Martin Patching - on the mend.

Martin Patching and Scotland-based John Black are two of the former players to have indicated they intend being part of a day of pure Wolves nostalgia in early September.

The duo are on the guest list for the official reopening of the club’s long-time Castlecroft headquarters as a football venue.

For more than two decades, the stadium Wolves had used as a training base since the 1950s has been given over to rugby union.

But all that changed again last year and now a host of Molineux favourites are set to converge on September 5 to either play in or watch a commemorative game between AFC Wulfrunians and Wolves All Stars. 

Patching had a second brain operation in June of last year but has made good progress since and is relishing the chance to catch up with old mates.

“Unfortunately, I’ve had to give up my football reporting work but I’m carrying on with my life and looking forward to this special day,” he said.

“Castlecroft was a place of work for many of us for quite a few years and holds very fond memories.

“It will be great to go back there to see it and meet up with players I haven’t seen for so long.”

Black is based in the north of Scotland but is determined to be present as well, having recently re-established contact with countryman Frank Munro thanks to Wolves Heroes.

Others who have indicated to Wolves All Stars player-manager Mel Eves that they intend to put in an appearance are Phil Parkes, Steve Daley, Bob Hazell, George Berry, Hugh Atkinson and Mick Matthews.

Castlecroft in the 1970s....distinctive for its floodlights, white railings and Wolves hopefuls.

The list is likely to lengthen considerably, though, because many others have yet to be invited as that job is due to be taken on shortly by the Wolves Former Players Association.

The day’s events are due to start at 1pm with a meal for official guests, the game then kicking off at 3pm.

The match is doubling up as a benefit for Geoff Palmer’s son Steve, who started his long career in non-League football with Old Wulfrunians. Another beneficiary is Compton Hospice.

A distant Mike Bailey watch Wolves attacking in the Baseball Ground mud. He could conceivably have been playing against them for Derby.

A book claims that Mike Bailey’s huge influence at Molineux – as profiled at length recently on this website - might have been greatly reduced if Brian Clough had followed up his interest in the midfielder.

The publication claims that the long-time Wolves skipper was not only lined up as a Derby County transfer target but also that the author was deployed to oil the wheels of an approach.

Retired journalist George Edwards reveals in ‘Right Place Right Time; The Inside Story of Clough’s Derby Days’ that he was told by the manager to get hold of Bailey’s contact details.

Happily, though, for Wolves, this was one link Clough and Peter Taylor did not pursue, and Bailey remained in the West Midlands rather than be tempted to the east of the patch.

Edwards writes: “I had no idea what Brian and Peter thought of Bailey but every time he had played against Derby he was brilliant, dominating midfield completely. Nobody was very surprised when Wolves paid Charlton Athletic £40,000 for him in 1966.”

Then comes the recollection that reminds us how the managerial duo weren’t afraid of trying the occasional under-hand tactic in pursuit of their man.

“Urged by Clough to get Bailey’s telephone number as quickly as possible – another illegal tapping obviously on the way – I duly did so. But I never heard anything more, so obviously nothing came of this one.”

Clough and Taylor later had huge reason to be grateful to Wolves, even though their Nottingham Forest team were denied by them at Wembley in 1980 as they chased another League Cup triumph.

It was Bill McGarry’s side’s famous victory over Leeds in May, 1972, that unexpectedly took the League title to the Baseball Ground while Derby’s players were on an end-of-season holiday in Majorca.

And, having switched to the City Ground a few years later, the duo were celebrating again after Wolves won at Burnden Park on the last day of 1976-77 and so sent Forest up instead of Ian Greaves’s Bolton.

Without that result – secured by a Kenny Hibbitt goal – it would have been impossible for Forest to win the 1977-78 League Championship or the 1978-79 European Cup!

Frank Wignall in Wolves colours.

George Edwards’s £12.99 paperback contains a lighter anecdote with a Molineux angle – one concerning Frank Wignall’s ‘minimalist habits.’

Stepping empty-handed aboard the team coach for an away game, the ex-Wolves striker was addressed by Clough with an enquiry as to the whereabouts of his overnight belongings.

Wignall’s response was to put his hand in his inside jacket pocket and, to the amusement of his colleagues, produce a toothbrush which he ‘brandished flamboyantly.’

Another excellent read......

A retro football magazine that has already featured a host of former Wolves players is to increase its output during the new season.

Backpass, which is produced from an office in Herefordshire, has existed for its first three years as a quarterly but will now appear on the shelves every other month.

In addition, fans who have latched on to the product in fairly recent times will soon be able to catch up on sold-out earlier issues thanks to the publishers’ decision to reprint.

Derek Dougan, Jim McCalliog, Martin Patching, Billy Rafferty, Peter Knowles, Dave Wagstaffe, Alun Evans, Mike O’Grady, Les Wilson, Ernie Hunt, Willie Carr, Graham Taylor, Ian Ross, Colin Lee, Brian Little and Jack Taylor are among the Molineux personalities so far profiled.

And the newly-published issue 12 contains a three-page article on Bobby Gould, centred on the autobiography that Wolves Heroes’ sister company Thomas Publications are bringing out with him this autumn.

Gould had two prolific spells with Wolves in the 1970s, totalling 39 goals in 93 League and cup games for them.

Other Wolves-related pieces to have appeared in past issues of Backpass are obituaries on Mark Kendall, Bill Shorthouse, Jimmy Murray, Paul Birch, Bobby Thomson and David Burnside.

It's just not football! Bobby Gould watches his Molineux team-mate Derek Parkin effect a rescue act on the golf course.

The magazine is on sale in most branches of WH Smith, McColl’s and Martin’s. Alternatively, interested parties can click on the icon in the adverts section on the right-hand side of this page to learn more about the subscription and ordering arrangements.

The 68-page glossy publication costs £3.50 and concentrates mainly on stories and figures associated with the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

Reg Cutler is treated after the freakish incident which broke the Molineux goal post 53 years ago.

Reg Cutler’s part in the rich Wolverhampton Wanderers story didn’t end with the unwelcome role he played in one of Molineux’s more notorious FA Cup afternoons.

The man who scored the only goal of Third Division (South) Bournemouth’s giant-killing fourth-round conquest at the ground in 1957 and then brought the post crashing down subsequently did much to help the club as well.

For a start, he fathered a lad who spent four years on the Molineux books and who recalls a household full of Wolves talk when he was growing up.

“Mom and Dad provided digs for a lot of players when they lived in Penn……I could almost list a team from the lads we had living with us at different times,” says son Gary.

“Martin Patching was there for a couple of years and I remember travelling in the car with him on the day he made his Wolves debut.

“We also had Gary Pierce, Mick Matthews, John Humphrey, Eddie Gould and Mick Collins.

“It was great for me as a Wolves fan but I wouldn’t say I was in awe of them. It was just a way of life I was used to.”

This is a story that straddles both sides of the Black Country divide because Reg, now 75 and living near Kidderminster, was an Albion fan who played a few Baggies first-team games after joining them straight from school.

But Molineux was the pull for Gary and, having played in the club’s youth team at 15, he signed as an apprentice in 1978.

A contemporary of the likes of Matthews, Humphrey, Mick Hollifield, Bob Coy and Craig Moss, he recalls facing Mark Hateley in an FA Youth Cup defeat against Coventry and speaks fondly of the impression Ian Ross’ coaching and motivation had on the group.

Gary Cutler on his current visit back to Wolverhampton.

“I was used mainly as a full-back, although I had a few games in midfield as well,” Gary added.

“I played more than 20 times in the reserves but never got near the first team. I wasn’t quite good enough. I could pass the ball but lacked that bit of pace for League football.

“Having a cartilage injury didn’t help but I enjoyed my time at the club until John Barnwell released me at the end of my contract.”

No sympathy is required. Gary regards his departure from Molineux as a blessing in disguise because he was soon whisked off by Frank Munro, no less, to a fulfilling new life.

Opting against signing for Bruce Rioch at Torquay, he went Down Under instead on a two-year contract with Albion Rovers, where Munro was coaching.

He quickly learned that the football was nothing like good enough to sustain his hopes of a career in the game, so he took on a job that combined reporting with selling adverts and worked in newspapers until the end of his playing career, several other Melbourne clubs later, at 29.

Along the way, he met an Australian girl with whom he has two children and is now about to celebrate 25 years’ marriage.

“I did come back with my wife and the first of our kids and had a job at the Evening Mail in Birmingham for a couple of years in the mid-1990s,” he added. “ But I couldn’t really settle.

“I returned to Australia and was offered a three-year contract as the general manager of a TV station in Cairns up in Northern Queensland.

“Then a friend and myself set up an advertising agency in the town and we’ve been rolling along okay for eight or nine years. We now have a staff of eight.”

Gary contacted Wolves Heroes by email from afar some 18 months ago but sadly it was in Wolverhampton city centre rather than on the Barrier Reef that we finally met over coffee!  And this time it is very much just a holiday visit to see family and friends – not a case of him feeling unsettled.

“A lot of former Wolves players seem to have gone to Australia over the years and the trail that led me there is interesting,” he said.

“Dave MacLaren (the mid-1960s Molineux keeper) took Frank Munro, who took me and I ended up taking Brian Garvey.

“Brian was a coach at Wolves when I was there and is another to have stayed with my mom and dad.

“I didn’t know he was going to be over from Australia now at the same time as me and we’ve been able to meet up for the first time in more than three years – and go together to visit Frank.”

* Reg Cutler went on to serve Portsmouth and Stockport after his time with Albion and Bournemouth. He and his wife were running the now-demolished Yew Tree in Blackheath, when Gary was born in the pub.

Geoff Palmer.....on patrol duty of a different kind at the Baseball Ground.

Geoff Palmer has carried out his intention to retire from the police by calling time on his service with the force after more than 23 years.

At 56, the Cannock-born former full-back hesitates to say he will not work again, but told us: “If I do, it will probably only be a little driving or courier job.

“I’ve had friends from the force saying some of the winter days can be long but I’m enjoying playing more golf at the moment and the garden is certainly looking better.”

Palmer reports regularly seeing another ex-Wolves defender, Alf Crook, on the fairways at his club, Oxley Park. The 86-year-old, who made only two senior appearances while at Molineux, gets about the course these days on a buggy.

****

Ady In Hot Seat

Andy Sinton isn’t the only one-time Molineux man about to embark on his first full season with a new non-League club.

Adrian Williams is now manager of Bedford Town and kept them in the Zamaretto Southern League premier division following his appointment late in 2009-10.

Williams’ charges have a friendly at home to Charlton tonight after their 1-0 defeat against Luton at the weekend.

Sinton, meanwhile, who had a lengthy and successful earlier stint with Fleet Town in the Ryman League South, has given trials to two ex Wolves youngsters, Kyle Bennett and Matt Bailey, since going in as boss of AFC Telford. He has also offered terms to Lee Naylor’s brother Martin, who has had two previous spells at the Bucks Head.

A Wolves side visit Telford for a friendly on Tuesday, August 10.

****

Double Header For All Stars

Wolves All Stars have put two more fixtures on their schedule. They play Albrighton at Loak Road on Sunday, August 22 (3pm) in a game in aid of the Cosford-based County Air Ambulance.

And they face Wulfrunians All Stars at Castlecroft Stadium on Sunday, September 5 (3pm), with Compton Hospice as chief beneficiaries.

****

John Upping Sticks

It seems we caught up with John Humphrey just in time when we featured him at some length on these pages just before the end of last season.

John Humphrey.

He has since chosen to end his stint at the prestigious Whitgift Public School in Croydon and accept a teaching post elsewhere – a switch that means he also has to curtail his work as a part-time coach at Charlton Athletic.

The 49-year-old early 1980s full-back was a three-time Player of the Year at The Valley, where academy manager Steve Gritt said: “John has been an excellent coach and we’re sorry to see him leave. He has a huge amount of respect among the boys.”

So crammed with gems was Charlie Bamforth’s notebook after he interviewed Jimmy Melia several months back that we decided to use his article in three parts. Here is the final instalment from our prolific contributor in California…..

Stan Cullis.....had a promotion in mind for another balding member of the Molineux staff.

Stan Cullis had plans for Jimmy Melia beyond the inside-forward’s relatively brief Wolves playing career.

He intended to add him to his coaching staff but destiny was thwarted by the great man’s sacking in September, 1964. Yet he was still instrumental in launching Melia on his own managerial career.

“Stan was at Birmingham in the late 1960s and recommended me to Aldershot (where Cullis had played in the war years) as player-manager,” Melia revealed.

“I was there for over three years until 1972 (135 League games, 14 goals) and learned a lot about the game.

“Then I was at Crewe for four years, including a spell as manager – anyone who stays there that long needed a knighthood.”

I pointed out the length of tenure of Dario Gradi at Gresty Road and Jimmy, who rose to the rank of captain during his Molineux stay, roared with laughter.

There was time enough at Crewe for the older occupant to guide the fortunes of several former Wolves youngsters, notably former England schoolboy international Geoff Crudgington, gangly centre-half Phil Nicholls and full- back Alan Stephens, a Scouser like Melia.

The high spot of his managerial career, though, must have been when he took Brighton and Hove Albion to the FA Cup final in 1983.

“I took over from Mike Bailey,” he added. “We struggled in the League but really got playing in the Cup games.

“In the third round, we drew with Newcastle at the Goldstone. Keegan was playing for them. In the replay, they had two goals disallowed and we won 1-0. The fans at St James’s were going mad!

“Our reward was a tie against Manchester City, who were fifth in the top division, and we beat them 4-0. And then what a draw! Liverpool at Anfield.

“It was the only game on that Sunday and we won 2-1. Then we beat Norwich in the sixth round and Sheffield Wednesday in the semi-final at Highbury.”

And so to the final against Manchester United, to which the Brighton team travelled by helicopter?

“Sure, we could have won it. Did you know that Gordon Smith (who missed that golden chance at the death in the first game) is now president of the Scottish Football Association? But you never look back. You must look forward.”

It was around the time of his Wembley visit that Melia became famed for  those white shoes….

“I was dating a younger woman and she liked to dance,” he said. “She gave them to me and suddenly everybody is wearing them!”

Jimmy was never appointed permanent manager at the Goldstone and was disenchanted when the chairman brought in Chris Cattlin behind his back. So it was onto Portugal, where he had great success with Wolves’ 1970s UEFA Cup adversaries Belenenses, taking them to a top-five place in his four years there.

Back in 1978, Melia, who now works in coaching in Dallas, had his first US experience, working alongside ex-Wolf cub Laurie Calloway at South California Lazers.

“He was a young professional when I played at Molineux. Later, I wanted him as my assistant at Brighton but it didn’t happen.”

Jimmy Melia signs at Molineux in 1964, watched by his wife and (from left) Wolves general manager Jack Howley, Cullis and director Jim Marshall.

There is yet another strong link between Wolves and Jimmy Melia – coach Terry Connor, who has served Colin Lee, John Ward, Dave Jones, Glenn Hoddle and Mick McCarthy in more than a decade at Molineux.

“Terry played for me at Brighton,” he added. “I watched him at Leeds and liked him a lot because he had great energy and so much movement.

“Andy Ritchie was not very happy at the Goldstone, so we did a swap deal. He had a great attitude, Terry. I bet he is a fine coach.”

Charlie Bamforth

Wolves Heroes reader Phil McCrudden contacted us to say: “When Jimmy Melia was at Crewe, I met him many times on my way home to Liverpool from Wolves evening fixtures in the early 70s. He picked up the train at Crewe and obviously remained a great Wolves fan with great regard for the club. He always used to ask me for a report of the game I had just attended and was a very nice guy.”

California-based Charlie Bamforth speaks at length to another fellow US resident – one who was prepared to criss-cross Europe and England for little gain in pursuit of his chosen career.

Campbell Chapman, with daughter Emma.

Perhaps it really was the right place but most decidedly it was the wrong time. And those who criticised Campbell Chapman mercilessly might ponder just how hard he tried to make it in the game.

He was born in Sutton in Ashfield in 1963, his father Sammy having been with Mansfield Town.

“But I was raised in Southbourne in West Sussex and played for the local village teams, travelling in the back of a mini-van to the likes of Bognor and Chichester,” he said.

“We had a good little team and I was being watched by scouts from Queens Park Rangers and Aston Villa. I went to QPR first, then to the Villa. I trialed there alongside the likes of Paul Birch, Noel Blake and Ivor Linton but they decided not to take me on.

“So I went back home to do my A levels. The games master at the school played for Waterlooville and I did the pre-season with them in the reserve team.

“Brighton invited me to go there at the time Alan Mullery was manager but I didn’t fancy it. They really didn’t seem to run their youth team properly.

“Peter Morris, who had played with my dad at Mansfield, invited me to go to Peterborough. I got on the train to Victoria and crossed London on the tube. I’ll be honest: I had no idea where the heck I was going.

“By the following Monday, I was in the reserve team and they invited me to sign as an apprentice. I was there for three years, the last year as a full-time professional.

“It was very tough. You trained with the first team and they kicked lumps out of you because they didn’t want you taking their place. In the lower divisions, it’s tough for young players unless you are a big strong defender.

“Me being ten stone and somebody trying to play football…..it wasn’t going to work in that cut-throat world. A few made it, though – people like Mickey Gynn and Trevor Quow. But, in the end, I concluded: ‘This really is not fun.’

“Then they scrapped their reserve and youth teams. I had a trial for Luton under David Pleat but there were too many players there, so I went non-League to Stamford Town and then March Town. Spit and sawdust stuff. The players were looking forward to the bar afterwards more than the game itself.

“By now, my dad was chief scout at Wolves and my brother Cavan was an apprentice at Molineux. It was the last place I wanted to be. I did not want people to say I had got there because of my connections.

“Dad asked me if I had thought about going abroad. I called Brendan Batson at the PFA and he gave me a bunch of numbers. The first ones were in Finland. I would call a number and some coach’s wife would answer. I would say: ‘Hi, I’m Campbell Chapman, professional footballer and…’ and they would mutter something in Finnish and put the phone down.

“Finally I called someone at the Finnish FA and they had literally just had a contract cancellation for an English player. ‘Can you score goals?’ ‘Sure’ I said. If they had asked if I could I keep goal, I would have said yes. ‘Can you come now?’ I said ‘of course’ and on the Monday a plane ticket was waiting for me at the airport.

“The club was KaIK, in the south of the country. They gave me a bike for transportation, a lunch in a restaurant and dinner at the hamburger van. But I was soon known locally. I was able at last to feel good about myself after being a nobody at Peterborough. It was great for the confidence.”

Coming back to England, Chapman signed for Bilston Town. “The guys at places like that are so honest, no big-time Charlies,” he added.

“It was back to basics but I knew that if I showed I was good enough, someone would find me. The guys at that level really try to help youngsters who they think might make it – to say that they had a hand in it.

“Shrewsbury came in and Chic Bates asked if I would like a trial, no money. I played a few games in the reserves. It was a good environment but everyone is trying to get away, not seeing themselves playing their whole careers there.

“I played a game at Stoke and, as I was leaving the dressing room, Wolves’ scout Tony Painter pulled me aside and told me Tommy Docherty had been there to watch me. He said they wanted me to join non-contract.

“I said I would but only if my dad had nothing to do with it and provided I would be treated like everybody else. They said Dad didn’t even know they were watching me. He was never in the dressing room at the time – always out and about scouting.”

Campbell Chapman’s first appearance in the Wolves first team was as a sub for Danny Crainie at Manchester City on December 29, 1984. His first touch was an accidental elbow in Mick McCarthy’s face. Picking himself up, the current Wolves manager said: ‘You do that again and I’ll……’

Chapman in action in Wolves' home game against Newport in 1985-86.

“The club was a mess. The Bhattis had pulled the plug. The Doc was just a figurehead manager, trying to put together a cheap and cheerful squad, and there were some reasonable players, like Andy King, who was very talented. The Doc wanted to play honest players. Okay, so maybe I wasn’t the greatest, but I certainly was honest.”

When Docherty left, Chapman Snr got the caretaker position.

“He put together a team with talent – the likes of David Barnes and Jon Purdie – but generally one of little experience. We were all on about ₤150 a week.”

Then the club brought back Bill McGarry as manager, “an interesting character” as Campbell says.

He was not what McGarry wanted and was dropped but was soon back in the team. The club were so different to what McGarry had left behind in 1976, so he didn’t stay long and Sammy Chapman was reinstated.

“He really did do a very good job of motivating us,” Campbell said. “He was so positive, always. And he signed some good players – Andy Mutch for instance.

“The facilities were disgusting – cockroaches in the bathroom, training ground with no grass, balls that were so hard that you might break your foot kicking them, only two sides of the ground open. Nobody could really tell when looking from the outside just what a disaster it was.

“The fans were never going to take to me. One bad game, one bad pass even. Dad and I both knew it wasn’t going to work. Several clubs made offers – Tranmere, Chesterfield, Bury and Burnley among them. But it was stuff like ₤100 a week, ₤30 extra if we won.

“I couldn’t make ends meet on that, what with lodging, the cheapest of cars and so on. I was flattered but…”

Then came a call from IFK Ostersund in Sweden. They were proposing ₤400 a week in cash. In half a year over there, Chapman would make as much as in a season in England.

“So I went and they made me feel like a million dollars. I was there for two seasons and, when I was back in England, John Rudge let me train at Port Vale.”

He then went to Crewe in November, 1986, sharing a club house with David Platt and starting a lifelong friendship. Platt would go on to play for England. Campbell Chapman? He would make a solitary appearance for Crewe as substitute in a 5-0 home defeat against Northampton.

“I went to Qatar for two months,” he recalls. “I flew out on New Year’s Eve. No alcohol, of course, so I was never fitter! They wanted me back in Sweden, at a time when I had signed non-contract with Reading, but I fancied trying the United States.

“I came over here to teach at camps in Dallas and got in contact with Gordon Jago at the Sidekicks. He was quite clear that the only way to succeed in the US would be to coach because the league could go belly-up tomorrow. I stayed for six weeks and loved it.

“Dad then told me that there was a club in Malta that fancied me – Birkakara. I stepped off the plane at 10pm and the guy meeting me said: ‘We are going straight to the club to meet the president and the manager’. I soon found myself down a back alley – the ‘club’ was a smoky downstairs den, with all these blokes drinking whisky and playing cards!

“We trained at the back of a school on concrete. There only was one grass pitch in Malta – the national stadium. All nine teams in the league played there, with two games on a Saturday and two on a Sunday, one side having a bye each week.

“Paul Mariner was there and told me that Brian Talbot at West Brom might be interested. So I went to The Hawthorns on trial and, after a game against Forest Reserves, they signed me for the rest of the year. I thought I did well but, come the season’s end, there was to be no contract.

“I went back to Finland but I was no longer enjoying it. It was not fun any more because it was so physical. I was counting the days off the calendar, which can’t be right.

Friend of a star! A photo, taken at Willenhall Town, that was used in Peter Lansley's excellent Running With Wolves book.

“I came home to Bilston for ₤60 a week. But I got to enjoy my football again and then went to Willenhall as player-manager. By now, I was also in the bar business with David Platt – working 11 to 11.”

And so, in 1993, Campbell Chapman came to Atlanta to run GSA soccer camps. Finally, he ‘arrived’ and loves every minute of it as director of the girls’ programme.

He is happily married to Shannon, with two children Emma (5) and Luke (4). As Jerry Garcia sang: What a long strange trip it’s been.

Charlie Bamforth

Tony Penman - a man to whom the city of Wolverhampton owes quite a favour.

John Richards has previously gone on record to say that his single ambition when signing as a youngster at Molineux was to play just one game in Wolves’ first team.

Well, Wolves Heroes can now reveal that that is one game more than his boss Bill McGarry expected him to play!

So underwhelmed was the manager with what he saw in the early months that he anticipated packing the teenager back off to Warrington or looking for a new club for him in the lower divisions.

The eye-opening disclosures come from Tony Penman, the scout who spotted the young Richards more than four decades ago and who still lives on the edge of Wolverhampton in his retirement.

“I was heavily involved in schools football and our county side used to play the Wolves youth team every year at Castlecroft,” Penman said.

“At the one match, I was having a cup of tea with McGarry and I suggested that he must be quite pleased with John, who had scored five goals in the reserves against Blackburn shortly before.

“He surprised me by saying: ‘He will never play in the first team here.’

“John had come into the game late after staying on at grammar school into the sixth form and Bill thought he had missed out on the right grounding.

“Fortunately, though, he changed his tune as time went on and realised he had made a mistake in thinking that.”

Bill McGarry, with his long-time assistant Sammy Chung.

Penman added: “Bill was always reluctant to take lads from school and pitch them in too high. It cost us once when my eye was caught by an exceptional lad in the Durham side who played against Staffordshire in the under-18 festival at Bognor Regis.

“It was a centre-forward called Keith Dyson who Bill said he would take a look at – but only in the third team.

“I said Keith wouldn’t come all the way down from the north-east to play at that level; couldn’t he be given a game in the reserves?

“He wasn’t and Keith went on to Newcastle, where he was playing in the Inter Cities Fairs Cup final a couple of years later.”

So was there a danger Richards might also have slipped through the net before embarking on a Molineux career that brought him a then club record 194 League and cup goals?

“John was playing for Lancashire in the same tournament at Skegness a year or two after I saw Dyson and he was head and shoulders above anything else on the pitch,” Penman added.

“I remember asking him afterwards if he’d like to come to Wolves for a look round and he said: ‘I think you’ve got the wrong player. I usually play in the Lancashire B team.’

“It turned out that he was only playing because the first-choice centre-forward was injured – and that was probably my big stroke of luck.

“I don’t recall there being other scouts around. They would probably have monitored Lancashire’s A team for months, convinced themselves they knew exactly what was on offer there and gone elsewhere to watch that day.

“John came in under the radar and I remember going into Joe Gardiner’s office at Molineux and saying this kid was good.

“Bill was not happy about playing a schoolboy at the expense of someone who was on the staff but I reminded him about the Dyson incident, so he grudgingly said he could play in the reserves alongside lads like Jimmy Seal, Bertie Lutton and Dave Woodfield against Derby the night before the FA Cup final.

“The reserve team manager was Dave MacLaren, who let it slip to the Derby people that John was on trial, so they became interested in speaking to him as well after seeing him impress.

“But Joe Gardiner and I went to John’s house in Warrington on the Sunday. He was going to go to Loughborough to train as a teacher but we persisted and he agreed to come to Wolves. We picked him up at his parents’ home and brought him down here.

“Bill asked whether he was worth the trouble and, after I said yes, it was a done deal in no time, although he didn’t rate him until quite late.

The style we might have missed out on......

“It was unusual for lads to come into the game from this route. They were normally in the system several years earlier, although I remember Steve Heighway and David Nish doing the same as John.

“The lads who most caught the eye at the festival would play trial matches against club youth teams and I think John played against Leeds and Nottingham Forest at Skegness before being named for England Schoolboys. Mel Eves went through a similar process a few years later.

“John made his international debut at Reading against Wales when Roy Bentley was his manager but he was safely tied up with Wolves then and we are thrilled at what he went on to achieve at the club.”

One other prominent player Penman recalls spotting, to no avail, was Alec Lindsay, the left-back who joined Liverpool after impressing him while in Bury’s side.

Ian Cartwright, partner Julie and appropriately named labrador Iggy.

Ian Cartwright is hoping that his memory at Wolves will live on in the form of his 12-year-old son Daniel.

The former Molineux midfielder has lived for the last five years with terminal cancer but is proud that the youngest of his two lads is now wearing the famous gold and black.

He recently went to Portugal to watch him in an under-13 tournament featuring youngsters from the likes of Tottenham, Athletico Madrid, Sporting Lisbon and Stuttgart and is looking forward to the start of the new season at the club at both senior and age-group level.

“Daniel isn’t as quick as me but he wins everything in the air as a centre-half and is going to be a big lad,” ’Iggy’ said.

“I’m only 5ft 10in but his brother Matthew is 6ft 5in at the age of 16 and their mother is 6ft 1in.

“He has been at Wolves since he was eight and is used to facing lads from Liverpool, Everton and the rest…..it’s a lot different than when I was coming through.”

Cartwright Snr knew what it was to be in demand, having had Arsenal, Leeds, Birmingham and Albion, among others, on his trail before he plumped for his first football love, Wolves.

The 45-year-old made his debut at just 18 in a 4-3 win at Crystal Palace in November, 1982, scored on his home debut against Middlesbrough a week later and totalled 61 League and cup appearances for the club.

Contrary to some reports, he didn’t drift from Molineux into non-League football. His playing career ended there.

“I was caught by a bad tackle against Portsmouth in a friendly at Castlecroft in the summer of 1985,” he added. “My ankle was broken and I had damaged ligaments.

“I tried to get back and played more than a dozen games the following season but it wasn’t right, so I retired there and then - just before Steve Bull came in. I didn’t play anywhere else.”

Having graduated from the same Crestwood Colts side as Ian Painter, Cartwright became a prison officer at Wormwood Scrubs and then Winson Green.

Alas, misfortune was to continue dogging him. He fractured his skull on a steel step when trying to break up a fight and had to retire from the prison profession in the mid 1990s.

But both of those setbacks, sizeable as they are, pale into insignificance against the one he is now dealing with on a daily basis.

“I was diagnosed with cancer in my kidney and it spread to my back,” he added.

“I can’t work now and I’m a bit bloated from the steroids but people see me and say I look okay.

“It is terminal, although it was five years ago when the doctors told me that, so I do everything I can – and enjoyed going over to Porto recently.

A playing-career shot from the 'Tatung' era.

“We had to sell a £500,000 barn conversion to pay for my drug, which cost £5,000 a month initially, but I’ve had a lot of help from old mates.

“Derek Dougan put a do on for me at the Connaught, Steve Daley helped fix the dinner up at Goodyear two or three years ago, Robert Plant donated a signed guitar to be auctioned off and Andy Gray sent me a cheque for £3,000.

“We miss the barn but we live in a nice apartment near the Merry Hill Centre and I’m very grateful for everything people have done for me.”

Wednesbury-born Johnny Kirkham.

Wolves Heroes are busy trying to track down another former Molineux man with South African connections.

Black Country boy Johnny Kirkham is known to have joined Durban Spurs following his career in England and to have stayed in the republic after his playing days ended.

But, a few months short of his 70th birthday, he appears to have slipped out of contact even with some of the other Wolves stalwarts who opted to try their luck in South Africa.

If anyone is able to point us towards him, we would be delighted to hear from them at info@wolvesheroes.com or on 07734-440095 – as long, of course, as he is happy for his contact details to be passed on.

We understand John, who was born in Wednesbury, has been living in Durban in recent years – and it is thought he donated one of his kidneys to his son.

A member of the team who famously won the FA Youth Cup at Chelsea’s expense in 1957-58, he has been mentioned at various times on this website, in particular as a teenage friend of Alan Hinton’s.

He made his senior Wolves debut at the age of 18 in a 2-0 victory at Celtic on the night the Scottish giants switched their floodlights on for the first time and played his first League game five days later in a 3-2 win at home to Manchester United in October, 1959, when he marked Johnny Giles. The two games were watched by a total of 89,000.

He was following in the wake of some awesome Wolves wing-halves such as Billy Wright, Ron Flowers, Eddie Clamp and Bill Slater but continued to make a mark.

In 1960-61, he played ten first-team games and came up with his first goals for the side – one in a 6-1 slaughter of Chelsea at Molineux, one in a home win over Burnley and another in an FA Cup draw against Huddersfield.

But it was in 1961-62, in which he made 30 appearances and preceded a goal in a win at Manchester United with a brace that saw off Nottingham Forest three days earlier, that he became more established.

Kirkham, watched by Ken Knighton, tries to block a Chris Lawler shot at Liverpool in February, 1965.

Many of his outings were in the right-half role formerly occupied by Clamp and he had another long run the following season after reclaiming his place from Freddie Goodwin.

The last of Kirkham’s 112 senior appearances for the club (he scored 15 goals) came at home to Liverpool on the final day of the 1964-65 relegation season.

He was also an under-23 international and joined Peterborough before moving on to Exeter and non-League club Horwich RMI.