After Walsall's home defeat to Yeovil, Brian Halford asks: Where do the Saddlers go from here?

Oct 4 2010 by Brian Halford, Birmingham Mail

WHEN Yeovil are the opposition, it normally means bad news for someone in Walsall’s camp.

In 2005, Darren Wrack broke a leg at The New Huish and was never the same player again. In 2006, Kevan Broadhurst, unbeaten as caretaker manager after three good away results, faced Yeovil at home – and a 2-0 defeat triggered a slide to relegation.

Last season Clayton Ince’s ricket gifted the Glovers their winner. It was the big man’s last game for the club. Not so much Glovers, then, as Grim Reaper.

Whether manager Chris Hutchings survives this latest reverse only time will tell but the ice beneath him is thin. The stats make Grim reading.

This result, which dumped the Saddlers bottom of League One, was their sixth defeat in seven home games and their seventh in eight matches home and away. In 11 of 12 games Walsall have failed to keep a clean sheet while, on Saturday, they failed to score against the team with the worst defensive record in League One and who had conceded eight goals in the last two away games.

One off-field stat is bleakest of all. Without the 227 Yeovil fans there were fewer than 3,000 people in the ground. And there’s the crux of the crisis. As this stultifyingly mediocre spectacle unfolded it was impossible to fathom just how Walsall will break out of this vicious circle.

Struggling team, falling crowds, shrinking budgets, struggling team, falling crowds, shrinking budgets, etc, etc.

How to break that circle? Answers on a postcard please.

This game gave Hutchings’ side a great chance to build upon the momentum (all things are relative!) of a draw at Orient. Despite starting brightly, Yeovil gave the ball away cheaply, giving Walsall every chance to pressure that fragile defence. But the Saddlers returned possession even more cheaply and Yeovil soon fancied their chances.