Barrow vs Walsall - George Bennett match preview
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00:00Good afternoon Sadler's fans. I was at Essenton earlier today where I spoke to Matt Sadler ahead of Walsall's trip to Hulker Street to face Barrow on Saturday afternoon.
00:13And it was a weekend to forget for Walsall fans. Last Saturday is a 3-2 defeat against local rivals Port Vale.
00:22So Walsall knocked off a top spot after a 119 day stay at the League 2 Summit.
00:32Unfathomable when you consider that at the mid to end of January they were 12 points clear and 15 points clear of the trailing pack in 4th spot.
00:48And that gap is now at 2 points with Doncaster currently in 4th and they face AFC Wimbledon with another top-end tussle in the early kick-off.
00:59And if Doncaster were to win they would go above Walsall which would knock Walsall out of the automatic promotion spots for the first time since mid-September.
01:10Bradford City also play in another early kick-off against Swindon at the county grounds so they could extend their lead at the top before Walsall even kick a ball at 3pm.
01:17And Notts County on Friday night against Salford City could even move to within one point at the Sadlers.
01:23So getting extremely tight there and it's now or never for Walsall really to start to pick up points and more importantly wins.
01:31I mean you know there's been plenty of draws on the road of late.
01:35Now it's time to start translating that into maximum points and yeah five games left now for Walsall to turn the tie because I mean two wins from 16 it's not a great run of form to now be sort of closing the season.
01:49At the most important stage with you know what has been a drastic drop-off for the Sadlers.
01:59Sadler talked about thriving through adversity and Jameel Matt said you know where they are now isn't where they'll be at the end of the season.
02:07So a little bit of fighting talk there.
02:10I also spoke to Matt Sadler about Harry Williams and how he's responded and said that you know he's got a willingness to always improve and a great attitude.
02:17Be interesting to see if he comes back in.
02:19It's obviously been a hot topic of debate with the fact that he's been left out of the squad for the last three games.
02:26Elsewhere Ellis Harrison is finally available it's kind of been a waiting game for him really where he's been in contention but close but but not close enough in terms of getting into the squad as he recovered from a hamstring injury which he suffered in a 2-2 draw against Bromley at Hayes Lane in March.
02:47So yeah he will be available for selection and not quite the same case for Josh Gordon he's been out of a second hamstring injury this season which he suffered in February and yeah he's fighting to be fit not ruled out but yeah still a doubt ahead of this one and on top of that Sadler added updates on Priestley-Farkerson and he's obviously been out for seven months now with a thigh injury and it's kind of been setback after setback for him.
03:15But Sadler's noticed an improvement with Farkerson and is hoping that he will be in contention for the game at the Bescott against Harrogate Town the following weekend and the same case for Jack Aaron who's obviously not kicked the ball in 2025 suffered an ankle injury at the end of 2024 in the 2-0 win against Newport County.
03:38Last thing to finish up on really is George Hall I asked whether he's in a condition to start Matt Sadler said possibly when I spoke to him last week he said really that it's kind of a to build up his minutes more than anything it was kind of that 25-30 minute cameo off the bench in the 1-1 draw against Wimbledon then it was 45 minutes against Port Vale
04:08a boost for Walsall heading into the closing games of the season.