Swain on Walsall 3 Hartlepool 1

If this was a Walsall team in crisis then heaven help the rest when things are going well.

The Saddlers' best home performance of the season brought a sparkling 3-1 victory over Hartlepool in a splendid afternoon's entertainment at the Banks's Stadium, which did much to still the voices of dissent rumbling around Bescot of late.

Yellow is the new colour of protest for football supporters these days and there was enough of it splashed around the 3,457 spectators to interrupt the normal all-red backdrop and remind watching owner Jeff Bonser that, if nothing else, he still has a PR battle to win.

That would be a cinch if only the Saddlers could play like this more frequently.

Sterile football is the oxygen of unrest on the sidelines and nothing extinguishes it faster than the kind of vibrant performance Chris Hutchings's team gave us on Saturday, no-one was concerned about chanting nasty things at Bonser simply because they couldn't take their eyes off the action on the pitch.

But these are troubling days for a club struggling to find an identity and purpose in the football of the new Millennium. Troubling but not unique - Bonser and his critics have been here before during his near 20 years at the helm and nothing was more likely to bring about a fresh wave of dissent than a season stuck in a rut of mediocrity.

Inevitably, the contentious old issue of Bonser's annual rent-dip into the kitty to the tune of £400,000 is being given a fresh airing, a payment his critics claim is little more than nest-feathering but his supporters insist is justified recompense for the business risk he took in 1991 and has been used subsequently to finance ground improvements.

"We want our freehold back" was a slogan spotted on one of the yellow "Unity" shirts adopted by a smattering of Saddlers fans who, to their credit, seem intent on a movement which separates criticism of the club's governance from support for the team.

But it's a Groundhog Day argument which most believe, unlike the movie, will never find a happy resolution.

It also distracts from the real issue confronting the Saddlers - just how do they shape a new future for this proud old club as their 'big four' neighbours prepare for a first all-top flight season since the mid-eighties?

It's difficult enough for second and third generation Walsall fans to persuade sons, daughters, nephews and nieces to try out League One fare without having Villa, Blues, Wolves and Albion now tackling the country's sexiest clubs every week.

More than ever, backing the Saddlers has become an act of devotion out of step with the new age of tourist supporters and, viewed in that context, the current conflict reflects a mutual anxiety shared by Bonser and his enemies about where the club can hope to go from here.

He wants out and has done for some time. We may all be none the wiser about how much it will take to take the keys from his chain but it seems a moot point - who, in their right mind, would take on a club of Walsall's profile in a recessionary climate and with the Premier League displaying selfish dis-interest in anything below its riches-drenched level?

Nothing brings out the cussedness in Bonser more than protests he translates as grumbling ingratitude, but he will know now there is no point repeating the grand gestures of the past when he has stuck the club on the market. There simply are no buyers out there.

No - Walsall, Bonser and his yellow-shirted critics are stuck with each other for the forseeable future and simply have to get on.

That will certainly require the club's hierarchy to adopt a more pro-active and sympathetic PR role instead of antagonising its public with menacing rhetoric; equally, the 'rebels' have to come up with more than a demand for change but a way of bringing it about that can alter the outlook for the better.

Amid this strong-willed impasse, Saturday's performance took on greater significance.

If Walsall had been able to perform like this for even two thirds of the campaign there would be a good chance the club would not be suffering this mini-rebellion.

Saddlers' home form has been pretty wretched - another guarantee to encourage dissent - especially in the thick of darkest winter and this current sequence of four wins in front of their own fans has come too late to change the tone of the campaign.

But there is talent and capability here alright, as the performances Hutchings has got out of his stretched numbers against some of the stronger teams have shown.

That it has been flawed by inconsistency is the classic sign of an under-strength squad - but his players must now look deep within the merits of this splendid performance and recognise they can and should do better.

The club continues to benefit hugely from its productive youth system, although it can only hope the system put in place comes up to the exacting standards achieved by Mick Halsall before his departure to Wolves.

But eight of Hutchings's 16 on Saturday were home grown and frequently at the heart of the key sequences in the game.

Best of all, undoubtedly, was the terrific clinching strike after 76 minutes created by a phase of football which had season-long Saddlers-watchers nominating it as the goal of the season.

Manny Smith had a superb game alongside the giant Clayton McDonald and in shutting down another Hartlepool advance with the match perfectly poised at 2-1, triggered the move of the game.

Non-stop Richard Taundry was its centre-point powering forward from midfield in an exchange of passes featuring Julian Gray and front men Troy Deeney and Alex Nicholls - and that's a home-reared partnership of real promise - before Taundry arrived unmarked in the area to score with aplomb.

Although Gray was a mite fortunate to score Walsall's opener on seven minutes, the pass from Nicholls which released the excellent Steve Jones was admirable - as was the tenacity and strength displayed by Deeney in restoring Saddlers' lead, a minute after Roy O'Donovan had brought Hartlepool a 24th minute equaliser.