The 2015–16 season was an eventful one for Walsall. The club had four different managers on the way to a third-place finish in

League One The English Football League One (often referred to as League One for short or Sky Bet League One for sponsorship purposes, and known as the Football League One from 2004 until 2016) is the second-highest division of the English Football Leag ...

, one point away from promotion. Defeat to

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

in the playoff semi-finals meant the campaign ended in disappointment, but still represented the Saddlers' highest league placing in 12 years.

Story of the season

The summer of 2015 saw relatively minor changes to the Saddlers squad. 2014-15 Player of the Year

Richard O'Donnell Richard Mark O'Donnell (born 12 September 1988) is an English professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Blackpool. Having started his career with Sheffield Wednesday's youth system, O'Donnell progressed to the first team where he ...

departed and was replaced by

Neil Etheridge Neil Leonard Dula Etheridge (born 7 February 1990) is a Filipino-English professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for club Birmingham City. Born in England, he captains the Philippines national team. He joined the Fulham Academy af ...

, while other notable incomings included fullback Jason Demetriou and the return of forward

Milan Lalkovic Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

. Strong start Things got off to a flying start, with the Saddlers winning six of their first seven games in all competitions. This included League Cup wins over Championship opponents

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is an association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. Nottingham Forest was founded in 1865 and have been playing their home games at the City Ground, on the banks of the River Tren ...

and

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

, setting up a third round meeting with reigning Premier League champions Chelsea. Walsall were beaten 4–1, but received praise from Chelsea manager

Jose Mourinho Jose is the English transliteration of the Hebrew and Aramaic name ''Yose'', which is etymologically linked to ''Yosef'' or Joseph. The name was popular during the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods. * Jose ben Abin * Jose ben Akabya *Jose the Galile ...

for the club’s attractive style of play. Managerial merry go round The Saddlers’ good form continued and a 2–1 win over Bradford in late November left the club in fourth, three points of the top with a game in hand. However, just two days later it was announced that manager

Dean Smith Dean Edwards Smith (February 28, 1931 – February 7, 2015) was an American men's college basketball head coach. Called a "coaching legend" by the Basketball Hall of Fame, he coached for 36 years at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hi ...

was leaving to charge at Championship

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has diverse company headquarters buildings whi ...

. A caretaker trio of Jon Whitney,

Neil Cutler Neil Anthony Cutler (born 3 September 1976) is an English former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Cutler started playing football with West Bromwich Albion and after loan spells at Coventry City, Tamworth and Chester City he moved on to ...

and John Ward oversaw victory away at rivals

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

and progress to the FA Cup third round, before

Sean O'Driscoll Sean Michael O'Driscoll (born 1 July 1957) is a former professional footballer and manager. He has previously managed AFC Bournemouth, Doncaster Rovers, Crawley Town, Nottingham Forest, Bristol City and Walsall. He was known by the nickname "N ...

was appointed as Smith’s replacement. The new boss got off to a bright start, with three successive wins and clean sheets. The Saddlers also got the better of old boss Smith with a 1–0 win away at Brentford in the FA Cup third round. However, things soon took a turn for the worse with the club going on a run of just two wins in 11 games. After just 16 games in charge, O’Driscoll was dismissed with the club sitting fourth five points off an automatic promotion spot with a game in hand. Pipped by a point Whitney was placed in temporary charge until the end of the season and the team responded with three successive victories. With league leaders

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

having pulled away, the Saddlers were left to battle with

Burton Albion Burton Albion Football Club is a professional association football club in the town of Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club moved its home groun ...

and Gillingham for second spot. While the latter’s challenge faded, Burton matched the Saddlers’ efforts, meaning Walsall went into the final day of the season needing to overturn a three point deficit as well as achieving a goal difference swing of three goals on the Brewers. A 5–0 win away at

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...

achieved the latter, but Burton’s 0–0 draw with Doncaster saw them promoted ahead of the Saddlers by one point. A third-place finish meant Walsall would take on in-form Barnsley in the playoffs. The Tykes proved too much for the Saddlers, convincingly winning 3–0 at Oakwell and 3–1 at the Bescot. The Yorkshire side would go on to gain promotion by beating

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east ...

in the final. The Saddlers’ young fullback Rico Hery and playmaker Romaine Sawyers were included in the official League one Team of the Season.

Transfers

Transfers in

Transfers out

Loans out

Competitions

Pre-season friendlies

On 7 May 2015, Walsall announced a pre-season friendly against

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1885, it is nicknam ...

. Also Walsall would face

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pla ...

AFC Telford United AFC Telford United is a football club based in Telford, Shropshire, England. The club was formed in 2004 after the original Telford United, founded in 1872, folded due to financial problems. Currently members of the National League North, they ...

Rushall Olympic Rushall Olympic Football Club is an English football club based in Rushall, a former mining village now forming part of the northern suburbs of Walsall. The team plays in the . History Early years Although football had been played in the villa ...

and

Chasetown Chasetown is a village in the town of Burntwood in Staffordshire, England. It is split between the civil parishes of Burntwood and Hammerwich. History Chasetown developed in the mid 19th century as a coal mining village. At first the village wa ...

. On 28 May 2015, Walsall added

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park ...

to their pre-season schedule.

League One

League table

Matches

On 17 June 2015, the fixtures for the forthcoming season were announced.

Play Off

FA Cup

League Cup

On 16 June 2015, the first round draw was made, Walsall were drawn away against

. In the second round Walsall were drawn at home against

Brighton & Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Brighton, is an English professional football club based in the city of Brighton and Hove. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league ...

Football League Trophy

On 8 August 2015, live on

Soccer AM ''Soccer AM'' is a British football-based comedy/talk show, produced by Sky Sports. First broadcast in 1995, the programme currently airs on Sky Showcase, Sky Sports Premier League and Sky Sports Football at 10.30am on Saturdays during the fo ...

the draw for the first round of the

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Leag ...

was drawn by

Toni Duggan Toni Duggan (born 25 July 1991) is an English footballer who plays as a winger or forward for Everton and the England national team, but is currently on a hiatus/maternity leave, after announcing her pregnancy on 27 September 2022. She has pr ...

and Alex Scott.

Birmingham Senior Cup

On the Birmingham FA website the first round details were announced, Walsall will face Rugby Town.

Squad statistics

:Source: :Numbers in parentheses denote appearances as substitute. :Players with squad numbers struck through and marked left the club during the playing season. :Players with names ''in italics'' and marked * were

on loan In sports, a loan involves a particular player being able to temporarily play for a club other than the one to which they are currently contracted. Loan deals may last from a few weeks to a full season, sometimes persisting for multiple seasons ...

from another club for the whole of their season with Walsall. :Players listed with no appearances have been in the matchday squad but only as unused substitutes. :Key to positions: GK –

Goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

; DF – Defender; MF –

Midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

; FW –

Forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2015-16 Walsall F.C. season

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands County, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east ...

Walsall F.C. seasons