As much as Wembley was a disappointment those Preston games were special.
The home game in particular is right up there with all the big games for me personally, especially Bescot ones. Myself and Mrs Blazing were out and about in Town for about 2pm. There was just something about the way the Town was buzzing that night, something you dream of on a more regular basis. A few pints in and all of a sudden a 2 goal lead started to feel a bit fragile in the mind, so a few more beers go down very quickly.
The game is a bit of a blurr to me, not cos I was blotto! I just spent most of the game with my fingers crossed, I donât do religion but I was praying to someone that night. I seem to remember texting you at half time, just for someone who I knew would get it to reassure me we were actually going to do it this time.
Town was buzzing again after the game, I had people buying me pints for me and for my Dad, beers queuing up which luckily I had Mrs Blazing to assist me with. So we failed at the final hurdle and it wasnât the greatest of experiences but nights like that one v Preston are the ones we follow Walsall for. Bittersweet for me a little cos my Dad never got to see it, but I lived it for him the way he taught me.
Mansfield, for me they looked like the slightly better pub side over our matches with them this year. That this is the quality of teams in the playoff finals tells you all you need to know about L2 this year, absolute dogshit standard, would back this years Natinal League best XI to beat this years L2 best XI and to do so comfortably.
I have a grudge against most, if not every team in the league. In recent years, Valeâs biggest crime is simply being Vale. Theyâve actually been very accommodating in terms of letting us beat them and taking as many fans as we like to their place. Whereas Mansfield have got right on my wick in some of our more recent meetings.
I agree & in sooo many ways. As you point out, there were fewer (if any) tourists there. Yes, there were many lapsed fans in attendence that day but they were all invested in WFC winning the match.
The stadium itself, IMHO, is better than Wembley. The accoustics are better. Itâs location to the city centre is better. And, of course, we won!
I know that a fair few Villa fans that I worked with at the time went to the Wembley game just to say theyâd been to the new Wembley. I laughed at them for being âglory huntersââŚ
Canât even claim to have seen all of our stuff this season and 90% of what I have has been ifollow but going off what Iâve seen watching us and the Quest highlights McKirdy and Telford have been real standouts. The rest could come out a hat for me but as I said, there will be plenty whoâve seen more L2 than me but Iâve seen enough to know the standard is really poor.
Both on 16k tickets sold as of today so canât see either of them taking over 20k. Just shows how good our effort was to take 29k in the JPT, albeit with the help of a few day trippers.
Took a wolves fan and a Villa fan with us that day best part about it was the drinking and the Wembley experience shame the team didnât turn up and we got ripped to pieces by Mark Little I seem to remember he was brilliant that day.
We went with my dad and bro both walsal fans, mom who hates football but wanted a day out and a couple of villa friends who go walsall when itâs a fiver
Patto and Pezza from Rushall where 2