ll concede that I thought the one handball shout was a penalty.
Top Hatter:
Sandy - Hinchliffe by some distance. Badly at fault for the goal but he kept us in the game any number of times.
Gary - I was impressed with the combination of Rydel and Hussey when they were working together against Knowles, but I do like the way you play. You seem to move the ball more crisply than us, but I guess you’ve had longer with your players to instil that style.
Top Saddler:
Sandy - Daniels was impressive. Solid at the back and a threat going forward.
Gary - I’ll stick up for Brandon Comley - he’s had a hard time of it, but his screening of the central midfield stopped you guys pushing through and really negated Collar.
Atmosphere:
Sandy - Felt very low key for long stretches. All around the ground. Picked up towards the end but considering it was a cup tie it took a long time to get going.
Gary - I’m a Walsall fan of 30+ years, so it’s been long-bred into me to hate drummers! Saying that, the low roof on the Cheadle End could make some serious noise, but I don’t think it happened for you lot on the pitch, so it didn’t quite get through in the crowd - happens to us sometimes as well at the Bescot. I do like EP, a proper ground in the middle of town. Not a fan of the open stand, though. Watched a cloud head towards the ground and held my raincoat just a bit tighter. Didn’t manage to get any food either, which is a shame, because that pie and mash looked sound!
Hopes for the rest of the season:
Sandy - I still think automatic is feasible but unless we can get our act together quickly it's play-offs at best. The Northampton game is massive.
Gary - We drew Leicester, so on that score, I’d love a TV game to get the money in and hopefully a great performance against a recent winner. In the league, I think we can make a run for the play-offs and it may just be that we’ll cross paths again. It’d certainly make an intriguing tie.
The British Library receives a copy of every single book published in the UK. In the same fashion, Des Junior believes a detailed record of every County game should be preserved for the history books. So here’s the full story of our 2-1 defeat at home to Walsall on Sunday 8 January 2023, as told from his three County-related WhatsApp groups…
12.15pm: My train is full of City whoppers, off to their third round tie with Chelsea.
2.05pm: Magnificent save from Ben.
2.24pm: Another cracking save by Ben.
2.40pm: Sarcevic hits a third shot over the bar.
3.22pm: 1-0 down. Hinchliffe should never have come out in the first place, and shouldn’t have stopped going back once he did.
3.47pm: MADDEN! You fucking beauty!
3.52pm: Walsall penalty. Stupid challenge from Madden. Hero to zero.
4.00pm: Bizarre after we equalised. Was all them when it should have been all us.
4.05pm: Injuries and illness or not, players have got to get themselves up for games like this, I’m afraid. If they can’t then you’ve got to question them. Can we say we’ve acquitted ourselves properly today? I’m not sure we can, and that irritates me far more than defeat.
4.53pm: Was there a bit of mither at the top of Edgeley after the game?
4.54pm: Yeah. All the police remained near where the old telescope shop is. Let Walsall (and County obviously) wander up Mercian Way together. Very minor handbags though. About a dozen or so fronting each other but mainly kids, didn’t do much. Couple of punches thrown then a gobby Saddler choke-slammed to the floor by a copper!
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