Quotes from the Walsall v Fleetwood Town Cup game – Spiderman

As Blue Square Premier side Fleetwood Town left the Bescot with nothing and yet deserved more, I thought I'd let them have the first word ...

Following the FA Cup 1st round replay on Tuesday evening Fleetwood boss and former Baggie Micky Mellon felt his side did well enough to win the game, but said:

“I’ve got a tremendous amount of respect for Chris Hutchings, but let’s be honest, they robbed us.”

“We were never going, to win the Cup. We outplayed, out-passed and looked more determined than Walsall. We were probably on the wrong end of a defeat and everybody knows it, but that’s football.”

“A lot of credit goes to their goalkeeper – I can’t stand him. Full credit to the guy. He looks like he couldn’t touch the crossbar and yet jumped around like Spiderman.”

There's no doubt that Walsall had personnel problems with several pleyers unavailable, but they really do need to sit down and take a look at themselves instead of taking the 'everybody hates us' approach. Despite the win over the Cod Army manager Chris Hutchings found himself being questioned by a less than impressed local media and said:

“You’re on a hiding to nothing in these games as we were when we went to Stourbridge last year. You just want to try and get through and be in the hat for the next round and that’s what we done. We were up against it when we played at their place when we were down to ten men after thirty-five or forty minutes. We had to dig deep up there.”

“It was a cup tie and they’re trying to cause a shock aren’t they? The most important thing is that we’ve kept a clean sheet and won the game and we look forward to the next round and that’s all that matters really. There’s things that we can look at and work on.”

“We’ve had a lot of injuries. People who have come through at the end of the day. You know, Macken (Jon) was just short and McDonald’s (Clayton) just short. We’ve had Grigg (William) away and obviously McGivern (Ryan) couldn’t play and Devaney (Martin) and (Darren) Byfield. As you saw with the bench it was a little bit threadbare shall we say?”

On Walker’s man of the match performance Hutchings said:

“Well that’s what he’s there to do. We knew when we were getting him in what we were getting and he’s come up trumps for us today and kept us in the game at times. He’s a noisy, bubbly character and full of confidence and that’s what you need at this moment in time. People need to stand up to be counted and that’s exactly what he did tonight and he gave us a springboard to bounce back and get a result which we’ve done and that’s all that matters when you’re in the hat.”

Having played this quote back, maybe I was being a little harsh on Hutchings in yesterday's blog in his praise of Walker and so I apologise to him for that.

Scorer Rueben Reid was also praised for his face-saving brace by the gaffer who said:

“It was a great ball in for the first one and great contact and for the second one he’s put them on the back foot and gone round a couple of people and slotted it in and obviously that just basically kills it off so late in the game. Get the ball in the box with that type of delivery and he can also get on the end of them and he can also create as he did for the second goal and that’s what he’s got to do more of.”

On Fleetwood and lower level opponents in general Hutchings said:

“I’m sure they’ll look back on the chances they would have had in the first half when Wacker’s (James Walker) kept us in it, but I would imagine most of the cup ties that were on tonight would’ve been the same scenario. League clubs will have had to defend well at times. They’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.”

“You can call it luck or whatever you want, but you’ve got to take heart from that. We’ve got to look to progress and do better and keep winning games. Hopefully that will be a springboard for Saturday and that’s what we’ve got to look forward to now. “

“We’ll be in tomorrow. We’ll be having a recovery session tomorrow in preparation for Saturday and that’s the important one now.”

“A win’s a win. We had to go to Stourbridge and get in and get out and we done a job there. Doesn’t matter how you do it, you need a little bit of luck. We’ve had decent games here and we’ve got beat so maybe our fortunes have changed and so we’ll see.”

“I thought we started the game well and then they wrestled it from us and took over in the first half to be quite honest. Second half was probably even Steven, but we scored the goals when it mattered. In the games that we’ve lost in the past the opposition have scored goals when it mattered and so it’s pleasing that we’ve ended up winning the game.”

“The be all and end all is that we’ve got through. It doesn’t matter how you get through. At any stage in any game the keeper’s going to have to make saves. You might need a little bit of luck. Whether we’ve had it tonight, doesn’t matter – we’re through. We’ve had a clean sheet and so let’s take heart from that.”

“We’ve got another game coming up and so there’s always pressure , but hey, we want to take confidence from the win and a clean sheet and that’s what we’ll do. There’s going to be tension. It’s the FA Cup, that’s what it’s all about.”

“We’ve put ourselves under pressure because we want to win the game and we haven’t been winning games recently so that’s what it’s all about.”

When I asked him abnout his own position and whether he felt the pressure he said:

“David Moyes says he fears for his job every day and that’s David Moyes.”

Striker Reid said:

“Everyone who watched the game will understand that it was a tough game and a real FA Cup tie. I think they came and were up for it. It was a bit of a battle, but in the end we came away with a positive result. That’s what cup games are like. From a lower position they’re always going to be up for it. To be honest, in the first half they done quite well. Walker’s made some fine saves and kept us in the game and in the end we’ve come off with two goals.”

“It’s a game of football. They had their chances and definitely didn’t take them. At the other end we took our chances. We win.”

“We went to their place and I think they had a real good opportunity to beat us in the sense that we only had ten men on the pitch for the majority of the game, but we battled hard there and it was another battle there tonight. I’m just happy to get a positive result.”

On his own goal scoring record – six for the season - he was honest enough to say:

“It could be better. I’ve had a few more chances that I could have put away. It could be more. I’m pleased with tonight, but I’ve got brace and effectively won the game.”

On the mounting pressure at the Bescot, he said:

“It’s important to win every game. Obviously it’s known fact that at the moment we’re not on the best of runs, but hopefully a result like this might help us turn the corner, you never know. Everyone’s got to stick together and pull together and get out on the pitch and get the results.”

“I can’t speak for the other lads, but for me it was just another game and I focus on my own performance. We’re all pulling together to get the right result for the club. We’re professional footballers we go across the line we have to focus on our performance and produce the goods. That’s what it’s all about. If you’re taking into account situations and fans and what people are going to get at, it could affect our game.”

“I can only speak for myself and I know that when I go on the pitch I concentrate fully on my performance. Sometimes things won’t go for you and sometimes they will and tonight it went for us in the sense that we got a positive result.”

“Games of football are there to be won and we done that. Maybe we can now get some belief and confidence around the place. Different players will react to the situation differently. I go out there and I just want to play my best. Other players may feel the heat a bit more, I don’t know.”