Play-off joy for Saddlers...
BELIEVE it or not, it is a quarter-of-a-century today that we beat Bristol City 4-0 in the play-off Final replay to secure our place in the second-tier of English football for the first time in 25 years.History was made as we played our first game on Spring Bank Holiday Monday after the two-legged Final ended 3-3 on aggregate after we let a 3-1 lead from the away leg slip with a 2-0 set-back at Fellows Park.
A penalty shoot-out was required to decide who had home advantage for the replay, which was watched by a crowd of over 13,000 at Fellows Park.
The Saddlers went ahead on 11 minutes when Mark Taylor’s free-kick left David Kelly to fire home. We doubled our lead six minutes later as Kelly eluded Glenn Humphries again and slid home his second goal.
Andy Llewellyn made a brilliant goal-line clearance to deny Willie Naughton seconds before Walsall made it three on 19 minutes when Phil Hawker headed in Mark Goodwin’s corner.
Kelly ran through to complete his treble in the 63rd minute and frustrated Carl Shutt was sent off shortly before the end on what proved to be a miserable day for The Robins.
For The Saddlers' faithful, there were joyous scenes at the end as we secured promotion.
WALSALL: Fred Barber, Mark Taylor, Andy Dornan (Paul Sanderson), Craig Shakespeare, Graeme Forbes, Mark Goodwin (Mark Jones), Phil Hawker, Peter Hart, Trevor Christie, David Kelly, Willie Naughton.