500th appearance and a goal for Bully – but Wolves and Albion struggle in cup

Early exits for the two big Black Country clubs, while Walsall just miss out on play-offs

Season 1996-97 Part Two

Walsall striker Kyle Lightbourne ended the season with 25 goals under his belt

IN the FA Cup this term, Wolves and Albion both left the competition in the 3rd round, losing to Portsmouth and Chelsea respectively, while Walsall went out in round 2.

And in the League Cup, Wolves crashed out early doors to Swindon Town, while Albion also departed in round 2, beaten by Colchester United. Walsall departed in the first round, ousted by Watford.

Checking around the clubs … Steve Bull celebrated his 500th appearance for Wolves with a goal in a 2-0 win at Huddersfield in February … and Paul Birch left Molineux for Doncaster, Mark Rankine switched to Preston North End and Paul Jones moved to Stockport.

Over at The Hawthorns … Albion’s 244-day unbeaten away run came to an end with defeat at Portsmouth in November … Graham Potter (now manager of Brighton) was recruited from Southampton; Paul Peschisolido arrived from Birmingham, goalkeeper Alan Miller was signed from Middlesbrough and Shaun Murphy was bought from Notts County.

Departures saw Lee Ashcroft and Julian Darby both switch to Preston and Kevin Donovan go to Grimsby.

Albion were also Stoke City’s opponents in the last-ever League game played at The Victoria Ground. on 4th May 1997. The two teams had met in the first-ever League game staged at this same ground way back in September 1888. Walsall were bottom of Division Two in September but come March they were lying in seventh place – not too far away from a play-off spot. Striker Kyle Lightbourne ended the season with an overall total of 25 goals under his belt. And it is interesting to see how the average home League attendances panned out this season: 25 years ago. Wolves’ average was 24,763 (down by just 0.1% from the previous season). Albion’s was virtually the same as it was 12 months earlier, on 15,064, while Walsall’s was a moderate 3,892, a drop of around 100 per game on 1995-96.

Walsall line up for the camera at the start of the 1996-97 season.tom Bradley(physio), Dean Keates, David Baldwin, Steve Rowland, Clive Platt, Ian Roper, Trevor Wood, James Walker, Kyle Lightbourne, Adrian Viveash, Paul Mountford, Wayne Thomas, John Keister, Eric Mcmanus, Front row L. to R.wayne Evans, Darren Rogers, Darren Bradley, Derek Mountfield, Chris Marsh, Chris Nicholl, Kevin Wilson, Ray Daniel, Charlie Ntamark, Martin Butler, Stuart Ryder

Kevin Donovan and Paul Birch, seen tangling here a couple of years earlier, left Wolves and Albion in 1997