Early lessons for the Saddlers

I'd forgotten just how much cup runs can affect a team's league form; which could explain why the Saddlers already lie in an all-too-familiar place in the bottom four, writes Saddlers blogger Mark Jones.

Alternatively it could just be down to us kicking off the season by getting well-beaten by a quite impressive Doncaster side and then getting a decent point up at Oldham.

It's always hard to gauge how your season will pan out based on the first couple of results but there are a few alarm bells already.

The goals conceded so far have been worrying and I don't just mean the individual errors. We don't need too many repeats of the panic caused by the movement of the Donny forwards for their early opener.

As for David Grof, there have already been calls for Jimmy Walker's return, but many seem to be overlooking the fact that Super Jim now has a new role as Grof's coach. So really the first actions need to be on the training ground.

At the other end of the pitch we still seem to lack a goal threat and with a week and a bit to go to the end of the Transfer Window I'm kind of hoping that will be addressed.

I say 'kind of hoping' because this is Walsall we're talking about, a club that is currently about on a par with Oldham but miles behind Doncaster.

In fact a quick comparison of the three clubs makes interesting reading. All three of us are what you'd call traditional lower division fare. We all live in the shadow of better-supported teams with big stadia who've won stuff in black and white. And we've all had a bit of a go at making ourselves a bit bigger and better.

Oldham had a right go just over 20 years ago, and a pretty good job they did too – big cup finals, semis, Wembley appearances and being actual PL founders themselves. The last 15 years have been a bit of a let-down mind and they are now synonymous with being a struggling third tier club, low crowds, embittered fans and a ground that's quite a depressing place to be.

A lot of which sounds eerily familiar to me.

Donny went in the other direction though, what with dodgy owners, mysterious fires and a long spell in the Conference. But with a fair amount of TLC they have had a pretty good last decade – three promotions, a smart new no stanchion stadium and praise for their style of footy.

As is often the case Rovers then made the mistake of forgetting who they were and where they'd come from by dumping the manager who'd got them to the Championship in the first place; before embarking on an ill-thought out policy, presumably designed to keep the TV revenue flowing, that everyone on the outside could see was doomed to failure.

A lot of which sounds eerily familiar to me too.

However Doncaster are one of the favourites to go straight back up, they seem to have assembled a decent squad and their fans know it, which is why over a thousand of them descended on WS1 last weekend and thoroughly enjoyed their day out.

Following Walsall used to be like that, I can remember travelling in similar numbers in the opposite direction (almost) for an opening day win at Rotherham's old old ground in the days when being newly relegated back to the third tier was but a blip in the journey back up again.

That was actually in 2000, the start of the century, but it feels like a hundred years ago. I've never stopped believing that it could be like that again but ultimately that's not up to me. Our owner really ought to be thinking less Oldham and more Doncaster (without the mad bits from last year obviously) but I've a feeling he chose the alternative option a long time ago.

Still there's always the cup runs to look forward to.