‘When I were a lad’ in the 1970’s, winning the FA Cup was on par with winning the old Division 1. People like to point at the year that Manchester United didn’t enter as when it started losing it’s shine and whilst I’m always up for blaming United for everything, for me it started the decline in importance when the Champions League and Premier League began offering absurd prize money. You get about £4 million for winning the FA Cup, roughly the same amount for finishing two places higher in the Premier League. When clubs would rather finish in the Top 4 than win the FA Cup, you have a problem.
Of course, today is third round of the FA Cup and our
entrance into the competition. Walsall have got through two rounds already
beating Sheppey United of Isthmian League South East Division in the first
round and Alfreton Town of the National League North in the second round.
Having dispatched a team from level eight of the football league pyramid and a
team from level six, they now get to take on a level two side and Southampton. The question is, will we be a level two side, or will we be a
team of under 18s? Rumour has it that we can expect the likes of Sam Amo-Ameyaw
and Tyler Dibling to make an appearance.
Walsall are mid table in League 2 and so it should be the
type of game where we can rest a few players and still put out a team strong
enough to win it relatively comfortably and get into the fourth round. I kind
of think it will be interesting to play a bottom half Premier League team in
the FA Cup at some point to see where we’re at, but we’d probably get two weakened
sides in that scenario, so there’s probably not much point in hoping for that.
Let’s just take it as it comes, starting with Walsall. After all, we’ve done
pretty well as a level two side in the FA Cup in the past. Football has changed
a little bit since then, sonny.
And to prove that, nine changes from the Norwich game with only THB and Jack
Stephens remaining. Sam Amo and Jayden Meghoma start, with fringe players like
Mara, Holgate, Smallbone, Alcaraz, Lumley, Charles and Fraser everywhere else. Flynn Downes is on the bench with a commode
and a big space all round him. The youth
on the bench is Cameron Bragg and Tyler Dibling.
Away we go and Saints are straight on it. Five minutes in and THB lifts the ball over
the defence and Ryan Fraser has made a superb run away from the full back and
behind the centre back and he controls it and smashes it past the keeper for 1-0.
Easy as you like, clinical.
Fraser was showing everybody the way with his intelligent
running off the ball and he sends Meghoma away on the left and his superb cross
is headed over the bar by Mara in slightly shit fashion. Fraser again starts the next attack in the
centre of the pitch and spreads the ball out of Sam Amo on the right and after
taking on his man he knocks it back to Fraser, whose shot is blocked and pops
up for Mara six yards out, surely…. Open goal… Row Z… Fucking hell. Not clinical.
There was a minor scare as Knowles got a cross over from the
right hand, which was met by Hutchison in the middle, forcing Lumley to push it
up and over the bar but the offside flag was already raised. Lumley has made a good start of the game to be
fair with his ability to play out from the back being notable. He wasn’t to
know this was offside either.
The half time talk was surely about ‘one more goal’ but no one listened and we came out and were shit. Holgate took a throw across the top of our own penalty area and Jack Stephens electing to play a blind pass towards Meghoma which was intercepted by Knowles and then smashed over the bar. As our attempt give away ago hadn’t worked, we decided to try and improve with repetition and this time Mason Holgate presented the ball straight to the Earing who ran in on Lumley and managed to get closer to the corner flag than the goal with an attempt that could only be described as dreadful.
Having fucked about for far too long, it was time to put the game to bed. Starting with Lumley and via Stephens, the ball went to Alcaraz on the left hand side breaking into the Walsall half. Charly finds Fraser and he rolls it into the penalty spot where Mara takes a touch, turns and smashes into the roof of the net. About fucking time. Really good finish it has to be said. The Wee Man is clearly on a mission today and combines with Alcaraz to present another chance to Will Languid to sidefoot wide of the post, again. Saints shuffled with THB going off, Holgate moving to centre back, Charles to right back and Che Adams coming on upfront and Mara dropping into midfield. With the aid of a deflection, Smallbone picks up the ball in midfield, finds Alcaraz, onto Fraser who just rolls it across the keeper right footed into the far corner of the net. Another superb finish for the Wee Man Are we going to score every time we attack? Yes we are as Alcaraz again turns provider, this time feeding Che Adams on the left and he bundles past a defender, like a Big Dog is supposed to do, before slotting it past the keeper left footed and a desperate defender on the line couldn’t keep it out. 4-0
It was then time for a couple more of the kids to come on with Dibling coming on Mara and Bragg on for Sam Amo. Dibling in particular looked determined to make an impression coming in from the right hand side and making a yard before hitting the outside of the near post. Bragg slotted into midfield as if he’d always played there. We made a chance for a Wee Man hat-trick in the last couple of minutes as Adams bundled through a couple of tackles to play him in but he could only pick out the goalkeeper. As the final whistle went on a comfortable victory, it was noticeable but Ryan Fraser was absolutely fucked, having not stopped running for 90 minutes. Well that was pretty comfortable in the end against very limited opponents. They were enthusiastic but didn’t have a single thing in the front half of the pitch, which at times was just as well because they had a couple of fantastic chances either side of half-time, presented to them by our defenders with horrible mistakes being made by Jack Stephens and Mason Holgate but at the end of the day we got away with it so it doesn’t matter. The best player on the pitch by a country mile was Wee Man Ryan Fraser and his two goals and one assist do him justice because he was excellent throughout and set a brilliant example for any experienced player, chosen to play in this type of game. This role model thing is not something anyone expected from Fraser when he signed from Newcastle, given his previous reputation so fair play to him. Other fringe first team players included Will Smallbone who was neat and tidy enough but on the occasions where he managed to break into the Walsall penalty area, he didn’t manage to get a single shot on target. Charly had a great second half when he decided to play properly instead of trying to take the piss. He no doubt got a half-time bollocking and both of those two really have a lot to play for with Joe Aribo missing from the first team for the next three or four weeks. Mason Holgate proved that he is worth keeping around if no solution can be found to send him back to Everton because he is a solid enough right back and with only KWP and Ryan Manning fit at the moment, it would be somewhat foolish to allow him to go back to Everton with no replacement being bought in. He actaully looks better at right back than Jack Stephens does, not that that would get him in the team ahead of the captain. If Holgate does go, the next in line at full-back is Jayden Meghoma, who was probably the pick of the young players who played today though not tested defensively. He played with great confidence and some lovely crosses into the box with his left foot.
Sam Amo found it quite difficult on the right wing they did occasionally have the beating of his defender. It must’ve been slightly frustrating for him because of vast majority of our play was going down the left-hand side where Fraser was absolutely on fire. The same fate also befell Tyler Dibling when he came on because he was playing as the right sided number eight and then the right winger and again, all the play was going down the left-hand side. The fourth youngster was Cam Bragg, who came on in the defensive midfield position which is absolutely ideal when you are 4-0 up because you’re gonna get lots of touches of the ball and he did everything with a minimum of fuss and just keep the ball moving in what was a nice gentle first team introduction for him.
I was today looking for an answer to the question that is Sekou Mara. What is he? Is he any good? Is there anything there? Is he worth persevering with? After watching that display today, the answer to all of those questions for me is still “I don’t know“. There were some bad misses, terrible touches, some bad decisions and the fact that he kept on getting caught repeatedly on his heels and was clearly getting very frustrated but then he scored a really good goal which was a nicely taken finish. I would say that the finish shows that there maybe is something there but weather he has enough to make it as a Championship level forward, I think the jury is very much out still. It was an ideal day for Russell Martin. He rested who he needed to rest and some youngsters got minutes and we won the game and no matter what your aspirations for the season, whether you’re prioritising the league or not, it’s always nice to sit in front of the TV and watch the draw for the next round. I watched in on Monday night and we got possibly the most piss-boring draw imaginable – Watford away.
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