Walsall had a good record in the FA Cup Round 2 in the mid-'50's defeating Crewe at Fellows Park 3-0 in 1953-4, Tony Richards got a brace in a 2-0 win at Wrexham the following season and over 17,000 saw the 2-1 win over 
Southampton in 1955-6. One of our biggest ever shock defeats came in the 1959-60 promotion season when we went down 2-3 to Peterborough United who were then non-league. A remarkable 20,585 turned up hoping to cheer the Saddlers into Round Three and thankfully we have not repeated such a calamity at this stage of the competition since.
Southampton in 1955-6. One of our biggest ever shock defeats came in the 1959-60 promotion season when we went down 2-3 to Peterborough United who were then non-league. A remarkable 20,585 turned up hoping to cheer the Saddlers into Round Three and thankfully we have not repeated such a calamity at this stage of the competition since.We had to wait until the 1965-6 season to hit Round 2 again and we had no trouble in seeing off Aldershot at the Recreation Ground 2-0 thanks to goals from Colin Taylor and a young Allan Clarke. This started a ten- year sequence at playing at this stage of the cup. The following season saw a comfortable 3-1 home win over Gillingham with Taylor notching two and a goal from Allan
Baker. We then knocked out Exeter City at St James's Park in 1967-8 with a 3-1 victory and the next year saw a tricky tie at tiny St Albans City. We could only draw 1-1 with the minnows but were too good for them on the night of the replay at Fellows Park and again won by a 3-1 margin which drew a gate of over 10,000 and the fans were rewarded with a plum home tie to Spurs in Round 3.
Baker. We then knocked out Exeter City at St James's Park in 1967-8 with a 3-1 victory and the next year saw a tricky tie at tiny St Albans City. We could only draw 1-1 with the minnows but were too good for them on the night of the replay at Fellows Park and again won by a 3-1 margin which drew a gate of over 10,000 and the fans were rewarded with a plum home tie to Spurs in Round 3. 1969-70 saw Saddlers having to play Brighton four times to reach a conclusion! In those days replays just went on and on. The third game was at Fulham and the fourth at Coventry where Taylor again got a couple. 1970-1 saw us bow out to Brentford at Griffin Park 1-0 so nearly 40 years on we need to gain revenge on Saturday! 1971-2 saw us paired with Brighton again and it only took us two games to see them off this time around. Young Ray Train was on target in his last game before his move to Carlisle. 1972-3 saw us go down to Charlton at home 1-2 whilst in 1973-4 Plymouth got the only goal of the game at Home Park.
The 1974-5 season saw us overcome Newport County 3-1 at Somerton Park which set up those wonderful games with Man United in Round 3 and two years later three games against Chesterfield saw us visit Old Trafford again next round thanks to Bernie Wright's goal in the second replay at Derby's Baseball Ground. The following season saw us take two games to beat Port Vale with Jeff King, Gary Shelton and Mick Bates netting in another 3-1 win in the replay at Fellows Park.
1979-80 saw us bow out to Halifax Town after two replays with Alan Buckley netting in each of the first two games. 1980-1 saw us comfortably beaten up at Carlisle 0-3 whilst the 1981-2 Round 2 fixture at Peterborough faced five or six postponments due to snow and ice on the pitch and the tie which was scheduled to be played on December 12th had to wait until January 2nd and after all that Saddlers went down 1-2. The 1982-3 tie saw a 3-0 win at North Shields whilst in 1984-5 Kenny Mower was the unlikely match winner in the 1-0 win v. Chesterfield. 1985-6 saw a replay to overcome Port Vale 2-1 at ours thanks to Nicky Cross and Phil Hawker and the following season we faced our Staffordshire rivals again at Fellows Park and thumped them 5-0 with Craig Shakespeare slotting home two pens.
1987-8 saw a 1-2 defeat at Gillingham with David Kelly netting and a Stuart Rimmer goal was enough to sink Rotherham at Fellows Park in the 1989-90 season. Our first Round 2 tie at Bescot was against Scunthorpe in 1993-4 when we were held here but cruely lost the replay on penalties by 7 goals to 6 at Glanford Park. 1995-6 saw a 12 goal thriller against Torquay in a replay which saw the Saddlers run out 8-4 winners with two each for Chris Marsh and Kyle Lightbourne to set up a Round 3 home tie with Leeds United.
The 1996-7 season saw real drama against Burnley at Turf Moor. The two clubs had seen out a 1-1 draw at Bescot and in this replay went in the lead thanks to another Lightbourne effort only for a floodlight failure to force the game to be abandoned for the night. Luckless Walsall went out 4-2 on penalties after extra time when the game was re-arranged .The following season saw Saddlers smash Macclesfield Town 7-0 at Moss Rose as three players helped themselves to two goals each-Gary Porter, Roger Boli and John Hodge-Roger and Hodgey included a penalty each!1998-9 saw Saddlers lose 0-2 to Preston at Deepdale whilst the 2000-2001 season saw Walsall defeat Barnet at Bescot 2-1 to set up a mouth-watering tie here against West Ham United. 2005-6 saw us ease past Yeovil Town 2-0 and 2007-8 saw us beat Northampton Town over two games with Tommy Mooney on taget in the 1-1 draw at Sixfields and Michael Ricketts getting the only goal of the game at Bescot. Before that first tie Walsall were away to Northampton in the league the Saturday before just as this year Saddlers faced a trip to Brentford in the league last Saturday before the cup tie this forthcoming weekend.