Ten years ago today, Walsall blogger Mark Jones was watching the Saddlers secure a vital victory on their way to promotion to the second level of English football.

On Saturday 19 December 1998,  Walsall, managed by Ray Graydon, beat Stoke City 1-0 with a goal from Andy Rammell.

Those are the details you can get from the record books but this for me was more than a game , it was a pivotal moment in what became my all-time favourite season.

1998/99 had started without any high expectations, the previous season had ended with a plummet down the table under ‘Fat’ Jan Sorensen, transfer targets had turned us down, Graydon was an unknown quantity and we were one of the favourites for relegation.

However by the time the Clayheads rolled into town Sir Ray’s miracle was well under way. The team’s he sent out were always organised, disciplined and well-motivated.

There were leaders all over the shop – in Adrian Viveash, Richard Green, Chris Marsh and goalkeeper James Walker, and even in new(ish) boys Darren Wrack and Dean Keates.

It also came especially in one of the summer signings – Andy Rammell – in my humble opinion, one of our greatest ever centre forwards.

The actual captain of the side, the leader of the leaders if you like, was another fine close season capture in Neil Pointon.

The context of the game was this, Stoke were top after setting the pace early on in the season but, as you’d expect from a side managed by the drab and dour Brian Little, they were starting to wobble.

Kevin Keegan’s moneybags Fulham were two points behind in second and in third, level on points and just one goal behind were the mighty Saddlers.

To add a bit more spice, Fulham were away to fourth placed Preston that day, while that year’s resident ‘Big Club Slumming It’ Man City were still languishing behind us, like they had been all year.

It was the biggest test of how far Graydon’s boys had come, whether or not we were the real deal. More than that, after eight long years, it was easily the biggest game Bescot Stadium had ever hosted.

A then-record 9,000 plus crowd packed out the ground, the old Gilbert terrace was rammed and it’s fair to say that at 3pm. the place was rocking. It was one of the few times that Bescot was reminiscent of the old Fellows Park for atmosphere.

Just to add to the occasion, the time of year meant that the game was played almost entirely under floodlights.

In a season where we specialised in one goal victories, clean sheets and solid defensive performances, you always had the feeling that one goal would do it. After 25 minutes it came, and right in front of the Gilbert too.

The bare stats will tell you that Neil Pointon crossed and Andy Rammell scored. I’d embellish this by saying it was a classic centre forward’s goal from a classic centre forward.

A brave diving header at the near post, it was a goal from the moment it left Pointon’s trusty left boot. From then on in we were destined to win.

Sure Stoke, with former Saddlers goalscoring hero Kyle Lightbourne up front, had plenty of possession, they huffed and puffed for an hour and gave us a few hairy moments as the clock ticked away, but this was a Walsall team that could hold on to a lead.

Not that it was complete one way traffic, with one effort from ‘the Ram’ almost braking the crossbar in two.

At the final whistle we hadn’t just scored a famous victory. We had proved, probably as much to ourselves as anyone, that we were going to be there for the duration.

Typically a last minute goal for Fulham up at Deepdale denied us top spot, but at least we’d overtaken the Potters, who faded away badly over the Christmas period and we’re never a serious threat afterwards.

Again the history books will merely show we went on to achieve an astonishing automatic promotion, behind Fulham and ahead of Manchester City, but a great deal of the belief we showed in that second half of the season came from the Stoke victory.

It was a day to remember indeed.

The game was also memorable for the story of the Walsall fan who had become a father for a second time some 24 hours earlier.

Caught up in the euphoria of the moment he had vowed to ‘saddle’ his newborn son with the middle name of whoever scored the winning goal against Stoke, so confident was he of a Saddlers victory and the likelihood that it would be by a single goal.

Fortunately for him and his offspring it was Andy Rammell and not Bjarni Larusson (or indeed an own goal) that settled the game.

Now some people have doubted the validity of this tale over the years, but I know for a fact that it’s true.

Happy 10th birthday Liam Andrew Jones.