Part 3: WM Special
By 7inchyouknowwho
May 16 2003
Part three of the Radio WM Saddlers special, which was broadcasted on the 23rd April 2003.
| Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 |
On the 23rd of May Neil Ravenscroft, a publisher on the site and Ian Hemmings who has also been involved with the site took the chance to feature in a Radio WM special summing up the Saddlers season.
Part
3
of WM recording 23/04/03
RW:
It’s a saddlers night this evening 01214322000 is the number to call,
with me in the studio at the moment three saddlers supporters, Ian, Neil and
Matthew and we’re talking through a series of saddlers subjects and the next
one’s gonna be chosen by Matthew, out of our wonderful, hi-tech, electronic,
random selection device.
Matthew:
I’m very impressed by
it!
RW:
Ooh and first for a minute I thought one of the bulbs had gone, but no
it’s alright. It merely says here, best saddlers boss, let’s have a free
debate, who has been the best WFC manager?
Ian:
Where do you start, what do you go for?
Neil:
Erm, yes, erm (all laugh)
RW:
It’s gone very silent here, you know, you invite three people in and
say come and have a lively debate. No not them, they just sit there, that’s an
interesting question, Yes I, I’m a politician you know, I’m just gonna chew
over this, its Question Time this evening!
Ian:
Possibly erm, because the fact he’s kept us in division one for two
seasons running Colin Lee.
Matthew:
I think I can only
really compare Graydon with Colin Lee coz that’s the only two which I’ve
seen during my time being a supporter. I have to say that Colin Lee for what
he’s done over the past two seasons definitely.
Neil:
This ones left to me then I suppose is it?
Ian:
Yeah, with you being the older statesmen of the group!
Neil:
Yeah something along
those lines, on purely on achievement you gotta say Colin Lee I suppose but erm,
we’ve had some decent managers in the past and I think the record that Jeff
Bonsers had in appointing managers with the possible exception of Jan Sorenson,
erm has been exceptional and each one has brought something different to the
club and each one has progressed it a little more. I still think possibly it was
a toss up in my era between Doug Frazier and Dave MacKay, but Dave MacKay’s
another spitting job because he left the club in the lurch in the end to go of
to the Middle East for a vast fortune so err..
RW:
So are two survivals worth more then two promotions coz that’s really
the Lee, Graydon comparison isn’t it?
Neil:
It is very much so yeah, I think they probably are in this case.
Ian:
I think it’s harder to keep a team in division one than getting it into
division one.
RW:
So if he does it again next season he will be a clear leader do you
think?
Neil:
You’d have to give it to him then I think without any shadow of a doubt
and if we progress, I mean we and said at the beginning of the season what we
really wanted was a boring end to it , which we didn’t quite get, but can have
a boring end to next season.
RW:
Yeah, actually that reads like my programme notes from last game that the
saddler’s fans yearn for a boring end to the season. Erm a. Another vote for
Darren Wrack incidentally for player of the season from Becky in Cannock on text
messages, so Wracky is in the frame for a top three finish now which is an
interesting thought. Let’s see what Neil draws out next. You know I still
haven’t had chance to do this (rings
bell).
Neil:
I’ll dig deep this time.
RW:
See now it doesn’t sound like a electronic random, number generator.
Neil:
Sorry!
RW:
Thank you- Carol Vorderman took it away for Countdown. Erm, My least
favourite away trip it says here and the three of you have seen quite a few away
games between you I suspect.
Ian:
Quite possibly Preston this year, where I went with a couple of friends
Caroline and Paul, erm me and Caroline wanted to go away just after half time
and Paul decided, No we’re gonna stop because we’re gonna score in a minute!
Great optimism by him. I think, he was about the only saddler’s fan who
thought we could score.
RW:
Well early in the second half 2-0 down didn’t Junior have a great
chance, it was either him or Jorge, had a great great chance to get a goal,
Jorge at the post that was it
Matthew: Jorge hit the post!
RW:
That was a grim away trip, but not coz of the quality of the ground, I
mean we’re just talking about quality of performance I guess.
Neil:
Anywhere not in the first division!
RW:
Fair enough.
Neil:
Well it’s an easy answer!
Ian:
Well if you’re saying quality of ground, Wigan’s old ground,
Springfield Park on a Tuesday night under Sorenson, where it rained and rained
and then did a bit more rain!
Neil:
Rotherham, picking your way through the scrap yards, that’s another
good one.
Matthew:
I think Sheffield
United away this season in the cup, the way we just surrendered was really
terrible.
RW: Second
half was grim, I actually felt quite mellow this evening and now it’s started
to just sort of itch a bit. That Wigan game, Springfield Park was, we
shouldn’t moan because we’re in a privileged position those of us who are
paid to go and watch games of football, but it really was one of the worst
places to work as well, just unbearable in fact at that stage under Jan Sorenson
the team had stopped playing as well, it was just, that was really grim. Ian
take the next topic out for us.
Neil: It
was obviously after Christmas if they stopped playin, they all did!
RW:
What have we got? Arh,
well we kinda answered this for one of you already, but we’ll go back round
and jog our memories. My first Walsall game. Matthew yours is the most recent so
answer that.
Matthew:
Yeah, it was a home game against Brentford we won 3-2 under Ray Graydon
in our play-off final season. I remember that game coz Roper scored an own goal
and was one of the reasons I thought he would never catch on to be a first team
regular, but he’s proved me wrong and that was my first taste of Walsall.
RW:
You were only 14 then,
who took you?
Matthew:
I started goin by myself initially, a bit on the sly side, but then I got
my dad involved, he’s now a season ticket holder.
RW:
So you took a train to Bescot and that was it.
Matthew:
Yeah, train to Bescot station.
RW:
Very bold decision for a 14 year old.
Ian:
Yeah, first game I can really remember going to was the Walsall verses
Notts County game in 1987-88 season when we won erm it was an absolutely packed
Fellows Park and er Willie Naughton took a penalty and everyone around me was
going like no, no don’t give it him and he promptly turns up and smashes it
into the back of the net!
RW:
And that was the
penultimate season I would think at Fellows Park, did you have one more year
after that?
Ian:
Yeah
that was the promotion season so we had one season left and I can remember that
I, it was just something about Willie Naughton that stuck to me and he was like
my favourite player as of that day.
RW:
That was when
the play off final was still two legs wasn’t it? Wasn’t it the Bristol City
one that went to a third leg?
Neil&Ian:
Yeah it was indeed yeah.
RW:
What
drama, what a time to become a Walsall fan and attending games.
Neil:
I
know and watching David Kelly bounce over the old enclosure into the stand to
hug his mum, wonderful!
RW:
And
you Neil, the first game?
Neil:
You know
I can’t remember, no it seems a silly thing to say but I first got taken by my
father, who had this ambition to be the most hated man in the world, because he
was a time and motions study manager and he was a referee and at the time he was
secretary at Bloxwich Combination league and he took me to Fellows Park and sat
in the directors box, it must have been 1957 or 58 and I haven’t got a clue
who we were playing, erm.
RW:
It
certainly left a big impression on you!
Neil:
It certainly would,
definitely, for me would be Stoke City 62-63 in the first division, that’s the
one that always sticks in the mind as being the first, we’d actually moved
closer to the ground so it was in walking distance and that’s how I got hooked
.
RW:
I
mean nobody asked me, but for the record, for the record, first ever league game
at Bescot was the first time I saw Walsall play and it was by that stage I’d
got me own car and I was a student so it was like where should I go, watch a
game on the opening day, coz it was like the quickest own goal I’d ever seen
coz didn’t the first league game start with Matt Bryant, who was on loan,
scoring an own goal?
Ian:
If I remember
rightly, it looked like a foul, because the Torquay player, I think it was
seemed to have his hand across his eyes so he couldn’t see what he was doing
aswell.
RW:
The choice
that day actually, was either to go see Walsall play Torquay which ended two
each or go and see a Fleetwood Mac concert at Maine Road, see now I think I got
it wrong but I dunno!
Neil:
Well I’m not
so sure.