September 2010

Walsall fans are a bit different in the latter respect. With Aston Villa, West Bromwich Albion, Birmingham City and Wolves all within a stone’s throw of the Banks’s, their faithful following has always had other clubs competing for their affections.

Compete they might, but Saddlers supporters are just like the rest of us really. No amount of persuasion will change their allegiance!

Maybe this is why pragmatism is never in short supply amongst their fans, and why a trip to Wembley would have meant the absolute world to them.

Don Mills, with son Chris, told the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy: “You don’t support Walsall for the success, but you always live in hope! I’ve been supporting the club since 1960 and my son had no choice in the matter either.

“You’ve got to be pragmatic. You would hope for a top six finish this season, but finishing 10th wouldn’t necessarily be a disaster. We’ve got a lot of young players in the squad. I still feel we are one or two players short.”

Matthew and Tony Bradbury gave a similar assessment of their side.

“We can’t go shouting for the club to spend £2 million on one player. It will never happen and we know this, of course.

“We could finish sixth. It’s more likely we’ll finish 10th and it’s also a strong possibility we could finish 15th.

“The chance of getting to Wembley has always been a huge pull, which is why the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy will always mean a lot each season.”

Jeffrey Norman said that Wolves posed the strongest rivalry for Walsall fans, and said it can be tough competing with so many Premier League clubs on the doorstep.

“The rivalry has always been there with the Wolves. If there was one team I’d love to see us beat out of the lot of the local clubs it would be them.”

Paul Parkin said: “We are always financially secure. It can be a struggle because things are done on a shoestring.

“But we’ve brought in one or two good players and I think we’d be pleased with a top 10 finish.”

Tim Dowie added: “I grew up at Fellows Park where my uncle was the groundsman. It has been passed right through the family.

“As things stand now, on the basis of our squad which is decent, we have a chance of the play offs.

“I rate Chris Hutchings (manager). He has attracted some good names to the club like Jon Macken, so we should be hopeful.”

Paul Leadbeater told the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy: “We have been a long way in the trophy on two occasions, losing to Bournemouth and Millwall in the area finals if memory serves. To go that bit further would have been brilliant.”

Ross Dunkley said: “The jury is still out on the manager at the moment. A play-off position would be great, but a mid table finish might be more realistic.”

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