There's a long way to go for Walsall

Walsall blogger Mark Jones believes there is still plenty of room for improvement even after the Saddlers' first win of the season.

Prior to Saturday's surprising, but very welcome, win at Brentford I'd have described our start simply as not good enough, with the words 'long,' 'hard' and 'season' being overheard more than once coming out of the Banks's Stadium after two lacklustre home defeats.

I'll gratefully take the hard-earned three points from the capital but there's a long, long way to go yet and I'm still feeling quite apprehensive about this season.

In the last two seasons I've expressed concerns about the lack of depth and experience of our first team squad, so how have we begun 2010/11?

With a smaller and even more inexperienced squad. Great work there.

At the moment, I still can't see a like-for-like replacement for goalkeeper Clayton Ince or Rhys Weston or Jamie Vincent or even Dwayne Mattis in our first team.

And I wrongly assumed that the free transfers given out to the likes of Mark Bradley and Netan Sansara were clearing the decks to allow for the addition of more quality to the squad. Of course we've still got until the end of August, but I'm not holding my breath.

Obviously the sale of Troy Deeney has overshadowed the whole pre-season. Credit where it's due in the fact that we held out for a decent-looking deal rather than merely grabbing hold of the first offer regardless of how derisory it might be.

But whether or not this is the first sign of some of this summer's changes at boardroom level remains to be seen.

I suspect a bigger test will come if and when the Deeney cash is spent. Hints have been made that it will all be made available for team strengthening, but like most fans I'll believe that when I actually see it.

While still nowhere near the finished article, Troy was developing into a mighty fine centre forward. His attitude, commitment and willingness to learn were all credit to him and he fully deserved his Player of the Season award.

The last two games have shown how important he had become to our front line. It was noticeable in our first game how we seemed to be playing as if Deeney was still in the team, rather than sat in the stands.

Although I wish he was still with us, I wish Troy all the best at his new club.

Tactically there needs to be a big improvement on what's been on show so far though.

The derision that greeted the one and only, defensive change far too late on against Milton Keynes Dons was fully justified, given how little impact it could possibly have made.

Similarly when a fresh pair of legs was needed in the wake of the inevitable Brentford onslaught in the final quarter at Griffin Park, only one player was brought on.

In 50 per cent of our first team friendlies we experimented with 4-3-3, yet haven't tried using this formation even when things have clearly not been working.

Julian Gray's winner on Saturday was an ironic example of what happens when we bring our more creative players into the game, that we need to do a great deal more. And we still seem to be incapable of bossing the midfield for long enough to have any lasting effect in a game.

In conclusion, it's been a slightly underwhelming start. A lot was made of last season's top ten finish, right now I'm still not confident enough to back us finishing in the top 20.

Sorry to be negative and all that.