Saddlers fans were brought firmly back to earth last night, as the team deservedly crashed out of the League Cup to Darlington, from the Division below.

At lot of focus will be on Michael Ricketts, following his first half dismissal, but there was a lot more to worry about than that in what was a disappointingly tactically naïve performance.

The central midfield did not perform on the night, to the extent that no one got in front of the strikers at all. The combination of Taundry and Hughes looks overly defensive and, even before the sending off, we were, in effect, playing with nine men, as neither winger got a pass all night. The very odd occasion they got some quality possession, we did look threatening. In the absence of Mattis, I’m sure Bradley would have been a far better option to play alongside Hughes.

Equally, both Sansara and Palmer looked defensively suspect and were given a torrid time by a lively Darlington attack. The main problem in defence, however, was the poor performance from new signing Roberts, who lost his man as early as the first minute (Ince producing a decent save) and then proceeded to do it four or five more time in the first half, including being way off his man when they scored the equaliser (although Sansara, skinned for the cross, and Palmer, easily beaten by the winger for the knock back, were also to blame).

Roberts topped his performance by limping off in the second half, with Manny Smith coming on in his stead.

Iberhe, Ince and Gerrard were all outstanding, the number nine providing our only attacking threat, and the other two dealing well with the crosses coming into the box.

The other problem, however, was the way we dealt with the sending off. At half time, the lack of possession we were giving the two wingers was an obvious weakness. It was crying out for a change to be made to a 4 3 2, or a 4 3 1 1, with either Reich or Demontagnac coming on to try and link up with Iberhe and, possibly, Bradley to play in midfield. Instead, we carried on the same way until Darlington took the lead, by which time we were chasing the game and, despite throwing players forward towards the end, we still did not create enough quality in the last third.

No, I know we are missing Weston, Boertien, Mattis and, now, Ricketts from out first choice line up, but we have to get performances like this out of our system quickly and the need for some experienced central defensive cover and, most importantly, someone who knows where the back of the net is was thrown into sharp relief.

This isn’t quite a match report, as I didn’t see the game, but piecing together bits and pieces from around the traps, aided and abetted by Mick Kearns’ unique brand of match commentary the game went something like this.

We were looking for a bright start, but soon realised that Darlington had turned up to play some football, rather than the standard league Two ‘Hoof’ brand to which we’d become accustomed. As a result, it was Ince tested first as a keeper rather than his opposite number, Brown. Within ten minutes Proudlock (twice) and Purdie were through on goal, forcing saves, and it was against the run of play that Ricketts headed home from a Palmer free kick.

For the next twenty or so minutes the game was more open, with some neat attacking football from both sides, Ricketts missing a sitter at one end from a Taundry rebound, and Poole and Griffin combining on the wings to give the Walsall full backs a torrid time. It was perhaps inevitable when Kennedy hit the equaliser when teed up by Griffin.

On 36 minutes Ricketts was heading for the tunnel, instead of the goal, his misplaced elbow being the cause of his instant red card from ‘referee’ Darren Drysdale. Whilst nobody appears to contest this decision, and appreciating that the Banks’s’s’s Stadium is a far cry from last season’s FA Cup Final where he assisted, Drysdale could certainly have asserted more control from start to finish, as he’d patently lost the plot by the end.

Half time came and went, not sure what performance was put on by Stafflers, or whether it was open mic night.

Second half, all uphill, some end-to-end stuff, with, inevitably, Darlington’s extra man counting against Walsall. The defence was undone shortly after Manny Smith replaced Roberts (another injury?), when Clarke took two attempts to bury the ball in the net. The resulting Darlo bench celebration saw a water bottle hitting one of the Saddlers faithful in the OAP stand, and some sharp comments were made to the stewards, who took the stance that as it wasn’t one of the crowd chucking it, they didn’t have to do anything.

Zaaboub was immediately replaced by Reich, and ten minutes later Jimmy Mullen gambled on a 342 formation, throwing on Deeney up front and sacrificing Sansara, who’d not had the best of home debuts.

All for nothing. The last throw of the dice saw Ince in the outfield, but several chances went begging for the sake of good finishing, and we were lucky at our end of the pitch too. A couple of the fans, sensing perhaps that this season was one to ‘concentrate on the league’, made their frustrations plain, as Gerrard, then Deeney copped abuse from sections of the crowd. Gerrard managed a late yellow for himself following an incident after the final whistle, while Deeney had to be dragged down the tunnel to prevent him from defending his reputation in a rather physical manner.

A disappointing exit from a disappointing competition in a disappointing game. Onwards and upwards should be the watchwords - this squad came together late compared to many, we’re still short of our best eleven (and will be for at least three more games thanks to Ricketts) and still lacking a little in match fitness. Excuses aren’t needed yet - encouragement is.