ON THE ROAD TO WALSALL
Last Saturday Rovers beat second place Salford City and tomorrow afternoon they face another stern test as they travel to meet league leaders Walsall, who were 3-1 winners against Accrington Stanley last Saturday, at The Bescot Stadium.
Walsall were founder members of the Football League (North) in 1921 and this will be the 97th league meeting between the sides; Rovers have won 40, Walsall 34 and there’s been 22 draws Rovers have scored 158 goals, Walsall 140.
We have won 15 of our away league fixtures against Walsall, lost 20 and drawn 13. In March 1986 Rovers Directors paid for supporters to travel to Fellows Park for the game against Walsall but we lost 6-0!
Those who have managed both sides include Brough Fletcher (1952/53), Ray Graydon (1998/2002), and Darrell Clarke (2019/2021)
Kenny Hibbitt, a player with Rovers, managed Walsall, Brian Dutton the current Salisbury manager was a caretaker manager at Walsall after he followed Darrell to Walsall (he had previously worked at Rovers) and Kevan Broadhurst, who assisted Ian Atkins at Rovers also had a spell in the Walsall hotseat in 2006.
Players who have turned out for both sides include; Miah Dennehy, Matt Gill (now assistant at Rangers), Isaac Hutchinson (now at Cheltenham), Aaron Lescott, Justin Skinner, Andy Tillson and, of course, Ellis
Harrison and Alfie Chang who were on loan with The Saddlers last season.
Lescott scored his first ever Rovers goals for Rovers at the Bescot netting twice in his 174th league game which Rovers won 5-0, on 14th March 2009; he later played for Walsall and scored his only league goal for them against Rovers, in Dave Penney’s first match in charge. That game, on 11th January 2011, saw the sides draw 2-2 at The Mem.
Walsall have lost just two of their 10 league games to date and have 22 points, while Rovers are in seventh place on 17 points,having lost three of their ten games.
It was Darrell Clarke who signed current Walsall boss Matt Sadletr when he was in charge at The Bescot and the Walsall boss had this to say ahead of tomorrow’s game; ‘It was a difficult time, because we went through COVID and all the knock on effects of that when Darrell was here, so there were some wonderful experiences we went through during that time and he’s someone that we speak regularly about different things, so looking forward to seeing him.
‘For me, Rovers are a good team. At the start season, you’re always going to say they’re going to be there or there abouts. With the manager that they have, the resources that they have, you know they’re going to be. That doesn’t surprise me in the slightest that they’re having a good season and they’ve started well. We know it’s going to be a very exciting game, one to look forward to.’
Meanwhile Darrell has this to say; ‘It’s a tough away day against a team that is doing really well and a manager that I know a lot about because I gave him his first player/coaching role at Walsall. He’ll be frustrated they missed out last season with a positive start, but he’s got them up there again this season. So, it will be a good challenge.
‘I’m really pleased for Matt. I spoke to him a couple of times in the backend of last season just to give him my support. He’s doing a tremendous job there. He’s an up and coming coach. We did a bit of an LMA masterclass the other day, and I think it’s now five or six of my previous coaches that have gone on to be EFL managers.
‘I’m quite proud to have helped them on that journey, and Matt is doing a cracking job. We will have a beer on Saturday, but he knows me; he knows how much I want to win. I’m looking forward to what should be a really good atmosphere with a lot of Gasheads going up there for support.’
There should be a large crowd and a cracking atmosphere at the game tomorrow as we look to Rovers to extend their seven match unbeaten run.
We wish all travelling Gasheads a safe journey to the game and back.
