Dear Diary Entry 141

Forward Provides Voice Of Experience

Saturday, May 27: Good to see Keith Andrews and Don Goodman on play-off final duty for Sky Sports, with the striker reaching a special anniversary in the process. It is exactly 22 years today since his goal for Walsall in their League One play-off final victory over Reading at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium

Tears Of Sadness, Tears Of Disbelief

Tragic News Of Fomer Wolves Striker

We were half-expecting to read the weekend news about Ruben Neves’ exit from Wolves, even if his chosen destination was a major surprise. The appalling announcement about Cedric Roussel was something else totally, though, and utterly disproves that famous old ‘life and death’ saying coined by Bill Shankly.

Near-Lee But Not Quite

Unusual Reason For Why Frannie Deal Fell Down

How the course of football history revolves around certain decisions….it is frequently said that Wolves would have become a team with a genuine chance of winning the First Division had Peter Knowles not chosen to retire at 23. He may well, in turn, have gone to the Mexico World Cup in 1970 but where would the full flowering of his career have left Alan Sunderland and even Kenny Hibbitt?

‘Team-Mates To Look Up To’

Blades On Wolves Stars Who Also Served Derby

Archie Gemmill, Peter Shilton, Mark Wright and John Robertson were among Paul Blades’s blue-chip team-mates at Derby on a trail that might well have led him into European football. During his roller-coaster of a ride at the Baseball Ground, the defender helped win back-to-back promotions and later became a club record signing at both Norwich and Rotherham.

Why Scottish Stardust Didn’t Reach Molineux

Spotlight On Cullis’s Would-Be Successor

Kilmarnock is an East Ayrshire town with a population close to 50,000 and with Jim McCalliog living only a few miles away. Its football club is eight years older than our beloved Wolves. In a country where the game is dominated by two clubs in Glasgow and, to a lesser extent, two in Edinburgh – with a notable stand from Aberdeen back in the days of Ferguson – opportunities for success at Rugby Park have been few and far between.

One Hundred Years On….And Celebrated In Shoes

Jonathan Happy To Foot Quirky Bill

What do you get to celebrate the life of someone who had everything? A pair of his favourite shoes, of course.
Sir Jack Hayward was famous for his hush-puppies and went nowhere in anything else. Correction: He once confided in me that when he attended black-tie events, he took the distinctive, more comfortable footwear along for when he could safely change out of his formal pair under the table.

A Walk In The Park

Lofty And The Lads On An Outing With A Difference

Phil Parkes is taking part in tomorrow’s Race For Life in Wolverhampton – but will be paying no attention to the clock! The much-loved keeper will be striding out among the crowds in West Park, barely a couple of hefty goal-kicks from where he earned his living for a decade and a half with Wolves.

A Strange Reserve Of Talent

Curious Match-Up Of Hopefuls Who Became Great Mates

How many Wolves players can you cram into a competitive match between two altogether different clubs? Rival sides, no less, who have blue and white as their primary colours. Try SEVEN as the astonishing answer! And all of them had highly prominent careers at Molineux before or after this unusual meeting.

New Take On A Familiar Theme

American Trip Conjures Up Nostalgic Recollections

It’s an end-of-season tournament in America – but not as older Wolves supporters will remember them! In 1967, the squad who had just won promotion back to Division One played the small matter of 14 Stateside matches with Los Angeles as their base, the last of them an utterly epic 6-5 golden-goal victory over Aberdeen in the final.

Allen: Talent Finder Supreme

And Here’s Why Wolves’ Directors Were Extra Pleased….

Bailey, Dougan, Hibbitt, Munro, Parkin….the names of Ronnie Allen’s signings trip happily off the tongues of Wolves supporters. But there is another, lesser-known aspect of the promotion-winning boss’s two and a half seasons in official charge that is almost as praiseworthy; namely, that he was well in profit on his transfer dealings at Molineux.