How it feels to be out of bottom four

Walsall blogger Mark Jones explains how it feels as the Saddlers climb and bid to stay out of the bottom four after a run no-one on the terraces saw coming.

So, this is how it feels to be out of the bottom four of League One does it?

Like most fans, I thought that this would be an experience that wouldn't happen until next season and only then in the league below, if we were lucky.

Given the state the club was in at the turn of the year, to do it within two months of the start of Dean Smith's reign as manager is truly remarkable.

Tuesday's phenomenal win over Southampton highlighted just how far we have come under Dean - not forgetting Jon Whitney and Chris Nicholl either.

It was a big team performance full of energy, character and commitment which gave us yet another clean sheet. The highest praise I can give is that it was Ray Graydon-esque.

For a team previously so low on confidence it was a big result psychologically too, beating one of the best sides in the division, especially after the pastings they dished out to us last season.

As we head into the vital final quarter of the season, this is one DVD the manager could let the players take another look at.

But time for a quick moan. Southampton manager Nigel Adkins' post-match interview was a fine example of a bloke who seems to have forgotten his lower division roots rather quickly. We scored with our only chance, they battered us, ball just wouldn't go in the back of the net, so on and so on.

Actually we had created a few chances ourselves, knocked the ball around quite well at times, the possession was a reported 50 per cent each and it's not our problem if his attack wasn't as good as our defence.

Adkins likes to play the jovial scouser but true to type he is an incredibly bad loser, maybe the pressure of being at such a big club is getting to him.

Time for another quick moan. What a dirty, underhand, lowdown trick Swindon have pulled in preparation for Saturday's mother of all six-pointers – changing their manager from Danny Wilson to Paul Hart in a desperate attempt to turn their season around. It just shouldn't be allowed!

Time for a third quick moan. With Birmingham still partying and our other neighbours having a night off either to prepare for finishing 18th, 19th, or 20th after whimping out of cup competitions, you might have thought that local radio could lower themselves to cover Walsall for once.

I mean it's not as if we haven't had a decent stab at trying to stay up ourselves and we were playing a former Premier League side.

But no, flavour of the month non-league team's re-arranged game was given preferential treatment. If I paid any licence fee I'd demand a refund.

Anyway, never mind the moaning, Saturday's clash with the Robins feels like it could be the game that shapes our season.

It's quite ironic that the trip to Wiltshire is probably the biggest game for the Saddlers since the 2007 Championship-clinching game at the same venue.

It's absolutely massive!