Walsall will be back in action this weekend as they welcome Morecambe to the Poundland Bescot Stadium for their season-opening Sky Bet League Two clash.
PRE-MATCH VIEWS
Following a 2023/24 season that saw the Saddlers finish just five points off the League Two Play-Off places, the time has come to get the new campaign underway.
A rather lethargic pre-season campaign that produced some insipid performances has done little to inspire the faithful, with the lack of goals laying bare the need to add more firepower to the team.
Looking at transfer activity in general, there have been a few promising signings, with the likes of Connor Barrett, Charlie Lakin, and Albert Adomah offering hope, but gaps remain.
A real lack of goals is unsurprisingly the talk of the town with just Jamille Matt and summer signing Josh Gordon up front the Reds are currently unlikely to blow other teams out of the water and will need to rely upon their defence to scrape by.
With that being said, much of last season's dropped points were the result of defensive errors and, as most of that backline remain in WS1, we could be in for a difficult start to the season.
WALSALL TEAM NEWS
Walsall will be without club captain Donervon Daniels, midfielder Brandon Comley, and striker Danny Johnson as they continue to work their way back from a variety of long-term injury issues.
Albert Adomah is fit for selection, though Jack Earing is a doubt after suffering a hamstring injury in training.
Ronan Maher is suspended after seeing red during his recent spell with Rushall Olympic.
OPPOSITION NEWS
It has been a summer of change for Morecambe as, after finishing fifteenth in League Two last season, there have been an impressive thirty ins and outs over the last few months.
Ending the 2023/24 campaign with just two wins from their final eleven games, it's not hard to see why they pressed the proverbial panic button, though that does make them a difficult side to predict (especially with our track record)
Along with the changes in the dressing room, there has been a familiar switch in the dugout too as Derek Adams has returned to the club for a third spell as manager.
Replacing Ged Brannan, Adams has already taken charge of 167 Shrimps games and will be looking to add to his fifty-eight wins with a victory on Saturday afternoon.
HEAD-TO-HEAD
There have only been seven competitive meetings between the Saddlers and Shrimps, and it's Morecambe who hold a comfortable head-to-head lead having won on four occasions compared to the Saddlers' two.
The first meeting was a Johnstones Paint Trophy clash which took place at the then-Globe Arena on Tuesday, 1st September 2015, and saw Morecambe win by two-goals-to-nil as Jamie Devitt and Tom Barkhuizen netted in the second forty-five.
THE LAST TIME WE MET
The most recent meeting took place at the Poundland Bescot Stadium on Tuesday, 20th February 2024, and saw the Saddlers win by three goals to nil as Ross Tierney grabbed what was his third goal of the season following Isaac Hutchinson saw a shot deflect into the on-loan Motherwell man's path.
The second goal of the game also went the way of the Saddlers as Jamille Matt continued his spell of strong form as he and Josh Gordon combined for Jamille to crash the ball home, notching his fourth goal of the campaign.
Walsall added to their lead in the second half as on-loan Norwich City defender Emmanuel Adegboyega bagged his second goal in as many games to give his short-term team a three-goal lead.
MATCH OFFICIALS
James Durkin will be the man in the middle as the Dorset-based official, who took charge of twenty-two games last season, where he issued ninety-two yellow cards and nine red cards, gets his campaign underway.
We also know that Karl Buckley and Anthony Moore have been named assistant referees. Oliver Bickle will act as Fourth Official.