Another relegation battle for Walsall FC after Exeter defeat

Walsall blogger Mark Jones tries to see the positives after the Saddlers are beaten at home by Exeter City in a result that suggests another relegation battle this season.

As soon as I heard that Exeter hadn't scored a single goal away from home in six attempts, I knew that it wouldn't be our night – it was so typical Walsall.

Typically, Danny Nardiello's first strike was an absolute beauty too – you couldn't have done that in one of your other games, could you pal?

It was a very poor result in a game highlighted by some shocking individual errors. After the game Dean Smith declared that we are well and truly in a relegation battle, a fact that no-one can disagree with.

There were some positives - the return of the Macken, we hit the post twice, Hurst's other chance – but the less said about Grigg's last minute sitter the better though. We are still out of the bottom four, just about, and haven't lost by more than one goal all season – which I know has probably just jinxed us, given the fixtures coming up.

In fact, I'd go as far as to say that with three or four quality additions, there are few teams in our league who would bother us unduly. Except that we're unlikely to get three or four quality additions. . .

The current squad is extremely threadbare - something highlighted by injuries to key players. We have waited six weeks for Jon Macken to return and now Adam Chambers is out. Deano might as well add 'firefighter' to his CV.

Being so badly affected by the loss of one player is a legacy of years of spiralling decline. I could probably cut and paste the reasons from one of many previous blogs – a failure to address the rent problem, not enough investment in the team when we were doing well, short-sighted decisions at board level affecting what happens on the pitch and a long period of deafness when it came to listening to fans' opinions, something that I recognise has changed a bit now.

Nothing symbolises the situation the club is currently stuck in more than the big unused advertising board that peers out longingly to tens of thousands of passengers crawling along the M6 every day.

It may have seemed like a good idea at the time but it cost a lot of money to erect (which is not exactly something you'd want to shout about) and there must be a cost to maintain it. Not forgetting that we had to take down the smaller boards, which always carried advertising, to accommodate it in the first place.

So every day it is effectively costing us money as well as suggesting to the outside world that we're not cutting it commercially. We'd have been no worse off splashing out on a big money signing who breaks his leg in his first game. Maybe that's what you get for chasing the (commercial) dream.

Incidentally despite a worse start than us, Exeter brought a decent and noisy following who seemed a great deal more optimistic about their club than Saddlers fans. But then again they are a club who have made a great deal of progress over the past few years, so they seem to be much better equipped to cope with a run of bad form.

Exeter City are a club run by their own supporters. Walsall FC aren't.