21 years ago today we beat Oldham 3-1 to win promotion to Division 2 as I still like to think of it.
The win was the culmination of the Best. Season. Ever.
Worth remembering we started as one of the favourites to be relegated, we spent about £35,000 on Richard Green, brought in a few free transfers and loans and finished above Man City, Stoke, PNE, and big spending Burnley (over half a million squid on Steve Davis!) and this was when Wigan and Reading started to spend serious money too.
Only Fulham with their Premier League money finished above us.
The sun shone and it was great. Wrack went off injured, I think, but then came back and scored, Marshy scored and Siggy put the tin hat on it with a third. My best ever day as a Saddlers fan.
So thanks Uncle Ray, and thanks to all the players.
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My first proper season following the saddlers on the Internet. So primitive then compared to now!
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Out:
Top Scorer (Boli)
Third top scorer, top assists man, and penalty taker (Hodge)
Player of the Season, and other top assists man (Peron)
Club Captain (Mountfield)
In, on the first day of that season:
A striker who’d scored twice in a relegated Southend team (Rammell)
A winger released by Grimsby (Wrack)
A winger released by Bournemouth (Brissett)
A 33 year old full back (Pointon)
In the days of 3 subs, a kid from the Villa on a week-to-week on the bench, making up the numbers (Neil Davis).
We were up against:
Three heavy hitters relegated from the second tier (Man City, Stoke, and Reading).
Fulham, led by al-Fayed and Keegan.
Preston, playing some cracking football under Moyes.
Wigan and Gillingham, when Whelan and Scally were starting to get excited.
Bristol Rovers, with Hayles, Cureton, and Roberts to choose from up top.
Millwall, Bournemouth, Burnley, and Wrexham were all very decent for that level, at the time.
No question that all this combined to make it the most incredible season ever. When we over-35s say nothing is ever likely to match it, its not hyperbole.
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I used to work with a Wrexham fan and he told me a few years later they had been sniffing round Rammell as back up if they didn’t get their main target. But they did get the first choice, a big money signing called Ian Rush from Newcastle who scored zero league goals for them. 
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Amazing day. The place exploded when Siggy scored, you knew then that we were up and nothing was going to stop us. Was fantastic on the pitch afterwards and chanting ’ are you watching Manchester ’ before Ray came out by the executive bit and got plastered in champagne.
The feeling of that day cemented why you follow this club.
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We had Sir Ray. He evened the odds.
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If anyone wants to relive the day:
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I am the ball boy to the right of the goal (as you look at it) infront of the terrace!
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When it was 20th anniversary last year there was a fantastic series of posts by user on here about the 98/99, proper tugging at the heartstrings stuff like rowing with his Dad, not speaking for a week and then meeting up in a pub for apology pint and making plans to go to Lincoln away 24 hours later.
Guess I’ll have a look to see if it’s on here somewhere and bump it but was a brilliant take on that miracle year.
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