The questions to answer at Walsall

Walsall blogger Mark Jones has found no answers to the questions formed by where the club are at the moment.

It's around this time of year that we start to wonder what will be revealed at the Walsall Football Club shareholder's annual general meeting.

And it's usually the case that there are more questions than answers.

Saturday's performance at Dagenham & Redbridge was a bit like that, throwing up the following questions.

Are we a bottom four side or a team in a false position? Are the team under-achieving, over-achieving or neither? Have we got the necessary personnel to get us climbing the table? Was it a good point or not?

The first-half showing was rightly greeted with derision by our travelling fans – it was nice of the Daggers to put the tunnel smack bang in the middle of the away end to really hammer the message home.

True, we could have won it in injury time, but we could also have lost it too. We created chances but so did they.

In short, it was a struggle to draw with a struggling side who have already worked out that they are in for - a season of struggle.

The much-maligned goalkeeper Jonny Brain typifies where we're at right now. On Saturday he pulled off a stunning save at the death to preserve our point, yet continues to fail to dominate his area.

Your fingers are crossed at every set piece and every time a cross goes into the box, but the guy is a good shot-stopper. In other words, he is exactly what you expect from a free transfer from a fourth division club.

I mean the guy no harm, from behind the goal his reaction both to his last minute stop and our equaliser show how committed he is to the cause.

If we had a Jimmy Walker or a Clayton Ince - neither of which is as far fetched as it sounds - then he would be a good back-up keeper. It's not Jonny Boy's fault that he's currently number one.

Equally there is a dilemma over the input of our loan signings.

Andrew Davies and Martin Devaney have already made a positive impact at both ends of the pitch.

The now-recalled David Davis has had the odd moment, including last week's goal-line clearance and Rueben Reid is our top scorer.

A mate of mine - a bloke called Kev - reckons Davies ought to have the captain's armband for as long as he's with us, such are his leadership qualities, while Devaney has already shown he can turn a game.

But the problem is this, why do we have to rely on loan signings? Why can't we have players of the calibre of Davies and Devaney in the squad permanently?

So who do you blame for our current predicament?

Manager Chris Hutchings who has put the squad together and is responsible for how they perform, or the man responsible for our current financial state who has allowed better players and managers to leave and lost thousands of fans in the process?

You decide – if you haven't already.

In my view it's the former, the former, not quite and not really.