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.