Agreed . This is not simply a Walsall matter.Since the “greed” league was formed, the Bosman ruling and the emergence of agents Clubs like ours have absolutely no chance of retaining good players for more than a season or two. The days of players staying at clubs long term have gone probably for good.
Nor just a football matter. My wife, a Wales rugby fan, laments the passing of the ‘good old days’ when players worked down the pit or in the steelworks, played for a local club then got picked for the national team, a great source of pride to their community where everybody knew them and their family. At Cardiff Arms Park ‘ordinary people’ would be cheering on their local heroes. Now, as ticket prices have shot up, the Millennium crowd has turned into the ‘prawn sandwich’ brigade, there for the selfie/Instagram effect. Having said that the rugby boys still seem to be more grounded than our ‘elite’ footballers.
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Totally disagree.
There are many football clubs at many levels that continue to embody everything that made them a football club in the first place, made them key to their community, and both represent and contribute massively in a simbiosis with their geographical and spiritual roots. From Shildon to Liverpool, Exeter to Man City.
Ours just isn’t one of them.
i follow is one of the abhorations of the covid agenda that seeks to corral every social interaction onto a digital device. The “system” has always hated football, an uncontrolled mass of 750,000 people plus every match day swilling around the country on public transport, private transport, travelling abroad, organising itself under the radar, sometimes to paramilitary extremes.
Along with many other things, football as we knew it is near the top of the hit list.
Yeah they definitely are. I used to live in Wales and I remember we had a few players still living in the same village as us where they had grown up, some were Llanelli Scarlets players, also some Welsh internationals.
You’d see them out and about, using the local shop, chatting to staff and other locals they see like the normal people they are, just good at playing rugby. This was about 8-10 years ago though, it’ll no doubt go in the same sort of direction as football as the money they earn inevitably goes up.
Ultimately a little bit closer to safety after tonight.
Grimsby another must not lose game.
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One point closer to safety yes, but two points nearer the bottom after Grimsby’s win.
Yes, annoying Grimsby won, but it was against Barrow, so keeps Barrow below us.
Importantly barrow still have Colchester, Fail and Southend to play.
Presume they are going overboard on the Colchester message board having thrown away a 2 goal lead tonight. We are very very poor but I still believe that the current gap between us and the bottom 2 will keep us up. It is a lot of points to make up at this stage of the season. Saved by the inadequacy of others isn’t a great epithet for this season, but at this moment I would settle for it.
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I agree with you. LP must get the appointment of a DoF right. We cannot afford anymore mistakes. If it is the type of person I expect he should be quickly able to appraise BD’s abilities which quite rightly many are doubting.However you have remember his mentor was the previous Manager whose football decisions are largely to blame for this mess. He also been left a team devoid of a decent strikers, ,decent experienced midfielder and tonight 2 experienced Centre Backs one injured and one suspended.
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But they’ll not be DOF for long.
Dutton will go, DOF will take over, well limp to either relegation or safety and then that individual will be off end of the season.
Then the DOF idea will be a gonna too.
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I can see nothing other than a Grimsby win on Saturday.
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100% Hanson and Payne will have a field day against us. I’ve watched Grimsby lately and they are hands down better than us. If there isn’t a change before that game we’re doomed
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We’ve scored 6 goals in 11 games! 
We’ve got 5 points from a possible 33!
That many???
Watched them last week much more about them going forward than us.
I’ve already got them as down tbh still even if the worst happens at the weekend though.
Just looking at their run in and still to play all of Salford, Cheltenham, Bolton, Morecambe and Cambridge on last day so near impossible I’d say to make up another 6 points on top of them having to win on Saturday.
Says it all though when team that has been bottom for ages has a much better strikeforce than at this club, would take either of them no problem. Indeed surely James Hanson should be realistic target for the summer as I assume they’ll release him if they go into non league.
Good call on Hanson, the trouble is with not having someone upstairs in WS1 with a footballing brain ( or any form of brain come to think of it ) no one really has the gumption or interest to pursue matters like this and get in early with a " if you do get relegated and you start looking to move , give us a call, we would be very interested" message, and follow it up and watch Grimsby’s league position. The next thing we will know is someone like Accrington Stanley sign him on a 2 year deal who the hell are day. Hopefully a canny DOF will be on things like this like a tramp on chips.
Having seen the absolute shambles that was Tuesday night, I’m now convinced that of all the teams I’ve seen this season (i.e. all of them) we look like the least capable of winning. I’ve come to the conclusion that we really look at risk of being caught by the teams below, so relegation is a very real possibility.
As a way of coping with the possibility, me and my lad have put £50 each on us to go down at odds of 20/1. The way I look at it, we stay up (100% our preferred option) - which is definitely worth £50, or else we both walk away with a grand each in our pockets to get over the shock with a free holiday!
In two months time I sincerely hope I’m down £50, but I have my doubts.
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So the table looks like this tonight
Think everyone above us is pretty safe. Would be surprised if 46 points isn’t enough for survival plus port vale play Mansfield last day of the season, can see a mutually convenient result there if necessary.
So for the remaining 5 the fixtures over Easter are:
Walsall: Harrogate (H), Orient (A)
Colchester: Bolton (A), Barrow (H)
Barrow: Newport (H), Colchester (A)
Southend: Carlisle (H), Morecambe (A)
Grimsby: Salford (H), Cheltenham (A)
Think Grimsby are in real trouble. Would be surprised if they get anything from their games.
Colchester and Barrow also unlikely to win their first game, so when they play each other will be crucial for both sides. Fancy a draw from that.
Both our and Southends fixture look the nicest. Can see 2-4 points gettable there for both of us.
Our mission then is to match Southends results. Think that’s doable.
Put the trip to Weymouth on hold for now. No reason to get too down.
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