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| Full name | Walsall Football Club | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Saddlers | |||
| Founded | 1888 (as Walsall Town Swifts) | |||
| Ground | Poundland Bescot Stadium | |||
| Capacity | 11,300 | |||
| Owner | Trivela Group | |||
| Chairman | Benjamin Boycott & Leigh Pomlett (co-chairmen) | |||
| Head Coach | Mat Sadler | |||
| League | EFL League Two | |||
| 2023–24 | EFL League Two, 11th of 24 | |||
| Website | http://www.saddlers.co.uk | |||
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Walsall Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Walsall, West Midlands, England. The team competes in EFL League Two, the fourth level of the English football league system.
The club's nickname, "The Saddlers", reflects Walsall's status as a traditional centre for saddle manufacture. Walsall moved into their Bescot Stadium in 1990, having previously played at nearby Fellows Park for almost a century. The team play in a red and white kit and their club crest features a swift. They hold rivalries with nearby Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Bromwich Albion, as well as farther away but more regularly contested rivalries with Shrewsbury Town and Port Vale.
The club was founded in 1888 as Walsall Town Swifts, an amalgamation of Walsall Town and Walsall Swifts.[1]: 9 The club moved to the Football Alliance from the Midland Association the following year, before being invited to help found the Football League Second Division in 1892. They returned briefly to the Football League from 1896 to 1900, before spending two decades outside the Football League, primarily in the Birmingham & District League.
Invited to help form the Football League Third Division North in 1921, Walsall remained in the third tier for 37 years. In 1958 they became a founder member of the Fourth Division, winning that Division in 1959–60, and securing promotion out of the Third Division the following season. At the end of the 1987-88 campaign, they won promotion into the Second Division for the first time, but were soon relegated back to the Fourth Division. Starting in 1998–99, they spent four of the next five seasons in the second tier. Two relegations in three years left them back in the fourth tier in 2006, but they secured an immediate promotion as 2006–07 League Two champions.
Their first match at Wembley Stadium came in the 2015 Football League Trophy Final, which they lost to Bristol City. In 2016 they missed out on promotion to the Championship by a single point, and lost the resulting playoff semi-final against Barnsley. The Saddlers ended an 11-year stay in League One with relegation in 2019.
- ^ Matthews, Tony (1999). The Complete Record of Walsall Football Club. Breedon Books. ISBN 978-1859831564.