Not so great expectations at Walsall

Walsall blogger Mark Jones is alarmed that losing has become the norm for the Saddlers ahead of a potential FA Cup banana skin at non-league Fleetwood.

I didn't really expect us to get anything at Huddersfield last week before kick off last Saturday.

What's more depressing is I didn't expect us to get anything even when we were up against 10 men for almost 70 minutes.

I wasn't expecting too much from the Peterborough game either, which given their dodgy away form, leaky defence and the fact they were without their main man in George Boyd is a sad indictment of the Walsall team in 2010.

Yes, we started quite brightly in the first 10 minutes, we created chances and goalkeeper Joe Lewis did make some pretty sharp saves, but I never once actually expected us to add to our meagre points tally.

If you defend set pieces in as shambolic a fashion as we did for Posh's first and third goals, then there's only likely to ever be one outcome.

As for their second, I've grown accustomed to seeing huge gaps in the stands but I don't expect to see them in the centre of our defence too.

Two goals up after 16 minutes and Peterborough were cruising in second gear. Even when we pulled one back through the previously anonymous Julian Gray - it was a nice header though - I simply expected them to move up into third gear.

Sure enough, they did for long enough to force a corner and all that hard work on our brand spanking new training ground did the rest.

What I didn't expect yesterday was the post-match analysis from manager Chris Hutchings:

'Unjust criticism,' 'watching a different game,' ''we deserved more out of the game,' 'I'm sure we'll turn the corner.'

I'm sorry but this is just complete and utter drivel. No-one is actually questioning the effort of the lads, for the most part they are doing their best under the circumstances.

But you get what you deserve when you keep making the same basic errors over and over again though. It is the leadership - or obvious lack of it - that is the problem.

I'm sorry to say this but I hope that very soon you will be watching different games to me.

For the benefit of my regular readers, I really wanted to write something positive this week.

There was the long overdue return of Super Jimmy Walker to cheer about, a further meeting between representatives of the club and the Supporters Trust; the promise of a Focus Meeting before the end of the year; the launch of Unity's new website and the youth team putting one over the junior Milton Keynes Dons.

But until there's some kind of positive news on the playing side of things, then it's going to be hard to focus on anything else.

And what do I expect from the impending FA Cup tie at Fleetwood?

I'm absolutely bricking it.