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The Official Champions V Walsall Match Day Thread.

havanatopia

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havanatopia

havanatopia

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Posted (edited)

Are you ready to rumble?... 

 

Well here we are boys and girls, the last day, the last game, the last 90 minutes of action for what we all now know is our most successful league campaign, arguably, since 1955. This is no time for comparisons. This is a time for celebration, again, and for saluting, once more, our team, management, ownership and staff for providing the most prized asset a club can have, its fans, a season that will never be forgotten and go down in folklore to be passed from one generation to the next. We salute you all, we salute ourselves including the guy who travelled even further than me, from Australia even if it was for only one match!

 

My prediction, pre Rochdale, was for us to end on 100 points. That, of course, cannot happen now.. here is what i said..

 

BRISTOL CITY

 

H to Rochdale = 3 pts = 70pts

A to L Orient = 3 = 73

A to Crawley = 1 = 74

A to Yeovil = 3 = 77

H to Gills = 1 = 78

H to Crewe = 3 = 81

H to Barnsley = 1 = 82

A to Oldham = 3 = 85

H to Swindle = 3 = 88

 

Personally I think 88 will be sufficient for auto promotion but we may not know it on the day - WELL I GOT THAT WRONG BUT NOT BY MUCH.

 

If we go to Preston and beat them I think that will be the day we will be promoted. If we don't win it then it will be the next game. I can see us losing only once more by the end of the season and it will be against Walsall.. not in the JPT but last match of the season to get revenge for us beating them at Wembley when we are already champions and have taken our foot off the gas. 

 

We are two points ahead of my prediction above so we start on 90 points before below..

 

A to Preston = 0 = 90

A to Bradford = 3 = 93

H to Coventry = 1 = 94

A to Chesterfield = 3 = 97

A to Walsall = 3 = 100

 

Thought we might slip up at Walsall following our victory over them at Wembley but have changed my mind as we try and get the lone defeat of Preston out of our system and get over the line to 100 points. I think Coventry may be well on their way to a resurgence under Mowbray by the time we play them. I had Bradford down as a draw but so incensed will Cotts be over the Preston debacle, when he will be spitting complaints, the players will be all guns blazing at Valley Parade.

 

I got that last little bit right.. of course.. i suspect thousands of us predicted something similar.. the point of pasting that is not to see how close I might be but to suggest that it was probably very easy given how fabulous our team, under Steve Cotterill, have been this season.

 

Now let us spare a moment for the opposition because, a rarity in British town life, Walsall are not mentioned in the Domesday Book. That surely was a clerical error? The earliest mention is 1002 which refers to a place called 'Walesho', but this is debatable and requires further scrutiny. The place name of Walsall is now generally believed to derive from the Old English personal name 'Walh', thought to be from the Saxon term for a Briton or Welshman, and 'H(e)alh' meaning 'a sheltered place. I can only remark that standing in the shed end of Fellows Park back in those dank dark away days felt nothing like being in a sheltered place to me.

 

However, inspite of the ignominy of 'the' book omission Walsall boasts a market and has had one continuously since 1200 or thereabouts. It grew up as a market town in fact but gradually developed manufacturing thanks to the abundance of coal, ironstone and limestone enabling metalwork industries to grow and thrive. Spurs, buckles and spurs being the mainstay and these, known as the Lorinary Trade, enabled the development of saddlery and leather for which the town of Walsall has become famous and where the local football team take their nickname. Legacies of limestone extraction were the flooding of these valleys to form the Arboretum, surely a must see on any visit to this handsome town ! Although much of the handsome architecture of Walsall was lost during the dash for growth during the industrial revolution and not, majorly, due to the luftwaffe.

 

Famous inhabitants of Walsall include Jerome K. Jerome, the author of 'Three Men in a Boat' who was born in Belsize House, Bradford Street in 1859. Sister Dora was born Dorothy Wyndlow Pattison in Yorkshire in 1832. Her pioneering nursing work, as she developed Walsall Cottage Hospital, earned her national respect. She died in 1878 and eight years later a statue to her memory was unveiled on The Bridge. This was the first statue of a woman not of royal birth ever to be erected in Great Britain. Now there's a thing.

 

Our visitors today, Walsall, began life as Walsall Town Swifts in 1888 and founder members of the Second Division in 1892 and that is the highest division they have ever graced; finishing 14th in 1962. The highest attendance Walsall have played in front of, at home and possibly away come to that, is a rather large 74,600. before one gets the tape measure and studies historical pictures of Fellows Park please note this was played, as a home game, but at nearby Villa Park. Not bad nonetheless. It was the FA Cup 4th round in 1930 and was played against.. Villa although Villa were 'away' .

 

We can put aside the 1988 play off defeat to Walsall for now. Moving along..

 

Two years later Walsall left Fellows for the Bescot in what was, then, only the 2nd new stadium to be built since the 1950's. How football has progressed since those tragic dark days of the 80's and the Taylor Report.

 

Some well known and decent players have worn the Saddlers shirt down the years including Matty Fryatt, Troy Deeney, Jorge Leitao, Junior, Kyle Lightbourne, David Kelly to name a few.

 

AND....Honorary ex City player mentions should also go to: - Kevin Betsy, Darren Byfield, Dani Rodriguez, Tony Dinning, Simon Gillett, Ryan McGivern, Howard Pritchard, Gary Shelton, Alan Walsh

 

And.. Alan Buckley, Gareth Ainsworth, Craig Burley, Steve Claridge (who has he not played for?), Mark Hughes, Bobby Hutchinson, Paul Merson, Steve Staunton, 

 

As for today's match.. will there be sufficient gumption in Walsall to tickle our stomachs for an upset and a little revenge on the fairly comfortable win at Wembley? I do not envisage for one moment anybody will be upsetting our party today. A regulation 3-1 for me I think. 

 

A tinge of jealousy to all those that are going. Enjoy the day out look forward to seeing you all, perhaps, for a match day thread in the new season.

 

Freeman, Smith, JET.

 

U Ridddddddzzzzzzzzz.

Edited by havanatopia
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Manon

Manon

Posted
Posted

So looks very likely that three teams will surpass 90 pts this season. Maybe some statistician will know the answers, but I think that is fairly unusual..? Anyway, not really sure how that can be interpreted regarding our achievement this season - it's a debate for another thread I suppose.

Enjoying the relaxed atmosphere on this triumphant final day. Wouldn't want to be in Preston's shoes that's for sure.

COYR let's end on a high! 4-1

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