Life on the Walsall rollercoaster

Watching Walsall has always been a bit like riding a rollercoaster, albeit one with plenty more troughs than peaks, writes Walsall blogger Mark Jones.

There's ups and downs, thrills and spills, with the odd bit of excitement in between bouts of nausea and vomiting.

The last few days have seen plenty of examples of this, culminating in the high of a performance the kind of which I doubted I'd ever see from a Walsall side again.

Rewinding first to Orient last Saturday; it was very Walsall to play against ten men from the end of the first half yet end up needing a very late goal to pick up what would otherwise have looked a very useful point. Then we go and find out that the draw which had extended our unbeaten run had not actually been enough to stop us dropping back into the bottom four. Doh!

Onto Monday and we lose Richard O'Kelly from the coaching team. I wish him all the best in a tough role at Hereford but he will be a big loss. Would a decent contract have been too much to ask for?

The one saving grace of this season has been our defence, with a goals against record the envy of some of the top six while conversely our forwards have been suffering from what can only be described as a kind of goalscoring impotence.

Yet against Sheffield United we turned everything upside down and actually went toe to toe in an attacking sense with a very good attacking team, a class apart from their cross-town rivals on last night's showing, to complete a Steel City double and to gain a bit of vengeance for our most unlucky defeat of the season.

Fielding possibly the youngest ever midfield since the glory days of Preece-Shakespeare-Childs-Handysides, the Saddlers went forward with an energy and vigour not witnessed for a very long time. To sit back would have been suicide but somehow and from somewhere we found the wherewithal to do it.

All three goals were absolute beauties and the tenacity shown by two strikers at either ends of their career epitomised what we were all about last night. George Bowerman's failure to give up a seemingly lost cause won the opportunity for Kevan Hurst's well-worked corner routine that put us in front, while Jon Macken found something deep down in his locker to shake off his man for the second. While Alex Nicholls's fine header for the winner was a proper striker's finish that capped a fantastic move.

The Belgian gets better with every game, although the downside is that Flo's performances and his nomination for L1 Player of the Month is likely to have made many potential suitors sit up and take notice. We probably need to just enjoy watching him while we can.

New loanee Sam Mantom chipped in too with a superb finish for the opener and he certainly outdid all the other new signings. At times it seemed as if Boetang and Nouble weren't even on the pitch.

Of course it could never be straightforward. The first lead lasted a whole ten minutes, the second merely three and where exactly did Mr Scott find six minutes of stoppage time from? Thankfully there was a huge collective effort to defend what we'd earned.

The league table is looking slightly (with the emphasis on slightly) better at the moment. The longer we can keep this run going the more optimistic I am that we can steer clear of trouble before the season's end.

Me optimistic? Now there's an upturn.

However the final word has to go to my good friend Darren who summarised Tuesday night quite brilliantly:

'The pain and frustration of following this football club can often drive you nuts, if not to despair. But in watching, living and supporting the team through to the 96^thminute last night, fans not old enough to have witnessed the brilliance of Buckley's team of the 80's or the spirit of the Graydon era may have finally learned and understood what being a Walsall supporter is truly all about. Belligerent, stubborn, defiant, always willing to give one of the big boys a bloody nose and cheered to the high heavens by a support educated and bought up on nights like these. That is what we do best.'

Indeed.