Words seldom heard at the Banks's

Walsall blogger Mark Jones heard three words in total seldom heard around the Banks's Stadium as the team take a five-game unbeaten run back to Brentford.

At approximately 9:40pm on Tuesday night, for the first time this season, I heard mention of both the P word and, more realistically, the P/O words.

It's understandable enough I suppose, what with five wins and a draw in seven games, three straight home wins and all with clean sheets to boot for Walsall.

Steve Jones and Darren Byfield are scoring and playing well enough to be warranting 'special' treatment from the opposition and, against Oldham, Troy Deeney showed that he's capable of exploiting that kind of situation to our advantage.

Praise also needs to go to goalkeeper Clayton Ince and the back four who have restricted our opponents to just five goals - including a penalty and a 40 yard free kick - in the last 10 hours of football.

Yes, the victories have all come against struggling teams - as the BBC website helpfully pointed out - but, as the cliche goes, we are beating what's put in front of us. Given that we always tend to lose to them, it seems like a good idea to try and have as few teams above us in the table as possible.

But I would swop all of this for a place in the third round of the FA Cup. I don't think it's an understatement to say that Saturday's quick return to Brentford is a season defining game. The club needs a cup run, and not just because of the alarming financial predicament that our custodians have created.

As those in charge seem completely incapable of bringing back the missing fans, or even recognising just what the problem is, then it just could be a load of balls at FA headquarters that generates a bit of a buzz around the Banks's.

Sure it's possible that we could carry on our recent form in the league through December, but Walsall fans everywhere know just how easily it is for things to fall apart.

While everyone around me was cheering the fully warranted red card dished out to Oldham's Lee Hills on Tuesday, I was anxiously studying to see if Steve Jones was about to get up. Fortunately he did, but any spell without our most creative player would almost certainly prove to be a little problematic.

Equally, given the club's appalling track record, the rumours circulating about other clubs sniffing round defender Manny Smith and the lack of news regarding Darren Byfield's contract will set the alarm bells ringing right up until February 1.

So for me, with the P word virtually unobtainable and the P/O's still being a hell of a long way off, having a cup tie actually worth looking forward to and then cementing a place in the top ten might just be the things that create that long-awaited buzz.

Given the way everything's been over the last couple of years, that will have to do - for now at least.