Walsall F.C.
Walsall Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Walsall, West Midlands, England. The team competes in, the fourth level of the English football league system.
The club's nickname, "The Saddlers", reflects Walsall's status as a traditional centre for saddle manufacture. Walsall moved into the Bescot Stadium in 1990, having previously played at nearby Fellows Park for almost a century. The team play in a red and white kit and their club crest features a swift. They hold rivalries with nearby Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Bromwich Albion, as well as farther away but more regularly contested rivalries with Shrewsbury Town and Port Vale.
The club was founded in 1888 as Walsall Town Swifts, an amalgamation of Walsall Town and Walsall Swifts. The club moved to the Football Alliance from the Midland Association the following year, before being invited to help found the Football League Second Division in 1892. They returned briefly to the Football League from 1896 to 1900, before spending two decades outside the Football League, primarily in the Birmingham & District League.
Invited to help form the Football League Third Division North in 1921, Walsall remained in the third tier for 37 years. In 1932, they held a friendly with F.C. Barcelona at Villa Park, winning 2-0 and becoming the first English team to beat the Blaugrana, in front of an attendance of 46,793. In 1958 they became a founder member of the Fourth Division, winning that Division in 1959–60, and securing promotion out of the Third Division the following season. At the end of the 1987-88 campaign, they won promotion into the Second Division for the first time, but were soon relegated back to the Fourth Division. Starting in 1998–99, they spent four of the next five seasons in the second tier. Two relegations in three years left them back in the fourth tier in 2006, but they secured an immediate promotion as 2006–07 League Two champions.
Their first match at Wembley Stadium came in the 2015 Football League Trophy Final, which they lost to Bristol City. In 2016 they missed out on promotion to the Championship by a single point, and lost the resulting playoff semi-final against Barnsley. The Saddlers ended an 11-year stay in League One with relegation in 2019. Walsall then played at Wembley again in 2025, losing 1–0 to AFC Wimbledon in the 2025 League Two play-off final.
History
Formation and early years (1888–1939)
Walsall were formed as Walsall Town Swifts F.C. in 1888 when Walsall Town F.C. and Walsall Swifts F.C. amalgamated. Walsall Town had been founded in 1874 as Walsall Football Club and Walsall Swifties in 1875 as Victoria Swifts. Both clubs had played at the Chuckery, since April 1881 when Walsall Swifties had lost their old ground on Follyhouse Lane where they had played during 1877-1881 and the newly formed club remained at the same ground. Walsall Town Swifts' first match was a 0–0 draw against Aston Villa in the Birmingham Charity Cup final on 9 April 1888. A disagreement over the venue of the replay meant Aston Villa were awarded the trophy.Later that year, Walsall Town Swifts played friendly matches against two founder members of the Football League; a strong Burnley side were beaten 1–0 and West Bromwich Albion were held to a 2–2 draw in front of 7,000 spectators at the Chuckery. Walsall's first league campaign in the Midland Association started with a 2–2 draw at home to Bromley on 22 September 1888. They went on to finish in 3rd place in the league.
The club were first admitted to the Football League in 1892, as founder members of the new Second Division. They moved to the West Bromwich Road ground in 1893 after complaints from local residents about them playing at the Chuckery. After finishing 14th out of 16 teams in 1894–95 the club failed to be re-elected to the Football League. At the start of the 1895 season the club once again moved grounds, this time to Fellows Park which remained the club's home for over a century.
In 1896 the club changed their name back to simply Walsall F.C. and joined the Midland League. A year later, they returned to the Second Division. The team finished in 6th place in 1898–99 in a season that, to this day, proves to be their highest ever league finish. Despite this relative success, the club once again failed re-election two years later and dropped back into the Midland League. A move to the Birmingham League followed in 1903 and in 1910 the club were elected to the Southern League. With the expansion of the Football League after World War I, Walsall became a founding member of the Third Division North in 1921 and have remained a Football League side ever since.
Walsall's highest "home" attendance was set in 1930, when they played in of front of 74,646 fans in a 3–1 defeat to Aston Villa in the FA Cup fourth round. Although a home match for Walsall, the tie was played at their opponents' Villa Park ground to ensure as many people could watch the local David vs Goliath match as possible. It remains the highest attendance that Walsall have ever played in front of and was a record crowd for Villa Park at the time.
In the years from 1921 leading up to World War II Walsall's success remained limited, with finishes of 3rd in 1922–23, 5th in 1932–33 and 4th in 1933–34 the closest the club came to achieving promotion. The decent results in the early 1930s were spearheaded by the emergence of one of Walsall's greatest ever players, Gilbert Alsop, who scored a remarkable 169 goals between 1931 and 1935.
Alsop also inspired Walsall's finest ever FA Cup result, scoring the opening goal in a 2–0 home win against Arsenal in 1933. Arsenal were regarded as the best team in the country at the time and went on to win the First Division that season and the two seasons following that. As such, the cup defeat to Third Division North side Walsall is still regarded as one of the greatest upsets in FA Cup history.
In the following season, 1934–35, Walsall continued their cup pedigree by reaching their first ever senior final in the Third Division North Cup. The Saddlers fell at the final hurdle, however, with a 2–0 defeat to Stockport County at Maine Road.
Post-war era and first league title (1945–1980)
1945–46 signalled the final season of local war-time competitions. Between January and May 1946 the Third Division South Cup was contested as a precursor for the return of full-time league football later that year. Walsall reached the final to face Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic at Stamford Bridge but, in a repeat of their previous final appearance in 1935, they lost the match 2–0.The return of football following the war saw a spike in attendances for many clubs across the Football League and Walsall were no different. In the 1947–48 season a number of impressive turnouts at Fellows Park, including a season-best 20,383 for the visit of Notts County, saw the club record its highest average league attendance to date of 15,711. In the same season Walsall finished in 3rd place but once again missed out on promotion to the Second Division.
The early 1950s saw some of Walsall's most troubling and dismal times in the Football League, as the club faced the re-election process four consecutive years. They finished bottom of the league in 1951–52, 1952–53 and 1953–54 and improved to only second bottom in 1954–55. The club, however, managed to retain its Football League status through this period, largely thanks to the high attendances at Fellows Park demonstrating a healthy desire for League football in Walsall.
In 1958, following a reorganisation of the Football League, Walsall became founder members of the Fourth Division — now holding the distinction of being founder members of the Second, Third and Fourth tiers. Under the management of Bill Moore, the club achieved successive promotions, scoring 102 goals on their way to winning the Fourth Division title in 1959–60 and finishing as Third Division runners-up in 1960–61. The league title in 1960 was the club's first in their 72-year history.
In the club's first season in the second tier of English football since the early 1900s a post-war record 14th-place finish was achieved. It was during this season that the club also recorded its record attendance, as 25,453 crammed into Fellows Park to see The Saddlers beat Newcastle United 1–0 in August 1961. However, after just two seasons in the Second Division, the club were relegated back to the Third Division in 1962–63. An unfortunate defeat to Charlton Athletic in a replayed final match of the season sealed Walsall's relegation, as the London club leapfrogged them in the table to survive.
One of Walsall's finest ever talents, Allan Clarke, made his breakthrough as a first team regular in the 1964–65 season. Aged just 18, he scored 2 league goals in 1964–65 and a further 23 goals in all competitions in 1965–66. He was sold to First Division Fulham for a then club record fee of £37,500 in March 1966 and went on to earn 19 caps for England and win a league title at Leeds United.
1970–71 saw the first league meeting between Walsall and their first opponents Aston Villa. The two clubs met in the Third Division with Walsall winning the home tie 3–0, thanks to two goals from Geoff Morris and a Colin Taylor penalty. The away tie at Villa Park later in the season ended goalless.
Ken Wheldon, a local businessman made good, took over the club in 1972 and brought some optimism of a brighter future. The following years were inconsistent but were buoyed by a few good cup results and the emergence of Alan Buckley, who signed for the club in 1973 and went on to become a prolific goalscorer for the club. Walsall remained in the Third Division until a further relegation to the Fourth Division in 1978–79.
It was Buckley who took on the role of player-manager for the re-build in the fourth tier. Once again The Saddlers rose from the ashes of adversity as they secured an immediate promotion. At one stage in 1979–80 Walsall recorded 21 consecutive matches without defeat, a record that still stands today. This saw the beginning of an era that became a hallmark for some of the most attractive football seen in Walsall as, under the guidance of Buckley, the side gradually established itself as promotion contenders in the Third Division.