I used to like the Old Show Ground, home as it was to the league’s first cantilever stand, and another effort that looked like it had been designed in a Blue Peter stand making competition, components being four pipe-cleaners and an upturned shoe-box.

Typically with new grounds eccentricity bowed to bland functionality, and Glanford Park was erected miles out of town, in a comparative pub-less wilderness.

The good news for drivers is that it’s handy for the motorway, and there are a couple of outlets right at the ground. The “Iron Bar” is attached to the stadium (like the Bescot Bar pre new stand), but I have to confess I’ve never been in, and The Old Farmhouse pub-eatery is right on the doorstep.

There the good news ends, as the latter is owned by Spirit Group, and is as unlike an Old Farmhouse as you could possibly get.

Spirit Group is the chain who unleashed the Wacky Warehouse brand on humanity. If for some reason you are staying the weekend and have a toddler at your disposal they do entertainment with Button the Clown every Friday morning at 9.30 AM. Why? Because this is Scunthorpe 21st century style.

There is also a miserable bouncer to contend with on matchdays, probably the same bloke who dresses up as Button on Fridays.

A better option is to walk down Doncaster Road towards the distant town where the cavernous Berkeley will rise majestically into view within four minutes. It’s a bit like the Leaking Boot at Grimsby only twice as big. This pub is also quite cheap, after a few seconds marvelling at the architecture you can get a pint from about £1.40, must be a North Lincolnshire thing.

Train travellers have more choice as the station is in the town centre, and in the area where one would enjoy a bevy before a game at the old ground. Exit left and then take a right into Oswald Road. There you will find a real gem in The Honest Lawyer.

From the outside it looks like an old fashioned sweet shop, inside reveals a fine selection of real ales from the local area, big screen, and decent grub. There is a separate restaurant upstairs, but the gaffer also does lighter bar meals. Pity the ground is now two miles away instead of five minutes around the corner.

Upon leaving head up Oswald Rd. to the garish blue painted Wetherspoons (Blue Bell). Don’t forget to allow time for the slowness/absence of bar staff and the possible “toilet on another floor” conundrum as you are still a good bus ride from the stadium. However it’s an above average Wetherspoons and is not far from the required bus stop.

To reach said stop continue up Oswald Road to Doncaster Road and turn left and it’s near the corner of Deyne Avenue (next street), number 341. The supermarket on the right is where the old ground used to stand for those that want to pay their respects as the bus flashes past.

Following Walsall’s poor performances over the last few games, culminating in the abysmal home defeat to Chesterfield on Saturday, pressure appears to be growing on Manager Paul Merson.

The Walsall Observer are running the first “should he stay or should he go” poll of the season on the icWalsall web site. Of course, this sort of thing is quite common when teams are going through bad patches and does not usually signify much, but the significant thing about this one is that, after the first 200 votes have been cast, over 95% think that it is time for a change.

Merson has said that he should be judged on his own team and after 15 games. He has his own squad now and the 15 game deadline is rapidly approaching and it seems that the Saddlers’ fans’ love affair with the ex Arsenal and England star may be about to hit a very rocky spell indeed.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the arguments, the next few fixtures, taking us up till the end of October, are difficult ones (Scunthorpe away, Brentford at home, Port Vale away, MK Dons at home, Huddersfield away, Doncaster at home and Barnsley away) and a poor run of results in these games may yet prove to be decisive for Walsall’s season and Merson’s future.

The poll is on http://icwalsall.icnetwork.co.uk/

UptheSaddlers will start moving to a new home (or hosting company) on Monday 19th September, from 7am BST. You should still be able to access the site, but you won’t be able to post any messages.

As soon as the technical guys give the all clear, posting will be enabled again.

Cross your fingers, and hopefully we’ll see you after the break (if there is one!)

Ever wished you had stayed away on holiday? This was a performance of exceptional ineptitude and brought back all of the bad memories of the mistakes of last season,

Walsall’s problems started before the kick off, when Oakes was injured in the warm up, the second Walsall player to have done so in a matter of a few weeks. Gillmartin stepped up from the bench to make his debut, with Kris Taylor being promoted to the sixteen. The Saddlers lined up Gillmartin, Pead, Westwood, Gerrard, Fox, Standing, Osborn, Smith, Wright, Leitao and Fryatt, with a bench of Merson, K Taylor, Kinsella, Staunton and Husbands.

Chesterfield lined up in a 4 5 1, with Paul Hall as the attacking midfielder, but surprisingly left Wayne Alison on the bench. More of him later.

Let’s get one thing straight, Chesterfield are not very good. In fact they are as poor as they were last season, when we beat them fairly comfortably at home. The first half followed that pattern, with the Saddlers well in control and Fryatt superbly set up Leitao and Wright to score, the latter from a swift, incisive break. There were danger signs, however, as the defence managed to present the Spireites with three very good chances, two of which they should have scored from.

The second half began with the visitors making a tactical change. They moved from a 4 5 1, to a 4 4 2, with Wayne Alison coming on. That made all the difference. The ball was suddenly being held up and the home centre backs began to have real problems dealing with his aerial threat. Smith began to get more and more ineffectual and, inevetibly it seemed, Chesterfield pulled a goal back, with a free header from a corner. The problems were all being cused by Alison’s presence, but Merson’s solution was not to shore up the defence or the central midfield to shut off possession, but instead, to bring himself on for Standing. After three or four nice touches, his contribution to the game rapidly faded away, leaving the central midfield totally overun.

Chesterfield scored two more goals from crosses to completely take control of the game, Westwood being at fault with the first and Gerrard for the second, which gave Wayne Alison a richly deserved goal. Oh for Ian Roper to mark him!

Merson decided late on the take off the pace of Wright for Taylor, when Smith should surely have been the man to give way and Fryatt, who had created both goals, for Husbands, who never saw the ball.

Merson decided to have a go at the players after the game, blaming lack of concentration, but this was down to poor team selection (Smith again!), an inability to react to the opposition changing their tactics and inept substitutions. I’m just wishing I was back in a Greek taverna watching England win the Ashes. Mind you, anything would be more entertaining than this.

Growing up as a young boy watching the Saddlers I mistakenly believed for a good couple of years that a “Spireite” was some kind of mythical being, possessing of magical powers for use against its enemies. An ideal nickname for a football club I naively thought.

Then when I got a bit older and went to Chesterfield away, I realised that they were in fact named after a laughable piece of errant construction, the bent church in the town that is, not the football ground itself.

Since those not so halcyon days in the 70’s Walsall versus Chesterfield has for me been a benchmark of the mutual mediocrity that has often gripped our respective clubs.

Apart from a twice replayed FA cup tie en-route to Old Trafford, a glorious Mark Rees inspired 4-3 win in front of the “Star Soccer” cameras, and our promotion tussle of 1995 there hasn’t been much to capture the imagination.

Last year’s trip to Saltergate was the day our relegation really sunk in. The return fixture saw arguably the worst display by a visiting team at Bescot last season.

This year sees the sides predictably straddling mid-table. The Saddlers will be hoping that the promise of Husband’s debut at Yeovil, and continued good form of Fryatt will blossom into a full blown assault on the top six. Certainly this is the type of game we must win if that aim is to be realised.

It’s too early to speculate as to whether Merse will further shuffle the pack but it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Husbands start on the wing, while the centre of midfield is perm any 2 from 6 depending on how the diets are going. Roper is some way off his target weight according to Merse, so the back four should be unchanged despite last week’s defeat.

Chesterfield have former Saddler Paul Hall in the ranks, and he was instrumental in their 3-0 win over Bournemouth last week, a match in which former Wolves reserves Colin Larkin and Sammy Clingan also featured, the former opening his goal-scoring account.

They lined up 4-4-2 there, but had employed Caleb Folan as a lone striker in a 4-5-1 in the previous two away fixtures. If It’s 4-4-2 then we could get another sighting of Wayne Allison as he plods towards 700 professional appearances in a career stretching over 18 years, although last season the only thing stretching was the elastic in his shorts.

Keeper Carl Muggleton is another incredible character, his CV includes 3 spells with Chesterfield, one of sixteen clubs he has represented.

Mark Debolla played alongside Husbands in the Villa youth set-up, and can be a dangerous customer coming off the bench.

Prediction, a scrappy 2-1 win, oh what the hell it’s my last preview before Neil gets back, make it 3-1.

(Admin adds - many thanks to Geordie Saddler for stepping in as Editor whilst Neil has been on holiday - with some top quality items)

The Saddlers have offered a professional deal to teenage Irish keeper Rene Gilmartin.

The youngster who last January was looking for jobs on the Soccercamp website certainly lacks nothing in enthusiasm for the game, judging by his advert on there and the reaction to his good news on the official site.

Gilmartin joins Michael Husbands who signed on a non-contract basis last week in what is becoming an increasingly youthful first team squad. Both players are expected to be in the 16 for Saturday, with Husbands a possible starter in the absence of Darren Wrack (subject to references of course).

Reaction to the hugely disappointing afternoon at Huish Park on the message board as Saddlers continued their poor record against teams just up from the basement division. Last season the first round of games against the promoted teams yielded just one point, and it’s the same again so far this term with Scunthorpe on the horizon in a fortnight.

The E and S are reporting that Merson has told Ian Roper to lose weight and change his diet. The article contains possibly the all time greatest Merson quote: “At the end of the day it’s up to the player because I can’t go home with him and feed him”. Cue visions of Merse in a pinny Chez George’s.

On a more serious note, I’m sure everyone would like to join me in wishing Darren Wrack a swift recovery following what is thus far being reported as a “serious leg injury”, although it sounds likely it was a bad break.

The injury to Wrack enabled trialist Michael Husbands to earn a surprise debut as part of his extended trial following his promising showing in the reserves.

Apologies to all UptheSaddlers regulars and visitors for the unavailability of this website between Friday lunchtime and late Sunday night. The hosting company where the site is stored - Vizaweb - have been proving increasingly unreliable over recent months, and the latest incident was caused by the database server they rent to their clients crashing, and nobody bothering to restore it.

Moves are underway to get the site transferred to a new reliable hosting company - not a quick process, due to the large volume of content - so please bear with us.

Another Ashes Saturday rolls round with the mad dash from the pub to the ground at ten to three adding an extra competitive edge to the afternoon.

Hopefully our first league game against Yeovil will prove more fruitful than our cup ties against them over the years, which yielded just one victory in six attempts and that courtesy of a last minute Bulger goal back in 1936.

Lots of little, (and probably meaningless) sequences involved here. Yeovil looking for their first home win at this level, Saddlers undefeated away in the league since last Easter but this is a journey into unknown territory.

I am always inclined to think if we pick our best team and play well we should avoid defeat, and certainly a defence bolstered by the return of Daniel Fox should prove a considerable barrier to the side currently bottom of the league. Kris Taylor will line up in midfield with Merson on the bench in either a 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 with Jorge drifting out wide.

As for Yeovil, they suffered a huge blow pre-season when Chris Kamara tipped them as promotion dark horses They should however be respected having already defeated both Ipswich and Hartlepool on their travels, although it remains to be seen whether speculation linking their manager to Plymouth proves as unsettling as it did to us under Lee’s tenure.

I reckon another tight game on the cards, hedging my bets at either 1-1 or 1-0 to the Saddlers.

Nature teaches that feast is often followed by famine, and such is the case pub wise for our next two away trips as we visit two newish out of town grounds that are not the most convenient for either rail travellers or those in search of some choice for a pre-match pint.

But don’t despair there are options that can make the Yeovil trip a really nice day out both for those who have battled their way down the M5, and for train passengers marooned at either Pen Mill or Yeovil Junction stations miles from Huish Park.

At Pen Mill exit right and follow Cambourne Grove round until you come to the Great Western (2 minutes walk) which has a nice outdoor seating for that “Woolpack” feel and boasts the kind of menu and real ale selection you would expect from a picturesque country pub. You are just as well setting up camp here for an hour before ringing a taxi to the ground.

Yeovil Junction is more problematic, the nearest pub being the Royal Oak in the village of Stoford, a good 15 minutes walk in itself. However, this station has a bus shuttle service into Yeovil town centre where a bus to Huish Park departs on a match-day at 1.50pm.* If you can afford to waste that much drinking time then you shouldn’t be reading this, and will probably be travelling equipped with a tupaware box full of sarnies and a flask of warm Vimto.

Those approaching by car via the A37 could break their journey with a visit to the Half-Way House which is a sumptuous lodge style pub set back from the main road with a large car park. This is about 2 miles from the ground. I stayed in the B and B accommodation here a few years back and didn’t want to leave. Great food, and a good mixture of the pub and restaurant functions.

None of the pubs by the ground are either anything to write home about, or even that near the ground! The Arrow is the nearest. From the away end walk up Copse Rd to Western Avenue, then left and immediate right into Stourton Way. Keep walking until you get to the shopping precinct where the pub is.

A better alternative is the Bell on Preston Road. From Copse Road (away end) walk right down Western Avenue passing the ground on your right, over a roundabout to a second roundabout then left onto Preston Road then five minutes walk down here.
This is a better alternative for those travelling with kids or in search of some scran.

Awayguide.net has reports a beer-tent near the ground last season but with no admission for away fans in colours.

* Thanks to Ciderspace.co.uk for the bus info.

Hugh from ciderspace.co.uk adds:

Unfortunately the situation is not just no away fans in colours in the marquee, it’s admission by
YTFC season ticket or home area match-day ticket only . This is a situation the club as well as
we fans are pissed off about, but the licencing authority is controlled by a miserable bitch who
appears to believe a small sherry at lunchtime qualifies as binge drinking and will trigger mayhem
and riots.

The Bell went right down hill during last season. Service was abysmal, most of the beers were off,
and the food was a disgrace. From being packed as one of the most popular pubs in the area, trade
collapsed. There’s new management in there now and standards seem to be picking up. However once
trade is lost it takes time to recover, and you are visiting at a good time when many home fans have
still not returned to it, so your supporters shouldn’t find it too busy. Has three rather standard
mainstream real ales from Greene King. Sky Sports on a big screen - when they bother to use it - and
on TVs. Also a pool table - er I think. It was round the corner at the far end of the pub from the
area our group use, so I’m presuming it’s still there. Loads of outside tables if the weather stays
good. Ten minute rush, or fifteen minute stroll up to HP. Never been any issues between home and
away fans in The Bell during the time I’ve been using it - which is almost every home match for the
last five or six seasons.

The Arrow is a bit closer to HP. It generally allows away fans, but is very home fan dominated and
gets extremely busy. Can be long waits for service. Haven’t been in for ages but from what I hear if
it bothers with any food on match-days it’s pretty minimal.

Spot on with the Half-way House. In fact locals - I’m an exile - say it’s got even better recently.