Successful seasons for the Black Country’s football clubs
Season 1988-89 Part Two
UNFORTUNATELY it was a disastrous season for Walsall, who crashed through the safety net at the bottom of Division Two and fell straight into the third tier of the Football League, finishing 24th with a meagre 31 points out of a possible 138.
Walsall won only two of their first twelve League games and then, from the 29th October through to the 4th February they lost a club record 15 games on the bounce, which sealed their fate!
The Saddlers’ full record for season 1988-89 was played 46, won five, drew 16 and lost an astonishing 25 – their worst total since 1953-54. Their goal average was 41 against 80.
Their best win was amazingly 5-0 at home to neighbours Birmingham City in game number five – which brought their unbeaten League run to six matches.
Their two heaviest defeats came at home to Chelsea by 7-0 in early February and 5-0 at Watford in midapril. The Saddlers also drew both League games 0-0 with West Bromwich Albion – the first League meetings ever between the two clubs.
Stuart Rimmer was Walsall’s top scorer with eight League goals, followed by Willie Naughton with seven. Rimmer, in fact, went on to net 46 goals in 106 appearances for the Saddlers.
In the two domestic knockout competitions, Wolves went out of the FA Cup in the first round to Grimsby Town; Albion crashed out in round three, losing in a replay to Everton, while Walsall also departed in round three, ousted by
Brentford. Five
In the Littlewoods League Cup, it was much of the same for Wolves and Albion who were both eliminated in the first round by Birminghgam City and Peterborough United respectively, while the Saddlers followed them in the second
round, losing to Liverpool 4-1 on aggregate.
Wolves also entered the Sherpa Van Trophy and they reached the area final after some strong performances, including a 5-1 win over Port Vale, when Steve Bull notched a fourtimer. But unfortunately they couldn’t go on to repeat the previous season’s triumph as they lost over two legs to Torquay United.
Albion and Walsall also competed in the Simod Cup, but they both fell at the first fence, losing 5-2 at West Ham and 4-2 to Crystal Palace respectively. Leroy Rosenior netted four goals for the Hammers.
News from within the clubs …
Steve Bull won the first of his 13 full England caps (versus Scotland) in May 1989.
Albion signed ex-arsenal defender Chris Whyte and centreback Paul Raven from Doncaster, while Wednesbury-born left-back David Burrows moved to Liverpool, Carlton Palmer (born in Rowley Regis) switched to Sheffield Wednesday (in exchange for striker Colin West) and nomadic Scottish international Andy Gray went north to Rangers.
Another defender, Stacey North, became the first Albion player to appear in 46 League games in a single season.
Walsall failed to score in 22 of their League games and ran up five goalless draws.