A BUSY month of December started with a 1-1 draw at Northampton Town in the second round of the FA Cup to add another fixture to our already hectic schedule.

Tommy Mooney's early goal was cancelled out within the opening ten minutes by Andy Kirk as a draw looked on the cards for much of the remainder of the game.

The following Tuesday saw Nottingham Forest come to town as Michael Ricketts' goal early in the second half proved to be the difference as Richard Money's men picked up an excellent three points against quality opposition.

Next up was the short trip to Crewe Alexandra as an impressive footballing contest ended with honours even in a goalless draw.

Despite the wet conditions, both teams attempted to pass the ball around at every opportunity, but that all-important goal proved to be elusive.

The Saddlers then made it into the third round of the FA Cup courtesy of a narrow 1-0 victory over a determined Northampton Town outfit.

The Cobblers were well-organised and it took a Michael Ricketts penalty five minutes from the end to seal our passage.

A crowd of over 10,000 was present for the visit of Leeds United as The Saddlers put in a convincing and dominant display throughout the game.

Tommy Mooney gave us a deserved lead with 14 minutes to go and it looked like the three points were going to be ours until a disputed free-kick from Alan Thompson in the last-minute took a wicked defelction to beat Clayton Ince and give the Yorkshiremen a rather fortunate point.

We were back in home action seven days later with the visit of Millwall. This pre-Christmas clash was designated as our Festive Family Fun Day and it certainly lived up to its billing as Walsall romped to a 3-0 triumph.

In all fairness it could have been more as two goals from Tommy Mooney and an own goal from Neil Harris in the first half saw us go into Christmas in sixth place in the table.

Our Boxing Day fixture saw us make the short trip to Port Vale where a large and vocal travelling contingent saw us fall behind in the first half.

Matters were made worse when Tommy Mooney was forced to limp out of the action on the quarter-hour mark and then Daniel Fox received his marching orders for a second yellow card with just over 20 minutes to go.

Nevertheless, we kept plugging away and got our reward deep into injury time at the end when Rhys Weston's cross was headed home from close range by Michael Ricketts.

The month ended with a trip to an Oldham Athletic side who were starting to find some form.

In extremely wet and windy conditions, Scott Dann gave us an early lead as we proceeded to put in a fine team performance which saw us frustrate the home side for long periods.

Our victory was sealed mid-way through the second period when the on-loan Michael Ricketts powered through to score against his parent club.

It meant that we ended 2007 in sixth place in the table and finished the year as we had started it - with a 2-0 away win.