Hardest game in the world, Football Management. After a series of brave decisions lead to a win against Forest, you make some more which backfire completely.

Paul Merson, missing the injured Standing, yesterday decided to abandon the 4 5 1 and play the 4 4 2 formation which was so successful in the second half against Forest. The major surprises, however, were the resting of the so far outstanding Simon Osborn, with Paul Smith coming into the starting line up for his debut and the dropping of Anthony Gerrard from the sixteen completely, with Steve Staunton replacing him on the bench.

The line up was, therefore;

Oakes, Pead, Westwood, Bennett, Fox, Wright, Smith, Taylor, Wrack, Fryatt, Leitao, with a bench of Coleman, Staunton, Kinsella, Osborn and Larossa.

Merson wasn’t on the touchline in the first half, presumably watching from the stands and let’s hope he learned something, because, after a bright opening couple of minutes, the midfield quartet failed to function completely as a unit. Wright managed to get some decent ball, but wasted it in the main, Wrack hardly saw the ball at all, but did do better than of late, without really threatening (his inability to take his man on the outside when playing on the left is restricting us more and more) and Taylor and Smith just had the game pass them by completely. Smith looked far from match fit and, despite three or four good tackles, his lack of passing range badly restricted us.

For the first half, it was a case of the front two foraging for scraps (although Jorge should have done better with one chance early on, after Flahaven could only parry a stinging drive from Fryatt) and the back four performing heroics as they were given a stern examination by what was a neat Southend side. Eastwood was a constant threat and it’s a good job he hadn’t bought his shooting boots with him. However, they sttod up well as a unit, as witnessed by the fact that Oakes was hardly over worked.

Most fans around me were expecting a change at half time, given that the four across the middle just weren’t performing, but the team reamined the same. Inevitably, early on, Southend got the goal they deserved. Wrack gave away a needless free kick wide on our left flank, diving in when he shouldn’t, Southend played a short routine which no one was alive to and, from the resulting cross, Gray nodded the ball back across Oakes into the far corner. It was a free header and someone in the midfield had failed to pick him up.

Merson still declined to make any changes for a few minutes, much to everyone’s surprise, as we just didn’t look capable of gettig back into the game. Eventually, the ineffective Smith was replaced by Simon Osborn (to cheers, at last!) and Bennett was replaced by Staunton. This seemed a strange move at the time, with Bennett being the pick of the two centre backs, but Merson said afterwards that he wanted to improve the distribution from the back, which is fair enough, as it certainly did that.

The tempo in midfield picked up immediately as Osborn grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck and Walsall began to dominate (although Eastwood had a glorious chance to make it 2 - 0 after turning Westwood, but screwed his shot miles wide). Eventually, almost our first decent cross of the afternoon (from Danny Fox) was planted home by Fryatt. Wave after wave of Walsall attacks followed and a quickly (and cleverly) taken free kick from Staunton found Fryatt in the box and his inviting cross was met by Jorge Leitao to tap in for 2 - 1.

Lots of chances then went begging, Fryatt just failing to connect with a Leitao flick on and then putting a header just wide, Wrack hit the side netting with a left foot drive (although he should have shot back across the keeper) and Leitao forcing Flahaven into a superb save from a diving header. Southend, however, played their last card, bringing on Shaun Goater and, with two minutes to go, he rose high above Westwood to nod home an equaliser.

All in all, at half time I’d have been happy with a point, the way the game had gone, but, once Osborn came on, there looked like being only one winner, so this was a disappointing way to fail to beat the club record. Three games gone, however, we haven’t played well for ninety minutes in any of them and are still top of the league.

Merson however, I think, needs to decide on his best team (which, at the moment, has to include Osborn) and only tinker with it around the margins. Kinsella would have been a better replacement for Osborn yesteray if he wanted to rest him, rather than the completely unfit Smith. Still, what happens if we start playing well?