Bescot Banter: Walsall must find the right balance

First up was a meeting with in-form Bradford City, with the Bantams looking to secure a fifth win on the bounce at the expense of the struggling Saddlers - who had endured a four-game winless and witless spell ahead of kick-off.

Despite defender Dan Scarr getting his name on the scoresheet twelve minutes from time the damage had already been done with goals from Levi Sutton and former Saddler Andy Cook already putting the Bantams into a two-goal lead.

As head coach Brian Dutton admitted shortly after full-time, the team simply took too long to get going. The fact that the team only appeared to burst into life when the game was already gone is possibly more annoying than encouraging as they showed that they are capable of forcing a team back and getting amongst the goals, but waited seventy-eight minutes to do so.

Whilst the new patient, passing style of play has allowed the team to remain much stronger at the back - something which has been widely welcomed by the iFollow faithful - it shouldn't come at a cost of any if not all attacking endeavour.

Its clear the departure of Elijah Adebayo has cost the team dear, his desire to get forward whilst also looking to bring his teammates into the game was always going to be missed, but one of his now former teammates has to step up to the plate.

Obviously, the team will need time to get used to their new manager's tactical style, and, as mentioned last week, we shouldn't expect too much too soon, but there has to become a time when performances, and with them results, begin to change.

The second game of the week saw the Reds make the long trip to St James' Park where they faced Exeter City - a side looking to return to winning ways after slipping to defeat just a few days earlier - in a meeting which ultimately saw the Saddlers secure their first clean sheet since early November.

Whilst the gaffer was quick to welcome the point and unblemished sheet, the team once again failed to create anything in front of goal, with Grecians goalie Jokull Andrésson not having a single save to make as the two attempts failed to dirty his gloves with one flying wide whilst the other was blocked by a defender.

We can all see that Brian and his small gang of coaching colleagues are hoping to make the team more defensively sound with the aim of shutting out the opposition before hopefully grabbing a game-winning goal, but so far that has proven not been the case.

The drive for balance is a welcome one, and if the gaffer can eradicate some of the frequent and frustrating errors which so often cost the team on matchday then we'll all be happy, but as yet we're yet to see anything which will see the team end their current slump and begin to look back up the table.

There are more than enough games remaining for the Saddlers to turn things around and, despite our increasing levels of doom and gloom, could yet surprise us all and even mount a late bid for a place in the Play-Offs, but even the most rose-tinted spectacled amongst us must admit that these are troubling times.