Just seeing the highlights this week. Colchester derided on here a few weeks back as a terrible league 2 team beating Spurs on penalties. Rochdale having the time of their lives at Old Trafford. Burton who got to semi finals last season warming up again by beating Bournemouth (reserves). Add in Newport last season and Oxford beating a pretty strong West Ham team 3-0 tonight and these are all comparable sized clubs to Walsall. We’ll gloss over Grimsby!
When we talk about ways to increase the fanbase and market the club properly to the uninterested population of Walsall well to me an exciting cup run is the best thing to do.
When you look at 2015 you had the run in the JPT, a rare glamour cup tie at home to Chelsea and also a run to 4th round of FA cup for first time in nearly 15 years although in true Walsall cup draw style just pulled out a couple of non prem teams that was only noteworthy for Dean Smith reunion.
Anyway that helped feelgood factor around the club and we got the best league season since the Graydon era.
In last few years seems lack of desire from even within the club to do anything in either cup (will obviously let them off with what the checkatrade has become). All of it just to concentrate on pretty poor league seasons.Hopefully this attitude will change in time under Pomlett.
Good cup runs as the underdog are what help the feel good factor around the club and get you extra supporters through the turnstiles who may just come back on a regular basis for league games… Something that has been lacking for a long time…with bonser out this would be a great time for an FA cup run… A home or away win at Bristol rovers to get that buzz going in the first round please UTS
We had a decent run in the cups in 15/16. We got to the fourth round of the FA Cup but it slips under the radar as we didn’t really draw any of the big boys (although Brentford was a big game for different reasons)
The League Cup that year was really enjoyable too, a brilliantly entertaining game at Forest, a home win against a bang in form Brighton and then an excellent performance against Chelsea.
I think it all depends on the draw to drum up excitement rather than the run itself. Being pulled out of the hat with Reading, who you’d expect to turn us over doesn’t create the same excitement as as a game against, say, Forest, even though the teams are quite similar in stature.
I do think we need a good cup run this season though
I’m not too arsed about the League Cup but I always want an FA Cup run. For me it feels like part of the season dies when we go out of the FA Cup early on.
That Bolton result last season was so ■■■■. We took a fair few and it felt like a cup run buzz was finally back at Walsall and then we put in that defensive performance.
Colchester are an average league 2 team. You speak as if theyve somehow disproven this with one evenings performance. A season lasts 8 months and not 1 evening.
If your point was that any mediocre League 2 team can draw/beat a ‘big gun’ then youve hit upon why Im not interested in cup runs; theres a lot of chance and dice-rolling involved. Id rather find out whos the best team at our level.
I do miss the cup runs (giant killings) of yesteryear,I can still picture George Andrews rising like a Salmon to head the winner against Newcastle United,beating Man utd 3-2,beating Arsenal at Highbury 2-1 etc etc etc.
It used to make up for us being a lower league team,the cup draws were magical in those days,everyone used to find a radio to crowd round and listen to even the FA cup 1st round draw.
Now,thanks to the Premier leagues clubs total distain towards cup competitions (the league cup has been rendered totally meaningless now) I don’t think that the magic of a cup run will ever be the same again sadly.
Add to the above that Premiership, and very often Championship clubs only put out their reserves against lower League clubs.
This has tended to debase the importance of taking the scalp of a higher League team, which is a shame, regrettably the good old days of seeing some ‘stars’ on your own turf half have long since disappeared.
To be honest it doesn’t bother me anymore - nowadays top clubs use it as an excuse to play their kids, back in the 90’s a cup draw at United or Arsenal was glamorous, nowadays its just like a EFL Trophy game, id rather concentrate on the league.
When we do go and draw one of the TV Superstar Tosspot League teams it brings all the plastics out, queues are longer everywhere, and you have to listen to nonsense from the one visit oracles that can see and solve all our problems instantly.
No ta. The Crawley cup game was actually decent entertainment this season, even with the result, and it was gratis. More of that please.
Of course I am not frustrated by our lack of cup runs.
After all we have had so much to cheer about in the league over the last few years that I simply do not have the capacity for any more excitement. It is frankly a relief to see us knocked out of the cups at the earliest possible moment, since I don’t think my heart could stand the thrills of a cup tie against a team from a higher division. It really would be far too much for most Walsall fans, who have long been content with watching us struggle in the lower divisions.
An even worse consequence of a cup run would be the extra negative effect of bringing more fans into the stadium, some of whom had not been before, many who had not been for years. How disgusting it would be to see those glory hunters at Bescot. All true fans should shun these parvenus.
I agree a succession of cup runs would do us all a lot of good. Although we have not performed well over the past few years when we have had an occasional good result we have usually had a crap draw. The football “gods” have certainly not been on our side.
Not had many cup runs since we left Fellows Park - top teams used to hate being drawn away to Walsall in the cup, despite the levelling of the pitch in the late 1960s it still had a bit of a slope and a camber and was often muddy. Add in the Walsall faithful urging the team on. Great days, even in the first two rounds of the cup there would be a different feel to the place compared to a league game. Really miss the place and those cup runs. My second ever game was the home match to Newcastle in the cup standing on the shale bank in the laundry end with all their fans.
Should’ve had all the classics of a good cup run. 1st round beating local rival in a very entertaining game (Coventry 3-2). Then went away and beat higher ranked team in a minor shock (Sunderland). All set up to draw a big prem team…in true Walsall style it’s Bolton away. That would’ve been a decent tie a decade ago but of course Bolton played previously in league on in 16/17 so it wasn’t.
In a funny way Dean Keates may still be Walsall manager now if a prem club had come up last January. When you look at the results up to January it was hit and miss (shockers v Bradford and Bristol Rovers) but some very good ones v Posh and Luton. So the team were just incredibly inconsistant. After Bolton however the team descended into a shambles for a six week period and I think DK lost faith in his ability and decisions after the team shipped five goals to a pretty poor Bolton team. Wouldn’t have had same effect if that had happened v a Man. City or Arsenal.
Russell Martin was also sent packing straight after that match so probably another thing DK lost, an ally in the dressing room.
And to @Ramred I actually did come on here and post after the Colchester 0-0 that I thought it was a pretty good point that may spark a revival, so far so good. Colchester have some decent forward players so can see them being in contention for top 7 in May.
