It's the same hymn sheet at Walsall

Walsall blogger Mark Jones gets ready to usher in another season confident the relationship between the supporters and the club has taken a turn for the better.

It's July 5, 24 hours after Independance Day, and a group of Saddlers fans are gathered in one of the suites at the Banks's for the latest focus meeting and it felt a bit like one of those raves from 1988 - you really could feel the love in the room.

Chief executive Stefan Gamble, director Leigh Pomlett and club secretary Dan Mole represented the club and a mighty fine job they did too.

Honest, open and respectful, they didn't duck any questions, they gave progress reports on issues discussed at previous meetings and, perhaps most importantly, they listened.

In return, the assembled supporters were able to ask questions and put their point of view across in a way that didn't make you feel like you were going to be treated like a dissident in the old Soviet Bloc.

Sure there were the odd gripe, some of us were taking bets on what would come out first – the new kit or the Early Bird prices for next year - and there will always be those old school fans who want to have a moan about the commercial director.

But there was a real sense that the relationship between club and fans has finally taken a turn for the better. Long may it continue.

Howver, the one major issue that the three club reps couldn't really answer, mainly because it's largely out of their control, was on the ongoing saga which is the sale of the freehold.

On July 11, Walsall councillors narrowly defeated a motion to explore ways that they could assist the club.

The fact that it was even being discussed in the first place, and that the Labour group are being supportive, is down to a lot of good work by individuals and representatives of the three supporters' groups.

Steve Jenkins deserves a special mention for trying to use his relatively high profile to do something positive and his intervention has generated a lot of very useful publicity.

There's been a lot of debate about how beneficial the council's involvement would actually be, but in my book it would be a massive bonus.

Anyone who has anything to do with Walsall Council at the moment may recognise that they are not exactly in a strong position at the moment, either politically or economically.

Sooner or later someone will have to recognise the need for them to be seen to be doing something positive for the town.They have turned down the opportunity – for now – but I don't think this is going to go away.

We also know the name of one of the bidders for the freehold, Stratford-based businessman Geoff Dance.

I've never met the guy myself, but know a man who has. I have it on good authority that as well as being a lifelong fan, Geoff's a decent bloke with good intentions.

If that information is true, then I would welcome his involvement too. Getting all interested parties round the table together to thrash out a plan of action would be a pretty good next step, in my view.

I almost forgot matters on the pitch, where manager Dean Smith has rebuilt the team ready for Saturday's kick-off at home to Leyton Orient.

Unlike this time last year when our squad just seemed painfully thin, imbalanced and lacking in experience and leadership, 'Deano' has assembled a squad that, if nothing else, is reasonably sized, balanced, experienced and contains plenty of potential leaders.

They have had six first team friendlies to try to gel together. We were unbeaten in Scotland - which tells us nothing really.

Then we played two Premier League Teams - or one and a half if I was being unkind - in the space of 48 hours and lost, which tells us nothing really.

We then failed to beat two League Two sides - which may or may not tell us something.

However, given that our record against teams from that division in cup ties over the last three seasons stands at played six, lost five and drawn one - then lost that on pens - I'm reserving judgement on that.

Just how good we are remains to be seen, but I'm not expecting a repeat of the inadequacies of the first five months of 2010-11.

It's probably a good idea not to pass judgement too early - remember we won two out of the first three in the league last year - but I'm expecting a season of steady progress, which should keep everybody happy.

Until the first pass gets misplaced on Saturday, of course.