Walsall set David Kelly on the road to fame and success

And yet, for all the achievements of an illustrious career, David Kelly is clear on one fact .. everything he achieved in the beautiful game was, he says, down to Walsall FC.

He should probably give himself some credit too, for defying certain odds.

For example, Ned, as he was affectionately known, was diagnosed with Legg-Calve-Perthes at the age of five. At one stage his left leg was four inches shorter than the right leg, and he was on crutches until the age of ten.

“When you are very young and want to play sport and it’s taken away from you, it gives you a determination to want to play all the time,” he says.

“That was part of the reason I just wanted to play and be a success because I had that period when I was desperate to play.

“All my career, I was just obsessed with playing and I think that’s why I had a lot of clubs in the end. I didn’t want to sit on a subs bench – it just wasn’t for me, so if that was happening I’d look to move.”

Overcoming such a setback to become a professional footballer says all you need to know about his determination.

Rejection from the club he supported, West Bromwich Albion, followed at 15 and reinforces that focus - “They decided I wasn’t up to scratch and released me,” he recalls. “It was part of football. Back in those days, there were no meetings with parents, you were just released, no mollycoddling.”

But Albion’s loss was Walsall’s gain and, Kelly, admits he owed everything that followed to signing that first deal in 1983.

He went on to score 82 goals in 190 league and cup appearances over the course of five seasons at Fellows Park.

“I was playing for Alvechurch at 17 or 18 and Walsall invited me to come for a game,” he remembers. “I played for Wolves in a trial game on the Saturday, Walsall in the week and Alvechurch the next Saturday. It was a hell of a lot of football.

“Alan Buckley offered me a contract. I was going from non-league football with Alvechurch’s youth team to play for Walsall and, to sign a professional deal, I’d have snapped anyone’s hand off.

“I was fortunate that it was Bucks though as he was an excellent striker. He was player manager, he was a great finisher and someone to learn off.

“In terms of your early development, you learn from the senior players and we had some excellent ones back then. Bucks had Garry Pendrey as assistant and he was a really good coach and someone to talk to.

“Peter Hart, Richard O’Kelly, Mick Kearns, they were all there, brilliant senior pros and great people. It wasn’t a bad Who’s Who? when you reel off those names, was it?”

Post Buckley, Tommy Coakley followed, a surprise appointment, after Terry Ramsden bought the club and landed at the ground in his helicopter, ‘Like a Tom Cruise moment,’ recalls Kelly.

“Tommy and assistant Gerry Sweeney worked off each other and were a really good partnership and I think I thrived.

“We had players like Craig Shakespeare and David Preece, it was such a good team, a good basis and Tommy got players in from different places – the likes of Fred Barber, an excellent keeper.

“He amalgamated good players with good characters and we did well.”

It culminated in Kelly’s final campaign, a promotion after winning the 1988 Football League Third Division play-off Final.

It took a replay after two legs to seal promotion against Bristol City. The Saddlers won the first game at Ashton Gate 3-1 but lost 2-0 at Fellows Park.

Walsall won the third game 4-0 after a penalty shootout had determined home advantage and Kelly bagged a hat-trick.

“It was brilliant,” he recalls. “I’d scored a lot of goals early in the season and we were in a good position. It looked like we might get automatic but we solidified play-offs.

“And then to overcome Bristol City after three games was a real roller coaster of emotions.

“For me, I knew I was leaving before that as there was a lot of interest from different clubs and a lot of people were watching. So scoring a hat-trick in my last game was fairytale stuff.”

European giants Bayern Munich could have been his next destination. He scored two goals for them in a game while on trial.

“I was offered a deal but it was a two foreign player rule at the time,” he says. “So they wanted me to go out on loan to another club and then go back to Bayern after they had sold one of the foreign players they had at the time.

“The deal wasn’t as simple as going to sign for a club and going to play so I just didn’t fancy it to be fair.

“It was a super experience though, going to the stadium and the training ground was amazing. Our facilities at Fellows Park weren’t quite as good!

“I decided against the move and don’t regret anything I did in football. You make decisions for the best reasons, the best opportunities you have at the time.”

Instead he headed to West Ham for a club record fee and represented the Republic of Ireland 26 times – including at the 1990 and 1994 World Cups as well as Euro 1988.

And he went onto make 600 appearances in the Football League, with before a career in coaching.

“I’m forever grateful to Walsall for everything they did for me in my career,” he says. “We had success in my time there and, ever since, the club has always been brilliant with me, treating me well.

“It is a special club, it really is. I am very fortunate with the teams I represented, as a player but a coach as well and without Walsall that would not have happened.

“I have had 37 years in professional football on the back of signing for Walsall in 1983 and made lifetime friends I still see. It is a special club, it really is.”

By Matt Panter