Leeds result stirs great memories

Walsall's Sporting Star columnist Darren Fellows takes a trip down memory lane.

The game with Leeds last night took my memory back to that 1995 FA Cup replay at Elland Road and a heroic 2 - 2 draw over 90 minutes that eventually gave way to a 5 – 2 home win after the magnificent resistance offered by Saddlers back four gave way to a somewhat flattering extra time goal fest for the hosts.

It was what forced that replay that sticks most in the mind however. Cue January 1995 and the FA Cup third round draw that paired the last ever proper Football League champions with a Walsall side finally showing genuine shoots of revival after a the financial melt down around the turn of the decade and blossoming under (relatively) new manager Chris Nicholl.

In Kyle Lightbourne, Scott Houghton, Chris Marsh and the talismanic Kevin Wilson Nicholl had a wonderfully potent forward line that blended pace, craft and creativity that when fed by a midfield controlled by the mercurial Martin O'Connor and much loved Charlie NtMark was far too good for the vast majority of Fourth Division – or whatever it was then called – defences.

As the season moved into and out of the festive period goals were flying in from all angles and even the massive point buffer that long time leaders Carlisle United had built up didn't look unassailable. As third round day arrived we were absolutely flying and whilst no-one could be confident of getting a result the vibe around Bescot, as it was known then – and still should be – suggested the anticipation of something special could be on the cards.

Indeed given the porosity of quality in its opening half decade or so the Leeds FA Cup tie was almost certainly Bescot's first really big football afternoon. Yes there had been a B international, some England Youth games and a play off semi final 18 months earlier but in all truth this was its first really big day with the club it housed.

It didn't disappoint. The low tinny roofs housed two terraces that pumped the atmosphere generated on them directly towards the pitch and the players in Walsall shirts responded quite magnificently. Feeding off each other belief visibly appeared to grow in the home side and when Chris Marsh nipped in at the back post and steered the Saddlers into the lead five years after completion Bescot truly rocked for the first time. All we had to do now was hang on.

The front line continued to stretch Leeds here, there and everywhere, in midfield O'Connor outshone McAllister & new £2.8million acquisition Carlton Palmer and our back four wonderfully marshalled by Charlie Palmer nullified much of what Leeds had going forward. And when they did break through they found an absolutely inspired Trevor Wood blocking their progress into round four.

Wood had one of those afternoons that every giant in the FA Cup dreads and as Leeds threw everything but the kitchen sink in his direction the Northern Ireland stopper, with the occasional aid of his posts and crossbar frustrated the life out of Howard Wilkinson's expensively assembled squad. Indeed had the kitchen sink been thrown in Wood's direction I guess that would also have been turned around the post for a corner.

Eventually, inevitably and cruelly the pressure Leeds exerted upon us finally told. With the clock crawling its way through the final few minutes a corner escaped every red shirt and a towering David Wetherall climbed to head the ball past Wood and into the Saddlers goal. Heartbreak indeed. The Leeds fans in the away end – there was a time when we didn't need to fill the whole ground with them – went nuts, knowing that they'd just escaped a major embarrassment.

A few minutes later the referee called time not only on a great FA Cup tie but Bescot's first really big afternoon. Sadly a quirk with the fixture computer and a substantial challenge from Chesterfield meant that the Stadium had to wait another four years until it could celebrate a promotion but this Leeds game was possibly the first time that it truly felt like home.