Bescot Banter column: Encouraging signs from Walsall

Last weekend's draw with newly-promoted Harrogate Town saw the Saddlers maintain their unbeaten start to the season, as they denied their opponents their second win of the league season.

Getting back on level terms with less than ten minutes of normal time remaining, the Saddlers showed plenty of determination and desire as they retained their admittedly short unbeaten run against a side enjoying a strong start to their first season in the EFL.

Whilst there are still plenty of frayed edges for the manager to work on, including an occasionally invisible midfield, the team continues to enter encouraging performances, and, if they're able to both continue and improve upon recent outings, may well be on course to improve upon last season's mid-table finish.

On to increasingly worrying matters off the pitch and, following the government's recent decision to suspend the pilot scheme which saw a small number of fans allowed back into stadiums in a bid to ease even a small portion of the financial strain clubs up and down the nation are currently suffering from, the time for decisive action has arrived.

As club finances continue to be stretched thanks to a combination of factors including but not limited to the lack of fans in attendance and lower merchandise sales, teams outside the all-powerful Premier League can't be allowed to simply disappear.

Organisations such as the Premier League, their clubs and various sponsors must act now to help clubs lower down the footballing pyramid, especially when they have already agreed to do so.

Whilst its clear clubs at the top are also having to make tough choices, their difficulties are highly unlikely to see them go under, something which is simply not the case when it comes to clubs in the lower reaches of the EFL, let alone in non-league.

Despite the EFL and broadcaster Sky Sports recently agreed a new larger contract, the money generated from that deal is simply not enough to help clubs through the ongoing crisis and, as fans are unlikely to be able to support their teams in person for several months, we have to make sure there is still a club left to support when that time arrives.

People such as Burnley manager Sean Dyche, who recently shared a less-than-helpful and frankly disappointing view of football clubs being akin to hedge funds, should be reminded of the potential damage the death of a club would have on the communities they are a part of.

And, whilst clubs should always have to live within their means, and the EFL, FA and Premier League must work harder to bring clubs in line, the Covid-19 outbreak has resulted in the rug pulled from under many clubs' feet, something that no club, supporters group or villa residing chairman could have foreseen.