Walsall’s season just seems to go from crisis to crisis lately, as on loan Keeper Joe Murphy has been sent back to the club from the Ireland training camp with a groin injury.

Paul Merson is quoted in the papers as being worried, coming as it does just two weeks after releasing his only other available experienced goalkeeper, Mark Paston, but the official site is saying Murphy will be fit. The club says they had an agreement he could come home if not playing and that the treatment he can receive before Friday should see him OK.

There is better news as well, in that Simon Osborn and Michael Standing should be fit and Ian Roper is available again.

Paul Merson has admitted that Walsall’s season is all but over, following the draw against Wrexham on Saturday.

Merson told the Express and Star that his side are now just playing for pride, as they are now 11 points adrift of the top six.

“If we had won we’d have gone 14 points above the relegation places and we could have started looking up the table”, he said.

In the meantime, he is threatening changes in defence for Friday’s game at Bristol City, as he fears the threat of Leroy Lita. Defending like last Saturday could, he believes, mean another “Colchester”. What changes he could make, other than the return of Ian Roper, is difficult to see, however.