Bury on a Thursday night, beating West Ham in the Coca Cola, Leeds in the FA Cup, the 4-3 against Hereford…
…and Barnet on Boxing Day, a superb display of passing football.
It’s hard to think of a better Boxing Day performance (easier to think of stinkers ), maybe Hereford in 1975.
Yes we did
I was about 7 in that season, when i heard name i was convinced someone said mel gibson
I was desperate to be allowed to go to a football match at Fellows Park so when I finally got there those memories of the first games I saw are still treasured. The promotion years have to be up there, especially the two under Graydon for different reasons. However, when I start to doubt that a lifetime spent supporting the Saddlers wasn’t one of my best ideas I search on YOUTUBE for the Milk Cup game against Arsenal. What a team that was; Childs, Shakespeare, Preece, Mower…all the way down to Mick Kearns coming out of retirment. All the romance that makes me keep coming back, time after time. The football played for a Division 3 side was out of this world and in the end we nearly were 90 minutes from a place in Europe.
My three:-
1998-99. Surprise package beating Man City into second place.
1987/88 . Centenary season promotion. After knocking on the door for so many years we finally got over the line. And I only missed one game home/away all season.
06/07. Large followings (think we averaged 1,000 away fans) cheering DD and his boys to only our second ever “honour”
Special mentions for the cup runs in 83/84 and BFJ’s ridiculous 97/98.
97-98 in some strange way sums up being a Walsall fan.
Easily the best season for cup runs since the 80s. Dramatic nights under the lights.
Drama in the cups very Walsall
Capitulation in the league very Walsall.
Throw in the Boli and Peron double act. We’d had some interesting overseas players before then. But it was at the time the Prem was starting to see bigger name foreign players. Nice to have our slice culture ! And Sorenson. An ex Ajax player as manager ! Eyledie from the Marseille match fixing ! Didier Tholot !
The kit. Off the wall red and black chequered shirts. Quality !
Deserves a mention alone for watching that genius at work.
WHAT a player!
I started going in 1998 and all the way up to 2007 it was a real rollercoaster never dull. So glad I have those memories. Feel sorry for younger fans who’ve never known good times.
Since then my favourite was probably 12-13. When it clicked we played some fantastic ‘sexy football’ as the chant went. Grigg, Paterson and Brandy trio were great.
Peron
Still the most talented and exciting player I’ve seen play for Walsall.
I hate people talking about peron as I’m just so jealous to have never seen him play
He was amazing pal!
Like a few others I only started going around 01/02 so not spoiled for choice.
15-16 probably my favourite season as its a stand out for the best football we have played. I also probably got to more games than any other season too.
Closely followed by 06-07: the only promotion since I’ve been following us, and Swindon away. Also the nicest kits we’ve had in my time, simple design and made by Nike.
Enjoyed the first half of the 07-08 season too. For some reason I can remember that season really vividly, and that 18 game unbeaten run should have been the making of another top 6 finish but for the obvious reasons.
Class on a plate. But strictly for quality, Vinny Samways?
Very similar to me, I started university in Manchester in 1999 the season after we’d gone up but there were so many Midlands derbys and games in the NW it was great. I did go to Norwich one Saturday from there and used to go to games in London as you could get cheap train tickets. I’ll always remember a Friday night game at Colchester I went to, got home about 10am Saturday morning.
Difficult to choose but probably first under Graydon as going into the season it looked like it would be a struggle.
If i could choose a year it would be 1983. If my adding up is correct in that calendar year we collected 84 points, won 18 league games at home while scoring 55 goals.
Then add in the first few rounds of the league cup run.
This won’t make it any easy to bear - he was unbelievably good - the classiest, most technically gifted player who I ever saw play for us. Vinnie Samways comes a close second, but Peron was simply marvellous - Lord knows how he ever ended up playing for us!
06/07. Notts County and Swindon away. Magic
This is such an intriguing question. As a Saddler who first started going in 1970s, the early years were often defined by FA Cup success. 74/75 as a 9/10 year old was just tremendous, but 77/78 is worth mentioning for finishing 6th, a respected manager in Dave Mackay and that last minute cup win over Leicester (crying my eyes out with emotion aged 12).
83/84 was the League Cup equivalent a decade (or less) later; Shrewsbury, The Arse, Rotherham and Liverpool. League success tentatively out of reach, apart from a return to our ‘natural home’ of Division 3 in 79/80. Promotion in 87/88 was the culmination of a dream to see the Saddlers in the second tier precipitated by a steep and quick decline.
Then the great revival - 94/95 under Chris Nichol, followed by those wonderful Ray Graydon years and then holding our own for 3 years in the Championship.
Mediocrity followed in the main apart from the Brandy/Paterson/Grigg combo of 13/14, the Wolves win at Molinuex in 14/15 and the promotion near miss of 15/16.The best football we arguably ever played was that season.
My favourite year? It has to be when we won a title in 06/07 - the day at Swindon as good as anything as a Saddler. Not the best football, but the best moment.
Over to you, class of 24/25…
Great post and one I can relate to in many ways
That said, I missed much of the 80’s decade due to serving in the forces and being limited to occasional away days and home games when on leave etc - the 4-4 draw vs Watford in the cup will last long in the memory for me!
The mid to late 90’s were notable under Chris Nichol and Sir Ray but again I have to also agree that 06/07 was probably the best for me…
As you say, over to the current class - UTS