Nicky Devlin's goal for Walsall was fitting finale to emotional day
Nicky Devlin could not have come up with a better time to open his Walsall account.
Scoring the winner against Coventry City to send the Saddlers into the second round of the FA Cup for the first time in three years was truly special for the Scot.
And not because his strike nestled in the top corner, silencing the raucous Sky Blues supporters.
But because it was a fitting way to pay tribute to a lost friend.
One-year-old Saddlers supporter Teddie Phillips, who had bravely fought a life-limiting condition – Globoid Cell Leukodystrophy, which is also known as Krabbe Disease – passed away on Friday.
Everyone in the Banks’s Stadium, in the second minute, stood up and applauded to honour the youngster from Beechdale, who Devlin shared a close bond with.
The 25-year-old right-back walked out with Teddie when he was a mascot for the game against AFC Wimbledon back in April.
He described Teddie, in a Twitter post before the match, as the ‘bravest little boy’ he has ever met and a ‘true inspiration to everyone that knew him’. And as the near 5,000 crowd clapped, he had to hold back the tears.
“It was emotional. I struggled in the second minute a wee bit when I heard everyone clap and stuff,” said Devlin.
“I’ve not scored in two-and-a-half years so I definitely think that was something to do with Teddie.
“His uncle and his granddad, who I’m really close with, were both at the match so they both know how much Teddie meant to me – and hopefully how much I meant to Teddie.
“I’m just delighted. It was an emotional day, but a good time to get my goal.”
Devlin certainly channelled his emotion productively.
He timed his run to perfection, latching on to Liam Kinsella’s pass and smashing past an utterly helpless Lee Burge in the closing stages of the clash.
It was worthy of winning any game and wholehearted performer Devlin, who joined Walsall in June of last year and finally netted in his 53rd appearance, said: “It was my first involvement in the FA Cup and it was good.
“When Kins slipped me in, I just had to make sure that I hit the target. I managed to do that, and it’s gone in.
“I don’t really score. I think that’s probably only the fifth or sixth of my career.
“It was brilliant to get a goal and for it to mean as much as it did – to me personally, and to the club.
“It was a big thing as we’ve not had good cup runs.
“It was important that we got through the first round so hopefully we can get a good tie in the second round, and keep progressing.”
He added: “It’s something I need to add to my game, even though I’m a defender.
“I need to contribute a bit more with goals, but the main thing was being in the next round.”
On a day where there were more Sky Blues fans than Saddlers supporters at the Banks’s, Dean Keates’ charges took a two-goal lead in the first half an hour – Andy Cook and Josh Ginnelly scoring from close range.
But Mark Robins’ men, buoyed by the raucous 2,665 who made the relatively short journey, with some of them even invading the pitch in the second half, would not go down without a fight.
Jonson Clarke-Harris and Luke Thomas found the net before Devlin emphatically picked out the top corner late on to win it.
