Ending 126 Years of Hurt

Little Walsall FC, the Midland's forgotten side. Surrounded by successful neighbours who for over a century and a quarter have sucked the clubs would be fan base almost dry. Their tiny 11,00 capacity stadium at the edge of the M6 and a busy train yard is sort of place that only the most loyal away supporters head to on a cold winters Tuesday night, and in terms of money they have never been able to compete with their rivals for star players. However the heartbreaking fact about Walsall FC that I most want to change is this, Along with Accrington Stanley, Hartlepool and Crawley, The Saddlers form part of a sad quartet of league teams who have never set foot on the hallowed turf of Wembley stadium, either the former stadium between the famous twin towers or the modern incarnation under the incredible arch. The 2001 Division two play-off final victory would have seen them end their North London wait, however Wembley had closed for redevelopment the previous year and cup finals moved to Cardiff's millenium stadium.

My mission is simple, End the 126 year wait of Walsall's small but incredibly loyal fanbase to walk down Wembley way...

Good luck with Walsall

Good Luck Rick

GL

Thanks Lads.
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Goalkeepers

Richard O'Donnell is undoubtedly my number one, he played every minute of last season for the club and was a reliable shot stopper throughout. Craig McGillivray arrived this summer from Conference North side Harrogate Town, his opportunities are likely to be limited this term unless O'Donnell suffers an injury.

Defenders

The departure of inspirational captain Andy Butler to Sheffield United was a hammer blow to our young side who will miss his leadership, Butler is replaced by former Doncaster and Derby defender James O'Connor who will partner 22 year old Paul Downing who has come on leaps and bounds in the last couple of years since his arrival from Premier League neighbours West Bromwich Albion.
Andy Taylor is a marauding wing back who loves to get forward and cause the opposition problems, James Chambers on the opposite side of the defence is less attack minded but is a tough customer at the back who along with his brother Adam in midfield breaks up the play expertly.

Keep an eye out for twenty year old Malvind Benning who will be looking to push his way into the team this term, the left back also has a decision to make as he is eligible to play for India who may well offer him a call up soon.

Midfielders

The aforementioned Adam Chambers forms the heart of the side alongside hard working playmaker Sam Mantom when he returns from his knee injury around September.
Plenty of options on the wings, Jordan Cook rejoins the club from Charlton after a brief loan spell with the club in 2011 when he was a Sunderland player and put in some very impressive performances.
Romaine Sawyers will be a creative link between the midfield and the strikers as he transitions between the two.

Strikers

Not much to chose from in this department, my preliminary thoughts regarding tactics to fit the squad I have is utilising a 4-4-1-1 with Sawyers as an attacking midfielder and one of these three lads ahead of him Tom Bradshaw is likely to be the man I put my faith in to begin with, he has a point to prove after joining in the summer from rivals Shrewsbury Town.

good luck with this

Good Luck Fella!

Our warm-up is now complete and (hopefully) my players are now ready to move onto the competitive games with a spring in their step after a series of encouraging performances throughout the friendly fixtures. There has been little in the way of transfer activity to disrupt the harmony within the camp which showed as the squad displayed a togetherness which bodes well for the start of the 2014/15 season.

Transfers
In order to help ease the burden on the clubs fragile finances, I have entered the market only for loan players to plaster the cracks caused by several injuries in the first team, My overall philosophy will be to continue the excellent work my predecessor Dean Smith did at the club with his dedication to bringing through talented local boys, however none of the youngsters are quite ready for the big time yet so I have opted to bring in starlets from our neighbors in order to assange our injury crisis as well as give them first team football.

Daniel joins us from Aston Villa, he is on the fringes of the team at Villa park, having made the bench for a few games last season, however he is yet to set foot on the pitch for a first team game. He will be hoping to impress here at the Banks's stadium this season in order to catch Paul Lambert's eye for the future.

Joshua is another Villa under-21, along with Johnson he was part of the team that beat the likes of Benfica, Barcelona and Chelsea to win the 2013 Next-Gen Series. A solid Premier League prospect for the future, he will be looking to gain vital playing time in League One with us as he fills in for the injured James Chambers until October, an extension is entirely possible should he impress.

The first harvest from our newly formed link with Leicester City, A graduate of Manchester United's academy, Jack is now at Leicester who snapped him up on free this summer following an impressive loan spell at Hartlepool last term. A good winger who could well go on to be a star in the Championship. We have him until January.

As I eluded to earlier, I have manufactured an affiliation with Leicester in order to garner a new source of annual income as well as getting the chance to loan the Foxes most promising young players;

I've also initiated a relationship with Tamworth, a Conference North club based less than fifteen miles away so it is an ideal place to send our prospects to gain first team football. I have already allowed strikers Romario Reid and Tevin Shakespeare to join the Lambs for the season to see how they get on.


Results

On the whole our pre-season form was very good, albeit against less than world class opposition (with the notable exception of Arsenal) Most games were trips to local non-league outfits. The odd money spinning friendly against the likes of Arsenal is of course good for the coffers, however I believe in keeping a balanced approach, a string of heavy defeats to Premier League sides would make us a few bob but would likely affect morale heading into the all important opening games.

We kicked off with a straightforward win over FA Cup specialists Chasetown, Daniel Johnson got us off the mark by lashing home a 26th minute penalty, a complete eleven man changeover at half time helped finish off the Scholars as our fresher legs prise apart the tired Evo-Stik League side in the second period as we went on to win 4-0.
We were at the Banks's for our next game as Belgian second division club Zulte Waregem visited, a confident performance against our continental opponents was very pleasing.

Two friendlies with our fellow Staffordshire outfits Hednesford and Tamworth both yielded 2-1 victories with French striker Mathieu Manset on target in both before we returned home for the visit of Arsenal for a fixture with some history behind it. January 1933 - In what is regarded by some as the greatest cup upset in history, struggling third division Walsall beat all conquering Arsenal managed by the legendary Herbert Chapman 2-0 at Fallows Park in the FA Cup third round.

November 1983 - Exactly fifty years later the Saddlers inflict another black-eye on the Gunners, this time in the League cup as Terry Neill's side were humbled 2-0 at home, a result that cost the manager his job. Walsall went on to reach the semi-finals where they were narrowly beaten by eventual winners Liverpool.
Unfortunately this friendly produced no such shock for the full house at the Banks's stadium or the watching TV audience as a full strength Arsenal controlled this game from start to finish, we were outclassed in every department and rarely got a sniff of goal as Arsene Wenger's men passed us off the park. The 3-0 scoreline didn't flatter Arsenal in the slightest and I was grateful it wasn't a far heavier defeat.

After the excitement of Ozil & Co. we finished off pre-season with a nice relaxing game with Northern Premier side Rushall Olympic who play just a couple of miles or so down the road as young forward Amadou Babayoko in particular furthered his claim for a starting place for the season ahead.

Looking Ahead

I've set a few realistic goals for the season;

• Stay well clear of relegation trouble, anywhere above 15th will be fine in my first campaign
• Keep to the club's youth development philosophy, no spending.
• Try and play a passing game like my predecessor Dean Smith rather than hoofing it up the pitch.
• Maintain an unbeaten run against fellow midlands clubs in League One (Notts Co., Port Vale and in particular Coventry)
• Win at least 75% of our home games.

My fourth target will immediately come under scrutiny as we travel to Port Vale in our opening game before a League cup tie with Championship Fulham. Our first home game is against newly promoted Bradford.

Good luck with Walsall Rick, fantastic opening introduction to the club and such which has been a good read, I look forward to seeing you attempt to accomplish the set goals, good luck!

Thank you!

I have quite enjoyed writing about Walsall as I was once a season ticket holder there, a friend who supported them broke his leg and was unable to go anymore so he lent me his season ticket for the rest of that year, I ended up really enjoying the smaller, more close knit club atmosphere there compared to what I was used to at Villa Park. I wound up buying a season ticket of my own the following year.
Knowing and liking the club really seems to help immerse the mind within a save on FM, I've had a few false starts on FM15 but I can see this one lasting a while.

I've had a very enjoyable first month to my inaugural season as Saddlers chief, we are unbeaten in League One, caused an upset in the cup and came very close to claiming a Premier League scalp in the next round. Exciting times in WS1!

You will recall from my pre-season preview that one of my aims for the season is to remain unbeaten against our Midland neighbours, we took the first step towards achieving that ambition with a draw at Vale Park, we fell behind after ten minutes to a Chris Birchall strike, however we kept our heads up and levelled up via substitute Ashley Grimes to earn a deserved point.
On then to cup action as we welcomed Championship side Fulham to the Banks's Stadium with all but the most ardent Saddler predicting a win for the Londoners, however we caught Felix Magath's side off guard as midfielder Aaron Forde lashed home a loose ball seventeen minutes in, a red card for Fulham's Elsad Zverotic really put us in the driving seat. It wasn't all plain sailing, Fulham had their chances to get back in the game, however we held strong and deserved to advance to the second round where we were pitted against Premier League Swansea City.

The cup upset instilled a real belief in my side as we went on to put four past Bradford and then Yeovil as we came from behind three times to win against the Knitters before being held to a draw by Leyton Orient at Brisbane Road.

Our trip to Wales for the League cup game with Swansea was always going to be a mammoth task, however we gave an excellent account of ourselves, drawing first blood through Romaine Sawyers to get our supporters believing we could pull off the upset after all, when Wilfred Bony was forced off through injury things really began to look promising, however his replacement Bafatimbi Gomis who joined the Swans from Lyon this summer, proved a more than adequate replacement as he helped the Premiership side get back into the game and eventually take control. Ki Sung Yeung equalised on the half hour mark, however it took until the 67th minute for them to finally get ahead as Wayne Routledge cut inside from the flank to finish neatly at the far post. I threw on all my attacking options as we went for broke to try and rescue the game, which we came mighty close to doing on a couple of occasions, however it wasn't to be as Gomis killed us off in the 87th minute. Still it was a great effort from my young but dogged side and they should feel no shame in this defeat.

August finished with a great comeback against Scunthorpe, we came from 3-1 down to earn a draw with Scunthorpe at Glanford Park which preserved our unbeaten start to the league season.


Malvind Benning has had a great start to the season, the twenty year old has been forced to play out of position on the wing rather than in his natural place as a fullback, he has however made the transition seamlessly and could well find himself making a permanant switch to the more advanced position as he has already assisted four goals in five games.


Can this form last? in all honesty it's doubtful, however it is of course encouraging, if we keep playing the way we have been this month then relegation should hold no fear for us, a play-off push could be entirely possible.

Great Start To Season Rick

Good luck with Walsall mate

Good start