Crowds for concern at Saddlers

So for just short of seven minutes it was good to be back in competitive action on Saturday afternoon,

.

Needless to say the result wasn't exactly what the doctor ordered or fair reward for the hard work of the ground staff last week but that, I suppose, is football.

And for all the talk of runs at the play-off places Saturday, like the last home game against Leyton Orient, only served to confirm suspicions of exactly where we currently are..

Not good enough to compete at the top of the table and a bit too inconsistent to be serious about a play-off challenge. And whilst I fully understand that we still need 20 more points to complete the first aim of this and every season I strongly suspect there are enough teams weaker than us to ensure that we'll get to that point without too many scares along the way.

So with both this and the fact that we'd already secured the futures of Clayton McDonald and Darren Byfield in December I don't think that I'm going out on a limb in suggesting that there'll not be many more incoming bodies before the transfer window slams shut at the end of the month.

Indeed given Chris Hutchings confirmation yesterday that Roy Whalley's "we've missed out on £100k of revenue" statement was simply the softener for what was to come it is pretty evident that there'll need to be movement out of the Walsall dressing room before fresh legs arrive into it.

I did have to chuckle however about Hutchings reference to us being in the black. For whilst the £2.7 million hole is pea sized in comparison with the debts unveiled at West Ham yesterday it is still substantial for a club operating on a rather tight budget. Owing £2.7 million is hardly in the black.

Clearly a paltry 2,953 paying home customers aren't going to help fill the void in Hutchings budget either. Because when deducting the near 500 visiting fans from Brighton on Saturday this was all that was left of another anorexic home attendance.

This time however there can be no excuses. 2,953 on a Saturday afternoon with no midweek game or Bank Holiday sandwiched either side, indeed with no game for four weeks prior to it is beyond disappointing.

It is also incredibly worrying for the future. Quite how long the club can continue to operate as a League 1 entity whilst attracting attendances that wouldn't look out of place in the Blue Square Premier is a mute point.

And for all the talk of well-oiled commercial machines an unwritten law of football suggests that if you operate on attendances of League 2 levels you will eventually find yourself there.

Chris and Martin, I feel, have assembled a squad that is currently punching above its budget. Should they be able to repeat the trick next year, or the year after, or the year after that is anyone's guess. One thing for sure however is that should we keep operating on home crowds of sub 3,000 then time will eventually catch up with us.

I doubt that after eight minutes of Saturday's game that the Bescot ground staff would have agreed but you eventually get what you deserve in football and crowds of sub 3,000 only help to accelerate this process.