Bescot Stadium: Walsall 0-0 Crewe Alexandra

Walsall 0-0 Crewe Alexandra

When Adrian and I (Ross) found ourselves with a Tuesday night free, we jumped at the opportunity to take in a local match. With only a handful of EFL matches to choose from, we decided to go to the newly named Poundland Bescot Stadium to see Walsall take on Crewe Alexandra. We set off at 5.30pm avoiding all motorways and opting to go via Tamworth, Mere Green, Streetly then taking the Broadway ring road around Walsall before parking on Bescot Crescent at around 6.30pm. With a brief stop at McDonalds at Broadwalk Retail Park for a bite to eat, we then continued the short walk to the Bescot Stadium before making our way inside. The Bescot Stadium was built in 1989-90, by GMI Construction, with a reported build cost of £4.5m. The stadium was opened on 18 August 1990, by Sir Stanley Matthews, prior to a friendly match with neighbours Aston Villa in front of 9,551 spectators. Originally both ends of the ground were standing areas, and the capacity of the ground was around 11,000. However, capacity was reduced to around 9,800 in 1992, when the away supporters terrace was filled with seats. Following an extension to the Poundland Stand (formerly known as the Gilbert Alsop Stand), during the 2002-03 season, it is now an all-seater stadium, with a capacity of 11,300. In 2009, the club erected a large advertising hoarding to the south of the stadium, facing the M6 motorway. Plans to develop the away stand were announced by the club during 2005. The proposed development would mean using the blueprint of the most northern stand (currently the Poundland Stand), which stands opposite it. Funding for the redevelopment was to come, in part, from a large advertising board on the back of the stand facing the M6 motorway. The board is, at the time of writing, the largest illuminated sign adjacent to a motorway in Europe. However, due to the club's failure to regain Championship status, and the subsequent drop off in attendances, the redevelopment plans were put on hold. On 16th December 2022, Walsall FC became the owners of the Bescot Stadium in a buy back scheme which was arranged and promised back in 2019 by the owners Trivela Group and Leigh Pomlett. A move which now secures the club and the ground's future for many more years which will be a huge relief to their supporters. A quite dreadful game between two teams that seem to have forgotten how to win. This was Crewe’s 13th draw of the season and 6 draws out of 7 games for Walsall so I guess the outcome was fairly predictable. The game was full of misplaced passes, sloppy play and few clear cut chances. Issac Hutchinson of Walsall seemed on the night to be one of their better players, he actually almost scored in the 3rd minute being denied by the debutant keeper James Beadle, an 18 year old on loan from Brighton. During the game Hutchinson was certainly prepared to have a shot on goal, Walsall’s front two of Matts, Matt Stevens and Jamil Matt scored plenty of goals in this division last season for Forest Green Rovers but poor service made them pretty ineffective. Crewe actually knocked the ball around better in the first half but failed to really make any impact in the final third. We thought we may have had a goal in first half stoppage time Robertson’s cross headed on by Nevitt was hooked home by Dan Agyei but was immediately flagged for offside. In the second half, Walsall showed a greater appetite to go on to win the game but a stark lack of quality let them down. One of their better efforts was a free kick by Robbie Wilmott which went inches over the bar. Crewe almost snatched the points when Rod McDonald forced a save from Evans well into stoppage time following a corner. It became almost inevitable that the game would end in a stalemate, I suggested to a steward prior to kick off that it would end 0-0, he laughed, I bet now he is looking for me to ask for this week's winning lottery numbers! All in all, certainly for Adrian in over 50 years of watching football, we can honestly declare this was one the worst games we have witnessed. Should we have been surprised? No. In Adrian’s 10 visits to watch Walsall play at home at either Fellows Park or Bescot Stadium, 4 of the games have ended 0-0. After the match, we made a dash back to the car running back along Bescot Crescent making our way through Streetly, Mere Green, Tamworth heading back towards North West Leicestershire and home by 10.45pm. An evening that will hardly live long in the memory!

Walsall 2-0 Burton Albion

When Adrian and I (Ross) booked our tickets for the Walsall-Burton fixture, we were yet to know that this fixture would be a top of the table League 1 clash between first and second.

Being a fairly short journey, we left at 9:45am with a few stops on the way including Walsall Wood, Rushall Olympic, Bloxwich United (later finding they dissolved being replaced by Rostance Edwards), Pelsall Villa and Fellows Park for lunch (now a Morrisons supermarket).

It was a foggy autumnal start which later eased off with sunny spells.

Walsall Wood was our first stop of the day who play at Oak Park. Oak Park is situated next to a leisure centre with a small stand, terracing behind a goal, a clubhouse and a colliery memorial at the far end of the pitch behind the goal.

Following our stop, we made the short journey to Rushall Olympic who play at Dale Lane. When we previously visited Dale Lane, the ground was locked up which proved to be difficult to photograph. Thankfully on this occasion, the ground was open which made it easier to take photos (though the high fencing again proved to be challenging).

Next was another fairly short journey to Bloxwich United who play at Grosvenor Park. We previously visited Grosvenor Park a few years back and decided to return to take some new photos. Upon our arrival, we noticed signs displaying Bloxwich United AFC had in fact been changed to Rostance Edwards FC with the previous dissolving in 2012. Adrian noticed a gap in a concrete wall which he decided to jump through to get a few snaps inside the locked ground to the bemusement of a local woman who walked passed as he jumped out the ground.

With plenty of time before getting lunch, we decided to squeeze in another stop at nearby Pelsall Villa who play at the Bush Ground. As we arrived at Pelsall Villa, the team were about to leave for their away match. Having asked the coaches if we could get a few photos of their ground, the gates were briefly unlocked for us to go in and get some pics. The pitch at the time was covered in fallen leaves and even appeared to slope from one goal to the other!

We made our way towards Walsall parking on Bescot Crescent only a short walk from both Walsall FC’s current home the Banks’s Stadium and their former home Fellows Park.

Fellows Park has now been replaced with a Morrisons Supermarket where inside are various photos of Fellows Park and a clock outside marking roughly where the centre spot was.

We ate lunch at the Morrisons Café after browsing the various photos on the walls inside the shop.

Lunch and a few cups of coffee later, we were walking out of Morrisons on the way to the Banks’s Stadium cutting through the nearby retail park.

When we reached the Banks’s Stadium, we walked around taking photos outside before we collected our tickets and went in through the turnstiles.

Whilst we were inside near the food kiosk and the toilets, we recognised Crewe Alexandra legend, Dario Gradi, outside the food kiosk eating a burger (probably scouting on behalf of Crewe Alex who in fact play Burton Albion during October).

Bescot Stadium, also known as the Banks's Stadium for sponsorship purposes, was built in 1989-90, by GMI Construction, with a reported build cost of £4.5m. The stadium was opened on 18 August 1990, by Sir Stanley Matthews, prior to a friendly match with neighbours Aston Villa in front of 9,551 spectators. Originally both ends of the ground were standing areas, and the capacity of the ground was around 11,000. However, capacity was reduced to around 9,800 in 1992, when the away supporters terrace was filled with seats. Following an extension to the Tile Choice Stand (formerly known as the Gilbert Alsop Stand), during the 2002-03 season, it is now an all-seater stadium, with a capacity of 11,300. In 2009, the club erected a large advertising hoarding to the south of the stadium, facing the M6 motorway. Plans to develop the KIA stand (which usually caters for away supporters) were announced by the club during 2005. The proposed development would mean using the blueprint of the most northern stand (currently the Tile Choice Stand), which stands opposite it. Funding for the redevelopment was to come, in part, from a large advertising board on the back of the stand facing the M6 motorway. The board is, at the time of writing, the largest illuminated sign adjacent to a motorway in Europe. However, due to the club's failure to regain Championship status, and the subsequent drop off in attendances, the redevelopment plans were put on hold.

Yet another international break meant no games in either the Premier League or the Championship, so the main focus in the Football League was the clash of the top two in League 1. Burton the leaders making the short journey down the A38 to second placed Walsall.
Not sure many football fans would have thought these two sides would be top two in October when the fixtures were released in June, but it is a testament to both clubs organisation on and off the field that they are finding success.
Both clubs early success this season have been brought about by having a good defence and not surprisingly for the half hour chances were few and far between despite some excellent approach play.
The talented Romaine Sawyers the first to strike, bringing a good save from the Brewers keeper.
Walsall were getting ahead of steam and were playing some good football deserving their lead. Slick passing involving Mantom, Henry and Sawyers saw the ball moved from left to right and an excellent finish from the teenager Liam Kinsella. 1-0 to the home side. In the second half, Albion started to control the possession more, they almost equalised minutes into the half, Mantom heading away via a post after a corner had inadvertently been miss directed towards goal by Downing.
Despite all the possession the visitors were not creating anything of note that was until the last quarter. As defences tired chances became more frequent and how sub Timmy Thiele missed kicked a low cross by Beavon in the 6 yard box, only he will know. The loose ball ricocheting off KInsella with Downing completing the clearance.
At the other end, Sam Mantom was denied a goal following an excellent block from Calum Butcher and Cook brought out a good save from John McLaughlin.
Walsall wrapped the game up in stoppage time, the eagle eyes officially spotted a hand ball by Edwards in the box and Tom Bradshaw who had a quiet game scored sending the Albion keeper the wrong way, 2-0.
On the day before a crowd of 6,812, a deserved win for Walsall who leapfrog Burton at the top of League 1.

After the match, we made a dash back towards to car running through the retail park back to Bescot Crescent making our way through Sutton Coldfield, bypassing Tamworth and then heading northbound on the M42.

Our day of sport continued with an evening at Loughborough University to see Leicester Riders take on Glasgow Rocks in the British Basketball League which proved to be a close affair with the home team winning by a small margin.

Walsall 1-4 Leicester City
The Banks's Stadium (known as the Bescot Stadium) is home of Walsall (The Saddlers). I (Ross) caught the 5pm coach from Coalville to Walsall to meet Adrian at the ground as he lives local. We had to come off the M6 at junction 7 to be escorted by the Police to the ground. I got there in plenty of time and met Adrian at the McDonalds on the retail park which is 2 minutes away from the ground. Three of the stands are the same height, Txt 64446 Health stand, Homeserve stand (Where the Away supporters are housed) and West Bromwich Building Society stand which were all built at the same sort of time including the Floors-2-go stand which was increased to make it a two-tiered stand. After witnessing a woman getting hit by a Paul Dickov shot from the shooting practise during the warm up. A marvellous game saw Leicester win 4-1 against a not so good Walsall side. Goals scored by Matty Fryatt, Andy King, Tom Cleverley and Steve Howard. I finally got back to Coalville at 11pm.

Coalville Town 1-2 Shifnal Town
The Banks's Stadium (known as the Bescot Stadium) is home of Walsall but for this fixture was used as a neutral ground. I (Ross) caught the 5pm coach from Coalville to Walsall where I met Adrian who drove as he lives local. For this game, you could pay at the turnstile (Adults-£5 Kids-£3). When we got in it was un-reserved seating (Txt 64446 Health stand open only). Three of the stands are the same height, Txt 64446 Health stand, Homeserve stand (Usually the Away supporters area) and West Bromwich Building Society stand which were all built at the same sort of time including the Floors-2-go stand which was increased by two-tiered stand. The game saw Shifnal win the Polymac Cup by 2 goals to 1.

Bescot Stadium

Thursday, 23 February 2023

Walsall 0-0 Crewe Alexandra

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