Following two away wins, Walsall return to Bescot to face the challenge of one of the better footballing teams in the Division, and one which secured promotion last Saturday. Hull City will now be hunting the title, however, while the players will be determined to prove their worth for Championship football!

Hull manager Peter Taylor has one or two selection dilemmas on his hands for the trip to Walsall, with both Ryan France and Jason Price unavailable due to injury and, as they are the two players who have been sharing the right side of midfield slot, that will mean an enforced change, something Taylor wanted to avoid.

“I’m not looking to change too many things,” Taylor told their official site. “I’m looking to get maximum points from our three remaining games and will only experiment if there’s nothing to play for.”

The main dangers in the Hull team are top scoring left winger Stuart Elliott (29 goals in all competitions this season!), Nicky Barmby, one of the few players to have scored for five different Premier League sides, and the recently acquired former Birmingham City trainee Craig Fagan, whose performance against the Saddlers at Colchester will raise unhappy memories, as will the thought of Barmby’s seven second goal at the KC Stadium! They have plenty of other goalscoring options available too.

The key area may well turn out to be the right side of the Walsall defence, where Craig Pead is yet to totally convince and the prospect of marking Elliott will be a daunting one for him and Mark Wright/Darren Wrack, depending on who is covering that side at any one time.

As for the Saddlers, it’s beginning to look as if it’ll be no change again after two consecutive away wins. Merson is talking in terms of even the bench remaining exactly the same, but therein lies a worry, as the last time (Bristol City) he had success with the 4 5 1 away from home, he refused to change the system for the Franchise game and we ended up with a very sterile contest. The 4 5 1 can be an attacking formation, but so much depends on the two “attacking” central midfielders (Surman and Standing) joining and getting beyond the striker. If he does go down that route, he needs the personnel on the bench to change things if it’s not working and that should, really, include himself at home, something which he has said he is unlikely to do.

Walsall come into the game on an unbeaten run of 3 matches, after the away wins at Swindon and Peterborough, but, unfortunately, that tends to hide the fact we have failed to win in our previous 6 home matches! Hull’s away record is:

Played 21, W 10, D 3, L 8, Points 33,

with 37 goals scored and 31 conceded, so it’s not the best for a team challenging for the title, being only the fourth best in the league. 8 defeats is level with Bournemouth as the second worst in the top ten. It’s their home record which is frightening, where they have the best record in League One, as well as being the Division’s top scorers.

Predictions? Despite Hull’s away record seeming to be “win or bust”, I tend to suspect this has score draw written all over it. 1 – 1.