By Neil Ravenscroft
September 21 2002

A few Walsall fans seem to suffer from the West Midlands disease of criticising new players too early in their club careers. One to suffer on some message boards has been our new striker, David Dzrillic.

I for one couldn’t understand comments about Zdrilic on the message boards like “how many games do I have to give him before I can say he’s useless?” The player had a terrible time in Germany, mainly because his Manager seemed to take it personally that he was being called up for International duty during the Aussie World Cup qualifying campaign (shades of Graydon with Hall and Simpson there). This led to him arriving looking well short of match fitness, not helped by a pre season injury.

On his first substitute appearances, I was quite encouraged by the look of him, as he seemed to be a hard working forward, one who would compliment Jorge eventually.

But what a difference a week makes. He was one of the few players to emerge from the Bradford debacle with any credit, gave a man of the match performance to go with his two goals against Rotherham and sent us on our way today at Milwall with a superb headed goal.

He is good in the air, considering his lack of inches, has two good feet, is always ready to have a go at goal and his movement is superb. He pulled both Rotherham center backs all over the place on Tuesday, making plenty of opportunities for his fellow players.

Matt asked me yesterday for some background for the web site yesterday and one of the questions was who was my Favourite player in the current squad. My reply was “hard to say, but after Tuesday, it might become Zdrilic. If he carries on like that, he's my kind of Striker”.

I might yet become Walsall’s answer to Mystic Meg or Russell Grant (I’ve at least got the waistline for that), but I can predict that it’s time for some fans to start warming up the custard to go with the humble pie!