Walsall hoping FA Cup visitors are an omen

Nov 8 2007 By Brian Halford, Birmingham Mail

WALSALL have fingers crossed that their FA Cup run this season follows the good omens of the last time they faced Shrewsbury in the competition.

That was back in the 1954/55 season when the Saddlers played the Shrews in the first round - and went on to be drawn away to Chelsea in the third.

Richard Money and his squad would certainly settle for a visit to Stamford Bridge, instead of a league assignment at Yeovil, on January 5.

Back in '55, there were more than 18,000 inside Fellows Park to see the Shrews thumped 5-2, with a young Blues reject called Tony Richards leading the way with a brace.

A 2-0 second-round win at Wrexham then earned the trip to Chelsea where 40,020 saw the Saddlers acquit themselves well on the way to 2-0 defeat.

Although regular opponents in league and League Cup for the last few decades, this Saturday's game will be the first time Walsall and Shrewsbury have crossed swords in the FA Cup since that 1955 clash.

Their only other meeting in the competition arrived in 1945 when a post-war experiment saw first-round ties played over two legs.

Walsall won the second leg 4-1 at home but were already dead and buried having lost the first 5-0 in Shropshire.