Merse-2-Go

Bristol City 3-0 Walsall

Awful. What more can I say?

R.I.P. Walsall FC

For the first time in my life (I'm 27), I am totally and utterly disillusioned and fed up with the goings-on at our club, a club who appear to be on a steady decline with no sign of things changing over the next couple of years. What makes it worse is that a simple slight change would see us be a prominent force in this awful division. The sad thing is that I can't see it happening.

Basically, we have a totally inept manager. A likeable person but someone not fit to be in charge of a single person, yet alone a football club. Gambler and Alcoholic (although I'm not going to keep quoting this in my anti-Merson tirade) and someone with no discipline, no organisation, no tactical nous and simply no idea. Add to that his backroom staff - a multitude of player coaches with no coaching badges or experience and a physio who is frankly a joke. When he is not making gestures to opposing supporters he is pissing about in the pre-match warm up. Laughing, joking and trying kick-ups instead of getting his troops ready for a game. You can imagine the larking around that he and Merson get up to during training. All Mr Bonser needs to do is to get rid of Merson (and then Whitney will follow suit) and we'd have more than a chance. You can see the club is a joke, I can imagine training (and I use the term loosely) is just a laugh, we have pre-match trips to Amsterdam and team bonding trips in the pub. Players are told not to attend other players' testimonial dinners. It all reeks of unprofessionalism from top to bottom. Colin Lee brought in a total professionalism from top to bottom and made us think and act like a Championship club. All his work has been undone and we are now a farce.

Experienced pro's (regardless of how we feel of them as players) like Westwood, Smith and Staunton are all deemed to be unhappy. Why? Because they've obviously been at other clubs, they know how a club should work, they know the need to be professional and they must think the whole club is a joke. Decent professionals like Ian Roper just do their job without a ounce of enjoyment. Watch Roper on a Saturday, he doesn't celebrate when we score, when we win and just doesn't seem to enjoy himself. If he was a little more confident he'd want out. Only 5 mths ago, Merson was slating him and lining up a loan move to Bristol Rovers. Would Jorge be so quick to leave if he was happy with things at Walsall? Perhaps playing him in his proper position may have helped.

We have a the nucleus of a good team and some excellent youngsters. Seeing as we are going nowhere fast then we appear set to lose Fryatt for sure and possibly Bennett and Fox. Gerrard will be next and we'll be in dissaray. If we were going places (which we would be under any disciplined and organised manager) then they'd all be happy - maybe even wanting to stay (a la the likes of Trundle)

Fans are more and more disullisioned and are staying away. I personally know dozens of people who no longer go to away games and are more likely than ever to miss home games. This number is likely to be hundreds. That can only be a bad thing. Going to games used to be the highlight of the week, great anticipation and something which I took pleasure from. Now they are a chore. I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a game.

It's simple. Merson out and even a quick fix like Nicholl but it's never going to happen. Merson will be staying for a good while. As for me, well I might as well give up wasting my hard earned money and time watching a total inept clown ruin something that I love. Walsall FC.

Bradford 2-0 Walsall

It will be a replica of Colin Lee's last season. Decent run up until Christmas with hopes of a play off berth, a dismal Christmas and New Year period, players leaving and then apalling run of defeats.

We're 10/1 for the drop, 6 points is nothing and a lot of the teams down there are slowly picking up points (Tranmere, Bristol City, even Vale last night) League Two beckons. I can feel it. Congratulations Merson.

Supporters View of the Day - Nottingham

I forgot to add a bit about my day in Nottingham yesterday. I was armed with my wife (for a change but she likes these 'big' games) so Hooters was out of the question (to my dismay) so we plumped for Nottingham City Centre to begin with - having arrived around 12.00pm - and I impressed the missus by taking her to the Pitcher and Piano which is a redeveloped church and very swish. If I was still courting then this is the kind of place I'd be going to impress the ladies. A quick stop in the Hogshead on the way down and then quick bus-ride to the ground and we went, as did many other Saddlers, to the Larwood and Voice where we presided until right up to kick-off. It was an enjoyable day all-round (the £21 admission aside), Nottingham is a pretty decent city and the Larwood was most welcoming.

Anyway, the reason I posted the above is to try and persuade fellow Saddlers to add their thoughts about the pubs/Nottingham lifestyle in the 'Comments' section below or to email me any photo's they may have taken during the day. Send them to me at wfcsaddlers@hotmail.com and I'll post the best ones (if we get any at all) on this site. Pictures from Hooters much appreciated.

A tale of 10 fighters and an idiotic schoolboy.

Nottingham Forest 1-1 Walsall

Well, our hoodoo over Forest continues as they failed once again to beat us despite the stupidity of Ishmel Demontagnac which left us to play two-thirds of the game with only 10 men (some would say with 9 men seeing as a half-fit Merson plodded up and down the left-wing for much of the game). Merson's egotistical team selection was again evident as he picked himself to play behind the lone striker with Jorge either injured or left out in the cold.

Still, we started as well as we could have hoped for. Fryatt nodding home the gaffer's pin-point corner after only a few minutes and it was looking to be quite a good and even game until Ishmel decided to retaliate to a tackle, raised his fists and was duly given his marching orders by a referee with little alternative. Ishmel then threw a wobbly, had words with Merson, had a scuffle with Kinsella on the bench and then kicked out at our physio before wandering down the tunnel to leave his team mates with a massive task.

A task which they were more than up to. Forest dominated possession from this point forward but a combination of their creative inadequacy and our dogged defensive display left them starved of real chances from open play. Set-pieces were a different matter entirely and we were indebted to two world class saves from Murphy but it was seemingly only a matter of time before Forest capitalised via one of their set-pieces and Breckin soon fired home a fierce header to put the match at all-square.

Now we feared the worst, Forest again dominated possession but failed to create anything further in the first half and a similar pattern followed in the second with Forest having what seemed like 75% of the possession but it was mainly to pass the ball across midfield. When they did fire the ball into the box Roper and Gerrard were outstanding and the back four as a whole restricted Forest to only long range efforts, most of which landed in the Trent End or were straight at Murphy. We defended stoutly to see out the game, Forest threw on Jack Lester (who must be a better option than Taylor?) and Eugene Dadi but to no great effect and Tyson seemed the only likely scorer but he too disappointed me on the day. He looked sharp enough but was very one-footed. Fryatt on the other hand had one of his better performances as the lone striker, always fighting for the ball, holding the ball up well and trying to create limited chances with virtually no support.

So, it finished 1-1. I do think the celebrations in the away end were a little much considering we are 15th in a very poor division. Okay, we got a good point but we've got to defend at the 'smaller' grounds as well as we did in front of 20,000 people. Also, Merson's belly salute to the Forest fans at the end of the game reeked of unprofessionalism. He'd done his job as a manager pretty well today so just leave it at that eh Merse?

I'm sure my 'colleague' at the Forest Blog may have seen things differently. Other Forest thoughts can be found here

Man United now sponsored by Easyjet - in and out of Europe in 90 minutes.

It shouldn't be funny as I usually support English clubs in Europe but this time it's hilarious.