Saddlers are in a state of emergency

Tuesday 26th October 2010, 9:10AM BST.

Saddlers are in a state of emergency

Walsall blogger Mark Jones assesses the new low the Saddlers have sunk to after a heavy home defeat to then-bottom club Tranmere.

Walsall 1 Tranmere Rovers 4.

Walsall 1  previously bottom of the table Tranmere Rovers 4.

Walsall 1 Tranmere Rovers, on the back of a 3-0 home defeat against Brentford in a six pointer themselves, 4.

Just to fill you in on the ‘highlights,’

33 minutes: 0-1. Our defence looks for a non-existent offside flag as Enoch Showunmi goes through.

Goalkeeper Jonny Brain comes out less than convincingly and punches the ball out and John Welsh puts in a superb lob from way out.

Could our defenders have reacted a bit quicker though?

59 minutes: 0-2. Andrew Davies makes a shocking error with a backpass and Showunmi scores. Still ‘our’ best defender by some distance, Davies has to take full responsibility for this shocker.

But watching the footage again there was a distinct lack of options for Andrew when he received the ball.

65 minutes: 1-2. The first bit of quality from Martin Devaney and a fine delivery is finished clinically by Jonathan Macken. Give him the right service and he will score goals.

78 minutes: 1-3. Aaron Lescott gets turned inside out yet again and gives away a penalty. Ian Thomas-Moore puts it away.

88 minutes: 1-4. Welsh scores again as Tranmere stroll through our midfield and defence at will.

At 1-0 we took off our top scorer Reuben Reid off to be replaced by a player in Alex Nicholls desperately struggling for any kind of form.

At 3-1 we took off our goalscorer to be replaced by a kid without a senior goal.

I felt so sorry for Will Grigg coming on in those circumstances. It was typical that our only other decent chance, strikingly similar to the one Macken scored from, would fall to him.

There is a right way and a wrong way to develop your young players.

So overall shocking, abysmal, shambolic, a disgrace – choose whatever adjective you want.

It’s about time somebody did the right thing for Walsall Football Club for once. Quickly.


  1. 1
    kat

    can somebody tell me why he took Ruben Reid off when we had a corner i just didn’t get it

    Report abuse

  2. 2
    Rogermsw

    Forget it Mark “It’s about time somebody did the right thing for Walsall Football Club for once.”
    We are talking about Walsall FC here, controlled by the one and only JB, and any other opinion from anyone anywhere means nothing.
    CH has got some have some kind of charmed life because any other club in the football league would have given him is marching orders before now.

    Report abuse

  3. 3
    sadsfan

    the club is in freefall, the owner seems to have lost all interest apart from the monthly rent cheque, the players have lost confidence in the manager and the board appear to have neither the guts or the power to sack the manager. CH’s record has been abysmal wherever he has managed and MOC doesnt have the nous to be an assistant manager. surely they have both got to sacked by the end of today, of course you would hope they would do the decent thing and resign, but no, they’ll keep on collecting their pay cheques while crowds continue to dwindle.

    Report abuse

  4. 4
    tinned

    JB will do nothing, for the simple reason that he doesn’t care as long as we are (just about) in existance and able to pay the rent.

    Will the last person out of Bescot please turn off the lights, lock the door and post the keys to Cyprus.

    Report abuse

  5. 5
    Kev

    Come on E&S try and get Walsall fans to email their opinions to you and do a page spread in the evening paper. Trust me you would probably fill three pages the way the club is lately.

    Report abuse

  6. 6
    rich clarke

    spot on Jonah. In freefall all the way out of the football league under this present regime.
    Mr Bonser do the honarable thing, find a buyer and go. And before that could you put Mr Hutchings and the rest of us out of our misery by sacking him.Decent enough fella but obviously out of his depth as a manager.We need a change now otherwise relegation is inevitable.

    Report abuse

  7. 7
    Pete Stock

    Don’t forget peeps we are a well run club. They are proving this by giving Chris Hutchings the safest job in the borough. There woun’t be any redundacies from at the Theatre of Fiscal Probity.

    Report abuse

  8. 8
    desben

    promoted Notts County sacked their manager for CONSIDERIBLY better performance than we’ve managed this term!!
    shows our so called ambition.

    Report abuse

  9. 9
    Northern Saddler

    Bad as it was, is it a good idea to start singing ‘sacked in the morning’ when we’ve just gone 2-0 down? Better to get behind the team and vent your anger at the end. CH doesn’t help himself though; taking off our only striking potential when he needs goals! The guy is clueless – no idea how he got appointed in the first place given his track record.

    Report abuse

  10. 10
    Blocksidge Mon

    Have any Saddlers fans thought of setting up a fan’s club a la F.C. United of Manchester or A.F.C. Liverpool?

    This would at least allow stayaways to support such a team and get them to a decent level of non league from where it can be progressed after the inevitable meltdown of Bonser’s club.

    Also, we have one of the best non league clubs in the West Midlands in Walsall, Rushall Olympic. Maybe get behind them if nothing else?

    Report abuse



Latest Blog — A week is a long time in football

This time last week we were staring down the barrel, third from bottom with a worse record than at the same stage last year, writes Saddlers blogger Mark Jones.
Saddlers Blog

A week is a long time in football

Free e-Supplements

Business Awards

Book a Business Awards table Book a Business Awards table

Join our celebrations of the region's best in business on Thursday March 22 - book your table now

Lifestyle

Interactive Dining Out map Interactive Dining Out map

Hundreds of reviews by the Express & Star and Shropshire Star's teams to help you decide where to eat.

entertainment

All the film reviews All the film reviews

Before you plan a trip to the pictures, get our critics' verdicts on all the latest movie releases

OUR NEW APP

Get the new E&S app Get the new E&S app

Download the Express & Star’s new app to your iPad or iPhone to get one week of access to our digital newspapers absolutely FREE.