Football Season Review

Walsall entered the season on the back of a disappointing 2016/17 campaign that saw them battle against the drop despite finishing third a year earlier. The Saddlers opted to stick with manager Jon Whitney and have made absolutely no signings that would suggest that they would be able to do significantly better than they did a year earlier. They lost their opener at Bury but then went on a four-game unbeaten run, but went on to win only one of their next nine games, with this run putting them in a relegation battle, which they never managed to really exit between then and the end of the season. In fact, the Saddlers were among the sides who were most consistent in terms of where they were in the table throughout the season, as they spent nearly the entirety of the campaign in the bottom half without actually dropping into the bottom four. A run of four defeats in five games ended in Jon Whitney losing his job in mid March, with the club taking only four days to tempt Dean Keates away from Wrexham, only for their new boss to lose his first two games in charge. Keates did eventually manage to steady the ship and the Saddlers survived the drop with a game to spare, but the performances produced under him were workmanlike, with Walsall riding their luck on numerous occasions. With Oldham relegated, Walsall will enter the next season as the club with the longest tenure in the third tier. They were a solid top half side until a couple of years back and Keates will have the summer to make the squad his own and will be expected to reverse the Saddlers' decline next season.

Player of the Season: Erhun Öztümer