Preview to follow, possibly…
Upstairs in the Poundland shut, 1pm kick-off, and £5:on Saddlers+ compared to £17 on the door. Even if Blues bring a few, somehow I don’t think it will be as big a crowd as against Villa.
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Included with the Saddlers+ ST. Looking forward to it, both to see the new signings and the quality of the coverage.
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Just changed my ticket, poor that they haven’t communicated it themselves.
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Blue noses apparently sold in excess of 2,500. Fabulous support whichever way you look at it and should make for a good atmosphere. Expect there will be in excess of 5,000 in the audience, more than what our average league crowd my be this season so don’t think you can argue it’s not good for a pre-season friendly.
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I normally go to all of the pre season games but this time I didn’t fancy the villa game and I’ve no interest in the Birmingham one. If I had purchased a ticket and then found out that the upper tier was shut I would have returned my ticket and had the money back.
Definitely going to Drogheda though.
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Walsall host neighbours Birmingham City, as Blues make the 8 mile trip north to the Poundland Bescot Stadium for a friendly match.
The Opposition
Blues followed the Saddlers lead last year, gaining their own American investors (Knighthead Capital), with patronage from an NFL star (Tom Brady) and purchasing their stadium. With a controlling stake in the club, Knighthead’s co-founder Tom Wagner promised to get them out of the division. The season started well with the team in the play-off places by October but manager John Eustace was inexplicably sacked and replaced with Wayne Rooney who then oversaw a calamitous drop to 20th place with 2 wins from 15 matches. After the short appointment of Tony Mowbray who had to leave due to medical issues, Gary Rowett was appointed as interim till the end of the season. His 11 points in the last 8 games were not enough to stop them being relegated to League One after 29 years at the higher level, thus fulfilling Wagner’s promise to get them out of the division… just in the wrong direction.
Under the new management of Chris Price they now look to get promoted back to the Championship at their first attempt.
As would be expected after a relegation there has been a shakeup of the squad and they have been busy in the transfer market. Recent incomings include Alfie May (forward) from Charlton and Christoph Klarer (defender) from Darmstadt. Contract extensions were given to Lukas Jutkiewicz (forward) and Krystian Bielik (midfielder). Bielik is known to Saddlers fans after we loaned him from Arsenal in 2018, but he never played, before moving on to Charlton.
Their previous pre-season friendlies have seen a 5-0 loss to Paderborn in Germany followed by wins away to Solihull Moors (0-3), in which May scored his 1st goal and Shrewsbury (0-2). Jutkiewicz scored in both wins.
The Proposition
Another friendly against local opposition after the 0-3 home loss to Blues rivals Villa.
An opportunity to get a run out against a team expected to be challenging at the high end of League One and who the Saddlers have drawn in the EFL Trophy group stage this season. The Saddlers look to improve on their recent friendly results which include 2 away wins at non-league opposition, Alvechurch (0-3) and Tamworth (2-3) and 2 losses at home to Aston Villa (3-0) and behind closed doors against Lincoln (1-2).
Mat Sadler will be looking to get some more minutes under the belts of squad players as well as continuing to review trialists. New signings Charlie Lakin (ex-Blues) and “Uncle Albert” Adomah (ex-Villa) will no doubt like to get a result against Blues.
The First Time
In 1892 Walsall Town Swifts (later Walsall FC) and Small Heath (later Birmingham City) were both founder members of the newly created Second Division.
The first meeting between the sides, on the 10th September 1892, resulted in a 1-3 home loss for Town Swifts who were playing at the Chuckery ground at the time. The away fixture, 3 months later would prove to be a lot worse, see below…
The Worst Time
On the 17th December 1892, Town Swifts travelled to Muntz Street in Small Heath to play the away fixture and lost 12-0. It was to be the highest scoring match of that season. Small Heath went on to become Champions with Town Swifts finishing bottom although they were re-elected to the division.
Rumour has it UTS regular, Pedagogue, was in the audience for both of these games. 
The Last Time
The last competitive game between the 2 sides was on 22nd December 2001 with Blues beating the Saddlers 1-0 at St. Andrews in a League One match. Darren Purse scored a penalty in the 14th minute for Blues and Matt Carbon was sent off for the Saddlers after a second yellow card later in the game
Played For Both
Despite there being numerous players that turned out for both sides there was only going to be one that topped the list…
Starting his senior career in 1967 at Nottingham Forest, Alan Buckley played 18 games for them, scoring 1 goal before leaving for Walsall in 1973. It was to be the start of a 13 year span where The Buck remained at Walsall as player, player-manager, joint-manager and later manager. This spell was only interrupted by a briefly in 1978-79 when he was sold to Birmingham City for a club record £175,000 and then transferred back to Walsall 8 months later.
As a player in his first spell with Walsall (1973-1978) he made 241 appearances, prolifically scoring 125 goals. His stint with Birmingham City (1978-1979) then produced 8 goals in 28 games followed by a second spell at Walsall (1979-1984) with 178 appearances in which he scored 49 goals.
Taking over as caretaker manager in 1978, he would go on to get the job permanently briefly sharing it in 1981-82 with Neil Martin before being sacked in 1986 by Terry Ramsden who brought in his own team after his takeover. He would go on to manage Kettering, as well as Grimsby, 3 times, separated by jobs at West Brom, Lincoln & Rochdale.
Highlights with Walsall include scoring against Manchester United in the FA Cup upset in 1975 and later leading Walsall to promotion in his first season as manager as well as the magical 1983-84 Milk Cup run which included dispatching Arsenal at Highbury and drawing 2-2 with Liverpool at Anfield in the semi-final first leg before going out at Fellows Park 0-2 in the second leg. The Saddlers were “90 Minutes From Europe”.
Also: Garry Pendry, Martin O’Connor, Colin Brazier, Kevan Broadhurst, Dean Peer, Paul Devlin, Ian Handysides, Steve Claridge, Wayne Clarke, Kevin Summerfield, Roy McDonough, Marcelo, John Ruddy, Neil Etheridge, Danny Sonner, Barry Horne, Vinny Samways, Julian Gray, Andy Saville, Tommy Mooney, Scott Dann, Troy Deeney, Charlie Lakin, Mat Sadler…
I may have missed someone. Comment below if you know anyone else…
Lump On
Jellis has been in the goals over recent friendlies.
Sadler (ex-Blues), Lakin (ex-Blues) and Adomah (ex-Villa) would like to get one over the Blues.
Lump Off
Our overall record against Blues is not great (W6/D3/L20) 
Vaguely Interesting Fact
Former Walsall chairman Ken Wheldon also had an interest in Birmingham City and proposed a ground share with Walsall moving to St. Andrews in the mid 80’s, which as you can imagine went down like a lead balloon and led to the SWAG (Save Walsall Action Group) protests.
Barely Interesting Anecdote
My manager at work recently asked if my team had any games coming up, and when I said we had a friendly against Birmingham, she looked puzzled and said “But, I thought that was where you’re from?”. I gave her a look of indignation and then said…
“I Ay A Brummie, Arm From The Black Country!”
I think she was still confused!
UTS Match Poll
- Black Country Boys - (Walsall Win)
- Alfie Solomons, Shalom - (Draw)
- Peaky Blinders - (Birmingham Win)
0
voters
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Also worth contemplating what a special day it will be for Mat Sadler, a Blues legend coming up against his boyhood club. Sure he will get a great ovation from all members of the audience.
Thats a really good preview @SaddlerSteve. well done.
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From the 70s, Roger Hynd, Dave “Sugar” Robinson and Lindley Jenkins, plus John Saunders who I don’t think played a first team game for them.
Further back was Trevor Smith, and also the chap many of those old enough to have seen him regard as our best ever player, Tony Richards.
Looking at your list, a couple who were contemporaries of some of those were Ricky Sbragia and Phil Hawker. Also Gary Childs played for Blues after he had played for us.
There have been some very good players who have played for Blues and Walsall, and there was also Roy McDonough.
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Well at least I got that one. 
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I dunno if you ever saw him but he was probably the first Walsall player I really disliked. I was delighted when Chelsea gave us money for him and took him away. 
Nice review Steve many thanks for your time and effort, I know from experience these take longer than people think
Cheers buddy
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I’m a bit young for that.
Born in '79 and didn’t start going to Fellow Park with my dad till mid 80’s.
The beginning of my era was players like Fred Barber, Kenny Mower, Craig Shakespeare, Andy Dornan, Peter Hart, Alan Buckley etc
The list I came up with was half from memory (my own time going and names I remembered from reading my dad’s 70’s programmes) and half from a bit of Googling.
I recognise Tony Richards from the amount of Saddlers that have mentioned him over the years so was surprised he didn’t come up in my searching. Having a look, the information online seems to indicate that he started his career with Birmingham City but didn’t make a league appearance. Possibly why he never came up. Unless the online info is wrong.
Similarly, I mentioned Bielik in Blues current lineup but didn’t put him in the “Played for both” section as he never made an appearance.
I don’t think Tony Richards did play for the Blues first team, good job I suppose or they might have realised how good he was. 
I did mine from memory, it’s good to give it a workout. I expect there are others, especially pre 1970. Bobby Thomson is another I’ve just thought of, played a few games on loan from Blues in 1971.
I’d say, of those who played for Blues first and moved to us at some point, and ignoring The Buck and MOC who swung both ways, of those I saw the best we’ve had is Roger Hynd.
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I can think of Keith Bertschin and Andrew Barrowman!
I’ll have another think.
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Cant believe the Saddlers legend that is Kevan Broadhurst hasnt been mentioned
Who?
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Ahh my apologies. Just assumed everyone scrubbed him from their memory.
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Tyler Roberts, Des Bremner, Paul Devlin.
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