The one positive to come out of this mess,(and I think you will all agree) is that as I am driving to Felixstowe docks at night, I can listen to the commentary on BBC Cambridgeshire if we play Cambridge in midweek.
Looks like we’ll be playing Orient next season: they’ve bounced back (to the lowest rung of the EFL). Hope our friends from Hartlepool can do the same: always think we are brothers in arms. However, it seems more likely we’ll be joining them, as things stand 
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I am pleased for Stockport, too, but County went down to the sixth level before what looks like a promotion back to the fifth tier this season. There are plenty of Walsall’s old rivals in that league, the likes of Darlington, Hereford and York. For every Lincoln - and it is reaping the rewards of hiring the best managerial team in non-league football a few years ago - there are many more Darlingtons, Herefords and Yorks. And even in National League North/South, Walsall is still likely to be stuck with Jeff Bonser and his ever-increasing pension fund. I do not know if I can continue to give a toss.
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Yeah. More than half of the National League were former EFL teams not so long ago 
One optimistic note for the future: former EFL teams do have a good record of getting back up.
Words fail me. What a monumental demise this season. How could we have been thrown so many lifelines in recent weeks and stuffed up every chance? How many teams on abysmal runs have pocketed all three points against us home and away? Absolute shambles, so despondent and dejected. What a humiliating end to the season. Still staggered by today’s team selection in a must win. Desperate measures to relieve Keates way too late, how many warnings did we need before we figured out what we needed to do? The next appointment is absolutely critical. We cannot afford to do this one on the cheap. Huge task for the incoming Manager and I really hope it’s Hurst. Gutted to be heading out of league one.
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As you say despite our poor run we still unbelievably had a squeak of a chance but then he picks this team out of god knows where. As soon as o saw the team I knew it wasn’t going to end well. He picked a team not to lose in a must win and ended up losing, as clueless as the previous manager.
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Agree I think o’connor bottled it we needed a win and he tried to shut up shop.
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definitely down now.
cant really blame o’connor because he took on a completely thankless task, but its like every week he is going with different players and a different setup in the vain hope of stumbling across something that works. Need a complete rebuild.
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Agree completely - the only thing to add is that in all fairness, a relegation season has been on the cards for a long while - we were very lucky last season and actually could quite reasonably have escaped again this season but for calamitous performances against sides just as crap as us (especially recently…)
On form and stats, we are bang on for relegation so for me, it’s no surprise… still gutted though…
… and there it is. Even 6 points from the two remaining games (Spoiler: and that’s not happening) won’t keep us up from here.
I can’t even say that the clusterfudge that finished bottom in 2006 was more deserving of relegation, because this has been creeping up incrementally, for two and a half years, ever since it became apparent that Oztumer alone couldn’t carry the dead weight of Jackson, Makris, & Moussa. There have been numerous opportunities to mend and make do, and what have we done?
Decided on the eve of last season that O’Connor was suddenly surplus to requirements, after spending the entire summer messing Matt Preston about. Never recovered.
Elected not to cash in on Etheridge, and released McGillivary on practically the same day NE left for nowt. Never recovered.
Followed the almost too late sacking of rookie manager Whitney, because we didn’t want to have to pay up the misguided 3 year contract we awarded him, by giving another rookie 3 years, and being too scared to sack him following the Wimbledon and Coventry debacles. God only knows when we’ll recover.
Escaped relegation by a whisker, and signed half a team the day before the opening fixture of this season, having spent the whole summer farting about with Cypriot trialists, Wrexham’s captain, and all those defenders that played against Ajax. Two of those players were teenage defenders on loan (with a further one to follow later that month), as clearly nothing was learned from the Toner/Donnellan debacles.
Feel free to add to the above, as I’m sure there are numerous other examples within that timeframe, that I’m far too exasperated to even contemplate right now.
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I think the Etheridge replacement and not making Mcgillvary no 1 was a massive turning point
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Agree with that…the basic managerial errors which have been made over the past 2 seasons are legion and far too many to list. As well as the dozens of players I mentioned above there is also all the coaching staff brought in by Keates and also those who allowed all this to happen.
There is a massive rebuilding job to be done and I hope that whoever takes it on will “speak truth to power”.
I think it is time for JB to acknowledge that after 20 odd years in charge it is time for new thinking and new leadership. Unlike others I bear him no malice but a change is required . That in itself would give a boost to a disheartened and upset fanbase. The game has moved on and so must this Club.I hope he will do the right thing assuming that there are people out there willing to buy the Club.
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Is the Jeff Bonser you speak of the same one?
Bear him no malice?
New thinking required?
A disheartened fan base and his understanding of it?
I’ll have a glass of what you’re on mate
Let’s be fair, he doesn’t give a flying ■■■■ about our fan base and his outdated approach - his way is his way and that is our way - end of…
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There is only one person to blame. JB runs the club, appoints the manager, decides the finance. If the players aren’t good enough then we can blame the manager but JB appointed the manager. Until JB moves on we are on a downward slope.
Thanks for everything you’ve done but for the greater good of Walsall FC please sell up.
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Hope you enjoy the wine! but you see I remember the nineties and the great revival at the end of that decade when we had our longest spell in the second level ever and I am thankful that we saw some really good footballers playing for our team. However it is time he handed the club over to someone else…as I stated we need new leadership and fresh thinking. I thought that was your position too!! Simply because I don’t go along with all this hatred of JB doesn’t mean that I don’t want change. That is why I support wholeheartedly the efforts being made by people on here. to change things.I hope they are successful and if I can help I will.
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I think that is what I was trying to say but you have put it much more succinctly.
Exactly this.
Poor decision after poor decision after poor decision.
It seems those at the top are completely unable to learn from mistakes and just keep repeating them and crossing their fingers?!?! 
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Good guess mate - nice glass of red it is…
I Don’t hate Jeff, far from it, he is probably a decent bloke that’s doing the right thing for him and his family and you can’t hate someone for that but what is wrong is the way it’s done using WFC as the platform and milking it for all it’s worth with no let up and little or no actual investment from the top.
You simply cannot run a successful football club that way these days - things have moved on and social media and fan access to relevant financial information is abundant. This is what drives a massive wedge (no pun intended) between Jeff, his yes man board and the fans
So hate isn’t what I feel - it’s more like deeply rooted frustration - that said, the red wine will help in time (at least for tonight!)
UTS
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WalsallOne … Do you have £6 million stashed in a bank account you could use to buy out JB?
The fact we have managed just 1 lucky point from games against 3 teams in as bad or worse form than ourselves is absolutely pathetic. I can’t wait for this to be over and as many of these fraud players, coaches and directors to be gone as possible.