Marked for Vincent Harper
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match16 Sep 2026
Walsall bow out of the cup
Rotherham United go through and Walsall go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Walsall will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Daniel Kanu in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Walsall this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Jamie Jellis falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match19 Sep 2026
Milton Keynes Dons left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Sep 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Walsall will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Walsall training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jamie Jellis is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Match12 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Taye Ashby-Hammond, and the manager let it.
Market14 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Walsall, another week without a signature from Connor Barrett.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Sep 2026
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Walsall will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match5 Sep 2026
Walsall win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Salford City will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Jake Hollman in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Walsall this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
The crowd has taken to Ronan Maher
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match5 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Aaron Pressley. 1‑0 against Salford City, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Aden Flint falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Aden Flint
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Aug 2026
Daniel Kanu in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Walsall this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Aden Flint falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Aug 2026
Daniel Kanu was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
1 academy players handed senior numbers at Walsall
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Market17 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Jacob Butler has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Walsall training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Aden Flint is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad17 Aug 2026
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Walsall will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Aug 2026
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Taye Ashby-Hammond has just signed for Walsall, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Daniel Kanu was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Words at Walsall training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jamie Jellis is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vincent Harper, and the manager let it.
Market10 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Market10 Aug 2026
Benjamin Stewart is 16, and Walsall have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.