Walsall blog: Saddlers Brand of Justice

When it comes to sunny end of season fixtures, what comes around goes around.

To wit, in 1991 a Saddlers victory over Blackpool on the last day, in what was possibly Chris Hutchings last appearance for the club as a player, denied them promotion and sent Peterborough up.

In 1992, a satisfying last away day win over the irritating Barry Fry and his Barnet upstarts.

Even more notable when coming out of the ground dressed as an Arab, flanked by two mates, one in full evening dress and another in a Santa costume, a bemused Barnet fan asked us why Gary Bull had received so much stick.

He said: "Did he used to play for you? No. Has he scored against you in the past? Not likely.

"Has he got sent off, injured one of your players or been involved with something nasty against you then?' No.

"Well surely you weren't giving him all that abuse just because he's Steve Bull's cousin? Yes."

In 1996, Martin O'Connor bursts into the Blackpool box to notch the winner that stopped them getting promotion once again, in front of a large and thirsty away end.

But Tangerines boss Sam Allardyce and Barry Fry later teamed up to extract a terrible revenge, by luring Mart away and stitching us up at the tribunal that summer though.

In 2007, days after our League Two title-clinching result at Swindon, history repeats itself with another local born midfielder Dean Keates moving to the Posh.

They were now with wads of cash due to an Irish millionaire buying into the club, having seen what a shambles they were under Fry's stewardship on the hilarious 'Big Ron Manager' programme.

Now in 2009, it has come full circle as the mighty Saddlers, now managed by Hutchings and O'Connor, beat another unwelcome addition to English football in our last away game – a result that handed promotion to Deano's Peterborough.

Just occasionally in football everything comes together and you get to enjoy a top day out. Saturday in MK's imaginatively titled Stadium MK was one of them.

The sun shone, there was fancy dress, loads of singing, a conga and a few extra faces that hadn't been seen for some time in the away end.

Of course we beat MK Dons and we ended their hopes of automatic promotion.

Now I still think that club should be relegated into the lower reaches of non-league football.

MK received a fantastic amount of abuse from our travelling support and quite rightly, as it is a club with no history and no soul. Admittedly their rich backer has built a top-notch stadium but the MK 'consumers' have little idea of what it takes to be a fan.

Their player of the season awards were announced to a mere ripple of light applause and most of the home end opted for the car park rather than stay for their team's lap of honour. They don't deserve the position they occupy.

From our point of view it was good to see a decent all-round team performance, with man-of-the-match Jabo Ibehre causing all sorts of problems for their defence and scoring with a pretty tasty finish.

Anthony Gerrard and Manny Smith were commanding at the back and goalkeeper Clayton was also superb - two facts which are not unrelated as far as I'm concerned.

Just to top everything else off, AFC Wimbledon clinched promotion to the Blue Square Premier too.

Congratulations to a club run by fans who are not prepared to take any crap, you are truly an inspiration.