Promoted…..The Party Begins!

Monday, May 4: Hats off to Wolves Women for the play-off victory over Plymouth that means they are promoted to WSL2 following their frustration of 12 months ago. Among the sizeable attendance at the game at Burton’s Pirelli Stadium were Mike Stowell and his wife, Rachel, who enjoy their return visits among the Wanderers fraternity but who had other allegiances on this occasion as their daughter, Ella, has been on loan at Argyle these last few weeks.

Thursday, May 7: Interesting to hear that Kevin McDonald has been released by Exeter despite making 27 first-team appearances this season. The curtain came down on his second spell at St James’s Park when he was one of six players freed following their relegation to League Two. The midfielder played in 126 Wolves games in the middle of the last decade, the last of them a 2-1 home victory over Bristol City in March, 2016. This clip Kevin McDonald post Blackpool (A) | Exeter City Football Club from a month ago shows that the fires still burn within him. 

Friday, May 15: Play-off heartbreak for Paul Cook once more! The serial promotion winner can’t seem to get it right in two-leg ties at this time of year, his Chesterfield side going out by the only goal after their 0-0 second-leg draw at Notts County tonight. This time in 2025, it was a much more emphatic defeat against Walsall that did for the former Wolves midfielder and his players – hopefully they can go straight up in 11 months’ time.

Saturday, May 16: Disappointment for Robbie Keane and his Ferencvaros squad after they came up just short in their quest to become double winners. Having won the Hungarian Cup the weekend before, they needed a victory for themselves and a defeat for rivals Gyor to lift the league title for the second season out of two under the Irishman. They kept their part of the bargain at home to Zalaegerszegi – the team they had beaten in the cup final – but came off to the deflating news that Gyor had won by the same 1-0 scoreline at Kisvarda.

Sunday, May 17: Highlights have been few and far between on match-days recently, so it was heartening to see Romain Saiss back at Molineux for this afternoon’s home farewell against Fulham. No doubt he enjoyed meeting up again with the joyously welcomed Raul Jimenez as well as various members of Wolves’ playing and backroom staff. At the age of 36, the Moroccan is still playing for Al Sadd in Qatar. Matt Murray was also in the stadium and on q&a duty in the Billy Wright Stand corporate rooms before the game.

Saturday, May 23: Many congratulations to Ryan Giles for the latest promotion on his CV – the play-off graduation achieved by Hull against Middlesbrough this afternoon. The Telford-born former Wolves youngster has crammed a lot of moves into his career and we can only guess at the feelings of Rob Edwards today as he watched both a player (in Tigers colours) who he had in his squad at AFC Telford and the club he left 15 games into the current Championship season, with them sitting in second place.

Sunday, May 24: A further big shout-out for Backpass, the outstanding retro magazine that is moving towards its 100th issue. The latest edition off the shelves has Malcolm Allison on the front, an obituary of 1960s Wolves winger Terry Wharton and lots more in its 68 quality pages.

Monday, May 25: Not another promotion near miss! This time it’s Alex Rae and his colleagues at Partick Thistle who are nursing broken hearts following their play-off defeat at St Mirren tonight. A home draw against opponents forced into overtime because of their low finish in the Premiership left the tie finely balanced but the only goal of the second leg was the crucial one overall.