Walsall comment: Brian Dutton’s positives could not mask lack of wins

Despite some of the positive things he achieved since taking over as head coach in February, he only picked up three wins in 20 games and, on that basis alone, the club’s decision to let him go is justified.

Walsall will reap the rewards from some of the work he did, however. Bringing Sam Perry into the first team was nothing short of genius.

The young midfielder has been superb and it begs the question why he was not given more chances under the previous regime.

Emmanuel Osadebe is another player who has steadily improved. He looks like a totally different player to the one at the beginning of the season and that is down to Dutton’s consistent belief in him.

There are positives from Dutton’s reign and some signs of life from certain performances – with the back-to-back wins over Forest Green and Tranmere springing to mind. But overall there were too many dull displays. Barrow at home, Southend away – even the second half away at Bolton – the team was poor on several occasions.

Dutton attempted, perhaps naively, to transform the squad’s playing style mid-season and without the luxury of a transfer window.

That is certainly easier said than done and unfortunately the squad is not good enough as it stands. To go from mid-table and within reach of the play-offs, to a relegation scrap in three months, is not good enough for this club. Neither is 19th in League Two, as chairman Leigh Pomlett rightly said.

There are many mitigating factors to this season’s failure, too.

Selling Elijah Adebayo and replacing him with unproven youngsters was a mistake. Losing Rory Holden and Josh Gordon to injures for large parts of the season was unfortunate.

And on the whole the squad is unbalanced. Dutton inherited a group of players with little quality beyond the main stars – in particular Holden – and could not back them up with more talent.

In many ways Dutton is a victim of poor decisions from his predecessor but again it comes down to victories and it was always a tall order to get the job full-time with only three wins in 20 games.

Now, the club faces a mammoth task in the summer to rectify the wrongs of this year. No doubt the pandemic has meant the Saddlers have faced incredible challenges – and losing your manager to another side mid-season never helps – but the coming months offer them a chance to make it right.

Firstly they must get the right manager, it is essential. From there, big decisions are needed on the first team and who, of the many players out of contract, is offered new terms.

From there the club has a nucleus of good players under contract to move forward with and with supporters hopefully returning to the Banks’s Stadium, they will not get away with shoddy performances this time around.