By John Richards

Conducting the second part of my interview with Mike was more difficult than I imagined. Considering he is supposed to be retired, he is out and about more than many of my friends who work full-time. Mind you, he does enjoy his golf and, when I eventually tracked him down, he admitted he spends a lot of his time out on the course. And who can blame him? So, it was 8.30 one morning when I pinned him down – and he exercised his skipper’s preroragative to tell me to get a move on as he was teeing off at 10am! 

A reassuring Molineux sight for a decade......

Q: Mike, a lot has been said about the gulf in standards between today’s Premier League and the First Division in your day, ie that the football is faster and the players more skilful and fit. On the other hand, you played with heavier balls and boots, and the pitches were terrible. Do you subscribe to this view? Would Wolves circa 1971-74 hold their own in the Premier League now? (From Singwolf_1) 

A: Our team of the 70s would definitely hold their own given today’s training standards and the modern-day pitches. John, you know better than anybody, they’re like billiard tables, absolutely beautiful. The players nowadays don’t even have to look at a ball coming to their feet and can play a lot of one-touch football. We had to keep our eye on it in case it bobbled. Even their training grounds are superb. In a lot of cases, they are exactly the same construction as the main stadium pitch – same size, same surface. We used to train at all sorts of venues with different surfaces – at the racecourse, at Castlecroft, all over the place. Sometimes, the day before games, we’d even train on the redgra surface at Castlecroft and we would also train and play on frozen pitches. They now have fantastic indoor arenas. It has all moved on, for the better I have to say. I watched the Brian Clough film on the TV. What was that Derby County pitch like! It was unplayable. If you had a ball at your feet and pushed it forward, you ran past it. It was difficult to pick your feet up. Pass-backs to the keeper were a nightmare – you just daren’t risk them. 

Q: What is the best ever performance by the team in your time? (I loved the 3-1 win at United, because we were so absolutely and completely the best side.) (From BostonWolf)

A: I’ve got two. One is obviously the 1974 League Cup final. I thought we played really well on the day. But I felt our best ever performance was against the Portuguese side, Porto, in the UEFA cup. If you remember, we lost 4-1 away when John McAlle scored a fantastic 40-yard own goal. Porto were a top team and played really well against us. I scored our goal. But, when we got them back to Molineux around the November time, the pitch was a bit greasy and I thought we played our best ever football. We were 3-0 up at half-time and paralysed them again in the second half but couldn’t get that fourth goal. They scored in the last minute when they hit a low corner which squeezed in at our near post. If we had kept it at 3-0, we would have gone through on the away goals rule. I thought the passing and movement that night was fabulous, we just cut them to ribbons. 

Q: Curran or Gould? Which one was better in your view? (From BostonWolf) 

A: They were different types of player. For a start, Bobby was right-footed and Hughie left-footed. Bobby was an all-action player, always a nuisance, chasing people. He worked extremely hard and could score goals. Hughie was better in the air, a fantastic header of the ball. He was a hard player who took a lot of knocks, a great front man. Both were good top-flight players.  

Q: Any idea why Derek Jefferson was never the player at Wolves that he had been at Ipswich? (From BostonWolf and jayeff17)

Derek Jefferson - struggled at Molineux to live up to his Ipswich billing.

A: Derek had been at Ipswich with McGarry and done well but I think he was slightly out of his depth with the type of players we had. Ipswich had some good players but they didn’t have the level of quality we had. Derek was happy at that level but found it difficult against higher-level players. He was an out-and-out defender who could destroy rather than being someone who could use the ball when he had it at his feet.

Q: Tell me about Ernie Hunt. You were good pals with him (From JR). How successful was the restaurant you opened with Ernie Hunt? (From Charlie Bamforth)

A: Ernie was a great pal. Not only was he a great character in the dressing room but he could play. I met him through the England under-23s who paired us as room-mates, and I got to know him very well. We had a great understanding on the pitch. I could always find him with the ball. I knew just where he’d be. And likewise, he knew where I was, and we knew what each other was going to do. At free-kicks, he just kept an eye open, gave a little move and he knew what was going to come. We did have a little restaurant business together, the Savoury Duck in Birmingham. We had the same accountant who suggested we buy this. It wasn’t our best decision. We kept it for a couple of years, then Ernie was transferred to Everton and we got rid of it. 

Q: Wolves now have wingers Kightly and Jarvis – how do they compare with Dave Wagstaffe and Terry Wharton? (From Astraltrader)

A: In my opinion, Waggy and Wharty were more in the class of Hancock and Mullen. They were at that sort of level, compared to the lads of today. Both of them played at the top level for many years. Wharty was a quality player, who scored a lot of goals. I would describe him as a very good wide player. But Waggy was in a different class. He would have gone on to the top level and been an international if it hadn’t been for his nerves. As you know, he smoked to calm him. Defenders hated him. He was that good and could have been even better but didn’t have the confidence in himself. 

Q: If you could take two of your Wolves team-mates into the 2010-11 Premiership, who would they be – and where do you think the team would finish in the league? (From OLDGOLD)

A: I’d take you (JR) and Frank Munro. 

Q: Particular reasons? (From JR) 

The versatile and awesome Frank Munro.

A: You were a prolific goalscorer and Frank could play anywhere. He was quality, a pure footballer. He had great feet, he read the game very well and he was always in position. He was a natural footballer. He could have played up front, on the wing, in midfield, anywhere. I’m not sure though that the two of you would make that much difference to today’s team. They would need a lot more players to make an impact when you consider the size of the top teams’ squads. We got by with about 14 or 15 first-team players. Nowadays, you are looking at squads of 20-plus first-team players. 

Q: Mike, you are seen as one of the best captains ever to lead Wolves. What do you think makes a good captain and what specific qualities do you feel you brought to the role? What extra responsibilities towards your team-mates did you have as captain, both on and off the field? (From Mutchy)

A: First and foremost, the captain has to lead. I was a talker. You need to communicate with players and I strongly believe the captain should be a midfielder. You have to be able to get everywhere. I know the Spain captain was the goalkeeper but how is he going to speak to the centre-forward if he wants him to do something differently? It’s ok when things are going well but you need to pick things out when they are going wrong. I remember in the League Cup final, in the second half when we were under pressure just after we had conceded the goal, we were hitting too many long balls to you and Doog and they kept coming back at us, whereas in the first half we were knocking it about and building up. In the end, I had to go and take the ball myself and start keeping it. It’s things like that a midfielder can get into and sort out. You’re near enough to be able to speak to everyone all over the pitch.

Q: You had a very long throw in….did you practise it and was it a pre-planned tactic against certain opposition because you did not overuse it? (From FMM)

A: It wasn’t a long throw-in compared with some of those nowadays. The ball was different but we had the ability and freedom to improvise at throw-ins and free-kicks. We had some set plays but were able to do what we felt was right at the time. I remember when we played Leicester, we had a throw-in and Kenny Hibbitt had the ball. I jogged towards him as if to take the throw-in but their full-back turned away, so I went past him down the line. Kenny threw the ball to me and I knocked into the near post, where you scored. We had that freedom to play it as we saw it. We had plans but we could do something different when it was on. 

Q: Did you break your foot before hitting a scorching 25-yarder that put paid to Manchester United in the Cup or was it after you scored? I can’t remember after all this time. (From Wolvesman)

A: I can’t recall the goal but I can remember the injury. Bobby Charlton stood on my foot when I went into a tackle with him. We’d already scored. The injury was in the first half and the lads had to play on without me. I was in hospital when I heard that we had won 1-0. 

Q: I guess Wisbech, where you were born, is a bit of a football backwater. Did you support a team when growing up there? (From Charlie Bamforth)

A: It was during the war. My dad was in the Army – I think he was in India. So, my mum was evacuated from Great Yarmouth to Wisbech. It’s funny how things work out. I couldn’t understand the sense of it because they were evacuating the London people to Norfolk. That’s how I came to be born in Wisbech. It was two years before the end of the war. Afterwards, we moved back to Great Yarmouth. My dad’s favourite team were Tottenham, so I used to support them. But, locally, Norwich have always been my team. They were the first professional team I saw, Norwich at Carrow Road. 

The scourge of Manchester United.

Q: Didn’t you ‘room’ with the coach driver? And was McGarry’s disappearing suitcase really an accident? (From Adrian Monk)

A: I never shared rooms with the coach driver, Sid Kipping. He was a fantastic character and great with the lads. Ernie used to put his hands over Sid’s eyes while he was driving. When I think back, it was so dangerous. Fortunately, there weren’t as many vehicles on the road in those days. About Bill McGarry’s suitcase…..Sid actually reversed the coach over it! We were at the hotel in Droitwich Spa when somebody got the cases out of the back and McGarry’s was left behind the coach. Sid ran over it and, as you can imagine, Bill wasn’t too pleased. We had some good times!

* Wolves Heroes extend their usual thanks to Molineux Mix for their assistance in making this lengthy feature possible. 

By John Richards

This latest Q & A has been particularly enjoyable for me because it involves my former captain and team-mate, Mike Bailey. Mike was the man who led us to the final of the UEFA Cup in 1972 and then succeeded in lifting the League Cup two years later. He was a natural leader and an inspirational player. He was without doubt the best captain I played under and I firmly believe Wolves have not had a captain of his calibre since he left in 1976. As you’d imagine, we were inundated with questions for him, so much so that we are going to publish this interview in two parts. And, in one or two cases where questions are very similar, we have linked them together.

An England cap to go with Mike Bailey's Charlton colours, rather than those he would wear for so long at Wolves.

Q: Mike, you were awarded a full England cap early in your career at Charlton….why do you think this was not built on during your career at Wolves? And how disappointed are you that it was not? (From Jim Heath). Why did you never get more than the two England caps you gained at Charlton? You had an outstanding career (From Goldeneyed)

A: My involvement with the full England team came after an under-23 tour in 1965 when I was with Charlton. I had been home for a week, then I got a call from the FA saying I had been selected to go on a senior tour to Brazil. Alf Ramsey was the manager. We flew to America for a warm-up game, I played and we won 10-0. Then we went to Brazil, where we played Brazil, Argentina and Portugal in a mini tournament. I didn’t play in Brazil but, in the November after we got back, I was picked to play against Wales. I was then in the squad for the next international against Holland but broke my leg. It was during the lead-up to the 1966 World Cup, so, sadly, I was not involved in that. That was a big blow, being out of the reckoning for the World Cup. I got back in the squad once the leg was mended but the manager was not going to change his World Cup winning team and they went all round the world playing exhibition matches.

Q: Do you think your England career was in any way held back by playing at Molineux, rather than a high profile outfit in London or in the North West? Lord knows, you were plenty good enough! (From John Lalley)

A: There was a suggestion that the move to Wolves was detrimental to my England career but I never felt that was the case.

Q: Can I ask you about Mexico 1970 and whether you had any contact from Alf Ramsey about being included? I remember Geoffrey Green of The Times saying at the time that you should have gone (From Wagstaffe was Magic)

A: I was included in a few of the squads after 1966 but Alf Ramsey, understandably, stayed loyal to his World Cup winning squad. By the time 1970 came around, I wasn’t in the squad and didn’t have any contact. After all this time, I can’t remember the Geoffrey Green article but it was nice of him to write that!

Q: Do you feel Wolves could have sustained a title challenge between 1971 and 1973 if a bit of team strengthening had occurred. Did we come up slightly short? And why, after the high of Wembley ’74, did the club, instead of building on the triumph, allow it all to fizzle into relegation within two years? (From John Lalley). Who do you think would have made us the complete side that would have topped the league? (From Oldgold Wolfcub). The relegation season in ’76…..what do you think went wrong? (From IrchyWolf)

'We were title challengers.'

A: I felt we were challenging for the title during that time. I think we probably didn’t believe in ourselves as much as we should have done. We’d got the players. After promotion in 1967, we spent a couple of years developing the team and I felt we should have marched on from there. We might have got a bit more help from Bill McGarry through adding more experience to the squad. I was quite happy with the players we had. We were strong in all positions. Perhaps we needed more quality in the back-ups, ie in the reserves. It’s not like today, where clubs have a squad of top-quality players. When we lost one of our first-team players for a length of time, it did make a difference. If you look at the teams now, the back-up quality is as good as those on the pitch. We really relied on 15 or 16 players to get us through a season. I also felt this was a factor in our relegation two years after the League Cup victory. We had players getting older and key players getting injured but the replacements of the necessary quality weren’t there.

(JR): This is also my view of the relegation we suffered in 1982, two years after the second League Cup final win. There were a number of players, myself included, who were in the 30-plus age bracket but replacements weren’t being lined up.

Q: Given that your era included a lot of flair players and hard men, it would be interesting to know which players you most feared playing against (From Nimrod)

A: Liam Brady of Arsenal was a quality player and, of course, Georgie Best. With George, you didn’t mark him, that wasn’t possible. It was a case of the nearest person to him marking him. That’s how it worked. They were both great players with brilliant football brains.

Q: I think the best goal I ever saw you score was for Charlton against Wolves just before your transfer to us. What are your memories of this and your subsequent move to the Midlands? (From Red Socks)

A: That’s a long time ago now. I can’t remember the goal, sorry, but I think the score was 1-1. My move to Wolves happened very quickly. I was training one day when the manager Bob Stokoe said Ronnie Allen had been on the phone and he would like a chat. He asked if I’d be interested in having a meeting. I said yes, so I went up to meet Ronnie and signed on the day. I was so impressed with the club obviously. I’d played against Wolves and they had players like Ernie Hunt, who I knew as I’d shared a room with him on the England under-23 tour, and Dave Wagstaffe. You could see Ronnie was putting together a very good team.

Another shot from the Cambridgeshire boy's days at The Valley.

Q: It was a very quick decision. You were married at the time – did you discuss the move with Barbara? (From JR)

A: I was negotiating the move with the Wolves chairman, John Ireland……you know what he was like. He wanted to get the deal done straightaway. I asked if I could think about it but he said: “We haven’t got time for that.” I was a bit naive, so I just asked if I could call my wife. I told her I was going to sign and we were moving to Wolverhampton. Fortunately, she was working for the Bank of England and they had a branch in Birmingham, so that fitted in and she transferred to that branch. I signed and went back to Charlton. Bob Stokoe asked me how I had got on and was a bit surprised. “Signed?” he said, “there are a couple of other clubs who were in for you!” However, it worked out well. I was very pleased to come to Molineux.

Q: How did it feel to lift the League Cup, especially given we were such underdogs? And were you worried about Gary Pierce being in goal? (From Waggy’s Boots)

A: No way at all was I worried about Gary Pierce being in goal. I was very disappointed for Phil Parkes because he had played in all the previous rounds. To be fair, I didn’t expect Gary to play the way that he did. It was a fantastic one-off performance. McGarry had prepared us well for the final. We spent the week at Worthing. I felt we were just superb on the day and we settled down quicker. Because of the big occasion, I did wonder if we would be a bit nervy but that wasn’t the case. We just got at them from the outset.

Q: What was Bill McGarry like to play for? (From Waggy’s Boots)

A: We didn’t have a particularly good relationship. I just did as I was asked on the pitch – whatever the plan was. My job was to make sure McGarry’s orders were followed in games. There was a difference between McGarry and Ronnie Allen. Some people felt things were getting too lax under Ronnie and players were deciding things whereas McGarry came in with a strong disciplinarian style, both on and off the pitch.

Q: How did you like management when your career branched out in that way? (From Waggy’s Boots)

A: I enjoyed management when we won. I enjoyed the every-day stuff and I enjoyed transforming teams, getting them to play how I wanted them to and getting success out of it. Barbara says I would never have lasted as a manager because I was too worked up on match-days - a nervous wreck she described me as. We had a good side at Brighton and did really well. They got to the (1983) FA Cup final the year I was sacked. The difficulty I had was with the chairman. He was not satisfied with anything. I made Brighton a difficult team to beat. I knew the standard of the players we had and knew how to win matches. We used to work on clean sheets. With the previous manager, they hadn’t won away from home but we went to Anfield and won. But the chairman kept saying: “Why can’t we score a few more goals?” He didn’t understand it.

Q: Mike, we believe you did some scouting for Dave Jones. It would be interesting to know who you watched and if you felt any players were missed by not following up on your recommendations? Did anyone sign for Wolves because of your advice? (From Shergar)

A: That really wasn’t my role. I was mainly doing assessment on games and teams. It was match analysis rather than scouting for players.

Q: When Leeds beat us in the FA Cup semi-final at Maine Road in 1973, were you really fit or still struggling? I know Bill McGarry desperately wanted you to play and you must have desperately wanted to be involved but was it touch and go? (From BitterBob)

A: I felt I could have played from the start but McGarry was worried about Frank Munro, who was also carrying an injury. I came on part-way through the second half and, although we put Leeds under a lot of pressure, we couldn’t get the equaliser I felt we deserved. It was a very disappointing day.

Kenny Hibbitt - challenging here with Spurs' Martin Peters and regarded by Mike Bailey as a high-quality midfielder.

Q: Who was the best midfielder that you ever played with? (From Japan Wulf)

A: It has to be Kenny Hibbitt. He was a bit special. Some people have suggested Danny Hegan and he did have plenty of ability but he was inconsistent.

Q: How good was Peter Knowles and how far could he have gone? (From FMM). As captain, did you feel you could or should have tried to get Peter Knowles to change his mind about quitting the game? (From Dewsburywolf)

A: He could have been in the England 1970 World Cup squad. He was as good as that. He had unbelievable ability – super feet, a very good football brain and an ability to entertain. He could do tricks and would sit on the ball, which wasn’t to everyone’s liking. To be honest, yes, I did believe he would change his mind about quitting football. I thought he would come back. I think we all did. Give him a year or so and he would be back – that’s how we saw it. But he stuck to his belief and principles, and I admire him greatly for it. There had been rumours about him leaving and I remember sitting by him on a coach trip to a game and saying: “Don’t talk to me about religion.” He had been talking to other players about them joining his faith. But that was it and I never saw him again until last year when he attended Bobby Thomson’s funeral.

Part Two of this q & a will follow in the next couple of weeks

Mike Bailey fulfilling the dynamic role Wolves fans fondly recall him in.

Mike Bailey is to be John Richards’ next subject in our Q & A feature.

The inspirational long-time Molineux captain has agreed to step in and field questions from readers and JR himself.

The feature is due to be posted in the second half of June and we have been bowled over by the number of questions our readers have submitted.

“I’m on record as saying that I regard Mike as the best skipper I knew and the best Wolves have had since Billy Wright,” Richards said.

“He really was a leader you responded to and wanted to play for. If you let your standards slip, he wasn’t slow to let you know.

“I have very fond memories of playing alongside him. We had many years together in the same Wolves side, so I’m looking forward to talking to him at length about that era.

“But the idea of this feature is that we put readers’ questions to the chosen person. With that in mind, we want to hear from as many fans as possible.

“There’s certainly plenty of material for us all to go at.”

Bailey had twice been capped by England when he was signed by Ronnie Allen for £40,000 from Charlton in March, 1966.

The Legends section of this website shows him to be standing 13th in the list of all-time record Wolves appearance makers with his 436 games for them in League and cups.

That famous barrel-chested appearance......

The highlight of his 11-year stay was lifting the League Cup at Wembley in 1974, although he was also named as Midlands Footballer of the Year in 1967 after skippering the club to promotion back to the top flight.

What is less known is that the 68-year-old served Wolves as a scout in much more recent times.

Questions on all these matters – and many more – will be welcome, so please send them by June 8 to JR@wolvesheroes.com or info@wolvesheroes.com or follow the usual procedure set by our friends at www.molineuxmix.co.uk

Interviewer and interviewee.

By John Richards

What better way to spend a few hours than chatting with one of Wolves’ all-time legends, Bert Williams? A few weeks after his 90th birthday celebrations at Molineux, I recently had the pleasure of visiting his Shifnal home to pose questions sent in by fans – plus one or two of my own. Many thanks again to our friends at Molineux Mix for supporting us in this venture.

Q: You’ve recently been involved in a Mars advert promoting this year’s World Cup. What did that involve? (From Mick Lambert)

A: There were 20 or so people here the one day, from the agency that was putting the advert together for Mars. They were first-class, so well organised. Two of them were here at 8.30 in the morning to coordinate things. A photographer turned up and he took lots of pictures of my lounge, then they removed everything from the room and set it up for the filming. The pictures were to make sure they knew where to put things back after the filming. One of the young ladies even invited me into the bedroom, but just to put my make-up on! They were here all day.

I forgot to mention that they had also notified my neighbours in advance because of the number of cars and vans that were going to be in the road. They also took a bouquet of flowers round to them at the end of the day to apologise for the inconvenience. They really were very professional. Mars also sent me a couple of boxes of chocolates, which I’m still working through!

Q: Obviously, with England being drawn in the same group as the USA, there has been a lot of media reference to the last time they met in the World Cup in 1950……a game you played in. There was even some talk of a possible visit by you to America, wasn’t there? (From LHB and David Instone)

A: There was some indication of a trip to America and, apparently, it was going to be well-run, well-organised and well-thought-out. But I wasn’t interested. In your life, you have highs and lows, and there’s no reason why, at my age, I should concentrate on the lows. I’m still trying to forget that match, after 60 years! I don’t think we will have any difficulty beating the USA in this year’s World Cup. In 1950, we weren’t beaten by a better side, we were beaten by a team who went out with a set idea. They realised there wasn’t any chance of winning but they also realised they weren’t going to lose  by a large number of goals. And, as a result, they played to a certain style. As soon as an England player got the ball, every player in the American side retreated to the goal-line. You couldn’t see the goal. It was unbelievable how many times we hit the crossbar and upright, and legs, when we should have had goals. Then, as happens in many games, we got caught on the break.

Unhappy memories from 1950.

There’s also a story attached to the fellow who scored the goal, someone called Cajuns I think. He lived in Haiti. Mind you, there were all sorts of nationalities in their team, even Scotsmen. He scored the goal and when he went back to America, he decided to go to Haiti to open a little shop. This was in the days when the island was ruled by a dictator and, apparently, one day a couple of guards fetched him out of the shop and shot him. Nobody ever discovered his body.

Q: What do you think of today’s game, the better pitches, the speed of the players etc? (From bod101)

A: I think the idea of the game is to get the ball into the opponents’ net more times than they get it into yours. They don’t play like that nowadays. You get bored after 20 minutes with the passing, there’s no excitement. It used to be end-to-end excitement for the whole of the 90 minutes. Today, it is very stereotyped. And the goalkeeper’s job is much easier. Years ago, you had centre-forwards who were allowed to physically charge you into the back of the net. It was part of the game. Now, they’ve got all the time in the world. One thing I would say is that it must be very difficult to play with the ball of today because it moves in the air so much. You’ve got to allow for this.

The game isn’t as exciting as you and I used to know it. You could be shopping in Wolverhampton and hear the cheers from the stadium. You could follow the game. They used to shout ‘offside’ or ‘corner’. Everybody was involved in the game. Now you get too many phases when you could drop off to sleep. It’s possession football.

Stan Cullis would not allow me to throw a ball to a full-back. He had a Group Captain in the Air Force come in to log a match, against Tottenham. They played goalkeeper to full-back, full-back to centre-half, centre-half to right-half, right-half to right-wing, right-wing to centre-forward and so on. They had 16 passes of the ball to get one shot at goal. Wolves had one long ball from the goalkeeper and four shots at goals in the same time. Stan told me if I started playing any of this academic stuff, he’d drop me. One day, however, Eddie Stuart and I went to see him to suggest it might work if I did throw it out to the full-back occasionally. He said: “All right, try it.” So we did it. I caught a cross and threw it out to Eddie but it didn’t quite reach him and somebody nipped in and put it in the net! I was afraid to go in the dressing room. Stan had a built-in warning system when he was angry, he made this ‘wheeeing’ sound for about three seconds as he was breathing in, before he let rip at you. You had to get away very quickly!

Q: What were the highlights of your career – the Cup Final in 1949? (From LHB)

A: That was one of them, of course, but also the games against Manchester United in the semi-finals. We had both our full-backs injured in the first one. There were no substitutes in those days, so they ended up playing on the wings. We basically played against Manchester United with nine men and we managed to get a draw. That was a fantastic achievement as we then went on to win the replay.

Q: Was it always your dream to be a professional footballer and to play in goal? (From Mutchy)

A: The biggest influence on my life in that respect was my father. He was an exceedingly good goalkeeper with a good local reputation. He probably could have gone on to play professional football but he wore glasses, which was a disadvantage because of the physical contact. He encouraged and taught me, so I owe everything to him.

Q: Did you ever play out? (From Charlie Bamforth)

A: No, I couldn’t head a ball to save my life and couldn’t kick with my left foot either! So, I was always in goal and started at school when I was 12 or 13. In those days, you left school at 14 and I progressed to the local team in Bilston. It was a step-up but Walsall must have got to hear about me. I think they were desperate for a goalkeeper and they came over to see me. They asked if I wanted to sign for them and, of course, it was a dream come true. It was what I’d always wanted. My first game was the following Monday against an Albion A team at The Hawthorns. Another dream come true because I was a West Bromwich supporter.

Q: When you stopped playing, did you find it difficult to adjust to not being a professional footballer? (From Mutchy)

Life after football - a time for new challenges.

A: Not really because, in those days, you had no trade. When you left football, you were dependent on somebody finding you a job. I know players who were in the same team as me who finished up sweeping the floor in a factory. But I didn’t want to do that, so I started a sports shop. I was a PTI in the Air Force in the war, so I wanted to do something related to sport. I couldn’t find a shop but a friend of mine, who was a tailor in Bilston, said I could use his window and keep a bit of stock in the back. I did that and it started doing quite well. A lot of the factories had teams, so I went round to them and the clubs and schools in the area and the business grew and grew.

The next thing I wanted to do was build a sports centre, so I purchased a piece of land at Bilston. I had the shop and storeroom. I then went over to Warwickshire to find out what you needed for an indoor cricket centre. They gave me some advice and I had three cricket practice areas in the centre, with nets and a run-up and special flooring, so it played exactly as it would on a proper cricket pitch. I was still playing part-time but decided to retire to concentrate on the business. I didn’t want to end up sweeping floors somewhere! I approached Wolverhampton Council to try to set up a similar centre in the town but didn’t get any luck. The centre was doing well with the cricket and then I started a goalkeeping school. I even had people coming from as far as Bolton. I had hurdles, we did all of the exercises, and I had special rubber mats so they could dive without hurting themselves. I made sure everyone had some time on the mat before they went home. I used to drive the ball at the keepers until one night I must have torn the inside of my stomach, and it was bleeding inside. The doctor told me to stop kicking, which prompted me to sell the school. I sold it to two goalkeepers, both well known in the Midlands – John Osborne and Jim Cumbes.

I was living in Shifnal at the time and a plot of land was up for sale, so I bought it and built three factory units on it. That has been the family business ever since.

Q: Back-to-back games were common in your day, at Christmas and Easter, and some of the trips were a good distance. How did you manage with the travelling and playing? (From Jonzy54)

A: Most of the journeys were by Don Everall coaches. If the away game was at Sunderland, we’d travel up the night before, then come straight back after the game ready for the home match the following day. Sometimes we played Christmas Day and Boxing Day but didn’t get two wages for that!  

Q: I’ve decided to add a few different questions to the mix, so, first of all, what was you first car?

A: It was a Ford Anglia, I bought it from a company called Billinghams on the Birmingham New Road. I’d never had a car before. I was about 25 and it was my pride and joy. I’ve still got a photograph somewhere of me receiving it from Billinghams, from Tony Guy.

Q: The Lafayette was the centre of our social world. Where did you go, Bert? Was there a main dance hall or something like that?

A: I’ve never been to a dance in my life, John. I’ve never been on a dance floor to dance. My wife was very much the same. We met through local people, local connections. We’re Black Country people through and through.

Q: How did you meet then?

A: In those days, you used to wander up and down the town and walk round. One day, these two girls were walking towards me and one of them was a girl I went to school with. We stopped to talk and my wife (to be) was a friend of hers. One thing eventually led to another and we got together. She’s the only girlfriend I’ve ever had in my life. Do you think I should be living in a monastery?

Q: Didn’t they have dances at the Civic Hall?

A: There were dances but, as I say, I can’t dance, John. The two of us met when I was living in Bilston. I was playing for Walsall then. We used to talk and do a bit of romancing, as you do. It wasn’t bragging but, one day, I told her I was going to play for England. It was something as a kid you dreamed of and that was always my dream. Very, very rarely do dreams come true but mine did. Everything I’ve got, I dreamed of. To be able to say that everything I dreamed of has come true makes me very, very fortunate.

The handsome face the football world remembers....Bert in his Molineux hey-day.

We won the cup, we won the league, I played for England……..but, you know, the most precious thing to me is the number of friends I’ve made. They are there for good. To go out and be recognised and talked to is a privilege.

More than just a legendary player......picture provided by 'Mutchy'.

A week and a half ago, we launched our new Player Q and A, with John Richards offering revealing insights into the long goal-grabbing segment of his Wolves career. Here in part two, the former striker concentrates more on his years as the club’s managing director.

Intro by JR: ”Can I thank everyone for sending in their questions. There were dozens of them. I have to admit I couldn’t get round to answering them all. There were some, such as my favourite Wolves goal and favourite matches etc, which I have answered so many times on the radio or in sports forums, so, to avoid repeating myself, I have focused on the ones which are either contentious or different.”

Q: After you left Wolves, you went to work with Wolverhampton Council before becoming Wolves’ managing director in 1994. Did you ever consider becoming a football manager? (From SanFranWolf)

A: To put the record straight regarding my career and the dates…….after leaving Wolves in 1983, I played for the Portuguese team, Maritimo, on the island of Madeira. I took up a position with Wolverhampton Council in January, 1986, a few months after returning from Madeira, and stayed there until 1992, when I moved to Cannock Council, and subsequently became MD at Wolves in October, 1997. I had become a non-executive director at Wolves in 1994, which is what may have caused your confusion over the dates. The simple answer to your question is: no. It never even vaguely crossed my mind to try to become a manager. It just didn’t interest me. I have friends who went into coaching and management (such as Kenny Hibbitt and Mike Bailey) but they had a natural passion for the game and the ability to read how a game was being played. You could see it even in training. They would be the ones directing the play and telling players what positions they should be taking up. I didn’t have their desire or ability in this respect. Even now, I have no particular urge to go and watch a game of football – there are many more things I would prefer to do. The other big factor is the uncertainty of the management profession. Managers and coaches at all levels of the game are sacked on a regular basis and that’s not ideal if you’re the sort who prefers a settled family life and to set down roots.

Q: Do you regret coming back to Wolves as MD and do you think it soured your relationship with the fans and club? (From Singwolf)

A: No to both questions. When I took on the position in 1997, the club were in an entirely different situation to the previous few years. There wasn’t unlimited money to spend and they were making significant annual losses. Sir Jack, understandably, wanted that trend stopped. It meant having to cut back in many areas and starting to live within our means. Some fans don’t like to hear that message but I like to think the sensible majority realise that spending more money than you are actually earning, year after year, is a recipe for disaster. It wasn’t an easy time and there were even some fans who criticised Sir Jack and questioned his commitment to the club. It’s ludicrous to think that was the case but it happened. Actually, my relationship with the club and the supporters couldn’t be better. In the last month, I have been fortunate and honoured to be inducted into the club’s Hall of Fame and have also enjoyed two wonderful social events hosted by the London Wolves Supporters Club and the Daventry Dun Cow Wolverhampton Wanderers FC Supporters Club. Three fantastic evenings which I’m still recovering from, in fact!

Q: There is a section of our support that will remember your tenure as MD for not getting a sell-on fee/clause when Robbie Keane went to Coventry. Please can you put the record straight? (From Shergar)

Kenny Hibbitt - a great provider and natural reader of the game.

A: As you can imagine, this isn’t the first time I’ve been asked this question – and there’s a simple answer. The decision taken was to have the money in the bank today, rather than hope for money that may or may not come tomorrow. We needed to strengthen the team but there wasn’t any money available to buy players without selling first. The more money we could generate for the manager, the more team strengthening he could do immediately. Only two clubs put in bids in the region of what we were looking for – one was for £5.5m with the possibility of a sell-on fee (generally 10%) and the other was from Coventry, who offered the straight £6m. I might add here that there was one director ready to let Robbie go for around the £3 million mark but, fortunately, he was in the minority. And please bear in mind that any sell-on fee only relates to the difference in the buying and selling prices. Therefore, when Robbie did move from Coventry for £11m, the lower offer with the sell-on clause would only have generated Wolves an additional £0.55m, just £50k more than we got anyway. Of course, there are other unknowns, such as the other club never selling, in which case Wolves would have received nothing, or Robbie getting a serious injury. To be honest, it wasn’t a difficult decision to make. The manager immediately had £6m to strengthen his team rather than £5.5m. It was a simple case of ‘a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush’.

Q: Your views on not getting more caps for England? (From StillProud)

A: I would have loved to have gained more full caps for England but, in all honesty, I don’t think I was quite as good as some of the other English strikers around. I’d done my apprenticeship in the under-23s, so the manager and coaches knew my capabilities. The game I played, against Northern Ireland at Goodison, was a disappointment. Yes, I was played out of position on the left, but I don’t think I did myself justice. After that match, I went on tour with the England team and was hopeful of having another chance, but others such as Keegan and MacDonald gave better showings, so, together with Chivers, Clarke and Channon, England had more than enough strikers to choose from. The following season, I was dogged by a pelvic injury, which limited my chances with England, and then I started having problems with my right knee which led to two operations in 1976 within the space of four months. After that, it was always difficult to get back to the same level of performance. I’d had my chance and, unfortunately, never took it.

Q: Your relationship with Doog on the pitch was superb. How was it off the pitch? Were you close friends? Did you speak to the Doog after the Bhatti era and did he regret involving them in the club? (From Glasgowwolf)

Q: We know you fell out with Dougan over the way he effectively forced you out of Molineux as a player. Having subsequently been MD at Wolves yourself, have you now got more empathy with him over that situation? (From Marvin)

A signed picture of The Doog.

A: It’s interesting, Marvin, how things can become distorted over the passage of time. Derek and I did not fall out because, to use your phrase, ‘he effectively forced me out of Molineux’. That scenario wasn’t even a remote possibility. When I left Wolves in 1983, I still had two years on my contract, so I could quite comfortably have stayed and neither Derek nor the club could have done anything about it. Most players know when they are coming to the end of their playing days and my decision to leave Wolves was based purely on the fact that I wanted to finish my career playing in somebody’s first team, not idling about picking up my money in the reserves. It had nothing to do with Derek. In fact, my fall-out with Derek occurred after I left Wolves and when I was playing in Madeira. It’s on record what the fall-out was about, so I don’t feel the need to keep repeating it.

John Richards at London Wolves' Christmas dinner following the Premier League game against Burnley at Molineux.

Wolves Heroes is delighted to launch the promised 2010 addition to this website – a feature being overseen by no less a figure than John Richards.

JR is to approach a different former player every few weeks and put to them questions submitted directly to us by our readers or through our link-up with www.molineuxmix.co.uk

Keep your eyes on the news area of our site to see who he will be targeting first. For now, though, the stage is all his as he takes his place as the first subject in our Player Q and A. Over to him……

“First of all, can I say what a pleasure it has been to receive so many questions. In fact, there were too many to answer in one go, so there will be a part two to this feature soon, concentrating, among other things, on my time as Wolves’ managing director. Okay, on with the questions.”

Q: Was there a player during your career that you didn’t play alongside but would like to have done? (From Mutchy)

Andy would have been even more handy round Molineux a few years earlier.

A: During the 1970s, there were a lot of striker combinations, including, of course, mine with the Doog. It seemed to be the style of the day. Liverpool had Keegan and Toshack, Leeds used Clarke and Jones and, at Tottenham, there were Chivers and Gilzean. To be honest, I felt our partnership was as good as any – probably better in some respects because we had players of the quality of Dave Wagstaffe and Kenny Hibbitt supplying us. When he came on the scene at Aston Villa, I was very impressed with Andy Gray; brave, strong, able to score goals. He was a revelation and a player you would love to have in your side. I know we eventually teamed up at Wolves but, by then, both of us were carrying chronic injuries, which meant we were never at our best together. I reckon if Andy and I had teamed up in our peak in the early to mid 1970s, we would have formed quite a partnership. The other striker I felt was as good as anyone was Martin Chivers. For a big lad, he was extremely skilful and always caused us problems. He was a top-quality player.

Q: You scored 194 goals for Wolves – which are your three favourites? (From SanFranWolf)

A: I’m regularly asked about my favourite goal but not the top three. My favourite was the winner in the League Cup semi-final second leg against Norwich in 1974. It wasn’t the most spectacular by any means – a typical flick on from Doog, which I chased and hit under the goalkeeper’s body. But it meant we had reached the final at Wembley and that was the dream of every footballer in the land. We had suffered the disappointment the previous season of losing in the semis of both the League Cup and the FA Cup, so this was a special moment. The other two at the top of my list are the winner in that 1974 League Cup final (obviously!) and the first goal of a hat-trick against Everton at Molineux in 1973. That one was a bit more than my normal tap-ins. I took a cross from Derek Parkin on my left foot on the edge of the area, touched it to the side and hit it on the volley with my left foot. It went past Gordon West into the top, far corner of the net. Quite a good one.

Q: I remember once reading that there was a great reliance on long-distance running during training. How does this compare with the training techniques employed now? Are players training for the same game now? (From IrchyWolf)

Q: A lot has been said about the gulf in standards between today’s Premier League and the First Division in your day, ie that the football is faster and players more skilful and fit. Do you subscribe to this view? (From Singwolf)

A: Two questions along the same lines, so I will deal with them together if I may. I’m not sure I’m knowledgeable enough about today’s training to be able to answer the first one. I assume there would definitely be some emphasis on stamina training, even nowadays, and that would include long-distance running. To be able to run around for 90 minutes, at the pace they do, the players need a lot of stamina. That can’t be generated from gym work alone or five-a-side games. It can only be developed with distance running and other running routines.

The Baseball Ground in 1971.....how would today's players have fared in that mud?

I have to say that the standard of play nowadays is far higher than in my generation. The game’s a lot quicker, which is mainly as a result of the increased fitness of the players. Training techniques have improved, dietary advice and medical treatment have changed totally. In my early days at Wolves, our pre-match meal was steak, and a cartilage operation could keep you out for six to eight weeks. The improvements have been massive and that is reflected in the quality of the play. In line with that comment, however, I have to add that the pitches have contributed to the improvements. Grass on the pitch throughout the season is the norm now. We had to play in mud, snow, ice and, in some cases, a combination of all of them!

Q: You can take two players you played with, to join you in the Premier League this season. All of you are magically at your peaks. Who do you take and why? (From Oldgold)

A: Great question. I was very fortunate to play with some top-notch players, so, as you can imagine, trying to pick out just two has been extremely difficult. The first, however, has to be Mike Bailey. There wouldn’t be any argument about this selection from any of the players fortunate enough to be in Mike’s teams. He is the best captain Wolves have had in the last 40 years. In many ways, Mike was underrated but those who played alongside him and against him for that matter would vouch for the impact he could make on any game. He was a fantastic tackler, had great stamina, could control a game and, in his own quiet way, would keep everyone focused on what they had to do. Most Wolves fans will have seen a recording of the 1974 League Cup final – have a look again and just count the number of tackles Mike makes, how he dictates the midfield against some world-class opposition. The perfect captain and definitely my first choice to join me in today’s Premier League.

'Squeak' burns off the challenge of Kenny Hibbitt's brother Terry.

For the second one, I had a lot more deliberation. Hibby, Andy Gray, Doog, Waggy, Big Frank – all, at their peak, were awesome players and all easily able to star in today’s Premier League. In the end, I’ve gone for Derek Parkin – a quality player who played at left-back, although he was a natural right-back. He had so much natural ability, he could have played anywhere. Derek was also a born athlete, able to run all day, and he could hit a ball well with either foot. He was quick, a great tackler and even knocked in the odd goal. Actually, I can’t think of any weakness in his game, which is why he is my second choice.

Q: What is it like having Kenny Hibbitt as a brother-in-law? (From RedFlagWolf)

A: Kenny isn’t my brother-in-law. We are related via our wives. Kenny’s wife, Jane, and my wife, Pam, are cousins. Because of this family relationship, however, and because we stayed at Wolves so long, we did spend a lot of time together in the seventies and became very good friends. We still are. If I have one criticism of him, it’s that he is too good at golf. He’s a natural, plays off scratch and makes it look so easy. He always has done. While the rest of us were hacking in and out of the rough, Kenny was drilling his ball down the middle of the fairway. It’s all very unfair but, in his defence, I have to say he is one of the nicest people you could ever wish to meet. He loves meeting fans and talking about games. In fact, give him a pint and someone to talk to about football, and he’s in his element. A great lad.

Q: Why Wolves? You were born in Warrington and there are a lot of clubs in the north west, so what was the attraction of Wolves, and did you have trials at any other clubs? (From andy-in-seat-190)

 A: There was no interest in me from any of the north-west clubs when I was playing in local football up to the age of 18. Warrington is a rugby league town, so perhaps scouts didn’t place too much emphasis on it. The only interest in me came as a result of a schools football tournament in which I was playing in the Easter of 1969 – and that was in Bognor! I was selected for the England Grammar Schools team. As a result, I was approached by a number of scouts. Wolves were the first and I was invited to play in the last reserve game of the season. Other clubs came to talk to me, including Derby County and Sheffield Wednesday, but I had been impressed by Molineux and the chairman John Ireland. After the reserve game, he came and congratulated me on my performance and asked me if I would like to play for Wolves. The rest, as they say, is history. I came to Wolverhampton on a one-year contract and, 40 years later, I’m delighted still to be here.