I think in general most of us are fairly thick skinned. We have to be especially in a time when we really are the the poor relations in the midlands.
I guess at some time in life most of us have had tough times but this evening was especially tough for me.
My 12 year old son returned from school sobbing his heart out after a horrible day being ridiculed for supporting the team he loves by all of his so called mates( all Villa fans) at his school in Sutton.
They were telling him we are a non league team and totally ■■■■■.
I guess this is just what kids do but it breaks my heart to see him so upset at him being bullied for following the team of his Dad/ Grandad and great Grandad.
He will be fine but I hope that the current owner and manager share his passion and do something soon to make my son and all of us happy again.
The life of a Saddlers fan…
Send that to Pomlett and the club.
I would just buy him a Villa top 
That’s terrible I hope he’s ok kids can be so cruel sometimes.
It will harden him up mate, i went throught it at brownhills comp, they were all Villa Blues AND Wolves fans and i was at it every week i do hope he comes through it ok though at his age it can have a profound effect
As Thanatos says, I would contact the club. They might want to arrange something, and it could make a nice story.
Just a pity really that all in all people just in general don’t just support the team that is there birth place or you or your family have an association with. I personally don’t understand how you could follow a different team (local especially) the word is glory hunters.
Fair play to your lad mate.
Explains a lot😉
We had a long chat tonight and I told him he can support any team he wants to.
His response as a 12 year old was ‘ I’m Walsall til I die!’
If only our owner/ manager and players shared his passion.
By the way wonder how many of his friends dad’s take them to watch the villa… Just the same as my next door neighbour who claims to be the biggest villa supporter but I have never known him or his kids attend a match.
Good lad sounds like a cracking kid to me 
Like I say to my lad support your home town club and be proud and take no notice of the glory hunters who do not attend the matches of the club they are supposed to be a supporter of and remind them of this.
If it helps @Suttonpark i ended up going to Villa Blues and Wolves games while at school, with my other school mates, but it was back in the early 70’s and it was only to games where i knew there would be trouble 
, but i knew where my heart was when i got into my early teens, and followed my family traites, let him go to games with his friends, he will know where his heart will lead him, but at least he will fit in for the time being.
In the early 90’s I went to school with Villa, West Brom, Wolves and Birmingham fans, we were at our lowest then under Hibbitt. Ten years later Sir Ray gave me the chance to give a bit back when we beat three of those.
Message to your son - every dog has its day and I’m sure we will have ours again.
Following us through our darkest times just make the good times even more enjoyable. It would be miserable seeing your team win every week…ok it wouldn’t but you get my point.
As @Thanatos said I’d contact the club, they seem to be doing as much as they can recently with young, elderly and our disabled fans. I’m sure they’d love to do something for him and show him what it means to support a lower league/community club.
I think we’ve all been there. I went to school in Brum and I was the only saddlers fan in my year … endless abuse from the rest of the Man Utd / Villa / Liverpool sheep. I always took heart in the fact I supported my local team and actually went to games.
Fast forward a couple of decades and I still get dogs abuse from my next door neighbour who is a Villa fan. In the 10 years I’ve known him he still ain’t been to one Villa match … kind of sums it up really.
Tell your son to hold his head up high, because one day all the pain will be all the more worth it when we have our day in the sun.
Failing that just tell him to knock seven bells out of the little ■■■■■
Hopefully these aren’t just bullies.
If it’s some of his friends who’ve just overstepped the mark a bit on the “my team is better than yours” that even 50 year olds can still get drawn in over a pint or eight at the local then I’d actually invite some of them to attend a Walsall game like say Cambridge in next international break.
I can’t believe any 12 year old would turn their nose up at a live football match (especially as you say not many of them go to any) whatever the level and who knows it might actually be the one exciting home game in the season…well the sole one in which the home side scores more than once perhaps!
I’m sure many of us on here grew up being outnumbered at school by so-called supporters of our bigger neighbours and other kids who declared they were fans of the biggest clubs in the country. They usually had in common the fact they never, or rarely, ever saw their team beyond seeing them on the tv. I was proud of the fact I supported my hometown team and got the bug at a young age by actually going to Fellows Park and relishing every opportunity to go.
What your lad will come to appreciate as he gets older is that when he meets football fans from other parts of the country, and they discover he’s a Saddler, this will lead to curiosity as to “why Walsall?” followed by genuine respect that he clearly loves and follows HIS club and that support is totally genuine. It’s crystal clear we’re not glory hunters or (excuse the old style language) “big time charlies”, and anyone can see it’s something special to be a supporter of a club where success is so thin on the ground.
None of us can change our allegiance and I wouldn’t want it any other way. For all our current gripes we’re all proud Saddlers fans I’m sure.
Also, if he ever moves away, he’ll find that his support of WFC provides a fantastic bond with his hometown and always will.
He sounds like a great lad and he’ll grow up to look back on today and remember it as being one where his “difference” is something he was proud of, not following the group herd mentality.