Saddlers Social: Walsall fans have their say

Nick Etheridge

Whisper it quietly, but there is a sense of optimism floating around Walsall at the moment.

I’m not saying that all of a sudden we are going to finish in the play offs, or even the top half, but Dean is delivering on his promises.

Fans are engaging with the club again in a positive manner. It would be unfair of me to comment on the football being served as I’ve yet to even pick up my season ticket due to family commitments.

Roll the clock back six months and I would have only been giving the full-time scores a quick glance to see how many we’d lost by.

It speaks volumes that I was pretty much glued to Twitter on a sun lounger refreshing every few minutes during our first game, given how positive the comments were.

It’s even more encouraging that we were disappointed with a point at Scunthorpe.

One final note, does anybody remember what it feels like to win a cup game?

Richard Kendrick

Patience is something very rarely shown in football, but this transfer window has shown that we need to have plenty of it.

Deano certainly seems to have a plan and all the panic of not having enough players and thoughts of having to settle for pragmatic, defensive football have proven to be wrong.

Some seemingly astute business at either end of the transfer window has given us a side that we can get excited about and a side that, even three weeks ago, even the most optimistic Saddler wouldn't have held any hope for.

The spine of the side is better than last season with both Isaiah Osbourne and Jack Fitzwater rejoining.

Add a front four that are better than last year's and we have a side that, on its day, is exciting and expansive.

How many of those days we have will depend on many things, but in Deano we trust.

Greg Shelton

This season promises to be a memorable one for me personally, because not only have I got my first season ticket in over 15 years, but I will be joined throughout the campaign by my little lad Harrison.

Harrison has been to the odd game or two, however this will be his true induction to life as a Saddler (apologies son, but it is a dad’s prerogative)!

We missed the opening game of the season due to a week away in Weymouth, so the clash with our fellow League One stalwarts Gillingham, this Saturday, will be our first chance to sit in our new seats in the recently-renamed HomeServe Stand, which I really think looks resplendent in red.

The journey that lies ahead for Harrison, made me think back to my first full season supporting my hometown club back in 1987/88.

I can still remember clearly standing on a box at the front of the Hillary Street End cheering on my all-time Walsall hero David Kelly and the rest of that great team to promotion.

I know it’s early days, however could this season be an equally memorable one for Harrison, and if so will it be Andy Cook, Morgan Ferrier, George Dobson, Zeli Ismail or Josh Gordon that he will adore forever?

I’m always the perennial optimist, so let’s just hope this season is one of those campaigns that comes along every 15-20 years for us Super Saddlers!

Kevin Paddock

Can we get carried away yet? Probably not but my god what a difference this side is compared to the dross over the last two years.

We have pride, we have passion and we finally have a sense of direction and a plan!

Whilst the performances of the new guys Morgan Ferrier, Josh Ginnelly and Zeli Ismail have been outstanding you fully understand the Keates effect when you look at players from last season.

Luke Leahy, probably often seen as our weak link is finally turning into a real defender at this level as is Nicky Devlin and George Dobson (what a bloke) has been outstanding and has matured beyond his years so far this season as stand in skipper.

We have had over fifty shots at goal in our first three games, who would have thought Keates would have been an attacking manager eh?

We now have four ‘easier’ games with Gillingham, Rochdale, Wimbledon and Blackpool coming up - by the end of September it might be a case of starting to look up rather than down.

Whisper it quietly but we have our Walsall back.