This Is Strange For Starters!

Season Opener With An Unfamiliar Look

Sylvan Ebanks-Blake….an early scorer for Wolves on the knockout trail 14 years ago.

So who scored for Wolves the last time they kicked off a campaign with a domestic cup match? And who was their debutant the last but one time that a season started for them with a game against familiar opposition in anything other than a League fixture?

A pat on the back for everyone who named Sylvain Ebanks-Blake – the marksman in a Capital One Cup first-round home tie against Aldershot Town on August 11, 2012 – as the answer to the first question.

But extra merit marks for those who recalled that the striker’s 53rd minute shot was not enough to finish the job against the League Two club. Six other men in gold and black later joined Ebanks-Blake in converting penalties which eventually secured a 7-6 shoot-out success.

Stephen Hunt, Stephen Ward, Roger Johnson, Karl Henry, Frank Nouble and Anthony Forde were also successful but it wasn’t a great few minutes for the keepers. Aldershot netted from their first six kicks, too, so there were 12 ticks out of 12 on the score-card before Jordan Roberts added a red cross by having his shot saved by Carl Ikeme.

On a Saturday afternoon on which Nouble and goal-maker Togo Doumbia were handed debuts by new boss Stale Solbakken, Michael Roberts headed the underdogs’ equaliser soon after the hour.

The reaction of the 11,555 crowd at the end was understandably less than euphoric and this wasn’t the start of a golden Capital One Cup journey. Although Wolves claimed another lower-division scalp by winning comfortably at Northampton in the next round, they then crashed 6-0 at Chelsea. 

We all remember the thrilling Europa League journey of seven seasons ago which started home and away against Crusaders on July 25 and August 1 and which then continued with great success against Pyunik Yerevan in Armenia before the regular season began with a 0-0 Premier League draw at Leicester.

But cases of Wolves kicking off a season with anything other than a League game, as they will at home to Port Vale tonight, are rare, indeed. It was almost 40 years earlier than the Aldershot tie, in fact, that the club had previously started off without points being at stake.

That was the largely-forgotten FA Cup third and fourth place play-off fixture against Arsenal at Highbury in August, 1973 – won 3-1 by Wolves with goals in front of the TV cameras from Derek Dougan (2) and Jim McCalliog.

The debutant Geoff Palmer challenges Brian Chambers in the air at Highbury in 1973, watched by (from left) Danny Hegan, Jim McCalliog and Gerry Taylor.

It was a happy afternoon on which Geoff Palmer made the first of his 496 competitive appearances for the club. At the same time, the Gunners introduced a young full-back of their own in Brendon Batson for the first time.

Prior to that fixture were the various Charity Shield matches Wolves have contested – against Portsmouth in 1949 (1-1), Albion in 1954 (4-4), Bolton in 1958 (lost 4-1), Nottingham Forest in 1959 (won 3-1) and Burnley in 1960 (2-2).