Walsall crashed to their worst defeat of the season tonight with a display that was both abject and clueless. Colchester, a team that had not won at home since the beginning of October, were 4 - 0 up at half time and, thankfully, eased up in the second half, with their FA Cup trip to Blackburn very much on their minds. They still managed to add a fifth in stoppage time with a free header in the box which summed up the Saddlers’ defending all night.

No one, but no one, came out of the game with any credit and, to make matters worse, Walsall fans were ringing WM after the game, accusing Paul Merson of swearing at them and making obscene gestures to the away fans.

Sky Sports News are now reporting that Merson is considering his position as Manager and may resign tomorrow. Merson, who thought about quitting earlier this season, now admits he is likely to quit as manager - although he will carry on playing.

“I feel for the fans, it is nearly six hour round-trip,” he told them. “I will sleep on it, but without a doubt I am considering it - losing 5-0 is just not on. Hopefully I will stay and play, I have enough pressure and when you take a corner you don’t need a hand full of blokes telling you to f-off. I try my hardest and sometimes it is not enough.”

England National Manager Paul Fairclough has named ex Saddlers Karl Hawley and Craig Stanley in the squad for the non league international versus Holland at Woking on February the 16th.

This will be Hawley’s second call up to the squad, having played in the last game against Italy, and he will be joined by fellow ex-Saddler Craig Stanley, benefitting from his close season move to Hereford United. The former Walsall duo were unlucky to be part of a pre-deadline day cull by Colin Lee last season.

Fairclough, the Barnet Manager, has named five of his own players as well as Exeter pair Dean Moxey and Les Afful, who impressed against Manchester United last week.

Another pointless away day on Saturday and the need to break the sequence is becoming more and more pressing. Only Peterborough and Milton Keynes have a worse away record than Walsall - even Stockport are better - and there are only two teams in each of the Second Division and the Championship worse than the Saddlers.

Mark Kinsella went off with a face injury on Saturday but may well figure, as it turns out not to have been a broken nose. It would have been a great disappointment for him to miss the trip to the club where he started his professional career. The latest information from the club is that Michael Standing is struggling, however, and that Matt Fryatt and Ian Roper are both still out.

As for Colchester, striker Richard Garcia is out of action for between six to eight weeks with hip and groin injuries, while defender John White (knee) and midfielder Bobby Bowry (hip) are still unavailable, as is Muzzy’s brother Kem Izzet and Karl Duguid.

Colchester are three points and one place below us in the table, with a home record that reads:-
P13 W4 D3 L6 F14 A15 GD -1 Points 15.
Granted our away record is second to most peoples, but this has to be seen as a winnable game, especially with the opposition having their minds on other things, with an FA Cup trip to Ewood Park next weekend. Please, Paul, this surely must be an away win?

Walsall Player Manager Paul Merson has ruled out any more players arriving at Bescot - other than Toni Nhleko if his work permit is sorted out - unless the club are challenging for the playoffs in a move that seems to suggest he has all but written this season off.

“I am starting to look to next season and saving the budget because at the moment we’re in a Catch 22 situation” he told the Sunday Mercury.
“We are virtually the same number of points away from the relegation zone as we are from the play-offs and we’ll have to see how that keeps going.
If we win a couple of games, get on a run and get closer to the play-offs and further away from the bottom then it might be time to go and get someone.
But it’s a case of how we are now and when it has to be reassessed. You don’t want to waste money”.

As for Nhleko, the former Brann and Dallas Burn player is in South Africa trying to sort out his work permit. How this matter can be resolved remains to be seen, as he has not played the required 75 per cent of international games over the past 12 months and he hasn’t played for them for almost a year, in the African Cup of Nations.

In those circumstances, it is difficult to see how a work permit could be given, but Merson said “I’m very optimistic that it will work out and if it isn’t soon then it will be next season”.

Certainly time is running out, as the transfer window applies for non EU players being signed from abroad, so there is only a week to go.

The Sunday People reports that Julian Bennett is being lined up as a potential replacement for Joleon Lescott.

Middlesboro are willing to pay up to £2.5m for Lescott, which has led to Wolves telling Walsall to name their price for their promising young defender.

Should their reported interest develop, it is believed that a fee within the region of £0.5m would persuade the Saddlers to let him go.

The long term interest from Crewe could push Wolves to make an early move. Wolves will be well aware that the Dean Ashton money is there ready to be spent.

Walsall fell to Tranmere for the second time this season after a 1-2 defeat at Prenton Park today. Joe Murphy – who boobed against his former club at Bescot just after Christmas – was again caught out, allowing a speculative twenty yarder from Ian Hume to find the corner of his net after only eight minutes. Jorge Leitao – employed as a lone striker due to an injury to Matty Fryatt – wasted Walsall’s best chance, firing well wide when clean through. Joe Broad then replaced Mark Kinsella, who was forced off with a broken nose before Chris Dagnall was denied by a routine Murphy save. Dagnall was not to be denied however, and doubled Rovers’ lead on 50 minutes. Walsall fought back and reduced the arrears on 62. A corner was cleared as far as Merson, who chipped the ball back into the danger area where Leitao slotted home. However, the Saddlers couldn’t find that elusive equaliser and their miserable away form continues.

It’s a return fixture against Tranmere Rovers tomorrow and, hopefully, we can cope with their width a little better than last time.

Paul Merson said that he thought that there was nothing between the two sides at Bescot until Tranmere took the lead, if anything we had the edge. Personally I thought we had problems with their width, playing 3 5 2, from the start, but certainly agree with him that we were being over run in the last twenty minutes.

Walsall do have problems for tomorrow’s game. Ian Roper has had a re-occurrence of his injury in training and failed to make the reserve game in the week. Matt Fryatt is also out, with a hamstring strain, as is Richard McKinney with his long term knee problem still, so we have our usual problems covering in defence, with Paul McShane having returned to Old Trafford, and, with the non appearance of Toni Nhleko, in attack. Fortunately, Neil Emblen, a candidate for Player of the Season again already, seems to have recovered sufficiently from his long term achilles problem.

Tranmere themselves have problems, however. Club captain Jason McAteer (scorer of the first goal at Bescot) will miss the game after picking up a hamstring injury in their 5-1 win at Wrexham last week. Goalkeeper John Achterberg (knee) and striker Simon Haworth (leg) are also out. Centre back Ian Sharps, the man who might have ben sent off in the first half at Bescot, serves a one game suspension as a result of picking up five bookings, which may mean they move to a 4-4-2 formation.

Paul Merson has already identified Tranmere’s right wing back, Ryan Taylor, who got the second goal in the first fixture, as the danger man and has said he’ll be looking at ways of combating him. He seems to be hinting, at last, at a change in formation, especially with the striker shortage, and a move to 4 4 1 1, with a lone man up front. If he does, Robinson would be the better choice than Leitao from me, as that would suit his game better. However, as Tranmere have injury problems, they may play 4 4 2 themselves, which would need some quick thinking and another change of tactics!

Funnily enough, with the problems Tranmere do have, I’ve got a feeling for this one for a draw. Let’s hope so, with another away fixture next week!

Taiwo Atieno is about to play his last game of his loan period for Rochdale this weekend.
The Lancashire club have said they do not wish to look at a permanent deal.

Paul Merson has said that the club is still interested in bringing South African International striker Toni Nhleko to the club but the move is still being held up by red tape and we still have lawyers working on the problem in South Africa.

He also says that Icelandic International defender Atli Thorarinsson will not be joining, as he wanted too much money.

Meanwhile, on the injury front, as we reported yesterday, Ian Roper has had a set back and will not be available for either of the next two games and he has been joined in the treament room by Matt Fryatt, who will definately miss the Tranmere game.

Watch this space for more news and predictions for Saturday’s game!

Mr Phillip Prosser will take charge of this weekends game with Tranmere Rovers. He is well known to Walsall fans for his role in last seasons Ritchiegate saga. Prosser took charge of our 2-1 defeat against Millwall last season.

This game saw Paul Ritchie red carded in a game that eventually yielded a total of 10 cautions. Prosser then went on to report Ritchie for an after match incident that took place in the tunnel.

We only have 4 survivors from that September clash. These include Darren Wrack, Simon Osborn, Jorge Leitao and Neil Emblen. Matt Fryatt was an unused sub.

He averaged 1 red card every two games last season (16 in 34), while this season he is down to just 1 in 4 (5 in 19). The worrying thing for Walsall is that Mr Prosser hasn’t dismissed a player for the last 4 games.