Walsall at Wembley: Similarities with 2015 begin and end with the venue

Come Monday night, Mat Sadler and his players will hope that is still the case.

While the trip 10 years ago was for a cup final in which the Saddlers were firm underdogs, Monday’s match is far more even, has much more at stake and the price of success and failure is considerably more pronounced.

That is not to say Dean Smith, the head coach who led the club to the national stadium for the first time in their history, or his players, did not take things seriously.

But the 2-0 Johnstone Paint Trophy final defeat to Bristol City was primarily a grand occasion, remembered most fondly for the build-up which preceded it featuring public suit fittings, countless press calls and two nights in a London hotel ahead of the match.

For Sadler’s men, who will travel south just 24 hours before facing AFC Wimbledon in Monday’s League Two play-off final, this is every bit the business trip, a second shot at a promotion many feared had been lost in the most agonising circumstances just three Saturdays ago.

Unlike 2015, this time there has been little room for the hype to grow. Only 10 days will separate the play-off semi-final second leg win over Chesterfield and Monday’s showdown with the Dons.

A decade ago, Smith and his team had nearly two months between their Northern Area final win over Preston and the final. There were 11 League One matches to negotiate and the Saddlers, perhaps understandably distracted by the big occasion to come, won only three as their chances of reaching the play-offs that season fizzled.

Just as then, the date at Wembley had been fixed on a dramatic night at Bescot in front of a five-figure crowd, as the home team held on to the 2-0 first leg advantage against a Preston team who would ultimately enjoy their own day out at the national stadium at the end of the season, winning promotion through the play-offs.

The victory at Deepdale, courtesy of late goals from Anthony Forde and Tom Bradshaw, ranked among the finest performances of Smith’s near five-year managerial tenure. The return leg, by contrast, was unbearably tense with the final whistle, just as this time around, greeted by a mass pitch invasion. Smith and his players escaped to the boxes above the main stand, where they were serenaded by those on the turf.

It was all a far cry from where the Trophy run had started on a cold October night at Rochdale the previous October. Just 1,156 were in attendance at Spotland to see Mathieu Manset, a free agent signing the previous summer who would no longer be at the club by the time Wembley rolled around, score his only Walsall goal in a 1-0 win.

From there the Saddlers beat Sheffield United by the same scoreline at Bescot before a dramatic penalty shoot-out win at Tranmere following a 2-2 draw, in which Smith’s men had fought back from two goals down.   

That set up the date with Preston and though Walsall were undoubted underdogs it was they who prevailed over 180 minutes.

The buzz created around the club on the night of the second leg remained until the final. Several hundred fans turned up to wave the team off when they departed for Wembley on the Friday. Smith and his players made use of QPR’s facilities to train the day before the game.

But in Bristol City, they were facing a team which would go on to clinch the League One title that season with 99 points.

Not even the support of 29,000 travelling Walsall supporters could lift Smith’s team into pulling off something truly special.

Aden Flint headed the Robins into an early lead and once Mark Little had increased the advantage, there never looked like being a way back. The grand occasion had fallen rather flat and the mood was further soured by a post-match social media post from midfielder Michael Cain, an unused substitute, which appeared to criticise Smith’s team selection.

Cain would later apologise but the overall feeling remained one of disappointment.

"I'm proud of all the supporters," Smith said shortly after the final whistle. "They got behind us in their droves. We just wanted to give them more to shout about.

"The build-up is superb, but Wembley is no place to be on the losing team.”

That last statement will always be true. Every manager and player to ever lose there has said the same. Sadler and his men do not want to join their ranks.