What The Walsall??

Football in the West Midlands has been on fire this season.

Aston Villa have made it to the Champions League Quarter-Finals and beat Southampton 3-0 this weekend despite failing to score 2 penalties.

West Bromwich Albion and Coventry City stand at 6th and 7th in the Championship, with the formers incredible goal difference and the latter’s game in hand over Bristol City above them making playoff qualification a realistic proposition for both.

Birmingham City have romped to automatic promotion from League One at the first time of asking and have a 13-point lead over 2nd placed Wrexham-wood whilst keeping 2 games in hand over the rest of the top 9. The Blues have lost 3 times all season, scored 73 goals in 40 matches whilst conceding just 29 and need just 5 points from their final 6 matches to break into 3 figures for the season.

At the dawn of 2025 it Walsall were on track to challenge Birmingham for the title ‘best team in the Midlands’ as they ran away with the League Two title, or so it seemed…..

After destroying the Bedfordshire franchise (MK Dons) 4-2 at the Poundland Bescot Stadium on January 18th Mat Sadler’s Saddlers had amassed 58 points from a mere 25 matches, scored 52 goals whilst conceding just 23 and had built a 12-point lead over second placed Crewe Alexandra (which is Alexandra? eh, Jim Daly).

Then their season fell apart.

In the 17 games they have played since that win over the empty stadium lot the West Midlanders have won just twice, amassing just 14 points in the last 3 months.

Given that and the fact that their last win came up on Morecambe bay back on February 22nd against a Shrimpers team that is careening through the trapdoor to non-league and even then it took their hosts going down to 10-men early in the second half for the Saddlers to score.

The last time Walsall won against a team that finished with everyone still on the pitch was a week before that Shrimpers win as they came from being 1-0 down at half-time to crush Chesterfield 3-1 and send the Spireites back to Derbyshire licking their wounds.

In their last 10 the Saddlers have seen their gap at the top evaporate as their form goes diving into Challenger Deep.

Just 6 draws and 4 losses in their last 10 matches is relegation form. Despite securing just 6 points from the last 30 on offer it took until they lost 3-2 at home to Port Vale on April 5th for them to be knocked off top spot by their conquerors that day, the first time they had been off the top spot on December 7th.

Going into those 10 matches the Saddlers still possessed an 8-point lead at the top of the table and were leading the Vale by 11 points, that’s how badly the wheels have fallen off for Mat Sadler’s men.

Ending February by surrendering a 2 goal lead in the 89th minute to be thanking their lucky stars to be escaping Cheltenham with a point was definitely a bad sign, but when they followed that up with a home loss to Swindon without scoring the alarm bells would have started ringing.

Back-to-back thrown away early leads followed in the week after Swindon as a home loss to Grimsby Town followed a humiliating draw with The Cumbrians at Brunton Park, Carlisle United joining Morecambe in being flushed down into non-league next season.

In their next game they had to come from behind twice at Haynes Lane just to draw with a Bromley side enjoying their first season in league football in their 133-year history.

Following that up with a 0-0 draw in Gillingham and an 87th minute equalise to steal a point at home to promotion rivals AFC Wimbledon left the Saddlers with just 4 points to show from 6 games in March.

Finishing March with a useful point against a promotion rival was followed up by a 90th minute equaliser in Doncaster, a 4th draw in a row to set them up for the showdown with Port Vale on April 5th.

They made it back to back losses this weekend as The Bluebirds swept them aside at Holker Street as Walsall’s downward spiral continued up in Barrow.

Impossible though it may seem even this form implosion hasn’t been enough to see the Saddlers drop out of the automatic promotion places… yet.

What it has done is bring them down to within striking distance of missing out on the playoffs, let alone those auto places, with just a 7-point cushion over 8th place Colchester United with 12 points to play for.

The distance they have over the playoff places has been whittled down to a single point, with Doncaster Rovers able to knock the Saddlers out of the auto places with a win in their game in hand at Salford City tomorrow evening.

Without an Easter miracle to resurrect their season Mat Sadler’s Saddlers could drop as far as 6th, their vastly superior goal difference the only thing that will stop Grimsby Town also leapfrogging them, with just a point separating them from missing out on the playoffs and two matches left to hold on.

Thankfully for the Saddler’s faithful that miracle seems possible, with a trip to a 20th placed Harrogate Town side that haven’t beaten a team currently above them in the table since February 15th, followed up by a trip to South Wales and a Newport County team in 18th who have picked up a single point from their past 6 matches.

Finally Saddler’s fans, you will be facing teams in form as bad as your own so here’s praying for an Easter miracle that will keep you in with a shout of automatic promotion. If you end the season in the playoffs there isn’t a team you could play that wouldn’t fancy their chances against you.

Having secured what look like an unassailable lead heading into the last festive season to trying desperately to prevent the season finishing in disappointment at The Mornflake Stadium on May 3rd is a huge fall from grace for the stuttering Saddler’s.

A fall from grace that has the rest of the West Midlands’ asking ‘What The **** Walsall?’