The Greatest Escape yet for Walsall

Walsall blogger Mark Jones recalls a truly memorable day at Southampton where the Saddlers avoided what seemed an inevitable drop from League One.

In the cold dark month of January, we were locked away in solitary confinement awaiting the inevitable firing squad.

But they came to our rescue – 'General' Smith, 'Corporal' Whitney, 'Sergeant Major' Nicholl.

They got the false papers, the maps, the forged currency and the civilian clothes - not to mention the ability to defend set pieces.

'Captain' Butler, 'Lieutenant' Walker and the rest of the men displayed teamwork and a huge determination to succeed. They dug us a tunnel and we were on our way.

Granted, at around 3.:0pm on Saturday, Southampton's strikers were resembling SS guards at the checkpoint wishing us luck in English, but we refused to come quietly.

Private Gray bloodied their noses, there was a distraction elsewhere and we were safe. What a story!

To me, our recovery is the greatest escape. The stats are well known, eight points adrift with a meagre 17 from 21 games when manager Chris Hutchings was belatedly given the elbow, shows what an uphill task it was that Dean Smith took on at the start of 2011.

But this only tells half the story for me – in the first half of the season we were desperately poor, tactically inept, lifeless and devoid of spirit and passion.

The body language of the players seemed to signal defeat and desperation almost as soon as they left the dressing room, while the mood of the fans was equally as bleak – I had already resigned myself to League 2 football long before 2010 was up.

The in-denial and head-in-the-sand attitude from the very top of the club merely added to this malaise, and many fans thought that the change was made far too late to have any effect.

Happily we were proved wrong and it would be nice to hear 'Deano' described in the glowing terms that were previously bestowed upon 'our best ever manager.'

So the delirious scenes at the final whistle at St. Mary's were a truly exhilarating experience and not just for us fans, you could tell how much it meant for the players too.

This is what 'the Ginger Mourinho' has given us off the pitch, a club where everyone pulls in the right direction and we all believe.

Nothing, not even half the population of Southampton, was going to stop Andy Butler celebrating with us fans because he cares and he knows what survival means.

With the rest of the players performing a pile-on of Junior Playground proportions, oblivious to the chaos of the surrounding pitch invasion by the home fans, before battling through the line of cerebrally-challenged stewards to join their skipper, it showed how much it mattered.

The You Tube footage of the players celebrating in the stands later on is tremendous too – nice one Danksy.

On the pitch, the best example of the progress we've made under Deano was probably the period between Julian Gray's stunning goal back and Saints' wonderkid Oxlade-Chamberlain's equally stunning strike in the same net from roughly the same spot.

For 20 plus minutes, against one of the best teams I've ever seen in third tier football, we took the game to our Championship-bound opponents, knocked the ball around comfortably, created chances and were generally the better side. Could anyone have imagined us doing that back in January?

Fortunately, we won't have to play Southampton in the league next season but there will be some tough times.

What we do have right now is build on the momentum that survival has given us. Fans are coming back, I've seen old friends in recent weeks who I never thought I'd see following the Saddlers again, and you can really sense a positive feeling towards the club.

However, the club's top brass have had a nasty habit of shooting themselves - or ourselves - in the foot over the years.

The manager deserves to be given whatever support he needs to build on what's been achieved in four short months.

The men upstairs, Stefan Gamble and Dan Mole, have deservedly won the respect of many supporters this season for the change in ethos at the club. I trust them to be backing Deano all the way this summer.

What happened at London Road, Peterborough on Saturday undoubtedly helped us to stay up and it was the dismal ending to the Hutchings era at London Road, Peterborough on January 3 that began the chain of events that ultimately lead to those fantastic and memorable scenes on the South Coast.

So how can I sum things up? Well I think the text I received from my good friend, well-known Saddler Mr Evans late on Saturday night said it all.

It read 'I'm in a bar somewhere in the South of England, there's exotic dancers and I'm tired and emotional. We are staying up! Ginger Mourinho!'

How could I possibly ever top that?