So that's the land mark reached - 50 games in a season! A personal record for me, beating last seasons total of 49 and with 3 months of the season still remaining. I think that it's now safe to say that I will never have a season like this again in my lifetime. It's been a drain on time and money but I knew that at the start of the season and jumped in with both feet! This is the kind of thing that you arguably only get to do once in your lifetime and so I've grasped the chance with both hands.
After some pretty hefty snow fall throughout the midlands, there was some debate on the morning of the game as to whether the ground staff at The Bescott would be able to get this game on but credit to them as at 1:30pm, it was announced that it was game on! Left work at 4 and was given a lift straight to the stadium to save me from trudging through the snow - much appreciated by the way Baskett!! Quickly got changed in the hotel as I hadn't had time at the office and then made my way over to join Katy on our next adventure together to Walsall (doesn't sound quite as impressive as Carlisle really).
We set off in decent time and me and Katy had the chance to catch up on things as it had been a while since we'd been able to have a proper natter with only the stolen 10 minutes here and there at home games to keep us going. Was good to be reunited for our travels and we randomly nattered and killed time on the journey plus invented the rather snazzy (haven't used that word in years) phone hammock. An essential addition to any fox travel journey!!
Arrived in Walsall far too early than was good for us and had to hang around waiting for the completely unneccessary police escort to take us down the final road. Glad to see the money I have to pay over in tax each month is being put to expert use!! Cheers lads! Got off the coaches and me, Katy and Jodie headed over to the hotel next to the ground to meet up with Lisa, Carl and Daggers / Danny Baker.
Ended up queueing for 30 minutes just to get a drink - in the meantime JoeB arrived, and bumped into Matt - an old end from school so it wasn't a total waste and there was some good humour and banter as we all waited to get served. Clearly understaffed but to be fair they did only have 8 months to prepare for the night!
Shortly after that we headed into the ground to find our seats which for once were actually in a decent position. First time at the Bescott Stadium and ground number 66 for me - really starting to add up now. The ground itself is smaller than you imagine as you go past on the M6 with the big stand opposite where we were housed giving a false impression as to the scale of the place. The two other three stands are typical league one affairs though with only about 12 rows each.
Just the three of us from the coach this time as the place was too rammed to shift around again but JoeB soon squeezed infront of us. 
Also Bert, Chloe, Fez and co were all within sight so it was good to be able to turn any direction and spot someone you know. Oh and we wern't far away from Matt and (i'm assuming) his Dad as well...
The atmosphere amongst the travelling fans was pretty decent considering the cold and it was only a shame that there were only a few thousand Walsall fans who had braved the snow to see their side in action. Fresh from beating Leeds at the weekend, you thought that might have inspired a few more of them to crawl out but it wasn't to be. The game itself started pretty well with City having near all the possession and all the action being at the far end away from the away fans as we lay seige to Clayton Ince's goal (more on him later!) In fact it only took 12 minutes for the deadlock to be broken. A deep free kick from Oakley was headed back across by Hobbs and there was Matty Fryatt to turn it in against his former club.
Some superb one touch passing from Howard, Oakley and Fryatt combined with an brilliant run from King nearly added a second but Ince did well to block the shot from close range and Cleverley saw the rebound effort blocked.
King didn't have to wait too long for his goal though and again Walsall simply couldn't handle the slick pass and move play that we had adopted for the nights action. The ball was sprayed around nicely on the edge of the box before it came to Howard who casually chipped it over the defence to the onrushing Andy King who, controlled it beautifully on his left foot to bamboozle the defender before smashing it past Ince with his right. Brilliant goal and what we deserved after a dominant first 30 minutes.
Oakley went close with a free kick just before the break and Walsall would have been relieved just to have kept the score down. Poor David Martin though must have been freezing though as he hardly had to move all game - his only work being catching a cross that was straight at him!!
At half time, Katy moaned about the fact that I couldn't be bothered to move and find others (and refused to go by herself for the record despite what mammoth Pinocchio style lies she may tell you!) Lil Dave and Helen however made their way over to see us... Dave mainly so he could read my programme I think...
Other half time entertainment was from the Joe B song that me and Katy took the time to invent: "Oh Joey Baker. You are wearing a hat, oh Joey Baker. It makes you look like a twat, oh Joey Baker. We are winning two nillllllllllll." I think you had to be there in all honesty but it was one of those things that even had the random people around us chuckling at the time!! The second half carried on in the same way that the second had finished - with City pushing forward and it only took a few minutes for us to get the third goal of the night. Some more neat passing resulted in Fryatt flicking the ball through to Cleverley whose first touch took him away from the defender and left him with the simple task of beating Ince with a placed effort. Three nil. Game over!
And just a few minutes later, Steve Howard joined the party. After working so hard all night, it was great for him to get on the scoresheet in front of the fans that he has finally managed to get on side after taking quite a bit of stick last season. Cleverley played a long ball forward, Big Steve beat Ince to the ball but saw his initial effort well saved before turning home the rebound from what seemed an impossible position. A Steve goal always gets epic celebrations from fans and players including Shingler near the front doing a Titanic impression it seems... crazy kids!
It was nearly five when Howard just headed over from an Oakley free kick. Truth be told it was men against boys and if we hadn't taken our foot off of the pedal, we could have been looking at about eight nil. As it was with the game already won, Pearson decided to make changes to keep the players fresh for the next game on Saturday - a sensible move in all honesty but would have been nice to make it a real thrashing!
With everything going Leicester's way, we soon started to make our own amusement in the stands singing "Come on Walsall" everytime they got into our half and adopting Clayton Ince as a cult hero as he defended the goal in front of us. "Your goal's too big for you" and "Incey, what's the score" were song at deafening volume which he seemed to enjoy as he cheekily signalled 4 goals behind his back out of sight of the Walsall fans. He also started shaking his ass at one point in time to us singing "Incey, Incey, Incey" when Walsall made a rare attack. Always great when opposition players take things in good spirits and resond to the crowd - too many get the arse and start moaning but he was up for a laugh despite seeing his side being played off the park. This additional support from the away fans spurred Walsall on and they got their reward when a deep cross fell kindly for Mattis to volley home. They put a big of pressure on after that but it was Cleverley who came closest to scoring the final goal of the game but Ince did well to turn his shot round the post to a hero's reception! Legend!
As the final whistle blew, we made our way down to the front where all the snow cleared from the pitch was gathered and it inevitable turned into a snowball fight amongst the City fans who were in brilliant spirits after a great win. It even turned into quite a battle between the fans behind the goal and those in the side stands and god help any Steward who tried to stop it as they just ended up getting pelted! 
Outside the ground we bumped into Helen, Colleen, Jobber, Bert and Chloe and Fez came over to chat to Katy about the game and plans for the weekend. 
We were soon back on the coaches though and making our way back to Leicester causing mischief on the way and generally having such a laugh with Katy. In fact I don't think we stopped laughing until we got off the coaches and were smacked full in the face by the cold again. Had the pleasure of scraping her car for her before we continued her journey. Now some people use Ice Scrapers. Some use bank cards or something similar. Us? We use wooden kitchen implements! I'm not even sure what it was but it seemed to work ok and we didn't crash on the ice rink type roads so all credit for Titch for that one! Don't envy her driving on those roads. 
Quick stop at mcdonalds and it was time to call it a night with another 3 points under our belts and another quality away day to treasure. We really have been spoilt this season with so many wins and so much fun on the terraces - it will be hard to see it repeated in any other season for a while. Someone asked me the other day if I was glad that we got relegated..... for the record I'm not glad but I don't regret that it happened. It's made me love football and this club again in a time where I was starting to get bored with it all. League One has restored my passion for the game and to all the Southampton and Norwich fans scared of going down, I suggest you embrace it - it could just well make it the best season you will ever remember!
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