George Bennett on Walsall new boy Darius Lipsiuc

George Bennett brings you the latest on Walsall's second January deadline day arrival.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon Sables fans, I'm back again. Just an hour ago, Walsall made their first

00:07deadline day signing with the arrival of Alfie Chang, the midfielder from Birmingham City

00:13and Lone until the end of the season. They've now made it signing number two from Stoke

00:18City midfielder Darius Lipzig, a Republic of Ireland under-21 international and it just

00:24continues Walsall's strong working relationship with the Potters. Obviously Nathan Lowe was

00:31a standout example, 15 goals in the league, 18 across all competitions during the first

00:35half of the campaign before his unfortunate recall earlier this month. But other examples,

00:41Tommy Simpkin between the sticks on loan from the Bet365 Stadium this season. David Icagbu

00:46had a fruitful loan stint at Walsall last term and joined permanently back in the summer

00:52and has been an ever-present this season just to continue building on what was a really

00:57strong first year for him at Bescott. And of course Douglas James Taylor on loan at

01:02Drogheda at the moment but joined Walsall on loan during Michael Flynn's season at the

01:09club and then arrived permanently during Matt Sadler's first summer. So yeah, just continuing

01:17to build on those connections as we discussed in a similar vein with Matt Sadler's connections

01:23with his former club Birmingham and the arrival of Alfie Chang and obviously George Hall,

01:28Rico Brown, Ryan Sturt, Charlie Lakin. So great to see all these local connections coming

01:33together and Walsall really utilising those. And in terms of that midfield cover, as I

01:39mentioned in the previous video, Walsall were maybe left a little bit short with the injuries

01:44to Jack Earing and George Hall, both expected out until around late March, early April.

01:52So still Jamie Jellis, Osher McEntee, Charlie Lakin vying for those spots. There's Ronan

01:57Mayer, Taylor Allen stepped up very capably in the final 20 minutes against Salford on

02:02Saturday. So still lots of options prior to these two signings but clearly just comes

02:06in to shore that area up and provide that competition. So yeah, it'll be interesting

02:13to see how both players get on. Another thing which will be interesting is what it means

02:18for Ronan Mayer. Matt Sadler announced last week that a decision was going to be made

02:24in terms of what the plan is for him between now and the end of the season. Only made two

02:29league appearances, had a few in the cup this season, but only made two league appearances,

02:33both coming from the bench and both coming back in August. So game time is going to be

02:40crucial for him. Unfortunately, he had a loan spell at Tamworth cut short because of

02:45an ankle injury. He's now recovered from that and is available for selection. So that's

02:49kind of one to keep an eye on over the coming days in terms of what the future may hold

02:53for him between now and the end of the season.