Beating Vale at the old Wembley, aah, what a fantastic day! It was the season 'Boing boing' was introduced to the Albion vocabulary if i remember right, & the Taylor/Hunt combo, was feared throughout the division, albeit a division we were all shaking our heads at being a part of. My stand out memory though, is from before the game even kicked off. We got there quite early, & having been fed & watered, decided to walk all around the stadium to have a proper look at the old stadium. To be honest, as there was close on 50,000 of our fans there that day, it was difficult to know which end was ours from the outside, & as we walked round, we saw a bunch of stewards ushering fans back out of the way, as they were blocking one of the entrances to the stadium. Anyway, as we all moved back, expecting somebody important to appear, out popped Port Vale's manager John Rudge, suited & booted, & chest puffed out proud as punch, obviously expecting a hero's welcome, from what he no doubt thought would be a huge gathering of Vale fans. Imagine the reaction, as our Wolverhampton born friend, looks out to see wave upon wave of boinging Baggies fans, giving him a right round of f**ks. Absolutely priceless! I've never seen a u-turn like it, as the look on the guys face, turned from the worlds proudest, to one of 'please get me out of here asap,' in an instant. Hilarious!
Wonderful day, wonderful season, but hopefully, our last in English football's third tier!
