'Surreal' Walsall remember historic Wembley feat a decade on

A pair of late goals from Anthony Forde and Tom Bradshaw in the first leg had propelled Walsall to within touching distance of a first ever appearance at Wembley. 

In 127 years, Walsall had never played at the 'home of English football' but Dean Smith's heroes were 90 minutes away from etching their names into club folklore. 

Wembley fever had swept across the whole town but as former Walsall defender Paul Downing noted, Smith was the calmest man in the building. 

"Dean was very good at downplaying things and not getting too high when were things were going well and too low when they weren't," Downing recalls. 

"He made us concentrate on only the things we could control. Of course, we knew it was a big game with the media attention and it wasn't often we played in front of a full house. 

"There were things that made the occasion extra special but we had a lot of trust in each other and a lot of confidence from the manager." 

Smith had warned that the job was only "halfway done" especially against one of League One's most deadliest attacks. 

The tension was palpable throughout. Sylvain Ebanks-Blake crashed a powerful effort against the crossbar and Richard O'Donnell produced a string of heroic saves to keep the visitors at bay. 

Over 1,300 kilometres away in Austria, lifelong supporter Darren Fellows listened nervously on the radio as the drama unfolded.

"My son was at the Youth Winter Olympics so I had to listen to it on the radio which made it even more tense," Fellows remembers as he relives the moment.

"I was sat next to the radio for an hour-and-a-half just praying. No TV, no video, just literally local radio. 

"The emotion of getting there, even in Austria where I was staying, was absolutely epic."

Since following Walsall since the 1970s, Fellows had witnessed Walsall fall at the final hurdle on four occasions as a trip to Wembley deserted them. 

But once the final whistle blew, wild celebrations commenced. Walsall was transfixed as thousands of supporters braved the freezing temperatures to queue as early as 3:30am for a golden ticket to the Saddlers' date with destiny.  

And for Fellows, it's a day he thought may never come. 

"I started following Walsall in the late 70s. We had a League Cup run in 83-84, got to the semi-finals and missed out on Wembley," he continues.

"There was a lot of Walsall fans for whom it was their bucket list item. We had to wait a long time. 

"We'd kind of touched it and not got there two or three times in the previous decade and a bit including going to Cardiff instead of Wembley (in the 2001 play-off final). 

"The atmosphere across the town was mad. There is a concrete hippo in Walsall town centre and they even painted that red and white."

Almost 30,000 Saddlers fans descended on the capital and for the players involved, it was clear how monumental the occasion was in the history of the club. 

"It brought the whole town together. You could just see how much it meant because we were such a tight-knit group at Walsall," former midfielder James Baxendale reminisces. 

"We'd been together three years and there was so much pride in the players and staff that we were the ones who took Walsall to Wembley. 

"The build-up was surreal. It was an exciting time because not everybody gets to play at Wembley." 

The final itself proved somewhat of an anticlimax with goals in either half from Aden Flint and Mark Little guiding Bristol City to a 2-0 victory. 

But a decade on, Downing looks back with pride at Walsall's journey to the EFL Trophy final. 

"Whenever you lose a final at Wembley, it does take the the enjoyment off it slightly but I just feel we never showed our true potential on the day," he concludes.

"That was the only time I've been to Wembley. Your career can pass you by and I feel very lucky to have got there and been part of that Walsall team who made history. 

"It ranks right up there for me. It just shows you that successful moments can be few and far between. A lot of highs and a lot of lows, most players will tell you, but we've still got a WhatsApp group with some of the Walsall players from that era. 

"That just shows you how tight that bond was and it just fills me with pride to look back on that achievement."