Superstition not the name of the game for Dean Smith

Dean Smith is not a superstitious man and that is probably just as well. more

Otherwise the Saddlers boss might be looking at the Easter weekend fixtures with some trepidation.

Notts County at home, followed by Peterborough away, were the precise fixtures faced by his predecessor Chris Hutchings over the 2011 New Year weekend.

Walsall lost both games heavily and Hutchings, together with assistant Martin O'Connor, was sacked.

It is an eerie statistic but likely to remain just that - the chances of history repeating are remote in the extreme.

The Saddlers are in nowhere near the desperate position they were in back then, cast adrift at the foot of League One.

And the club have far too much invested in Smith's vision - and have to too much faith in the man and his method - to cast it all aside now. Knee-jerk is simply not their style and while the league campaign has been disappointing, compared to what was promised, there have been mitigating circumstances.

Still, that does not mean a strong finish to the season is not required to soothe fears the current malaise might be symptomatic of a wider problem.

Those who claim the team has regressed over the past 18 months are not without evidence and whatever happens over the final eight games, a change of tack will be needed over the summer if the same mistakes are to be avoided.

Problems have manifested themselves in games at the Banks's, where the Saddlers remain two short of matching even last season's meagre return of just seven wins.

At least they only need two more goals to beat last year's record low haul of just 21 at home yet the way teams consistently arrive set up to frustrate - and duly succeed - continues to madden in the extreme.

Yet as defender Andy Taylor points out, finding solutions to the home frustrations is far from easy.

"If I knew that I would be Jose Mourinho - it is difficult to say," he said. "We go into every game looking to get on the front foot and going to win the game.

"Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't but we will keep working, keep believing in what we are doing and working on the training ground every day.

"Friday is a brilliant opportunity to put things right."