Three generations of Goulds, with Matthew in the middle, in a family photo from a couple of years ago.

Bobby Gould has used his latest trip Down Under to keep a fatherly eye on football developments in an environment well known to the present-day Wolves.

The former Molineux striker spent time late last month in both New Zealand and Australia, as well as squeezing in a stop-over in Singapore on the way home.

Participation in grandson Matthew’s 18th birthday celebrations was the cue for the Goulds’ long-haul trip but Bobby also dropped in on Western Australia to see how son Jonathan was faring as goalkeeper coach of Perth Glory.

The Glory’s NIB Ground – then known as the Members Equity Stadium – is where Wolves played and won two friendlies in preparation for their return to the top flight in the summer of 2009. And there were also happy memories recently for a man who still has a soft spot for the gold and black cause.

“I saw Perth beat Melbourne Victory 4-1 and did a double act with Jonathan on local radio from the ground,” he said. “I was amazed how many Brits there are out there.

“The crowd was around 12,000 and things are going pretty well on the pitch. I’m sure Jonathan is going to have a good career in coaching. I’d like to have said hello to Jim Magilton, the Melbourne coach who I know, but I decided to leave him with his thoughts as his side had been well beaten.”

Bobby and wife Marge also met up in nearby Fremantle with an old friend, Pat, a neighbour of theirs when they lived in Sutton Coldfield during his first stint at Wolves and the one that followed at Albion. They hadn’t seen her since the late 1970s.

Matthew, meanwhile, is a promising keeper who could just, if ever given a chance in the English game, help the family make some kind of history.

Jonathan, who works under former Rangers and Scotland midfielder Ian Ferguson, had a fine career in goal for the likes of Bradford City, Coventry and Scotland. But what is less well known is that Bobby also did time between the posts.

Bobby the Wolves goal-grabber, first time round.

“My last competitive first-team game for Wolves ended with me taking Gary Pierce’s jersey when he was injured at Bolton on the last day of our 1976-77 Second Division title-winning season,” he added.

“I also kept goal once in place of Ray Cashley when I was with Bristol City. That was against Albion just after I left them in 1973.

“I’m not sure any family have had three successive generations who have played League football as goalkeepers, so it might be a nice bit of history.”

* Stand by for a Gouldy announcement later this week!

We at Wolves Heroes have a talent-spotting team all of our own; those individuals who track down long-forgotten Wolves players. Leading our search – all the way from California – is Charlie Bamforth, who now tells the fascinating story of another Molineux man from yesteryear that he has somehow traced.

Ray Aggio in his recent years.

The Italian word aggio (pronounced adge-o with a soft g) means ‘premium.’ That would be a pretty good word to describe a bloke by the same name, Ray Aggio. Top man.

I wonder what might have happened if Stan Cullis had not been shown the door at Wolves in 1964. Perhaps then, Ray might have been able to look back on a Wolves career that had more than a handful of Central League games as its pinnacle.

Aggio was born in Edmonton, North London, and grew up a Spurs fanatic. In an instant, he rattled off for me the 1961 double side and said: “My hero was Dave Mackay.”

The young pretender played for his school team (Huxley Secondary Modern) and gained representative honours for the district, for London and for Middlesex Schoolboys.

“I was less than 5ft 8in but I played centre-forward. I trained at Tottenham for five years and, three times, my father and I turned up for me to be signed. Each time, there was an excuse. My father lost his rag, at which point Wolves and Crystal Palace came in for me. Dad reckoned Wolves would be a better bet – an environment of success.”

So Aggio signed apprentice forms at Molineux in March, 1962. “In the first year, an apprentice got ₤7, it was £8 in the second and £10 in the third. I had to pay ₤3.50 for my digs.”

He was housed with Bill Shorthouse’s mum, along with Peter Knowles. “I’d send ₤1 or ₤1 10s home to my mum and she saved it for me. We got lunches paid for – at a restaurant that we called The Civic in Wolverhampton.”

Most of the young players at Molineux were from the Midlands or the Yorkshire nursery at Wath and Ray confesses he was homesick for several months.

“We got to go home for a long weekend once a month. Freddie Kemp was the only other Southern lad at the club – he was from Exeter (although born in Italy).”

As an apprentice, Aggio was one of the first to appear at the club each morning. “We had to clean the corridors, the dressing rooms, the baths, the front door…all before the senior players arrived at 9.45. Mr Cullis, though, arrived at 9am.

At Molineux in the 1960s, with youth on his side.

“Every day, he would come and watch us youngsters play games for the A team and B team at Castlecroft. If he came in at half-time and took his hat off, we knew we were in for a hard time. But if he left his trilby on, we’d be all right!

“I cleaned the boots of all the players, but especially Peter Broadbent’s. His shoe size and mine were the same, so I tried to nick his boots when they got a bit worn!”

Ray was close to the young winger Roger Barton and other pals were Kemp, Knowles, John Farrington, Ray Hall (the England schoolboy international) and Les Wilson, who set us on the search for this latest interviewee.

“Phil Parkes, too. Lovely lad. I first met him when I played for Middlesex against his Staffordshire Boys team. He was an amateur, not an apprentice.”

Aggio’s first full season at Wolves saw the senior team start with a bang. They won their first game 8-1, against Manchester City, and remained unbeaten until October. “BBC’s Sportsnight, with Peter Dimmock, brought their cameras to Castlecroft to watch us training,” he recalls.

Alas, two seasons of decline in first-team fortunes followed, with the departure of the legendary Cullis and relegation in 1964-65. Ironically, that season was a highlight for Aggio as he signed as a full-time pro just before the change of manager and broke into the Central League side. His first game was a 2-0 defeat at Bolton in October in a side that read: Phil Parkes; Fred Goodwin, John Harris; John Kirkham, Graham Hawkins, Ken Knighton; David Thompson, Peter Knowles, John Galley, Ray Aggio, David Carrick. It was also ‘Lofty’ Parkes’ first reserve game.

Ray had already been part of some pretty successful sides. Wolves, despite their overall slide, reached the FA Youth Cup semi-finals and quarter-finals in successive years, in the latter losing to a Chelsea side including Peter Osgood and Jim McCalliog.

“There were more than 50 professionals at Wolves and I was simply devastated at the end of that season when I was one of just three to be let go,” he added. “The club were, of course, in turmoil. Andy Beattie was there and, in the last two or three weeks of the season, Ronnie Allen arrived as coach. I just couldn’t come to terms with the fact they were giving me a free transfer.”

Aggio went to Crystal Palace for a month’s trial, playing alongside the likes of David Burnside. They saw enough to offer him a second month but Romford stepped in.

“They were pulling crowds of 3,000-4,000 in the Southern League and were offering four times what I was getting at Wolves. I was there for four seasons. In my first two, I scored 66 goals. In the second, we won the championship. I was the youngest lad in the team, playing up front with the old West Ham player, Harry Obeney.”

Next came a disappointing season with Nuneaton and a period with Tamworth before the chance of a trial with Notts County.

“I had been recommended by one of Jimmy Sirrel’s directors, so I was not surprised when the manager took me to one side after a game and told me he wasn’t going to sign me. I reminded him that he took John Cozens from Hillingdon and I’d outscored him in non-League. But nothing I was going to do would change his mind.”

Then it was to Worcester City, alongside Gerry Hitchens (“a lovely lad”). “I was there for four years, scoring more than 40 goals from midfield. One of my best was against Telford. I put one in from 35 yards. Their manager, Ron Flowers, said he’d never seen a swerve like it. ‘Well,’ I told him, ‘I trained for you in the summer and you could have signed me.’”

....and in his Barnet days.

From Telford, it was to St Albans for a year and then to Barnet for four, in which he included among his team-mates Jimmy Greaves and Bob McNab.

For much of Ray Aggio’s early non-League career, he still lived near Castlecroft in Wolverhampton, making for a lot of commuting to the south-east. Ironically, it was Stanley Cullis who was instrumental in changing that particular lifestyle.

“It wasn’t too many years ago that I was at Birmingham City for a game with Fred Davies (Shrewsbury manager at the time) and there was Mr Cullis. He was beginning to lose his memory a bit, so I didn’t think he’d know me. ‘You don’t remember me, boss, do you?’ I asked. Stan replied: ‘Just remind me.’ I told him my name. Straightway, he said: ‘Yes, I spoke to Eddie Stuart and got you to Worcester City, didn’t I?’

“It was true. I had bumped into him once on a train to London. He was in first-class and I was on my way back through to second from getting something to eat. He basically told me it was such a waste travelling up and down to London and I’d be better served getting a club nearer my home. He called Eddie Stuart soon after.”

Barnet was Aggio’s last club. By now, he had set up a newsagent/tobacconist shop on Barnet High Street, later going into partnership in several shops in the likes of Peterborough, Welywn Garden City and Bedford. These days, he has the station shop at Hitchin.

After retiring as a player, he also worked as a scout until 2002-03. “I have been a good mate of Barry Fry ever since our time together at Romford,” he recalled. “When he went to Birmingham, I scouted for him and did the match report work. I followed him to Peterborough to do the same.

“But it’s such a hard slog when you are trying to run your own successful business – imagine heading up to somewhere like Wrexham for an evening game, then travelling back to get to bed in the early hours, only to be up again for the day job. I ended up having a triple bypass operation and stopped the scouting.”

Andy taps in the winner in '80.

Many of Wolves’ League Cup winning heroes will be back on parade together later this season at a star-studded dinner in the Black Country.

The function, promoted by Sedgley-based Route 39, is a celebration of the club’s successes in the competition in both 1974 and 1980, and has the latter final’s match-winner Andy Gray as one of the main guests.

The Wembley goalscorer against Nottingham Forest will be joined on stage for reminiscences by Kenny Hibbitt and John Richards – team-mates of his that day 32 years ago and the two marksmen from when Wolves beat Manchester City at the same venue six seasons earlier.

The trio will have a generous collection of former colleagues in attendance as they relive memories of the triumphs under Bill McGarry and John Barnwell respectively and will answer questions from MC Paul Franks, of BBC Radio WM, as well as from the audience.

Among the other players so far lined up to attend are Mike Bailey, Dave Wagstaffe, Geoff Palmer, Phil Parkes, Willie Carr and Mel Eves, with approaches now going out to several others.

The three-course dinner is being held on Friday, March 16 at the Copthorne Hotel, Level Street, Merry Hill, and begins at 7.15pm. Also in attendance will be comedian Bob Webb.

Tickets are £55 each including VAT, with special rates available for tables of eight or ten. Special packages guaranteeing prime locations in the room and photo opportunities with the guest speakers cost£950 including VAT.

More details for the lounge-suit occasion are available from Route 39, who have a close association with Compton Hospice. They are contactable on 01902-680023.

Kenny strikes in '74.

Also, this Thursday, the promoters are staging their second Big Quiz night in aid of the hospice. That is also at the Copthorne Hotel, Brierley Hill (7.30pm).

Teams of four are welcome to enter, with the cost set at £10 per player – a charge that includes a curry. The Wolf FM’s Dicky Dodd is the evening’s host.

The cover to look out for.

A recently published book on Wolves has revealed that Molineux was haunted by returning former players long before Robbie Keane was even out of nappies.

While the Irishman’s two goals last weekend provided one of several big talking points of the derby against Aston Villa, author Clive Corbett has emphatically proved in his latest publication, Out Of Darkness, that the concept of old favourites coming back to hurt the gold and black cause is nothing new.

Interestingly, though, his eye for detail and his insistence on leaving no stone unturned means he also demonstrates another trend; namely, how often, in 1980-81, goals scored against Wolves came from the boot or head of players the club would sign in later years.

At £19.99, this is no cheap buy; nor is it a quick read. The 484 pages see to that. But it is a brilliant in-depth record of 13 years of Molineux history, picking up in 1977 where he left off with his sell-out first book, Those Were The Days.

I am several weeks into this latest hard-back and am not yet half-way. But there’s no mistaking the painstaking research of a Wolves fanatic whose day job is as a headmaster of a Worcestershire secondary school.

So many snippets that had disappeared from the memory bank – a rebel tour to South Africa involving John Barnwell and a proposed Wolves trip to Argentina, for example – are there.

Through his trawl of old Express & Stars and match-day programmes, plus a lengthy list of new interviews with players from the period, he has uncovered much we had either forgotten or didn’t know.

And nothing surprised me more than the impact of all those Wolves old boys or future signings at a time when Keane was a baby and Barnwell’s team returned to Europe as League Cup winners and also reached the semi-final of the FA Cup.

We all know that the club missed out big time on the barnstorming talents of Peter Withe, whose brief goal-scoring impression at Molineux in the mid-1970s was not enough to prevent his quick sale to Birmingham.

As 1980-81 was the year Aston Villa won the League Championship, it’s no shock that Withe (like Keane seven days ago) should strike the decider in the late-winter return clash of the clubs that season.

A few months earlier, Peter Eastoe netted against Wolves at Goodison Park on the same day that a Billy Wright (a pale imitation of the real thing, of course) also appeared on the Everton score-sheet. But there’s more.

Floyd Streete, as Wolves fans would rather remember him!

None other than Glenn Hoddle scored from a brilliant free-kick for Spurs in the first instalment of the Cup semi at Hillsborough, as he did in one of the League clashes, and Cyrille Regis was on target for Albion in an early-season Black Country derby draw at The Hawthorns.

But try these for unlikely scorers against Wolves: Terry Connor (for Leeds), Bobby McDonald (Coventry), Jim Melrose (Leicester) and, most improbably of all, Floyd Streete for Cambridge in the tie that released Wolves’ grip on the League Cup.

I can pay Corbett no greater compliment than to say his first book has always been close at hand for reference on all matters concerning the 1960s and 1970s. Now, his even weightier new tome will be alongside it.

* Please contact us by email if you need further details about Out Of Darkness.

Jim McCalliog in action for Wolves away to one of his previous clubs, Chelsea.

Jim McCalliog has opened up on the huge crossover between his and Tommy Docherty’s careers after signing up to a new Scottish-based memorabilia business.

The long-serving Wolves midfielder twice joined clubs managed by The Doc as well as helping beat his sides in an FA Cup final and a semi-final.

But the links between the two Glaswegians run even deeper than that and they could have worked together long before they actually did.

“I remember walking home to where we lived in the Gorbals after playing in a schoolboy international between Scotland and England at Ibrox and being told by my mum that there was someone in the house to see me,” McCalliog recalled.

“I’d had my tea, then gone outside to kick a ball about. When I came in, I recognised Tommy. He was Chelsea manager then and wanted to take me there.

“I’d had 22 clubs after me altogether, including Celtic, but had already promised Leeds that I would sign for them, which I did. I went there just after Peter Lorimer, who was from Broughty Ferry near Dundee, Frank Munro’s home town.

“When things didn’t work out for me at Leeds, though, I returned to Glasgow, asked a couple of reporters to mention in the paper that I was looking for a club and one of them must have led me to The Doc at Chelsea.”

As it transpired, McCalliog made a bigger impact at Hillsborough than he did at Stamford Bridge, even scoring one of the goals as Sheffield Wednesday beat Chelsea in the 1966 FA Cup semi-final and hitting another in the Owls’ final defeat, from two goals up, against Everton.

And it was while he was in Yorkshire that he learned from a familiar source that he had been selected to play for Scotland for the first time.

“The manager Alan Brown told me I was in the squad and made sure I was in the dressing room so he could announce it in front of the other lads and have them shake my hand and say ‘well done,’” he added.

Jimmy Mac with keeper Bobby Simpson during a link-up with the Scottish squad in April, 1967.

“Little did Alan know, though, that Tommy had been on the phone the previous night and told me I was picked. I don’t know how he knew but I pretended to Alan that I knew nothing. It was well before The Doc was national manager but he was always very interested in my career and wanted to tell me the good news.”

The player became Britain’s costliest teenage footballer in the mid-1960s and had previously played for Chelsea in an FA Cup semi-final defeat. Then he had similar near misses after being brought to Wolves by Bill McGarry in 1969.

His first goal in gold and black was in a 3-2 win against Wednesday at Hillsborough but he was to be frustrated when trying to take the final step to glory. Not only did he appear in the run to the 1972 UEFA Cup final but also played several games in the excellent cup runs of 1972-73, only to then miss out on playing in the semi-finals of both.

And when it came to the parting of the ways just after he had been on the sidelines for the 1974 League Cup final, guess who was on the other end of the phone?

“I had fallen out with McGarry and was not really part of things when I travelled with the Wolves squad to Wembley in 1974,” McCalliog says. “I didn’t think he was treating me very well considering I had played over 200 games for him and was his captain when Mike Bailey was injured for the latter stages of the UEFA Cup run and the final itself.

“I needed to get away, although I loved Wolves, and went over to have talks with Vic Crowe and Doug Ellis at Aston Villa. The only problem was that I didn’t really want to drop into the Second Division.

“Around transfer deadline day in the March of 1974, I just happened to ask Bill if anyone else had been on for me and he said: ‘Yes, Tommy Docherty at Manchester United.’ The secretary Phil Shaw put me through on the phone to him and I couldn’t get in my car fast enough.

“Bill was annoyed and told me that, if I went to United, I wouldn’t get the bonus I was due in the August of that year, although he was happy for me to have it if I joined Villa. Maybe he was hoping to get a player in exchange from Villa.

“So it cost me money to go to Old Trafford and we got relegated that spring anyway. But you can’t turn down that sort of opportunity.

“On the day, I had been in the dressing room at Molineux in my training kit and was saying a few cheerios to the lads. They assumed I was going to Villa and saying things like: ‘You’re not far away, so we’ll be able to stay in touch.’

“But I was teasing big Frank, who got changed next to me, by saying they would have to look in that night’s paper to see where I ended up.

“The record books show that my last Wolves game was actually a 0-0 draw at Old Trafford, which I don’t remember, but I enjoyed linking up with The Doc again at United – more than he enjoyed it when I made Bobby Stokes’s winning goal for Southampton in the 1976 FA Cup final anyway!

“I always seemed to do well against my old clubs. I even went back to Molineux with Southampton and scored one of the goals when we won six in a night match in the Second Division.”

....and signing up for Past Heroes boss Mike Godfrey.

McCalliog and his wife Debbie now run the Langside Guest House in Kilmarnock but he was happy to support another enterprise – the memorabilia business Past Heroes – when proprietor Mike Godfrey called on him earlier this winter with various items to sign.

For more information about the business, please click on www.pastheroes.com

Time for a monthly look behind the scenes at Wolves Heroes – and an outline of the other calls and meetings we’ve had over and beyond our pursuit of the stories that have actually made it on line.

Tues, Dec 20: Met up briefly over coffee in Trentham Gardens with Denis Smith, Harry Burrows, John Ruggiero and the wife of Terry Conroy.  It was Stoke City business obviously but I regretted not having chance to ask their memories of games against Wolves – or whether any of them had ever come close to moving to Molineux. I have to make a return visit, though, so maybe next time…..

Sat, Dec 24: Had a 35-minute Christmas Eve conversation by Skype with Les Wilson. Our 14-year-old nephew was excited to be introduced, albeit by computer, with a man who was not only a former Wolves player but who took Canada to the World Cup finals. We were hoping to see more than just Les and wife Lois on screen and were disappointed not to catch a glimpse of their adorable golden doodle Scholzey (named after a certain Manchester United player). Also had an unexpected Happy Christmas phone call today from Danny Hegan.

Proud Granddad with Oscar and new arrival Eli Joseph.

Thurs, Dec 29: Word reaches us that Peter Knowles – now 66 and scaling back at Marks and Spencer – has taken up playing golf again. And he’s doing so around Wolverhampton. His contemporaries say he was a natural on the fairways in his football-playing days, so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised. Talking of which, how big were those lodgings Peter used to stay in? The number of ex-Wolves players who tell us they were in the same digs as him must be past 20 now!

Fri, Jan 6: Relief at last in the Richards household. John and Pam’s youngest daughter Abbie has given birth two weeks later than scheduled to Eli Joseph, who weighed in at 8lb 12oz and is a not-so-little brother for three-year-old Oscar. Wolves Heroes’ co-owner is currently home alone while Pam is staying in Yorkshire as an extra pair of hands.

Thurs, Jan 12: Put a real good shift in for Wolves today. No, honestly, I did. Holiday arrangements in their media department got me a day shift in there, so I covered the Steve Morgan press conference and then wrote up an interview on Karl Henry. The game at Tottenham on Saturday will be his 200th for the club in the League and I’m thrilled he’s won over some of those who were unkindly berating him early in the season. A Wolverhampton lad doing his absolute best for the club he supported as a boy - I thought we were meant to cherish players like this.

Fri, Jan 13: Fixed up Jim Heath, author of our recently-published Wolves In 20/20 Vision book, with an interview on talkSport. The station rang us this morning asking to be put in touch with a supporter they might chat on air to about the Molineux season. Jim was hesitant at first but was impressed that the Hawksbee and Jacobs team had done their homework and gave his publication a generous mention.

Coming soon....

Mon, Jan 16: Our recent feature on Wolverhampton-born former Los Angeles Wolves goalkeeper Malcolm White has been better read than we thought. We have been contacted by a friend of Ray Veal, one of the team-mates Malcolm mentioned. But the request for a possible getting-in-touch came with the assurance: “Don’t worry, there’s no rush. We haven’t spoken for 50 years.” Talking of coincidences, we had an unscheduled reunion when we jumped into the back of a minibus for a day tour of St Lucia early in 2008 and found ourselves sitting opposite Malcolm and his Wulfrunian wife Val.

Wed, Jan 18: Signed off our book project with the Daily Mirror today – a 208-page hard-back Wolves project that looks stunning on screen. It’s out in March or April and, thanks to some hired expertise from Swindon, is the best-designed book on the club I’ve ever seen. The foreword is by JR – can’t wait to have it.

Sign please! Fred Kemp does the honours.

Fred Kemp has stepped in to fill one of the few remaining gaps in a signed football card collection that is being sold to raise money for needy children in Africa.

The former Wolves wing-half, along with his team-mate David Wagstaffe, were two of the handful of players still being chased by organisers of a project to help fund a new school in Zambia.

And Wolves Heroes were happy to act as go-betweens by not only connecting the various parties but calling on the ex-Molineux duo for their signatures.

“Trying to track down so many players who feature in a collection of 1968 cards was an ambitious idea to attempt,” said David Grimshaw, a Burnley fan based in the Potteries. “But we have nearly got there now, thanks to the help of many people who love the game.

“I’ve recently opened a lovely letter from the former Coventry and Huddersfield full-back Chris Cattlin in Sussex and the Welsh striker Ron Davies has kindly replied from the USA.

“That means that, of the surviving players in the 1968 series, the only ones we still have to reach are Tony Hazell (QPR) and Eddie McCreadie (Chelsea). It’s fantastic to think all these years later that these guys can be tracked down – and are so keen to help.”

Kemp was born in Salerno in Southern Italy and played only four first-team games for Wolves – all successively in 1964-65. And the last three of those coincided with the first three of the 404 senior appearances Wagstaffe made at the club.

He made a much bigger impact at his second club, Southampton, which is why the pictures he was asked to sign were taken during his time in Hampshire.

He moved there for £5,000 in 1965, when he was only 19, and became a crowd-pleaser with his all-action style after belatedly cementing a place in Ted Bates’s side.

But, despite the fondness with which ’Fiery Fred’ was remembered at The Dell, one high-profile team-mate, the skipper Terry Paine, was often underwhelmed.

The proud Saint.

The World Cup 1966 squad member felt ‘the end product didn’t warrant all that energy.’ So we can only begin to imagine Kemp’s dismay a few years later when, as part of the Hereford squad, he saw Paine arrive as a player-coach!

“Terry and I didn’t always see eye to eye but a lot of water has passed under the bridge since,” Fred smiled. “We move on.”

Kemp, who played 72 games for Southampton, now lives a couple of miles from Wolves’ Compton training base and considers himself retired at the age of 66.

The Hawthorns - setting for this November, 1958, Black Country derby clash as Jimmy Campbell shoots for goal. Forces will be joined next month with a walk from there to Molineux.

Former Wolves players are being urged to join their Albion counterparts next month by supporting a pre-derby walk in aid of the Acorns Children’s Hospice.

Groups of supporters from the two clubs are crossing the Black Country on foot before the big Molineux return on February 12.

And organisers hope there will also be a sprinkling of players on parade in the countdown to the lunchtime kick-off.

“The idea is to get Wolves and Albion supporters pulling together in support of one of the West Midlands’ most important charities,” said Kieren Caldwell, whose daughter Emma was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour at the age of 13 months.

“Participants can either walk from The Hawthorns to Molineux or walk from Molineux half-way to Albion and then walk back with ‘the other lot’!

“It is 10.5 miles in total, so even walking at 3.5 miles an hour, people should be able to start at 9am and get in for kick-off. The response from both sets of fans has been fantastic but it would be amazing to get some players along, even if it’s just to start walkers off and give them some encouragement.

“The police and councils have agreed to the event and we have 28 walkers and £1,000 promised so far. But we are only ten days into the idea, so we would like things to grow quite a bit.”

Destination Molineux, where Wolverhampton-born Albion defender Derek Statham is destined for a crash landing here under Geoff Palmer's meaty challenge.

More information is available from the walk’s Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/events/318434308197578 or by clicking on to http://www.justgiving.com/teams/MarchToMolineux

Wolves Heroes will also be delighted to act as go-betweens for readers who are keen to be involved, either through walking or sponsoring. Please email us with offers of help and we will do the rest.

A brief read of the Caldwell family story underlines what a good cause this is.

Jack Rowley.....slipped Wolves' clutches.

In relatively recent times, Wolves fans have found it painful that Jason Roberts went on to have a prolific, far-reaching career without kicking a ball in first-team football while at Molineux.

A decade or two earlier, Charlie Nicholas confessed to departing Wolverhampton in a hurry when he felt homesick during a trial here and this website has already recorded how Wolves missed out on recruiting Alex Ferguson as a manager and Alan Ball as a player despite having both at their fingertips.

But few oversights in the club’s history can measure up in magnitude to the one which allowed Jack Rowley to escape their clutches – and then carve out a magnificent career with Manchester United.

Rowley, whose Christian names were John Frederick, was born in Wolverhampton in October, 1920, and initially pottered around with the likes of Dudley Old Boys and Cradley Heath.

He was duly discovered by Major Frank Buckley but The Complete Encyclopedia Of Manchester United records: “Somehow he escaped from the Molineux net.”

The teenage left-winger joined Bournemouth early in 1937, only to quickly be snapped up for £3,000 by United and, in his second game for them, to become their youngester ever hat-trick hero.

By hitting four goals against Swansea at 17 years, 58 days, he presumably made the Major – a master spotter and developer of young talent, don’t forget – swallow a little harder. That, however, was just the start of it.

Rowley was subsequently converted to a centre-forward and scored no fewer than 211 goals for United in 424 matches, earning the nickname The Gunner.

He remains their third highest scorer of all time behind Bobby Charlton and Denis Law, including netting twice in the 1948 FA Cup final against Blackpool.

Astonishing individual feats are strewn across the span of his playing career. One of his six England caps brought him four goals in a 9-2 mauling of Northern Ireland in 1949 and he hit seven of Tottenham’s eight when guesting for them against Luton during the war.

He also showed Wolves, as if they didn’t know already, what they had missed out on when he scored all eight for them against Derby in the Football League North in 1942.

And brother Arthur, who was also once on the Molineux books.

The Rowley tale grew even more uncomfortable for those in power at Molineux because Jack’s younger brother and fellow Wulfrunian Arthur, having also been on the books as a junior and reserve, went on to big things with Albion, Fulham, Leicester and Shrewsbury.

He, in fact, proceded to score an all-time record 434 Football League goals, although most of those were outside the First Division and were not, as in Jack’s case, for one of Wolves’ rival superpowers at the time.

Nevertheless, October 22, 1955, must have been a sobering day for Wolves beyond the pain of their 3-1 defeat at Newcastle. It was the afternoon Jack scored his 200th career League goal – he was by now player-manager at Plymouth and facing Barnsley. Incredibly, though, he was beaten to the landmark by 12 minutes by sibling Arthur, who was appearing for Leicester at Fulham in another Second Division game.

Alan Sunderland - golden moment.

Mick McCarthy has preceded Wolves’ lunchtime FA Cup clash at Birmingham by pinpointing Alan Sunderland’s 1979 winner against Manchester United as the highlight of his numerous visits to Wembley.

The Wolves boss and the 1970s Molineux utility man were born only a few miles apart in Barnsley and Mexborough respectively, although the age difference means their football paths have barely crossed.

But McCarthy has used third-round weekend to refer to his fellow South Yorkshireman’s impact in a dramatic 3-2 Arsenal victory while reflecting on his habit of going out of his way to attend football’s showpiece occasions as far back as the early 1970s.

As a youngster, he developed a love of Leeds as well as his home-town club and was present for the shock defeat of Don Revie’s side in 1973 by Second Division Sunderland.

“I used to go and watch at Wembley whenever I could,” McCarthy said. “I have been to quite a few cup finals and went to the Liverpool v Bruges European Cup final as well.

“What happened in cup finals forged feelings for a lot of people towards the clubs they supported. A team who won at Wembley had a big influence on people.

“My most memorable game would be the Arsenal-Manchester United final. I went with two mates who were United fans and was always keen to get tickets for Wembley games if I could.”

Sunderland, who is 60 next year, had also scored against Wolves in the 1979 FA Cup semi-final at Villa Park, less than 18 months after moving from Molineux to Highbury for £240,000.

He was born a few miles south-east of McCarthy’s home town and was developed at the famous Wath Wanderers nursery club. He has lived for many years in Malta.

Mick McCarthy and a young admirer.

Wolves’ manager said his team selection today was designed so as not to further dilute the competition’s status but his days as a spectator stirred by the magic of Cup final day appear to be over.

His side were playing and winning in the Premier League at Sunderland last year on the day Manchester City were getting the better of Stoke at Wembley while other recent finals have found him in foreign parts.

“I have not been around for too many finals in recent years,” he added. “I have tended to be off soon after the end of the season and have watched the games on TV with a beer in my hand.”