Saddlers Social: Walsall fans have their say

James Kenealey

Within the space of a few minutes on Saturday, everything just turned on its head.

Bolton equalise, we conspire to have a man sent off, concede a penalty and Southend score on the way to a point. The gap is now eight points.

We have won one football match in the last 16 attempts. Even Southend have managed three wins in that time. The only potentially saving grace is that Colchester have only won once in their last 20. Hard to imagine someone could have a worse record than us, though it’s not long before we’re visiting them.

I just don’t even know what to say anymore. I genuinely cannot see how we’re going to win another game this season. What with the last minute self-made catastrophe at Crawley and that shambles at the weekend, I just feel like it’s over. Yes, we still have to play Southend on Tuesday. But honestly, can you really see us winning there? Can you honestly see it happening? A team that cannot keep a clean sheet and barely scores?

I believe the game on Tuesday night is the most important single game in decades, followed closely by another one on Saturday. Lose either of these, or get anything less than a win on Tuesday, and I think we’re in terminal trouble. This club is dropping like a stone and whether it’s last second goalkeeping insanity or other such self-sabotage, nothing is breaking for us and in the three games prior to Bolton, we’d dropped four critical points in the dying minutes.

Everything about this season feels like 2018/19. A similar outcome looks scarily likely right now.

Ian Newbold

We face a pivotal week. Lose to Southend and Grimsby and we face the increasing prospect of dropping out of the English Football League. Wow. It feels very real, and possible, that we could become a non-league club for the first time come May.

Now I want the players to feel the same, to know this couldn’t be more serious, and that they are playing for a proud club’s future. Problem is knowing that could breed fear, nervous, hesitant play and perhaps even a tendency to scapegoat. We do really have it all to lose, while our bottom of the league opponents have nothing to lose, and can play that way too.

It’s frightening.

The reality is we probably need three wins by the end of the season to guarantee our League status. So while the games this week are very, very important, we still have games to come against Scunny and Colchester. Plus there’s some ‘better’ opponents in the likes of FGR and Salford, who themselves will be under pressure chasing those top seven spots. And as a former manager once said, you shouldn’t fear anyone in this league, it’s League Two.

So you could look at it more positively and say our season doesn’t end this week, and indeed a positive week is an opportunity to ensure we are safe. Four points would be marvellous, and are incredibly overdue.

Rob Harvey

Another two games, another two disappointments. Six points turned into just one through what can only be described as stupidness by two of our more senior players across both games.

Against Crawley we were five seconds away from what would have been a big three points, only for Liam Roberts to attempt his best Cobra Kai impression on the Crawley defender before the final whistle, which gave them a penalty which inevitably they scored (on that, has Roberts ever saved a penalty? I can't think of one).

Bolton was always going to be a tough game and I think we did a lot better than a lot of people, myself included, expected. I say that in terms of how many goals we actually conceded. Big shout out to Sam Perry for his first senior goal which left us 1-0 up at half-time!

The second half was disastrous and we were always going to come under pressure big time from them, and it was no surprise to seem them level the score. A draw would have been a good result for us, and after their equaliser we were going to have to defend with our backs to the wall for the remainder of the game. And then Hayden White happened. Why he's raised his hands is beyond me. Surely he's old enough to know that if you raise your hands and give the referee a choice to make, most of the time you're getting a red card. That left us pretty much knowing we were not going to hold on for any points, and so it proved.

Tuesday night at Southend (and possibly the Saturday vs Grimsby depending on Tuesday's result) is going to be the biggest game we have had to play for 50 + years. We have a very real chance of slipping into the National League should we not beat Southend and / or Grimsby and something needs to happen.

Leigh Pomlett said that Brian Dutton was aware he needed some wins under his belt quickly, and I believe he was referring to these two upcoming games, with Crawley and especially Bolton being a bit of a 'free hit'. Failure to win on Tuesday and I think that Brian Dutton has to be relieved of his managerial duties, and either put back into the coaching set up or paid up and released fully. Our future is too crucial to allow Project Dutton to continue if we cannot beat Southend.

At the moment my head and my heart are resigned to us getting nothing out of these two games, so anything will be an improvement. It's a bad time to be a Walsall fan, but try and stick with them, one day something good will come around again, but I can't promise when.

Nick Etheridge

Rewind to the beginning of the season and I’m sure that there were plenty of us hoping that we’d be playing meaningful games at this state of the season. There wouldn’t have been many that thought it would be at the wrong end of the table however. Rather than keeping afloat in this division through our own devices, it seems more likely that we’ll need to rely on two teams being worse than we are.

I honestly don’t mind being beaten if we’ve had a real go at the opposition and been proactive in games. It just seems though that this current side are set up to defend and given that clean sheets haven’t been our strong point this season, I’m not sure how smart that tactic is. Saturday was a prime example. The first half was pretty even but we managed to nick a goal and looked relatively comfortable. In the second half we just sat back and defended, waiting for the inevitable. Once the equaliser came, there was only ever going to be one winner.

Although we have a game in hand over Southend, I’ve no confidence at all that we will get anything from it, hence why it’s so important that we beat them on Tuesday. If they end up turning us over, a five point gap really does pull us into the mire, and I for one have no faith that we’d get out.

Dan Price

Is the bad dream over? I genuinely believe we are now in serious threat of a relegation fight.

Before the weekend I thought we would have enough to steer well clear of the fight and it was more that just us as spectators expected too much but with another loss and teams around us picking up points and finding bits of form we are now well and truly in an massively important time for the history of the club.

We never look like scoring more than a goal a game and when we keep giving goals away in one way or another then anything more than a point a game is not looking achievable or realistic.

We very quickly need to find a run of results and that starts Tuesday, no fancy formations, no fancy tactics…. 4-4-2 and lets try and win the game by scoring more than the opponents.

At the minute we set up defensively to not concede but then when we do we have no forward threat in the game to get us back in the game. Big few weeks ahead…. Come on Boys !! UTS

Roberto Petrucco

We enter another week with two fixtures, in what is the biggest week in Walsall's history. Looking at the fixture list, these two games are the most winnable. Along with the obvious points lost on the teams in the relegation scrap, it would also destroy any shred of confidence in the team.

Confidence is a big issue at the moment. Letting two leads slip away is disastrous, and the way they happened even more so. Dutton is going to be forced into change of system with White being suspended, unless Cockerill-Mollett plays at LCB. A change of system may do the team well, given that the current one isn't picking up results. I would like to see a classic 4-4-2. Get McDonald on the wing and Lavery and Gordon up top. Fill the team with energy, and let them attack both Southend and Grimsby.

Chris Saunders

Every week seems to leave me deflated as a Walsall fan at the moment. Against both Crawley and Bolton we seemed to start the game in the right way and then at some point we just seem to hit the self destruct button and throw away anything we have worked for.

Rather than single out anyone it’s like a round robin and we draw straws for who’s turn it is to do something silly and cost us points. I know luck is being banded about as the reason but at some point bad luck can only be changed by yourself. No matter how much you feel up against the wall or like decisions are going against you, keep a calm head and do simple things right and that luck will change. Unfortunately we just don’t have this mentality.

Whilst a Director of Football is an absolute must in my mind for the future now to give us a forward thinking off field approach we need experience on the bench alongside Dutton and Sadler and we need it desperately.

I want to finish on a glimmer of positivity though and that is Sam Perry. He wasn’t afraid to have a go and got his reward in the form of a very good goal and in very difficult circumstances is putting in solid performances. Dutton keeps saying we need men out there and for me in recent weeks Perry has very quickly stepped up and started looking like one.