Life has been worse at the Banks's

Walsall blogger Mark Jones believes that life at the Banks's Stadium is not as bad as it looks as the Saddlers continue to roll through the season.

It certainly made a change to watch Walsall play the first game of February with a side depleted only through injuries and not as a result of panic selling.

For 80 minutes against Charlton we had a back four that read - inexperienced, inexperienced but with real quality, left-back playing at centre-half and inexperienced.

In addition we had Richard Taundry making a welcome return in midfield but playing his first full game for yonks, and we are still having to contend with the continued absence of the talismanic Steve Jones.

Therefore we have to take heart in the fact that with a patched up side we were fairly comfortable against one of the promotion chasers, albeit one that is wobbling more than our former boss Jan Sorensen walking across a rope bridge to get to the pie shop.

Who knows whether we could have converted one point to three, had we kept 11 men on the pitch for the last quarter of an hour? Or, indeed, if it hadn't been 11 v 12 for the first 75 minutes.

The frankly awful referee Mr Haines ruined the game with a performance that moved between inconsistent, petty, flawed, unfair, spectacularly incompetent and downright wrong. So bad in fact that he'll probably be fast-tracked to the Premier League. Mike Dean watch out!

But experience suggests that when you're having to play the ref too, it's vital that you don't play into his hands by giving him the opportunity to do something stupid. A quick look at the footage for the penalty would suggest it was 50-50, which of course means that it was 100 per cent certain Haines was about to award it.

Equally Deeney's classic forward's tackle just gave him the excuse he was looking for to brandish a red card. With experience, Troy will realise it's better not to get into such a vulnerable position in the first place. These hard luck stories are just part of the harsh realities of following Walsall in 2010, and we just have to deal with it.

Yes it's now seven without a win since we flirted with the top six two months ago, but on closer examination only the Brighton game and the first 45 minutes against Leyton Orient can be classed as outright poor performances, and both of those opponents have enjoyed a bit of a revival recently.

The enforced winter break has clearly been almost as disruptive this season as a late night phone call from the Coventry area was two years ago.

In the other games during our winless streak, Southampton were much better than us and pretty much anyone else I've seen this season, a defeat away at Millwall to a late goal is hardly a disgrace, it was a decent point at Gillingham given their home record and I have developed a sudden dislike of Paul Lambert and his Norwich side.

Even against Brighton we had chances and the comeback against the O's was decent enough.

Ask me in a month and I might tell you a different story, but I'm not panicking about a relegation battle just yet. Neither am I worrying about the play-offs fast disappearing over the horizon. I actually believe we can finish in or close to the top ten and, given the restrictions we currently have forced on us, that will have to do.

This is the harsh reality of following Walsall in 2010, and we just have to deal with it.

I would have loved us to have made a bit of a dip into the market ourselves in January though. Nothing to put the club's future at risk mind, I mean how irresponsible would it be to lumber us with a huge debt we have no prospect of being able to pay off?

But now the window is closed we are told there could be loan players arriving.

We probably need the bodies in, but to me temporary deals seem a bit of a waste of valuable resources in comparison to permanent ones, dead money paid out with no guarantee of getting anything permanent in return. Quite fitting for a club run by people who prefer to rent rather than buy.

This is Walsall in 2010, looks like we just have to deal with it - again.