Saddlers - the state of play

Earlier this week I filled in an online survey posted on one of the Walsall message boards by a fellow Saddler, writes Walsall blogger Mark Jones.

As far as I can tell, its intention is to take a snapshot of fans' views and feelings about the club right now. The responses will be collated and shared both online and with the powers-that-be at Bescot.

It was fairly painless to fill in with a combination of mostly multiple-choice questions and some open-ended ones. Although the survey is now closed, it should be worth a look when the results come out.

For me it was a good exercise to reflect on my current feelings for my club. Like last season's Great Escape, the very welcome recent upturn in form shouldn't mask the big picture of where we are compared to where we have been and where we could be had different (better) decisions been made over the last two decades.

Because it is (sadly) the kind of thing I do, I've studied the remaining fixtures and I'm slightly concerned that Exeter could pick up plenty of points on their run-in. Equally I've got fingers crossed that we will have enough to overcome Colchester at home in our game in hand a couple of weeks from now.

And having to worry about Exeter and Colchester probably highlights the current status of the club as well as anything.

A month back I was unsure whether to renew my season ticket, not because it's not good financially, for a family ticket it's a great deal price-wise; but because I've grown weary of crossing my fingers in the hope that something better will turn up.

Crowds are still low, the atmosphere in the ground is still lacking and I'm none too confident that the squad will be any better come August (especially given that the Belgian isn't actually our player).

I'm still not convinced that we've got a bright new tomorrow and I can't be the only one out there who is thinking like this, and I've a feeling that very soon we may well have some data to back that up.