Remember, Remember the 13th of November! Walsall MAD remember!
Last updated : 05 November 2009 By Andy Van Hagen
Usually we say remember, remember the 5th of November, but today Walsall MAD in the build up to our FA Cup First Round tie at Stourbridge, we say remember, remember the 13th November. 13, unlucky for some, and it was for the Saddlers as we crashed out of the FA Cup at the first hurdle with defeat at Ryman Premier League minnows, Slough Town at Stag Meadow the ground of Windsor and Eton
That day Walsall lined up: Mark Paston, Mark Wright, Neil Emblen, Julian Bennett, Zigor Aranalde, Simon Osborn, Michael Standing, Darren Wrack, Paul Merson, Jorge Leitao, Matty Fryatt. It was a full strength Saddlers, a Walsall side who only 6 months before were playing their football at Championship level.
Walsall in the wintery sunshine but bitterly cold, started well with Slough keeper Shaun Allaway, who had a loan spell at Bescot Stadium the season before, installed confidence in the home side with saves from ex-Villa duo Merson and Standing in addition to watching shots wide.
As the first half went on from the sidelines you could see the home side gradually begin to believe and they began to bombard the Walsall goal after 20 minutes. They registered their first corner, Hodges hit the side-netting and then minutes later he had another chance this time steering the ball home from close range. Was it offside? The linesman said no and he along with the referee were the only opinions that mattered. The reality of it was Walsall had fallen to a 25th minute goal.
The goal rocked Walsall, nerves began to show but within ten minutes Jorge Leitao went on one of his runs across the area before hitting a powerful, Allaway saved but could not hold and the ball kindly fell to Darren Wrack, who wasn't going to miss a simple tap in.
From there and into the second half, the Saddlers had the possession and chances you'd expect from a side four leagues above their hosts for the day. However all these chances were not being taken, the travelling contingent in the crowd were getting anxious, fearing that it was only going to take another home goal to put Walsall on the back pages of all the newspapers for all the wrong reasons.
On 71 minutes a truly strange event happened, Walsall were defending a throw in on the far right hand side from the away dug out. Bizarrely Walsall made a substitution, off came right back Mark Wright, on came winger Daryl Taylor, however Taylor has a whole pitch to cover to get into position. Slough took their throw in, crossed into the box from the space created by our substitution and BANG! Harris scored for Slough, the home support were in delight, they couldn't believe it, we Walsall fans of which were approx. 500 couldn't believe it!
Walsall tried to get the goal back but again chances went missed. To sum up a nightmare of a day, Julian Bennett received a red card with around ten minutes of action left.
It pays to remember the events of November 13th 2004 in the build up to Saturday's trip to Stourbridge. It's a similar situation except this time there is the added spice of a local derby! Stourbridge will rightly have their moment in the spotlight, be on ITV's main highlights show, Walsall have to be on their guard.
There aren't any playing personal at the club from the day we were dumped out the cup by Slough, Physio Jon Whitney will remember it well I'm sure, as all Walsall fans do!!
