Match Report – Walsall 0-1 Gillingham

OK. When does this nightmare end? 18 months ago we found ourselves riding high on a crest of a wave, fans and club were pulling in the same direction, interaction between staff and fans on Twitter was a joy to be seen….now 18 months later the club and fans couldnt be further away, no staff within the club interact with fans on Twitter and the Saddlers are heading towards the trap door faster than folk can say Whitney Out.

Now Saturdays defeat was harsh, Saddlers had more shots at goal (albeit long range tame efforts) than we have in the previous month but despite putting Gillingham under severe pressure we still found our best striker (Tyler Roberts) on the bench.

Now if Whitney believes Bakayoko is our own striker so plays him, why has it taken him weeks to continue playing loanee defenders when Kory Roberts is better than them? Why has Nicky Devlin not been near the XI since he went away for his birthday? and why on earth was Gillespie dropped? – Gillespie has been far from great lately but he wasnt at fault at Newport and to be honest we could have Gianluigi Buffon behind this defence and still concede bucket loads.

Onto the game, Kinsella and Ismail showed glimpses that they may be a decent right sided duo however over on the left Morris and Leahy look more conference level than League 1. Kinsella was at fault for the Gills winner, tamely passing it back to Roberts before Wilkinson steered it in – but Kinsella very rarely makes a mistake or has a bad game so to criticise wouldnt be fair.

The Saddlers huffed and puffed but were constantly denied by the impressive Holy and a resolute Gillingham backline – a resolute backline we would be delighted to have.

Now we head into tomorrows game knowing another defeat could well see us in the relegation zone.

The Saddlers relied on our home form to keep us away from the trap door but now we find ourselves not having won at home since September – a run which has seen us drawn four and lose two infront of the home support.

A side which draws at home and loses away will be relegated in May, a side which has only collected an average of 1.19 points per game so far will go down, a club which has a divide will go down, a side who struggle to score but does concede will go down.

Now im trying my best to being positive that we will somehow stay in League 1 but at the moment we are sinking faster than the HMS Titanic and without change we will be facing Dover next season.