Walsall 2 Port Vale 1 (10.12.85)

By ISSA Historian, Dave Evans Walsall edged into the 3rd round of the FA Cup in somewhat controversial style at Fellows Park with a 2-1 win against Port Vale. Following a drab 0-0 stalemate in the Vale Park fog on Sunday afternoon, this Tuesday night replay was more like it, with the two sides knowing […]

Walsall 5 Port Vale 0 (06.12.86)

By ISSA Historian, Dave Evans Walsall went into this FA Cup Round Two clash with Port Vale on the back of a great recent run of home victories – 6 in all competitions – and swept Vale aside with a good all round performance. Two early goals – Willie Naughton on 6 minutes and Nicky […]

Walsall 4 Sheffield United 4 (29.11.80)

By ISSA Historian, Dave Evans Walsall’s hero in this amazing game was substitute Don Penn, who came on in the second half to replace Tony Macken, who suffered facial injuries. The young striker, who had notched 26 goals in the previous season, made one and scored two. For a game that provided 8 goals, the […]

Wolves 0 Walsall 1 (17.09.13)

The Super Saddlers edged this fiercely competitive ‘derby’ on a memorable night at Molineux. The home side went close with efforts from Bjorn Sigurdarson and Bakary Sako whilst Richard O’Donnell made a good save from a 30 yard free kick from the latter. Meanwhile Craig Westcarr’s free kick hit the bar after 9 minutes whilst […]

ISSA Exclusive Interview with Paul Marston

It’s only when something like a pandemic occurs that we realise how much we love our football clubs, whether we are talking about Liverpool or Walsall, Burnley or Barrow. During the lockdown football writers have had to dig into the history books for something to write and even England’s 1966 World Cup triumph over Germany […]

In Conversation With Alan Birch

With ISSA Historian, Dave Evans Alan Birch was born on August 12th, 1956 in West Bromwich. He was an industrious hard working right winger / midfielder who tormented defences in his long playing career and is fondly remembered by Saddlers fans as the young pacey winger who was outstanding against Manchester United and Newcastle United […]

In Conversation With Derek Mountfield

By ISSA Historian, Dave Evans At school my life was all about sports, not academic stuff, just sports.  Football, rugby, basketball, everything. Up to 1978 it was still playing rugby first.  My teacher still wanted me to chose rugby but I chose football and joined Tranmere Rovers as an apprentice in July 1979.  I did […]

In Conversation With Tommy Coakley

By ISSA Historian, Dave Evans Tommy Coakley was born in Bellshill in 1947. Following spells as a player with Motherwell, Arsenal, Detroit Cougars, Morton and Chelmsford City, he started out in management with Malden Town and Bishops Stortford before taking over at Walsall in 1986 and leading the club to the Second Division two years […]

Notts County 1 Walsall 3 (15.05.88)

By ISSA Historian, Dave Evans Walsall fell behind to a second minute header from Dean Yates following a centre by Adrian Thorpe in this play off semi final at Meadow Lane following some poor defending. In the 40th minute Walsall were back on level terms following a cheeky David Kelly back flick from a Craig […]

In Conversation With Stan Bennett

By ISSA Historian, Dave Evans In the first in a series of chats with former Walsall players, Dave Evans speaks with Saddlers legend Stan Bennett. Stan Bennett was born on September 18th, 1944 in Birmingham and captained the Aston Boys team and the Birmingham County Schools X1. Whilst playing for Aston Boys, their manager Tom […]