A defeat in London yesterday to promotion-chasing Millwall; no disgrace in that, but a loss all the same. Jabo’s first half equaliser was cancelled out as Millwall ran out comfortable winners.

As a change we present a Milwall fan’s view of the game, courtesy of Jockney on the message board:

The first hour was as bad as we have played all season, but we still managed to knock three past you. I’m not overly concerned about our performance yesterday; we have a habit of winning games even when we don’t play particularly well.

Didn’t think Walsall were too bad. Awful defence, but a decent enough midfield. Jabo caused us some problems, but it’s clear to see why he’s still in this division. You won’t challenge with your current squad, but get a couple of decent defenders, a competent winger and a goalscorer, and things, maybe different in a few months. All the best next season, if we go up.

join us from 2.45 below for live blog coverage of the game against Millwall or view in full screen

It’s a trip to the Dragon’s Den tomorrow, for all of the fans of Harchester United that is, as the Saddlers set of to Millwall for a testing encounter.

Chris Hutching’s problems will still make team selection easy for this one again, in defence at least, as his options there are still very limited.

Michael Ricketts will probably make his long-awaited return, having now completed his five-match suspension after being shown his third red card of the campaign in the 2-0 defeat at Southend.

Clayton Ince and Mark Bradley will be back from International duty, so Rene Gilmartin will probably return to the bench, while I would be tempted to bring Bradley in for Hughes, as it was noticeable that the midfield offered no attacking threat last week, as neither Hughes or Mattis looked like getting ahead of the strikers.

Gerrard has apparently suffered no ill-effects from his early return to action in the draw against Cheltenham last weekend, so will keep his place alongside Smith, but both left-backs, Paul Boertien and Netan Sansara, are sidelined, so Palmer will continue there. Both are hopeful of making a return in time for next Saturday’s home clash against Tranmere.

Sicknote Roberts continues to make slow progress with his back spasm problems.

For the opposition, striker Gary Alexander is pushing to be fit. He needed stitches in a nasty facial injury sustained against Colchester on Tuesday night, but he escaped a broken jaw and is hopeful of being involved.

His availability will be a boost to manager Kenny Jackett, who will still be without fellow frontman Neil Harris after he suffered a broken nose at Crewe three days earlier.
Harris, the Lions’ all-time record goalscorer, will undergo an operation to re-align his nose but should return to training next week.

Skipper Paul Robinson is still recovering from a broken metatarsal and fellow defender Richard Duffy remains sidelined with a thigh injury. Full-back Chris Hackett (calf) and midfielder Danny Spiller (groin) played for the reserves in midweek and could be involved.

Predictions?

Millwall are lying third in the table, five points behind the automatic spots, but six points clear of Tranmere in seventh place, so a play off berth looks nailed on for them. That position id, however, on the back of an excellent away record, as, at home, they have won 10, drawn 4 and lost as may as 6.

We do have a chance of something from this game, but I suspect that it will revolve around the abilities of the two managers to get the mental side of the game right – Kenny Jackett in preventing his team from getting too nervous and Hutchings in stopping the complacency now we are guaranteed mid table mediocrity. I suspect Jackett will have his team up for it and it’ll be a home win.

After 24 hours of frantic discussion, financial donations (thank you to everyone who has both given and offered financial support, we will be following all offers up) and messages of support on April 1st, we’re delighted to say UpTheSaddlers is back open, and it is business as usual. The moderating team enjoyed their virtual day at the seaside, and are all back reporting for duty.

UpTheSaddlers is genuinely looking for a new site sponsor from June 2009, to cover the 2009-10 season and hopefully beyond, so please get in touch if you are interested – more details are available on the sponsorship opportunities section.

It has been brought to our attention that the temporary message board, not connected to UTS but linked from yesterday’s article, contained messages of an adult nature and profanities. UTS apologises for the lack of a warning when next to the link.