Oliver Lancashire calls for Walsall to get back to basics.

Dec 5 2010 by Brian Halford, Sunday Mercury

WALSALL’S players this week joined in with a website campaign to send a million good-luck Christmas messages to British troops fighting the war in Afghanistan.

A nice thought. But perhaps, considering the state that the Saddlers are in at the bottom of League One, the troops out there might reciprocate and send a few good-luck wishes and ‘keep your chin up’ missives from the war-zone back to The Banks’s Stadium.

Walsall are in pickle. Out of all three cups, they are languishing on the bottom of League One after 12 defeats in 18 games. And, with an injury-hit squad, they face a big task to turn things round in the immediate future with three tough games – Charlton Athletic (next Sunday) and Bristol Rovers away separated by Southampton at home.

It’s a big hole they are in. The way to escape it? Getting back to basics, reckons centre-half Oliver Lancashire. Along with a lot of hard work from a squad which was generally thought, in the summer, to be much better than one destined to bob along at the foor of the table.

“It is a bit of a surprise where we are, “ said Basingstoke-born Lancashire, who joined Walsall in the summer having been released by Southampton where he came through the youth-system.