THE SADDLERS won many friends as we made our Masters debut on Saturday evening at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham.

Backed by a large and vocal travelling support, our first game saw us take on pre-tournament favourites, Wolves and after a goalless first half in which Walsall passed the ball around well and defended solidly, Mark Rees opened the scoring early in the second period as he found the net from close range.

With Ron Green in reliable form in The Saddlers' goal as we frustrated former front-men, Don Goodman and David Kelly, he had no chance as Wolves grabbed an equaliser with just 20 seconds left on the clock.

It meant that a toss of the coin had to decide who played next and who had a longer break to recover. Skipper, Adrian Viveash went head-to-head with former Walsall youth coach, Mick Gooding, who was captaining the Wolves side, and it was Viveash who came out on top.

Next up it was West Bromwich Albion and a bright start saw Chris Marsh, who jetted in from America especially for the tournament, open the scoring.

Once again Ron Green defied his 51 years to make a string of athletic saves, whilst some brave defending by Dean Smith saw him deny The Baggies as the score remained 1-0 going into the turnaround.

As Walsall had to win by seven clear goals to reach the Final, it meant that we had to come out and attack in the second half. Obviously this saw us leave gaps at the back and both Richard Sneekes and Roy Hunter capitalised in quick succession to turn the scoreline on its head.

Nevertheless, The Saddlers showed tremendous spirit to get back on level terms as Marsh was played in before coolly slotting home his second of the game.

Straight away Carl Heggs put Albion back in front and then Kevin Donovan added a fourth. Kevin Wilson, who was the only player in the Walsall side with any previous Masters experience, reduced the arrears but the impressive Sneekes completed the scoring to make it 5-3 to Albion.

"It was a fantastic experience," said Saddlers' midfielder, Andy Reece. "We thoroughly enjoyed the occasion and would like to think that we didn't let the club or the excellent supporters who attended the event down.

"We were the oldest team involved, but it didn't show. Ron Green was excellent in goal and our game-plan in the first match meant that we were hard to break down and play against as eventual winners, Wolves found out. They were free-scoring throughout the tournament but had to wait until 20 seconds from time to find a way through us.

"We couldn't do that in the next game as we had to win by seven clear goals to go through, so it meant that we had to push up and, as a result, leave gaps at the back.

"The lads are already looking forward to next year!"

The Walsall line-up was, as follows: Ron Green, Adrian Viveash (c), Dean Smith, Tony Barras, Andy Reece, Paul Jones, Chris Marsh, Mark Rees and Kevin Wilson.

Wolves beat Aston Villa in the Final to progress into the Grand Final, which takes place at the NEC in September.

Look out for further reaction and photos soon...