Darren Byfield's tribute to Stansfield

Express & Star columnist and Walsall captain Darren Byfield pays tribute to Adam Stansfield after the Exeter striker's sad passing this week.

We've lost our first couple of games but everything is put into perspective after the death of Exeter striker Adam Stansfield from cancer.

It's so sad. I put something on Twitter but I'm glad I have the chance to say a bit more. My heart goes out to him and his family, it's so sad. Football is a wonderful game but it's not the be all and end all.

It's something you don't want to think about at such a young age and it can happen to anyone, you can't get your head around it.

Adam was a young man and a fit man as well - he was a professional footballer. It's shocking.

Exeter are looking at retiring his No 9 shirt and that would be a lovely gesture. Their game at Dagenham tomorrow has been called off but whatever they do will be for the best.

It makes you think about things in a different way, especially after our defeats to Milton Keynes Dons and Tranmere this week.

We're not panicking. You don't win the league if you win a game and you don't lose it if you lose one or two. We were disappointed about going out of the League Cup but we know how football is.

It's not a crisis because we've lost a couple of games, we didn't play well but Tuesday was better and we will improve.

We've done well enough until the final third and we've all missed some chances. Alex Nicholls had a chance against Tranmere and their goalkeeper made a save.

We've watched it back and it was a good stop, he's down now but could get a hat-trick at Brentford tomorrow and get the praise.

But someone who I'm not going to praise is our midfielder Paul Marshall.

'Marshy' came in on Thursday and wouldn't shut up about the film, The Last Airbender.

I was having a massage and he came in to tell me it's the best film he'd ever seen. I like my films but he was anging on about it and I said 'that's enough!' but he kept on about it - he must have been promoting it. I said 'Marshy, shut it!'

He's even got a picture of The Last Airbender on his blackberry - he needs to get a life! If he's not careful he'll get a nickname.

And Manny Smith deserves a special mention this week too.

We're all on these protein shakes as part of Jon Whitney's fitness routine and I don't know if Manny wants to look like BA Baracus from the A-Team, but he's doing weights all the time and it's working. He wasn't a small lad to begin with but he's bulking up.

He called me the other day and made me go and buy him the biggest tub of Cyclone - the formula we're using - you've ever seen.

I needed a trolley just to carry it, I couldn't get it in a basket or a bag! The lads said 'wow, that's huge.' He's a man on a mission.