With just seven games separating us from the end of the 2022/23 campaign, and with our chances of securing a place in the end-of-season Play-Off's pretty much dead in the water, it's time for Saddlers boss Michael Flynn to take a deeper look at the options currently at his disposal.Displays like the one which was produced against Sutton United last weekend simply can't be rewarded with another place in the starting eleven, even if that means the gaffer offering places to some of the first and second-year scholars, who are enduring a difficult campaign of their own.
Whilst the gaffer can't send out a massively weakened team just to make a point to the few under-performing players, our club has a proud history of bringing players through the youth system, and for that to continue, the head honcho has to begin to offer them a pathway to the first-team.
As first-year-pro Ronan Maher continues to keep his fitness levels up by playing for an Under-18s that has nothing but pride to play for, we continue to question what it's going to take for him to be elevated back into the fold and offered a real run of games in the first-team.
Express & Star journalist Paul Jenkins recently asked Flynn about Ronan's status, and the former Newport County man suggested the Ireland youth international has been 'there and there abouts' all season, but needs to earn his place in the team, though we're puzzled as to how he is meant to do that whilst playing at Ray Hall Lane whilst the first-team is preparing for action elsewhere.
Clearly, the manager has to do what he feels is best for the team as a whole, but as points and performances continue on a downward trend, we'd have hoped he'd have resolved to try a shift in focus from the players who have had countless opportunities to turn things around and to some of the unknown quantities currently biding their time in the academy.
Whatever happens over the remaining few weeks of the season, we're hoping Michael starts to spread his squad selection a little further afield than the group he continues to criticise in his post-match musings before selecting them again the following week, as that's clearly not working.