EFL legend's forgettable 5-game Walsall stint - Saddlers never saw what Cardiff City & Middlesbrough did | OneFootball

Lee Tomlin departed Cardiff City for Walsall in 2021, but didn't make as big of an impact as the Saddlers expected

Lee Tomlin will go under the radar of many when talking about some of the best players in Championship history, but the former Peterborough United, Middlesbrough and Cardiff City man was one of the better attacking midfielders in the second tier on his day.

His sole full season at Middlesbrough saw him help the side to a play-off final in the 2014/15 season, following a campaign where he netted seven and assisted ten throughout the regular season, and then a man of the match display in the play-off second leg, as he scored and assisted to help his Boro side down Brentford.

That campaign earned him a Premier League move to the side who won the Championship that season, Bournemouth, as the Cherries paid £3.5 million for his services in August 2015.

He would only make six appearances in the top flight before being loaned out - and then sold - to Bristol City, where he returned to his excellence in the second tier for the Robins and then for Cardiff, helping the side to a play-off finish in the 2019/20 campaign.

After an injury-plagued 2020/21 season, however, he left the club in October 2021, having gone a full year without playing for the Bluebirds, leading him to sign for League Two side Walsall.

Unfortunately for the Saddlers, though, they couldn't get him to replicate the form he showed in the second tier throughout his career.

Lee Tomlin's short and disappointing stint at Walsall

It wouldn't be until the following February that Tomlin would land at another club, arriving at Walsall on a deal until the end of the 2021/22 season.

The then-33-year-old hadn't played a league game in nearly two years, with his most recent appearance at the time coming on Halloween in 2020, as Cardiff lost 3-2 to QPR.

Despite this, a drop-down to League Two seemed a hopeful prospect for him, and he signed the new contract with plenty of sharpness in the legs too, having trained for Wrexham and Northampton Town before signing with the Saddlers.

Everything was set up for Tomlin to hit the ground running once more and find his feet in a lesser league, but his time at the Bescot Stadium was underwhelming to say the least.

He would appear from the bench in his first couple of games at the club, before getting his first start in a 1-1 draw with Barrow. He then missed three straight games due to COVID, before returning from the bench in defeats against Salford City and Leyton Orient.

The game against Orient saw a strange and rare case of a substitute being substituted, but with both changes happening in the first half. Tomlin would come on to replace Rollin Menayese inside 17 minutes, before a groin issue ended his evening 23 minutes later.

That would be the final time the former Cardiff man wore the Walsall shirt. The groin injury took him out for the rest of the season, and he wasn't offered a new deal at the culmination of the campaign.

Lee Tomlin's Walsall spell doesn't detract from a legendary career

After his Walsall departure, Tomlin endured a short ten-game stint at Doncaster Rovers before ending his career in non-league with Ilkeston Town and Harborough Town.

Ultimately, after a series of injuries in his early thirties, it was always going to be difficult for Tomlin to return to the level he bestowed upon the likes of Cardiff and Middlesbrough during his time at Walsall.

And, despite his career in the EFL ending quite flatly, most neutral fans of the Championship especially remember him for his second-tier career, where he scored 56 and assisted 50 in 257 games, appearing in two separate play-off campaigns along the way.

Walsall fans will feel frustrated that they weren't able to see that Lee Tomlin emerge during his brief five-game run at the club, but to have their club on his impressive CV should be more than good enough.