Harrogate Town (A) 19th September, 3pm

When was the last time we played a team in their first ever Football League home game?

Well having nothing better to do…
Loughborough Utd’s first home game in the league was against us on the 4th September 1897 in what was the 2nd division. We lost 2.1
We did win the return 3.0!

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Good find.

I’m guessing there aren’t any since Loughborough, since Walsall have been a solid third tier team for the recent history of teams being promoted from non league.

And before automatic relegation/promotion to/from non league came into force, Walsall famously applied for re-election more than other team (7).

So maybe a more interesting question is which clubs did we stop from ever playing in the football league.

Don’t worry Hull I’m not expecting you to investigate (unless you really want to).

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I think the first goal will be important in this one (providing there is one, I have a fancy it could be 0-0) I know little about them, but momentum shouldn’t be underestimated in football. If they get an early goal , they will be fizzing. Tight game, either 0-0 or won be the one goal by either side.

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Think their result will have done us a favour if anything. Should be zero complacency now, no reason to underestimate Harrogate.

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Strange to think how then as a solid 3rd Division outfit we offered ‘compensation’ to this club to take their goalkeeper off them. McGillivray was it? Now we face them as fellow 4th Division minnows.
First defeat 0-1.

Now why doesn’t your prediction surprise me? :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Really hoping for a win… the more we play the better I think we will be… hopefully in for a really good season which is due to be honest haha

I don’t mean to burst your bubble Hull but Loughborough joined the league in 1895, ironically they replaced us as we failed re-election that year.

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Apologies Mea culpa. Was looking on phone quite late. As everyone knows their first game was against Grimsby the year before.
Can currently see Grimsby across the humber as having lunch at spurn point.

First and foremost we need to “take” at least 500 fans so that the club can claim the maximum £4K from ifollow.

I’d imagine we will do that and then some.

Whilst there was a published away following from Grimsby on Saturday (just over 1,000) I haven’t seen how many paying (I.e non season ticket) fans we had. Due to the current circumstances the club gets £8 per person who subscribes so a really important lifeline.

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Be interesting to see what happens regarding I-Follow if and when fans are allowed back in grounds. Firstly there are a number of fans who haven’t got season tickets (myself included) that would in normal circumstances have either had a season ticket, or still attended 90% of home games. I’m not saying I would watch every game, but I reckon I’d buy more than a few, especially if we were doing well, which I think we might.

Then I think it is a given that there will be no away fans allowed for some time, possibly, probably not this season at all. I like many others would probably have done 75% + of away games. I’m sure many fans would still buy away games, as before especially if we are doing well. I’m not sure they will continue the service once fans are back in grounds, assuming that even happens, which it really needs to for the sake of our clubs.

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Just a “heads up” … Harrogate’s match against The Baggies in the League Cup, scheduled for tomorrow night (Wednesday) has been postponed. The reason given in the fixture list is “Other”.

still on according to mthe baggies and Harrogate websites. Sky sports are still showing the game at 5:15 on Wednesday!

How dare they not risk getting injured and fatigued for Saturday.

Yes, very strange that the BBC show it as off but Sky and others (including the 2 clubs themselves) show it as still on.

However, there was a tickertape story on Sky Sports News last night that 4 EPL players have tested positive for Covid. No other details but could it be related to that? Or are the BBC assuming that because Sandwell is now in lockdown then the baggies can’t host the game?

UPDATE: Game now showing as being on by the BBC. No idea why it wasn’t earlier …

3-1 to the Super Saddlers, our superior quality will tell.

OK mate, I’ll stop being a realist and turn over a new leaf to become a super optimist…8-0 to the Saddlers (though expecting your opposition to score eight own goals is a bit much aye it!).
Remember, teams are still finding their feet, Tinkerman will no doubt put out a completely different side (Jules though will still never get a game), and Harrogate will be buoyant after their thrashing of a very poor Sarfend side (did you see that defender trying to dribble his way out of the area! Hope he hasn’t taken out a mortgage recently!).

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Doing a bit of scouting now watching these against Albion in the cup their first game in the football league couldn’t have gone any better they could be something or they could end up being nothing my prediction 1-0 to the saddlers I’m going to be predicting that score line either way many many times this season I feel.

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