Dutch defender bags hat-trick for Wolves – Albion unveil a new-look Hawthorns
Season 1994-95 Part Two
Albion’s biggest League attendance of the season was on a bitterly cold Boxing Day
WALSALL’S full record in 1994-95 was played 42, won 24, drew 11 and lost seven with a goal count of 75 for and 40 against.
Their best win was a 4-0 home victory over Barnet while their heaviest defeat was a 3-1 home loss at the hands of promotion-chasing Chesterfield when a best-of-season crowd of 6,219 turned up.
The Bermudan and ex-scarborough striker Kyle Lightbourne with 23 goals, was the Saddlers’ top League scorer; Kevin Wilson bagged 16 and Martyn O’connor 10.
In the FA Cup, Wolves reached the sixth round by knocking out Mansfield
Town, Sheffield Wednesday and Leicester City, but then they failed to get past Crystal Palace, losing 4-1 in a home replay after a 1-1 draw in London. A crowd of 28,544 actually attended the Leicester game when record gate receipts of £236,972 were registered. Albion went out in round three, beaten in a replay by Coventry City, while Walsall departed in round three, beaten by Leeds United having earlier taken out Rochdale and Preston North End. Wolves ousted Chesterfield in round 2 of the League Cup before falling to Nottingham Forest at the next hurdle, whereas Albion were dumped out in the first round by lowly Hereford United, who won 1-0 over two legs, and Walsall beat Plymouth Argyle in the first round, but failed to get past West Ham in the second.
Checking around the clubs … Wolves entered the Anglo-italian Cup this season but after one win (1-0 at Lecce), a draw (1-1 versus Atalanta) and two defeats (1-0 against Ascoli and 2-1 at Vicenzia) they failed to make it out of Group A.
Dutch defender John De Wolf became the first Wolves’ defender to score a hat-trick since Ted Pheasant back in 1902, when he netted three times in a 4-2 win over Port Vale in February.
Wolves paid a club record fee of £1.85 million for defender Dean Richards and full-back Jamie Smith became the first Wolves player to get sent off in an away Black Country derby at West Brom.
The newly-designed and refurbished Hawthorns ground was officially opened for Albion’s home game with Bristol City on Boxing Day when 21,071 fans turned out in bitterly cold weather. This in fact was Albion’s biggest League attendance of the season.
New manager Alan Buckley signed two players from his former club Grimsby – Paul Agnew and Tony Rees – and he also recruited Mike Phelan from Manchester United.
Among the players who left the Baggies were Darren Bradley (after 288 appearances), Bernard Mcnally,
Neil Parsley, Micky Mellon and Gary Strodder.
And sadly three former Albion players, all of them FA Cup winners – Johnny Nicholls, Harold Pearson and Teddy Sandford – all passed away during this season, as did the club’s famous 1950s manager Vic Buckingham.