Jimmy Mullen gets a Walsall Boost

Walsall Assistant manager and former Clarets manager, Jimmy Mullen has taken over temporary charge after Walsall manager Richard Money today resigned. Money took over as manager in May 2006, following Walsall's relegation to League Two.He led them to the title and promotion in his first season.

However this season, the Saddlers hopes of reaching the League One play-off have been dashed.

During his playing career, Jimmy Mullen wore the Owls shirt between 1970-80, played a couple of years at Rotherham (1980-2) and then moved onto Cardiff City (1982-6)before finishing his career for Newport.

Jimmy Mullen was made assistant-manager at Burnley by manager Frank Casper in the 1990/91 season after a stint of being manager at Blackpool between 1989-90.

Casper resigned eight games into the 1991/92 season, and Mullen was put in temporary charge of team affairs.

Jimmy Mullen managed to guide the Clarets to promotion to the new Division Two as the old Fourth Division champions.

His success as manager continued in 1993/94 with the Clarets winning promotion to the First Division via the play-offs.

His fourth season at Turf moor however would prove a difficult one. Mullen survived eight consecutive defeats in the New Year of 1995, but it resulted in the Clarets returning to Division Two.

Another unsuccessful season followed in 1995/96 leading to Mullen being sacked.

After leaving the Clarets he dropped down into non-league football via Sligo Rovers.

He became manager of the Irish side Sligo Rovers during the 1996-1997 campaign and stayed until the end of the season before departing for family reasons.

For a time he then worked for the Welsh FA while assisting Neville Southall with the Welsh under-19s before going onto manage Welsh outfit Colwyn Bay.However he resigned after only one season in charge before managing Market Drayton and then Telford United.

He became manager at Bromsgrove Rovers, until his resignation in 2006 and in May 2007 was appointed the assistant manager of Hednesford Town before joining Walsallin September 2007.

All Clarets will be wishing Jimmy well in his new role, and maybe if tradition is anything to go by, he could become the permanent manager.