Walsall v Shrewsbury aftermath

If you had offered any saddler 4 points from 2 away games and a place at the top of the league, most if not all would have taken it. Richard Money for one is happy with the points haul.

However the Bescot boys can play better and many of the 1900 that travelled to Gay Meadow realise that besides the first 15 minutes when we looked a league better than the Shrews,we were very much under par.

A number of questions has come from the game. The Keates Dobbson combination in the centre of midfield still seems to be lacking, a case could be made for Kinsella to return. However it would be hard to drop either Keates or Dobbson since both give 100%, but the team is the main thing.

Up front despite his first goal in his first start, Tony Bedeau didn't look like a natural partner for Butler. Sam held the ball up well when he came on and in some ways looked a better bet.

Defence, we have some good defenders and have one of best goals against records about. So why are we still moaning !!, well Chris Westwood has won over a lot of fans but he is better in the centre of defence although he seems to be first choice right back under DD. However whilst his performances improve there is always a fear that an out and out winger might just find him out...Mansfield have a couple come saturday.

In truth the game itself was probably the reason for our poor display. In this league we are learning that some games we are just going to have to battle for 90 minutes and will get very little chance to play. Tuesday night was such a game Shrewsbury were up for the challenge and pressured all areas of the pitch and got plenty of players into our box. We withstood this pressure despite Ropers absence, and we competed, last season we would have folded, this season we have proved in our sternest test so far we are up for the battle. If we can get a chance to play like we know we can we will take some one apart.

Last night a draw was a fare result, Shrewsbury had three good chances and only took one. If Fox's shot hadn't clipped the bar and gone in we would have gone on to win I am sure, but in truth if Peads injury time shot had gone in instead of rebounding off the bar, a 2-1 win for us would have been robbery.

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