No complaints for Walsall blogger

Walsall blogger Mark Jones has no complaints on a large part of the Saddlers defeat last time out as Chris Hutchings' side prepare to go to Millwall.

No complaints about the defeat to Southampton last Saturday, because add on the 10 points they were deducted for the incompetence of their board last year and Southampton would be in the play-off zone now. Based on what we saw last week, come the end of the season they'll surely be in there for real.

They moved the ball round quickly, their movement up front was phenomenal, they stepped up a gear when they needed to and had obviously done their homework on us. As predicted, Rickie Lambert notched and I will grudgingly admit that former Wolves striker David Connolly was a constant threat.

Equally importantly to the Saints was the performance of the back four, to be able to call upon the experience and know-how of the likes of Radhi Jaidi, Chris Perry and Greame Murty gave them an edge that Walsall just can't match right now.

But equally, no complaints about the attitude and character shown by Walsall players in defeat. As manager Chris Hutchings himself recognised after the game, we huffed and puffed but lacked that bit of extra quality in the vital areas of the pitch.

But we kept going for the 90 plus minutes and at least tried to create chances. Congratulations to Darren Byfield on reaching his ton of 100 career goals, let's hope he can make inroads to the next hundred while wearing a Walsall shirt.

Last season we were well beaten at home by Leicester, Peterborough, Scunthorpe in the Cup and the MK Dons, this year it's been Leeds and Southampton so far. The Banks's Stadium is becoming a bit of a testing ground for those with genuine promotion credentials. When we start getting something out of these kinds of games, we'll know we're genuinely ready to challenge.

And no complaints about the size of the crowd against Southampton - unlike in some quarters.

Given our form going into the game, our league position, the draw of 'big-name' opposition and the large away following, the 5,681 crowd may have disappointed some. I think it merely reflects the fact that it what's going on off the pitch that is keeping fans away. As we've been told so many times, you can't rely on gate income alone anyway.

Guess what? I have no complaints either about chief executive Roy Whalley's cringeworthy double page 'aren't we wonderful and you lot are so lucky to have us' essay in Saturday's programme. No seriously, because it was so hilariously pompous, out of touch and lacking in self-awareness it was untrue. Reading it on Saturday teatime cheered me up - almost.

It would be very easy to get angry at hearing this kind of stuff coming out of the club again, but most of us are used to it by now. For the uninitiated, the latest version of Roy's Rants paints a wonderful picture of a visionary board of directors who are the only people who could possibly 'keep alive League football in Walsall' and bring Joe Longthorne to the town too.

Such trivialities like the amount of rent money that has gone out of the club over the last 20 years, the failure to make any headway towards purchasing the freehold of the ground, the effect of appalling errors of judgement in the transfer market and the unbelievably poor communication skills of those in charge are all sidestepped in what I suspect is a precursor to the message that will be given to shareholders next Monday.

Why Roy and Co still think that there's anyone out there who doesn't support the commercial side of things or who would be opposed to diversification is anybody's guess. Most of the time it's not what they're doing, but what they're not doing that causes people to get so annoyed.

Maybe actually talking to fans, or even better - shock horror - actually listening would be of greater benefit, so the return of the Focus Group on Monday even at an earlier time of 6pm and on club premises at The Swifts Club is a welcome move.

I hope they get a good crowd for it, although I can't guarantee there'll be no complaints.