Chapter 257: Walsall

Chapter 257: Walsall

The noise about Jamal Osei’s spot in the starting lineup didn’t just vanish, but when the team sheet went up in the Broadfield dressing room on Saturday afternoon, the debate was put on hold.

Jamal’s name was written right there in blue marker at the base of the midfield.

Niels wasn’t caving to the boardroom or the media. The choice was purely tactical. He knew exactly what kind of game to expect.

Walsall hadn’t come to West Sussex to play open football. They were a well-organized team, perfectly happy to sit deep and dare Crawley to break them down.

Against a team parking the bus, Kieron’s aggressive energy wasn’t what they needed. Niels needed someone to pick the lock.

He needed a player who could control the tempo, shift the defense around and thread passes through impossibly tight spaces. He needed his metronome.

Kickoff:

When the match kicked off under the cold, overcast sky, Walsall’s game plan was obvious. They dropped ten men behind the ball, letting Crawley have possession and daring them to break down two tight banks of four.

The first thirty minutes were a test of patience.

From the edge of his technical area, Niels watched Jamal run the game. It was a lesson in calm, simple football.

Whenever Adam Fletcher or the center-backs had the ball, Jamal was right there dropping into space to give them an option.

He didn’t force anything. He would take a smooth touch and move the ball side to side, constantly shifting Walsall’s defense. Left to Callum Haines, back to Jamal, out right to Reece Darby.

But even with Jamal pulling the strings, the final third was a crowded, frustrating mess.

Paul Pogba drifted between the lines looking for a gap, but every time he got the ball, two red shirts swarmed him.

Up top, Max Simons was completely isolated, wrestling with two big center-backs who refused to give him an inch.

Crawley dominated possession, but they just couldn’t find that final pass.

In the thirty-ninth minute, they finally carved out a real chance.

Jamal pinged a sharp, diagonal ball out to the right flank. Dev Patel took it down beautifully on his chest.

Instead of hesitating or trying to beat three guys on his own the kind of flashy play that got him chewed out in training earlier that week Dev kept it simple.

He dropped his shoulder, faked inside, and used a quick burst of pace to beat the left-back on the outside.

Reaching the byline, he didn’t just blindly smash the ball across the goal. He looked up and clipped a perfectly weighted cross to the back post.

Max Simons had peeled off his marker. The veteran striker leaped and connected with a powerful downward header.

It looked like a sure goal, but the Walsall keeper pulled off a stunning point-blank save. He threw out a strong right hand, tipping the ball onto the post before a defender scrambled to hack it clear.

A collective groan went around Broadfield. Niels clapped his hands from the touchline to encourage them.

It was a brilliant move, but the halftime whistle blew shortly after, keeping the score stubbornly locked at 0-0.

Halftime: Crawley 0-0 Walsall

In the dressing room, Niels kept things simple. "Keep moving them. They’ll get tired chasing the ball. Don’t get frustrated, and don’t lose your shape when we push forward."

As the second half started, Walsall realized they’d survived the worst of it and began to push their luck a little.

They weren’t throwing bodies forward, but whenever they won the ball, they immediately looked to counter down the channels, hoping to catch Crawley’s full-backs out of position.

In the fifty-fifth minute, they almost pulled it off.

Crawley had sent men forward for a corner. When the cross was cleared, it fell to a Walsall midfielder who instantly hooked a long pass over the top, aiming for the huge gap Reece Darby had left on the right flank.

The Walsall winger was quick, sprinting onto the ball with nothing but open grass ahead.

Niels held his breath, but then he saw Jamal.

The veteran midfielder hadn’t chased the ball. He’d read the danger before the pass was even made. Instead of panicking and sprinting at the winger, Jamal just calmly dropped back, filling in perfectly at right-back.

As the winger drove forward, looking to cut inside to the box, he found Jamal standing right in his way. Jamal didn’t dive in.

He just matched the winger’s pace, positioned his body perfectly, and forced him wide toward the corner flag. He completely stalled the counter-attack until the rest of the defense could get back.

On the touchline, Niels nodded. If Kieron had been playing, the kid probably would have sprinted thirty yards to try and smash the winger with a heavy tackle.

Both ways worked, but Jamal’s was pure tactical smarts. It was top-level defending without even breaking a sweat.

Past the hour mark, the game was still tied. Walsall’s defense was holding firm, and Crawley was starting to look a bit heavy-legged as they endlessly passed the ball around.

Niels knew they needed a spark. They needed a change of pace and more energy in tight spaces.

In the sixty-seventh minute, he turned to the bench and signaled for a triple sub.

The fourth official held up the board. Thiago replaced Nate Sutton, bringing some fresh energy to the left wing. Danny Freeman jogged on for Tom Whitehall to add some quick, tidy passing in the middle.

Finally, Kieron Marsh took off his tracksuit and high-fived Paul Pogba as the Frenchman slowly walked off.

It was a bold move. Niels hadn’t subbed Jamal out. Instead, he put Kieron right next to him.

The game changed almost instantly. With Jamal anchoring the midfield and dictating the tempo from deep, Kieron pushed higher up the pitch.

The teenager was an absolute nuisance. He pressed the Walsall midfielders hard, disrupted their rhythm, and chased down every loose ball.

In the seventy-eighth minute, that energy almost paid off.

A Walsall defender tried to play a short pass out from the back. Kieron read it perfectly, closing the gap fast and putting in a hard, crunching tackle. The ball spilled right into the path of Danny Freeman.

Freeman took a touch and slid a smart pass to Dev Patel on the right edge of the box. Dev cut sharply inside onto his left foot and curled a vicious shot toward the far top corner.

He struck it beautifully, but the Walsall keeper was there again, diving to tip the ball just over the crossbar with his fingertips.

Niels swore quietly, rubbing his face. It was starting to feel like one of those days where the ball just wouldn’t go in.

In the eightieth minute, Niels made his final sub. He brought on Korey Henry to replace an exhausted Max Simons, hoping the young striker’s explosive pace could find a breakthrough against the tired center-backs.

But as Crawley pushed more bodies forward looking for a winner, they left themselves exposed at the back. In the eighty-seventh minute, Walsall nearly stole the points.

A sloppy pass from Thiago in the final third sparked a fast counter-attack. Two quick passes bypassed Crawley’s midfield entirely, putting their striker clean through on goal.

Liam McCulloch tried desperately to get back, but he just didn’t have the raw speed to catch him.

The striker drove into the box and fired a hard, low shot at the bottom right corner.

Adam Fletcher proved his worth. The veteran keeper rushed off his line, made himself big, and threw his body to the left, somehow deflecting the shot wide with an instinctive kick of his trailing leg.

The entire stadium let out a massive gasp of relief.

When the final whistle blew a few minutes later, the scoreboard read 0-0.

Fulltime: Crawley 0-0 Walsall

The Crawley players looked deflated as they shook hands with the other team. It was a frustrating result.

They’d controlled the game, kept the ball, and created the better chances, but just couldn’t find a goal at home. Dropping two points in a tight promotion race against Southampton hurt.

Niels walked onto the pitch to check on his players. He patted Dev on the back and had a quick word with Fletcher about his crucial late save.

But as he headed back toward the tunnel, his mind was already turning to tactics.

The 0-0 draw was disappointing, but those final twenty minutes gave him something incredibly valuable. He got to see Jamal and Kieron on the pitch at the same time.

And it worked.

Jamal’s calm control perfectly balanced Kieron’s relentless energy. They didn’t step on each other’s toes they actually complemented each other.

The media and the board had spent all week treating the holding role as a choice that had to be either Jamal or Kieron.

But as Niels walked down the tunnel, listening to the quiet frustration of his dressing room, he saw the bigger picture.

He didn’t just have a selection headache anymore. He had a brand new weapon.