Walsall blog: The Bitter End

I stayed to the bitter end and I always make a point of staying to the end. Call me a masochist, but I'm a Walsall fan and it's my way of showing my support.

One woeful performance - and believe me the word woeful barely does it justice - won't change that.

But I can also fully understand that a lot of people couldn't bear to watch, particularly after the fourth and then the fifth Bristol Rovers goal, because things were that bad.

If the story that one longstanding fan was booted out for displaying his frustration and anger in front of the directors' seats is true, then those responsible should hang their heads in shame. The guy needs an extra special apology - and quick.

Talking of apologies, staying to the end also gave the team the chance to come and clap me. Troy Deeney did to be fair to him, Paul Boertien sort of did half-heartedly - which pretty much summed up the day - and what Robin Shroot's problem was is anybody's guess.

The rest trudged off for the fully warranted dressing room lock-in. I hope their ears were bleeding. I hope manager Chris Hutchings and assistant Martin O'Connor went ballistic. I also hope any breakages will be paid for by the players themselves.

If they have had a team meeting, then I also hope they had a good heart to heart.

To be fair, Bristol Rovers were very good on the day. They passed the ball well - and to each other - their movement off the ball was intelligent, they were well-drilled and of course they took five of their numerous chances.

The large away following probably went home scratching their heads as to how they'd started the day below us in the league.

I've always considered Rovers to be a good lower division club like ourselves, they were the opponents on my first ever visit to Fellows Park in 1973, so for me there are worse clubs we could have lost to. Good luck to them for the rest of the season.

Like most fans I thought we'd turned the corner recently, it now looks like we've turned a different corner, all of a sudden its four games without a victory and teams below us are winning.

Looking for any silver lining, Saturday should finally put an end to the misguided play-off talk and it'll also send a message to the boardroom, that appointing a decent management team doesn't necessarily mean we've papered over all the cracks.

The five straight wins at the end of 2004/05 gave then-manager Paul Merson plenty of breathing space - much to our cost - and almost all of the Colin Lee era seemed to be one giant 'everything's OK' illusion.

The squad will need strengthening and Hutchings deserves decent backing in the summertime. If a 5-0 drubbing at home enables that to happen then maybe - and only just maybe - it won't have been such a bad thing.

I hope Chris has time to relax and think about how to pick things up for the Brighton game. In theory there should be seven or eight changes for Tuesday, in reality the size of our squad means there'll be considerably less.

A change in attitude would be a start.