Automatic promotion? Forget It

By Vention Victor
June 20 2004

Many Walsall fans are under the impression that this forthcoming season is going to be filled with exciting, attacking football climaxing with the inevitable promotion back into the real division 1.

I can only guess that this assumption is based on the belief that we are really a first division team that suffered a slight mishap last time out.

Unfortunately league tables don’t lie and as I read it, on the final day of last season, we were the third worst side in the division. Hence our relegation to the Cola division one.

At the moment we have basically the same side that under performed last season. This side still consists of the same strikers that struggled to find the back of the net last year, still has the same “creative” players that couldn’t create and still has the same unpredictable defenders that conceded silly goals for fun.

Unfortunately, this side has now lost some of its most influential players. Jimmy Walker has finally got his dream move to a bigger club and I don’t think anyone in their right mind would begrudge him the opportunity. One thing is certain; we will darn well miss him.

His fantastic ability in between the sticks was one of the main reasons we were able to compete at that level for 3 successive years. Jimmy Walker was the difference between certain relegation and the annual fight against it. West Ham certainly have the best keeper outside the Premiership and hopefully Walker will realise his ambition should the Hammers get to the premier League. Fingers crossed for both.

The points that he saved for the club are uncountable and the fantastic saves he made too numerous to pick favourites. He has now gone and has been replaced by Paston. The Kiwi certainly has a legend to follow.

Also gone are the influential but disgraced Vinnie Samways and the psychopathic Paul Ritchie.

So, with last years side obviously weakened, I cannot understand Saddlers fans’ belief that we will make an immediate return.

Whilst in the real first division the perception of teams such as Hull City, Doncaster and Swindon was one of insignificance. They were considered to be too inferior to allocate valuable memory time. However, now we are back in the lower league the whole perception of these teams has changed. I spend time thinking whether we will struggle to compete with these sides given the resources at our disposal.

Realistically there are quite a few sides in the Cola division 1 that have more disposable income than us and as such the so called victorious march through the division that some people are expecting just isn’t going to happen.

Despite the negative stuff above though, there are certainly some things to look forward too. Out has gone the tedious Lee with his mind numbingly boring football. Merson has now been given the gaffers job and if we continue to play in the manner we did for the last five games of last season then we should see some exciting stuff. Also, some of the journeymen have gone and the likes of Fryatt, Taylor and Wright will hopefully be given their chance to build a career in the game.

The current state of our club on the footballing front whilst not brilliant certainly isn’t disastrous and hopefully we won’t simply pass through this division to the basement.

My prediction is that we will finish in the top half of the table and may just sneak into the play offs given a good following wind. Automatic promotion though is out of the question and fans harbouring such expectations should be given a bucket of cold water.