Will this be the weekend we finally get a win or for that matter a goal? The Saddlers have won just one game so far this season and have scored just three goals.
We face fellow relegated side Bradford City who have also started the season inconsistently but find themselves five points clear of the Saddlers.
TEAM NEWS
WALSALL
Apart from Kory Roberts injury we should have a full strength side to choose from. What that side will be is anyone’s guess.
BRADFORD
Bradford will be without former Walsall winger Zeli Ismail after he was sent off last weekend.
Former Saddlers number one Richard O’Donnell will start and former Walsall loanee Aramide Oteh may have to settle for a place on the bench.
Hope Akpan and Shay McCartan are pushing for a return into the side.
LIKELY LINE UPS?
Walsall – Roberts, Norman, Clarke, Liddle, Jules, Pring, Guthrie, Kinsella, Sinclair, Lavery, Gaffney
Bradford – O’Donnell, Mellor, O’Connor, Richards-Everton, Wood, Connolly, Palmer, Devine, Pritchard, Donaldson, Vaughan
ONES TO WATCH
JAMES VAUGHAN (BRADFORD)
Vaughan needs no introduction having built up a reputation of being a hot shot in the lower leagues.
Vaughan has already scored three goals this term.
RORY GAFFNEY (WALSALL)
Eyes will be on former Bristol Rovers striker Rory Gaffney this weekend hoping that he and Caolan Lavery can take over the scoring responsibilities following the blanks from Josh Gordon and Elijah Adebayo.
Gaffney scored eleven goals for parent club Salford last season but has seen his chances limited this time around.
Gaffney scored one goal in every three games in League 2 for Rovers.
PAST MEETINGS
The Saddlers and Bradford have met on forty-nine occasions – Walsall 14, Draw 20, Bradford 15
Bradford have not won in their last five visits to Walsall.
The last time the two sides met came in February this year where the Saddlers won 3-2 despite Andy Cook being sent off after six minutes. A brace from Josh Gordon and a goal from Joe Edwards was enough for a vital win.
Their last win at Walsall came in 2013 thanks to goals from Kyel Reid and James Hanson.
Our last five HOME games v Bradford
23.02.19 – Walsall 3-2 Bradford
26.08.17 – Walsall 3-3 Bradford
17.12.16 – Walsall 1-1 Bradford
28.11.15 – Walsall 2-1 Bradford
16.08.14 – Walsall 0-0 Bradford
MATCH OFFICIALS
The match officials have been announced for this Saturday’s game and are as follows –
REFEREE – ANTHONY BACKHOUSE
ASSISTANTS – Declan Ford and Steven Plane
FOURTH OFFICIAL – Matthew Bristow
Backhouse has only officiated one game involving the Saddlers this came in February this year where we went down 3-0 to Coventry City at the Ricoh. Backhouse awarded Coventry a penalty that day.
So far this season he has officiated six games – dishing out twenty yellow cards, one red and awarding two penalties.
Backhouse became the first Cumbrian referee in the Football League for over forty years.
VITAL PREDICTION – WALSALL 2-1 BRADFORD CITY
This weekend will begin our climb up the League 2 table – you heard it here first.
UP NEXT
TUESDAY 17TH SEPTEMBER
Sky Bet League 2
Morecambe v WALSALL