Best Walsall Defence

Tbf I think fox would easily have played the lcb Allen role very well

Fox was often used in LM by Dosh as well with Kris Taylor at LB.

I think KT was very similar in style to Taylor Allen. Maybe 20 Years on there is more of a role for those types of footballers.

Aranalde, Barras, Tilson, Brightwell in a 442

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Marsh, Viveash, Roper, Pointon in 98-99 against strikers like Hayles, Barlow, Cureton, Roberts, Thorne, Asaba and others.

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Getting a theme here

Best defence of individuals, playing a back four - Brightwell, Mountfield, Dann, Henry.

Those are all Bescot era, so Fellows Park time I would choose Macken, Hynd, Hart, Harrison.

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It was only a brief period but we literally didn’t concede at home most of the season that Sinnot and Hart were CB’s . 82/83 ?? Guessing it was myself and Caswell as full backs .

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I was going to post that.

Fox played the whole of the title winning season at left midfield. Moved to left back the following season.

He was playing at a very high standard by the time we sold him and went on to have a pretty good career.

Dann was different gravy, one of the best I have ever seen play for Walsall.

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Similar to Richard Money’s side, the defenders were good individually but the systems and structure of the team made them water tight.

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I haven’t counted but I think you are correct, lots of clean sheets in the second half of that season at FP, and some great football played.
We’d started the season with David Arthur at right back and Julian Marshall at centre half. :grimacing: Neither of them reached a dozen games, I don’t think, and were discarded.
Sinnott wasn’t 18 until the summer of ‘83. He’d be on loan at feckin’ Hednesford or somewhere nowadays.

Incidentally, I loved some of your attacking play in concert with Shakey and Mini down the left. You scored that season in one of my favourite ever games, a 5-0 demolition of Brizzle Rovers. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Absolutely - Ince was a part of that too. In contrast to say a Walker he came for everything which was a wonderful relief when the opposition were raining bombs on our back four.

Dosh’s genius for me was the season afterwards. Weston was an upgrade on Pead and Fox better defensively than Taylor.

After a wobbly start to life a level up we were actually taking the thing by storm until January and I honestly believed we were going to do back to back promotions. It was a far more easier on the eye style too. Eddie Sonko was a star and the return of Ricketts gave us a real edge up top too. Unfortunately, Bonser pulled the rug big time. You can’t lose players like Fox, Dann and Ricketts and not suffer. And suffer we did. Big time. Lost a thousand fans, one of the best managers we’ve ever had and took the club back decades. Never forget or forgive that moment and when coupled with the “and why shouldn’t I?” shit marked that man and his acolytes as enemies rather than friends of the football club. Huge turning point.

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You are one of very few I have ever heard mention Ricketts when talking about that moment in time. I do believe if we had kept him, we could still have made the play offs even with losing Dann and Fox.

I was just telling the kids about the whole Dann and Fox thing yesterday. It’s a bit like getting to the end of the transfer window this season, Lowe going back and Say Jellis and Williams being sold. The look of horror on their faces :rofl:

Hopefully, we never see anything like that ever again. Disgraceful.

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I reckon that behaviour lost us some supporters that haven’t returned.

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Was he injured? I might be getting mixed up, but I thought he went back because of injury. Whatever it was, we didn’t properly replace him, which cost us, as you said. We had Stefan Moore up front for a few games, and he never played league football again after leaving us.

Of all the terrible Januarys we have had, surely 2008 was the worst.

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Bonser again shafted the team and fans then turned up in a brand new Audi apparently.

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Although I really liked Dan Fox, I was never convinced as to his defensive capability as a fullback. By that I mean that he was often beaten by his man. True he then he was nearly always quick enough to make a recovery tackle (coming in from behind), but he wouldn’t have got his shorts so dirty if he’d been able to stop them getting past him to start with.

I recall Chris Westwood getting a lot of stick because his shorts were usually a lot cleaner at the end of a game, but he was able to be more effective upright and not having to go to ground.

Thay said, would definitely pick Fox before Westwood overall.

I was a never a Westwood fan. We had home grown players way better. Struck me as a bit of a poser

I think he improved a lot in a short space of time. I thought he was playing at a really high standard in the period just before he was sold. Wasn’t he called up for England at some level around that time?

England U21 - but ended up playing senior for Scotland. Also played in the Champions League with Celtic, and the EPL and Championship.

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BTW Apparently he is still playing (aged 39) for Winsford Town in the Cheshire League.