Walsall memories

[Derby blade]

what memories from the Walsall game in 81 have you all got ?

 

[sitwell]

Being relegated and safe 10 times in 10 minutes. Mobiles spoil everything.

 

[WORKSOPBLADE]

Same as Chelsea away and Wigan at home !!

Thanks .... enjoy your Friday night too !!

 

[INTAKE BLADE]

First and last time I cried over football, Bastards

Thanks for the reminder ya doufas.

 

[Paisley Blade]

Getting home in a daze and not eating me tea.

 

[northsomersetblade]

Going on the pitch and getting a piece of the turf

 

[SW12 to S12 to S18]

what memories from the Walsall game in 81 have you all got ?

I remember it was a hot sunny afternoon and a very tense atmosphere. John Matthews then lost his bottle and the rest is history.
Full scale battle on Bramall Lane between very hot and angry Blades trying to find any Walsall fan to tear apart and the police. I remember that copper who always rode a white horse and was a right nasty so and so charging into the fray and an ice cream van with a queue of blokes pretending to buy an ice cream so they could wait for the Walsall fans to come out.
I also think it was the player of the year do that night in the beer Keller or what ever it was called at the time.

 

[Finn Keane o' Balmaqueen]

I spent the afternoon in the Madagascar Hilton.
Top floor suite overlooking Cochacoma Bay.
After the arms deal was completed, the King, Benny'Oto,
shook my hand and in the same motion, brought in at least
twelve of his concubines.

I feasted on them throughout the afternoon and evening and it was safe to say,
I had a really good day.

So much so, I am now father to at least six Warrior sons
who are all in line to the throne.

X

 

[FATTYFOULKE]

Angry blades down town that night but showing loyalty and passion singing and chanting. Golden Ball on Campo Lane?

At that time me and mates always showed who we supported by wearing a discreet blades badge on our chest.

Remember that night walking to Roxy's (can't remember what it was called then, Steelies?) and loads of blades somehow just seemed to be in the same place walking down singing blades songs.

After I remember me and my mate getting into a fight with two pig fans on our way home. I kicked one off the pavement into the road, traffic had to go round him. They started it though.

Not big, not clever, but that's my memories of that night.

 

[Peter Dornan]

I didn't want to go in a boozer near the ground afterwards, so walked up The Moor and went in the Yorkshireman on Burgess Street (down the side of Coles). There were Bladesmen in there of my dad's generation, just sat sobbing silently and staring at their pints. It was eerie, and something I hope I never experience again.

 

[Finn Keane o' Balmaqueen]

I spent the afternoon on Telly Savalas' yacht, moored in Mahoganoma Bay in the Caribbean.
Britt & Brigitte were also around if I recall. Telly was asking my advice on how to make 'Kojak'
more realistic in his portrayal and was deliberating whether to take the role of Muhammad Ali
in 'The Greatest' .. he had to later decline as he was with me in Madagascar on a lucrative arms deal.

What I do remember though is Count Basie, Louis Armstrong and a young Herbie Hancock,
trying desperately to impress Michelle Dotrice with tales of their voracious appetites for the women
of the pale skin....

An afternoon, I and Telly will never forget.

X

 

[I should coco]

17 years old and couldn't believe how badly things had turned out.

85 bus home, tea in silence then a walk round a few local pubs with a Wendy mate. I'd known him since he was 7 and to be fair he was great and never raised it once.

It only really sank in a couple of days later. We really had sunk lower than I could have ever imagined. I guess it was the part time pigs at school who really stiffened me up. Once they started taking the piss I defended my corner and bought a season ticket for the 4th division.

Shit time and TBH not a very good question for a Freedee neet.

 

[Marcus Aurelias]

I spent the afternoon in the Madagascar Hilton.
Top floor suite overlooking Cochacoma Bay.
After the arms deal was completed, the King, Benny'Oto,
shook my hand and in the same motion, brought in at least
twelve of his concubines.

I feasted on them throughout the afternoon and evening and it was safe to say,
I had a really good day.

So much so, I am now father to at least six Warrior sons
who are all in line to the throne.

X

What did you think to Matthews penalty?

 

[Finn Keane o' Balmaqueen]

What did you think to Matthews penalty?

Who against?

 

[Marcus Aurelias]

Who against?

Was it Orient? Someone who played in shorts anyway.

 

[Canterbury Blade]

Remember the tenseness on the Kop as it neared full time. Then a rumour circulated that whoever our rival was had lost or drawn and the tension momentarily lifted. Some say the coppers spread the rumour to calm the cross Blades down.

Elation when the penalty was awarded and being stood opposite where Givens started his run and being so full of optimism as he went forward...

Then simple disbelief. Worse than Boxing Day as this meant more and was cruelly taken in those final minutes.

Should have learnt really and the Walsall experience didn't help me at Wembley in 97..

Last minute goals that mean something are so cruel.. Like finding your best mate has run off with your wife but worse..

 

[kennyblade]

Was it Orient? Someone who played in shorts anyway.

remember that copper who used to ride that white horse right mean twat he was used to knock people towards turnstyles with horses arse very nearly got hauled off loads of times also think it was syp that started the rumour that we had stayed up to get blades to clear pitch nowt changes eh

 

[Trafford]

Then a rumour circulated that whoever our rival was had lost or drawn and the tension momentarily lifted. Some say the coppers spread the rumour to calm the cross Blades down.

There was a tannoy announcement that (Swindon?) had lost. That changed the mood but also resulted in more of us going on the pitch, at which point the mounted police charged. It took me ages to get over the fence onto the pitch but only seconds to get back over it again when those horses started galloping!

 

[blade67]

poor game
soft penalty
lack of bottle
shit penalty
Walsall players getting punched
cheers as I left the ground
rumour that we were staying up
disbelief watching results in telly shop on London road

 

[JJBlade]

Horrible day. When we were awarded the penalty the entire ground went mental except my mate who was with me.

He got hold of me and said "We 'ant scored yet"
We all know what happened next.

I blame the footballing Gods, the bastards.

It wasn't bad enough for us poor bastards that we were getting relegated to Division Four, No, they had to give us hope in the last minute and twist the fucking knife even further,

 

[JohnDenver]

It's false memory, but for some reason I have the idea that Darren Wrack scored against us every time we played them over the course of a decade.

 

[TBW57]

I found this in a novel.

The shock went immediately to Noonan’s bowels. He was across the sea, far away from home and unable to do anything to help United escape the potential disgrace of falling into the League’s Fourth Division. The table in the Yorkshire Post told him that Walsall were a point behind United and had a vastly inferior goal difference, and so they had to win in order to stay up themselves and consign United to the drop. Noonan had known things were bad at Bramall Lane but he had never realised that it might come to this, that the team he had been born to follow, and which had topped the First Division table as recently as the autumn of 1971, could, a mere ten years later be in danger of playing in front of sparse attendances at the little, ramshackle home grounds of Darlington and Torquay. This would be the team’s fate were they to - and he hardly dared even consider it - lose at home on the final day of the season.

Rose takes up the story:

Well, I never. Me and our Tommy went to the pub that afternoon and who should be in there but Felix? No-one had ever seen him with a glass in his hand before so the shock was, well, it was shocking, that’s what it was. I never thought I’d see the like of it now. Felix was sitting at a table in the corner with a bottle of Jameson’s whiskey in front of him and it was not far off being half empty. He had a transistor radio with him and it was tuned to an English station but the reception was terrible and it kept on disappearing, and he’d have to twiddle with it so that he could hear it again. The wind was blowing and it was raining as well and I think the weather was interfering so with the signal. It was a soccer show he was trying to listen to, but his team were obviously not very good so the man in the studio was not mentioning them much because he was more interested in talking about the big sides like Nottingham Forest and Liverpool.

Tommy shouted to him “Are y’alright there, Felix”? and he smiled and waved and I think that as far as he knew everything was going grand. I remember it was half time and the man there was giving out the scores and when he says Sheffield United nil Felix filled his glass to the very top but he said Walsall nil as well so Felix shouts out something about blades or something and grins and empties his glass right down and offers to buy a round for everyone in the bar. I remember we took him up on it and we all shouted that we loved blades as well even though we didn’t know at all what he was going on about. I thought blades were for ice hockey rather than soccer.

Aunt Bernie and Uncle Martin came in and they could hardly believe their eyes to see Felix in there and him half sozzled with the drink. I remember saying to Tommy that Felix was going to be feeling very sick the next morning but you know for all that it was great to see him having a good time for a change. Aunt Bernie shouted Good Luck to him but she said as well that he was to be careful and not do anything silly like trying to take the boat out what with the weather being bad and all that.

Well, with the wind and rain outside we were all better off dry and comfortable in the pub so we got a bit of a party going but we had to keep the noise down so Felix could still listen to his radio. I remember he lost the signal for a good half hour and he began to curse and swear which was not like him at all, so Tommy went and played with the dial till he got the soccer programme back again and it was now well after half past four. I’ll never forget what happened next. The game that was on the radio had ended and they were back with the man in the studio again and he says, and it’s not only I but everyone who was there that remembers, he says “There’s drama at Bramall Lane. I hear there’s a penalty been given”. And Felix stood up, picked up his radio and staggered out into the windy afternoon.

 

[Silent Blade]

I thought we would be "OK" and avoid relegation so I decided to play in a 6 a side tournament at Manchester. At around 5pm my Swansea mate from my school was cheering in the changing room as he had heard that Swansea had won to clinch promotion to the 1st division. I wasnt able to find out the 3rd division scores so I went to town with my team mate (Wendy fan) to buy the Pink Final. To my horror I realised that not only we lost but the other relegation contenders had won their match. It was a horrible feeling and I thought at the time that I would stop going to the Lane again!

 

[Finn Keane o' Balmaqueen]

I've had an evening of fun.
Do a search for Walsall Mammories.
Obv. 18+ only.

Anyone with a susceptible heart condition, you don't blame LYDON

X

 

[Bladepicker]

I was just a little under 18 months old so the memries are a bit hazy. Guessing I shit myself and pissed myself a few times and had at least one outburst of crying.

Not too dissimilar to what I did in the relegation match against Wigan tbh.

 

[grafikhaus]

It wasn't bad enough for us poor bastards that we were getting relegated to Division Four, No, they had to give us hope in the last minute and twist the fucking knife even further,

'Twas ever thus with the Blades. The 'combination of circumstances' when Grobelaar, Fashanu and Segers sent us down in 1994. Tevez in 2007. Chelsea on the last day of the season in 1968.

For the Walsall game, me and my old man were in BLUT. The atmosphere of nervous tension in the crowd was palpable. (sounding like Stuart Hall here...) But the footballing gods were just playing with us. Near the final whistle - too late to hit back - a dirty, cheating little cunt (Buckley?) fell over and they got a pen. which they duly scored. Game over? Oh no! That wouldn't be the Blades, would it? The ref. - probably fearing he'd be lynched - evened up and gave us a penalty. The rest is history. Hundred (thousands?) of Blades scaled the perimeter fencing and invaded the pitch, attacking the Walsall players.

From our elevated position, we saw and heard the effect of the false rumour that we were safe. Like the young idiot I was, I started jumping up and down. Dad - who had seen more than his share of action in WW2 - told me to calm down. 'Ive seen entire armies routed on the strength of a rumour'. He was, of course, right.

 

[bornablade]

Wonder how many clubs have been relegated with a positive goal difference.

 

[AnarchistBlade]

I found this in a novel.

The shock went immediately to Noonan’s bowels. He was across the sea, far away from home and unable to do anything to help United escape the potential disgrace of falling into the League’s Fourth Division. The table in the Yorkshire Post told him that Walsall were a point behind United and had a vastly inferior goal difference, and so they had to win in order to stay up themselves and consign United to the drop. Noonan had known things were bad at Bramall Lane but he had never realised that it might come to this, that the team he had been born to follow, and which had topped the First Division table as recently as the autumn of 1971, could, a mere ten years later be in danger of playing in front of sparse attendances at the little, ramshackle home grounds of Darlington and Torquay. This would be the team’s fate were they to - and he hardly dared even consider it - lose at home on the final day of the season.

Rose takes up the story:

Well, I never. Me and our Tommy went to the pub that afternoon and who should be in there but Felix? No-one had ever seen him with a glass in his hand before so the shock was, well, it was shocking, that’s what it was. I never thought I’d see the like of it now. Felix was sitting at a table in the corner with a bottle of Jameson’s whiskey in front of him and it was not far off being half empty. He had a transistor radio with him and it was tuned to an English station but the reception was terrible and it kept on disappearing, and he’d have to twiddle with it so that he could hear it again. The wind was blowing and it was raining as well and I think the weather was interfering so with the signal. It was a soccer show he was trying to listen to, but his team were obviously not very good so the man in the studio was not mentioning them much because he was more interested in talking about the big sides like Nottingham Forest and Liverpool.

Tommy shouted to him “Are y’alright there, Felix”? and he smiled and waved and I think that as far as he knew everything was going grand. I remember it was half time and the man there was giving out the scores and when he says Sheffield United nil Felix filled his glass to the very top but he said Walsall nil as well so Felix shouts out something about blades or something and grins and empties his glass right down and offers to buy a round for everyone in the bar. I remember we took him up on it and we all shouted that we loved blades as well even though we didn’t know at all what he was going on about. I thought blades were for ice hockey rather than soccer.

Aunt Bernie and Uncle Martin came in and they could hardly believe their eyes to see Felix in there and him half sozzled with the drink. I remember saying to Tommy that Felix was going to be feeling very sick the next morning but you know for all that it was great to see him having a good time for a change. Aunt Bernie shouted Good Luck to him but she said as well that he was to be careful and not do anything silly like trying to take the boat out what with the weather being bad and all that.

Well, with the wind and rain outside we were all better off dry and comfortable in the pub so we got a bit of a party going but we had to keep the noise down so Felix could still listen to his radio. I remember he lost the signal for a good half hour and he began to curse and swear which was not like him at all, so Tommy went and played with the dial till he got the soccer programme back again and it was now well after half past four. I’ll never forget what happened next. The game that was on the radio had ended and they were back with the man in the studio again and he says, and it’s not only I but everyone who was there that remembers, he says “There’s drama at Bramall Lane. I hear there’s a penalty been given”. And Felix stood up, picked up his radio and staggered out into the windy afternoon.

Did you 'find' this in a novel you wrote yourself?

 

[GreasyChipBeattie]

About the only things I remember were the feelings of disbelief (Walsall scored the pen) relief (we were going to score a pen to rescue us) disbelief (at how long it could take for a kicked ball to travel 12 yards)
That and the Ecclesfield bus (number 73?) leaving pond street with me silently shaking my head and discreetly wiping away a tear thinking, "That's one the Wendies will be able to use against us" as they'd never been in the basement division.
Still, without that day, I wouldn't have a bagful of fantastic memories from that day in Darlington

 

[djbaldken]

I spent the afternoon in the Madagascar Hilton.
Top floor suite overlooking Cochacoma Bay.
After the arms deal was completed, the King, Benny'Oto,
shook my hand and in the same motion, brought in at least
twelve of his concubines.

I feasted on them throughout the afternoon and evening and it was safe to say,
I had a really good day.

So much so, I am now father to at least six Warrior sons
who are all in line to the throne.

X

By a strange coincidence I was also in the Madagascar Hilton that day. But i was in a suite one below the top floor with Gina Lollobrigida , Sophia Loren and Raquel Welch. The wine was flowing and the strip poker was going beyond my wildest dreams. But we kept on being disturbed by several concubines knocking on our door looking for some one called King Benny! These interruptions somewhat put me off my stride so to speak and my three companions left in disgust only to sail away with Telly Savalis who happened to have his yacht moored in a nearby marina.
I saw Telly several times after this and he never failed to remind me how that trip almost cost him his career, his fortune and his libido!!! He did however speak very highly of you Lydon.