Only a game - or more than a game?

Football has had a bit of a reality check in the last few weeks. Both Fabrice Muamba and Stiliyan Petrov remain in critical conditions and our thoughts and best wishes go out to them and their families, writes Saddlers blogger Mark Jones.

The very nature of following a football team tends to create a partisan attitude but I think the way the footballing community has come to show support for Fabrice and Stiliyan has been hugely uplifting. It might surprise outsiders but it is what we do.

Inevitably when you hear about such tragedies, memories of your own players come flooding back. Former Saddler, play-off winning Saddler, Matt Gadsby collapsed and died on the pitch in 2006 while playing for Hinckley as a result of a rare heart condition. A year later, 16-year-old trainee Anton Reid died at the training ground, an incident which rocked everybody connected with the club.

Watching the recent feature on Late Kick Off the other week, it was clear that Anton was highly regarded and is well remembered at Walsall. I can't imagine that anyone would disagree with his mum Sonia's calls for more regular and stringent health checks for all players.

A lot of people have quite rightly talked about recent events putting the game in perspective but I think there is another dimension to this. On one level to be fretting about relegation battles and dropped points is pretty meaningless but it is why we love the game, why we commit so much time and effort into it.

The love of football is what drives players on too, from the Muambas and Petrovs in the top flight to the Matt Gadsbys plying their trade in the non-leagues to the Anton Reids dreaming of the glory of a career in the game. That is why they do what they do, that is why it matters to them and why it should matter to us.

So I see no reason to apologise for sulking about the two points thrown away in appalling fashion at Rochdale, for barely being able to celebrate Andy Butler's superb late equaliser, for being pessimistic about our chances of survival or for continuing to be annoyed by the inertia surrounding the issue of the rent. That's what football is all about.

It is only a game and yet at the same time it is more than a game.

Rest in peace Matt. Rest in peace Anton.

Get well soon Fabrice. Get well soon Stiliyan.