The Unknown Prospect

[kmitchell96]

I am K.Mitchell. I have spent the last few years coaching for Walsall FC and after a "disappointing" season last year I have been put in charge after the dismissal of Dean Smith. I have always been seen as a background figure; I never do anything to stand out and I am never the centre of attention but this is my big break.

I am now the man in charge. I am managing the club I love, doing everything I can to bring success to them. My overall aim is to do so and make Walsall a successful team. It will be tough though, with plenty of quality in the league and injury troubles going into the season I think mid-table would be a good finish.
It is going to be tough and I can see my first year being a struggle but hopefully I can succeed and bring a trophy or two to the "small team everybody likes".

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[kmitchell96]

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Pre-season
Pre-season went well in some senses. We managed to pick up a couple of wins and show some quality against some teams that aren't easy to beat.

Walsall 4-0 Walsall Under 21's
The U21's game allowed me to start training the players back into a fit state. A 4-0 win was more than deserved as Bradshaw ran all over the youngsters as he scored a brace and Benning also managed a goal and an assist for Sawyers who tucked away a penalty.

Walsall 2-2 Burton Albion
The Burton game was tougher. Another penalty saw Sawyers put us 1-0 up before James Chambers scored an own goal. However Forde picked up the ball straight from the kick off, ran straight through and restored the 1 goal lead. They managed to equalise before the half as J.Chambers lost the ball and gifted them a goal.

Southport 0-4 Walsall
Southport were of a similar quality to our U21's side in my opinion. They had some good players but nothing that we should struggle to beat and it proved. We struggled in the first half and only managed to go into the half because of an own goal which saw their keeper spill the ball into the back of the net. The second half saw the youngsters get a run out and we went on to win 4-0 thanks to goals from Preston, Bakayoko and James Chambers.

However there were problems in this game as we saw Bradshaw, Cain and Forde pick up injuries in the first half.

Walsall 1-2 Southend
A tough loss to take as injuries continued to pile up but it was against a good league 2 opposition. Early in the second half we went 1-0 down only for Morris to equalise just after the hour after cutting into the inside and hitting one in from 25 yards. After we ended the game with 9 men though with Morris and Grimes getting injured they managed to pick up a goal in the 87th minute by exploiting our lack of cover on both wings.

Chippenham 0-1 Walsall
This should have been a much larger scoreline but the non-league outfit did well to stop us from scoring again. Bradshaw returned to the side only to get injured 5 minutes into the game. We went into half time goalless but 2 minutes into the second half Bakayoko picked up his second of pre-season.
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