Walsall blog: Help!

Walsall blogger Mark Jones uses Beatle prose to plea for the tools to take the Saddlers forward and has a message for Mark Wright after the MK Dons defeat.

HELP!

Even with our game in hand there is now a bit of a gap between Walsall and the top six - and I'm not talking about points.

In the last couple of months, first Peterborough, then Leeds, then Scunthorpe in the Cup and now MK Dons have all shown that we are miles behind the standards set by this season's play-off contenders.

Some people pointed to last week's 2-0 win at Colchester as a sign that the Saddlers had turned a corner.

Saturday's defeat proved that you can turn as many corners as you want, but its not a fat lot of good if you're totally lost and don't know which direction to go in.

WE NEED SOMEBODY!

The current squad, way too small in numbers and lacking a great deal of experience, seems stretched to the limit right now. I'm at a loss to see how it can be boosted.

This should not be taken as some kind of criticism of the players themselves. I actually thought the boys that played against MK put in plenty of effort and stuck to their task reasonably well, but there seems to be a huge lack of confidence and belief running through the side at the moment.

Of the 14 players used on Saturday, six are relatively inexperienced youngsters and that's not including 22-year-old Anthony Gerrard.

It's also worth remembering the injury problems that have plagued (and continue to plague) Stephen Hughes, Rhys Weston, Dwayne Mattis and Michael Ricketts throughout their careers.

I believe that for the most part they're doing as much as they can, they just need a bit of a helping hand from someone somewhere.

NOT JUST ANYBODY!

I had wondered in the week whether or not manager Jimmy Mullen would take the 4-5-1 formation that had worked so well in Essex but adapt it slightly to a 4-3-3 more appropriate for a home team.

Obviously Jabo Ibehre's absence through suspension was a problem, but the 4-5-1, Ricketts isolated up front with both Nicholls and Deeney looking lost out on the flanks, seemed doomed from the start.

The fact that it took until well into the final quarter of the game, when we were 2-0 down and playing like a beaten side, before we finally went with two up top, is hardly going to help Mullen's cause.

A few fans started to call for his head on Saturday. I'm sorry to say I get the feeling the volume will only increase in the coming weeks.

I'm still of the view that it doesn't matter who the manager is at the moment (well obviously there are a few faces that I wouldn't ever want to see in the home dugout again), because the problems remain the same whoever is in charge.

YOU KNOW WE NEED SOMEONE!

So how do we get out of it? As none of us have Cloud Cuckoo Land as a postal address, we know there aren't going to be too many photos of new arrivals, scarves aloft, posing for photos in January.

There could always be some wheeling and dealing in the transfer market in the New Year, but this has never traditionally been a Walsall strong point and, on current form, I can't see which of our players would fetch decent amounts to trade with.

The events of last January hardly fill you with confidence that this is an option anyway.

It would be wrong to call upon the youth team, with so many young players in the side already. Should we really expect miracles in this department? Especially since the recent spending cuts (sorry restructuring) mean that Mick and Bill now have to work without Eric McManus?

HELP!

With the long-term future of the club in mind, there were two things that stood out for me on Saturday. It spoke volumes about where the club is at right now.

Firstly while it was great to have the extra support from those who took up the 1,000 tickets distributed to local schools in the Family Stand, we should always keep soldiering on with such initiatives, but there were enormous gaps in the Lower and Upper Gilbert.

This is where the former hardcore fans who have grown tired and disillusioned with the club should have been.

Second and most worryingly was what I read on the 'Saddlers Insight' page of the programme. I scanned it looking to see if my questions had been featured (not yet, watch this space) but saw a letter from David Lynch which concerned the rent.

It was a reasonable, rational question asked by a fan who, like many others, clearly has given this issue a fair amount of thought.

In reply Nigel Bond, arguably the most approachable Director of the club, stated that he thought this kind of enquiry 'appears done to death.'

He then made a completely irrelevant comparison with the rent that Bournemouth (next to bottom of the entire league and still on negative points) pay on their ground.

Is there a link between this kind of dismissive attitude of genuine supporter concerns and the amount of fans currently staying away from the club?

I'll leave people to make their own minds up on that one, but it certainly doesn't help.

P.S: WRIGHT, WRIGHT, WRONG!

Inclosing, memo to a certain Mr Wright of Milton Keynes.

You tapped the ball into an empty net from six yards out, four minutes from time, when your team was already 2-0 up, while our first choice keeper was on the dressing room treatment table. You did little else of note in the first 86 minutes.

You did not score a Champions League winner from 30 yards after beating 8 or 9 men. Your celebrations did make you look a bit of a prat.

You will probably be looking for a new club in the not too distant future. You will have to return to Bescot one day. Think on!