Are you the sort of person who folds down the corner of a page of a book so that you can easily find where you finished reading? Personally, I’m not, I treat books almost as if they were Holy relics, but each to their own.
Are you the sort of person who writes on your football programmes, making a note of team changes and maybe noting the score and even the attendance? I don’t do that either but perhaps I should. I am certainly grateful to whoever went to watch Walsall vs Chester on 24th March 1979, bought a programme and assiduously noted the team changes on it. Thanks to them the name of Mark Rees, who would make his first appearance for Walsall in this game, is recorded. Mark was Walsall’s first black player.
Walsall were really struggling when Mark made his debut. Frank Sibley was their third manager already that season and he was destined to be sacked before the last game was played. Sibley had enjoyed success during his playing career with QPR, including being a regular during the 1966/67 season when they were Champions of Division Three and became the first club from that Division to win the League Cup. He had been appointed as manager in early March when Walsall were in 18th place and they had dropped to 19th by the time the Chester fixture was played.
The game came just four days after a 1-0 home defeat to Gillingham, a game which clearly hadn’t gone according to plan. In his programme notes, Sibley described the Gillingham game as ‘extremely disappointing’ before continuing ‘so many things were wrong in that particular match it would take a season to put right.’ Warming to his theme, Sibley added that the crowd ‘must have felt dismayed, because in all honesty we gave them very little to cheer about.’ Time perhaps for something a little more upbeat you might think? No, Sibley continues ‘at times they [the players] have looked frightened… the problem against Gillingham was that we did not create any real chances, and we were also guilty of giving the ball away too frequently.’ Never mind, he has some uplifting words for the fans surely? Not really. ‘We cannot expect any “classics” at Fellows Park between now and the end of the season. It’s going to be one hard battle to stay in the Third Division.’ In these days of carefully spun, bland managerial positivity we should perhaps be grateful for Sibley’s forthright honesty!
However, it seems the ‘straight talking session with the players in the dressing room immediately after the [Gillingham] game’ paid dividends as Chester were put to the sword 2-1.
And Mark Rees, who went on from the bench, played his part. The Walsall Observer reported that ‘teenager Mark Rees coming on as substitute and making the goal proved that some youthful talent is on the way.’ Mark played in all but two of the remaining fixtures that season and, although he couldn’t prevent Walsall from being relegated, he went on to achieve ‘legend’ status at the club and was rewarded with a testimonial in 1989. Over the course of twelve seasons Mark made a total of 275 appearances and scored 46 goals.
Frank Sibley was only in charge for fifteen games and the win against Chester was the second (and last) of the two wins Walsall achieved during his tenure.
You can read more about Mark Rees’s journey from representing England at schoolboy level to Walsall legend in Football’s Black Pioneers which also, of course, celebrates his place in history as Walsall’s first black/mixed heritage player.
