It seems that Paul Merson lost the last of the goodwill he had with the fans after the poor performance at Swindon in the week. One can only assume now that he has lost the players too, as this afternoon’s pathetic performance at Brentford must surely end his tenure at Bescot.

With 44 players used and all of the promises of promotion broken, this was a pathetic shambles of a performance, the sort which led to his resignation, rejected at the time, after the Colchester game last season.

If he doesn’t resign after this, then the Chairman must act and hand him his P45.

For the record, the final score was 5 - 0 and we hardly had an attack, never mind a shot.

Upthesaddlers.com has no hesitation in calling for a change of Manager, before we end up in the bottom tier of the League.

wfc-2uk has been unable to make contact from the ground, so this is a summary of the WM point of view.

We did start 4 4 2, but with Atieno on the right wing and James up front. Whatever Merson’s intentions with this, it didn’t work, as Brentford went two up within ten minutes.

The rest of the half was completely dominated by Brentford, who could have had more goals, with Oakes, at fault for the first goal, from Rankine, making one great save.

The Saddlers have had no possesion in midfield and have created nothing. Brentford right winger Tabb is having a field day as first Fox, then Smith who move to full back when Fox had to take over from the injured Westwood, got nowhere near him.

Unless we put things right at half time, this could get embarrassing.

Walsall will line up

Oakes, Pead, Gerrard, Westwood, Fox, James, Leary, Keates, Smith, Atieno, Barrowman.

Subs: Nicholls, Bradley, Osborn, Wright and Tilt.

So, out of the 16 completely go Rene Gilmartin, Mads Timm and James Constable, no sign of Ishmel Demontagnac and Roper is still injured. Bradley is, presumably, the only defensive cover, so let’s hope nothing happens to Gerrard or Westwood. Atieno gets a start after being told he wasn’t good enough a couple of weeks ago.