Walsall Column - Up and down Saddlers

Walsall Sporting Star columinst Darren Fellows continues to be befuddled by the Saddlers form after cheering on the team to a long-overdue home success this week.

After managing to avoid the banana skin that was the Tranmere losing streak 12 days ago, we then go and throw in an absolute shocker at the Victoria Ground against Hartlepool – a location that had not witnessed a home win for almost as long as our own barren run at the Banks's.

Needless to say, in true Saddlers style, capitulation was very much the order of the day and after defying the first unwritten law of football on the Wirral a fortnight earlier – if you're on a losing streak then pray for a game against Walsall – the chances of us avoiding a second banana skin rarely looked likely.

But clearly the manner and weight of the defeat were a lot more concerning than the fact we had duly bump-started the season of one of the teams likely to be around our finishing position in May next year.

Ever since that epic battle for the League Two title, the Monkey Hangers have been on or around our tail and both clubs starts to the season suggest that this will again be the case for 2009/10. Therefore to leave the North-East with nothing to show for the long trip apart from a confidence bruising hammering wasn't exactly what the doctor ordered.

Conversely, Tuesday night saw Lee Clark's expensively assembled Huddersfield Town side return Saturday's favour and become the first visiting side in six months to climb back onto the M6 with nothing to show for their 90 minutes at the Banks's.

Dwayne Mattis's last minute winner against his boyhood club left little time for us to make a mess of a winning position and, given the winless stretch, taking the lead this late in the game was almost certainly the best scenario.

Tuesday night's result also undid much of the damage incurred on our league position after Hartlepool and, whilst fully understanding that the new league table has yet to fully take shape, being only one point above the relegation places line is never comfortable.

The weekend visit of Carlisle offers us an opportunity to not only improve this further, but also double the number of home wins this season.

Hopefully the win may also encourage a few more through turnstiles that are not exactly in danger of overheating at present. With only just over 2,800 paying punters in the home sections of the ground on Tuesday evening, it was again pretty clear that last week's 'where are you?' plea had fallen on deaf - or more to the point selectively deaf - ears.

Indeed, the more attendances haemorrhage, the more convinced I am that the only chance of long-term growth in average attendance is with a change of personnel at the helm of the club.

For all the talk and bravado about remodelling and reshaping, many fans seem to have concluded that their club has forgotten about what they want and expect to persuade them to part with what is now significant chunks of their weekly or monthly wage.

Broken trust does not heal quickly, indeed it often requires about as long to return as it takes to sell a football club.

As well all know, selling a football club can take a mighty long time.