There has been a lot said recently about everyone’s favourite sign ‘Fortress Bescot’, but has 2020 seen a change in fortunes at the place we all call home?
In the calendar year of 2018, Walsall had a league home record of W-9, D-4, L-10, amassing 31 points along the way. This isn’t a great figure, no team should see their team lose more at home than they see wins. The damning stat with this, is that a lot of the games we didn’t lose, came in the relegation battle, that ended with Dobson and ‘THAT’ goal against Northampton, and then the positive results at the start of last season, and we all know how that ended.
In 2019, Walsall’s record at home was as follows – W-5, D-5, L,12, racking up a grand total of 20 points at home. This was a big drop from the previous year, and in a year that saw a relegation, and a rebuild, it is no surprise that we lost more at home than wins and draws combined. There was a massive 11 point drop between the two years, and along with it, fans that would rather go away from home, than to the Bescot.
Throughout the season, DC has spoken about how he wants home form to be improved, to repay the fans for their continued support, and 2020 looks as though we may be slowly getting back on track with our home form.
It still isn’t fantastic, I am not pretending that it is an amazing record, as there is still work to do. So far in 2020 we have played 5, Won 3, Lost 2. The two games we have lost, have been against Crewe (understandable considering their league position) and Morecambe (let’s not go there). The three wins have been against Orient, Crawley and yesterdays win against Northampton, 2 teams in and around us, and one in the play-offs (until yesterday).
We have come from behind twice, and although fans may say we were lucky on both occasions, ultimately we won, and got the three points. We have shown more fight and desire at home and the results after 5 games on 2020, make us only 2 wins shy of our total wins in 2019, and we are only in Mid-February.
With the early bird campaign drawing near, there is no doubt the club will want a continued upturn of fortunes at home to help shift some tickets, let’s just hope for less performances like the first half yesterday, and more like the second.
Photo Cred – Express and Star
