The new division will be made up of 12 teams and will see The Saddlers second string come up against Barnsley, Birmingham City, Bradford, Huddersfield, Leeds, Nottingham Forest, Port Vale, Sheffield Wednesday, Shrewsbury, Stoke and West Brom.
Last season Walsall were one of a number of teams who voiced their concern over long distance reserve fixtures. We were also stung by having to turn around on the motorway after a long distance reserve fixture was called off due to bad weather.
This led the club to consider their options and the club even considered withdrawing from the Pontins league in favour of setting up local 'friendly' reserve games with local clubs.
However, the reasons for this were purely financial and the club wanted to keep the competitive nature to prepare the youngsters for first team football. The standard in the new Pontin's League is of very high standard and this should certainly help develop our stars of the future. Out of the twelve teams only Walsall and Shrewsbury are from League Two.