Match Preview: Walsall v Aston Villa

Who are we playing?
Walsall, Saturday July 25th- 3pm

Where are we playing?
Banks's Stadium,
Bescot Crescent,
Walsall,
West Midlands
WS1 4SA

Bescot is easy by train

Can I go?
On general sale, £12 plus booking fee.

Easy to get to?
Bang outside Bescot Station so dead easy from New Street.


Can I watch it on telly?
Live on AVTV which worked well for some of us for the games in Portugal, not others. For Swindon it was atrocious with log in issues, runtime errors and fans venting their spleen on Twitter.

If you can see it the coverage has improved massively, with multi-cameras and action replays. Still get Jack on commentary though...

Big game?

Gueye

For fans who don't like to venture too far from Brum, this will be the best opportunity to see Villa before the big kick off.

Still very much pre season training mode in this one, but we'd hope to glean at least some clues as to how we'll set up this season, even if it'll be still unclear personnel wise.

We'd certainly hope for a glimpse of Idrissa Gueye and Jordan Amavi in this one with the big kick off looming ever closer.

Pete admires Michaela's dangly ones..

Do Walsall have any famous fans?
Pete Waterman off The Hitman and Her (ask yer mom, kids).


Who's playing for us?
We'll still probably be making maximum use of subs but we certainly expect players neglected at the back end of last season to make a play for a place here, the likes of Carles Gil (if fit) and Scott Sinclair. Jores Okore is still recovering from knee surgery. Gary Gardner is crocked after a bad tackle in the Swindon game.

Who's playing for them?
Saddlers fans may be excited at the return of Milan Lalkovic.

Any useless stats?
Of course, here you go:

• We have hardly ever played Walsall in proper competitive matches.

• There have been six such meetings. We've won 2, drawn 3 and lost 1.

• Our last competitive match was back in March 1972 at Villa Park and was a 0-0 draw.

• Walsall normally struggle against their richer neighbours in the friendly matches, but there was a big 5-0 thumping two years ago. Young Jack Grealish caught the eye as Villa ran riot

Prediction
Walsall should be up for this but we should emerge victorious. Going for a 3-1 Villa win.