Early Sightings Of High Achievers
Wolves’ history has been liberally sprinkled with cases of players popping up in the opposition ranks and then becoming much better known as the years passed.
We are talking about individuals who were little known when they first came to our attention but developed into star turns.
One probably stands out above all others but we think we have come up with several others below who fall into the same category.
We know there will be many more we haven’t yet thought of and we plan to revisit this story idea in future – with the help and input of our readers, of course. Please let us know if you think of anyone to add to the list.
In the meantime, we present our initial findings by highlighting the matches in which the said players faced Wolves for the first time at senior level.
Wolves 3 Bury 0 on September 25, 1965, was not only notable both as Ronnie Allen’s first game in charge and as a Wanderers debut day for John Holsgrove and Ernie Hunt. It was also an afternoon on which an 18-year-old north-easterner called Colin Bell appeared as the visitors’ no 9. He became better known as a midfielder, scoring against Wolves in a League Cup final defeat, winning various honours with Manchester City and picking up 48 England caps. Such was his impact that he was also awarded an MBE and has a stand named after him at the Etihad Stadium.
Wolves were two and a half months into their first season of Division Two life for 30 years when they first confronted a lad who had played in the 1964 FA Cup final as a 17-year-old. Howard Kendall not only lined up from the start at Deepdale on November 6, 1965 but came up with the 86th minute equaliser that earned his Preston side a point after they fell two behind early on to goals by Peter Knowles and Terry Wharton. With Everton, Kendall, an old-fashioned right-half, was a League title winner as a player and a manager and is regarded as one of the best English players never to win a senior cap.
Andy Sinton was only 16 years and 228 days old when he made his debut in a surprise 2-1 Cambridge win over Wolves on November 2, 1982. The Second Division game at the Abbey Stadium was rearranged after a postponement a week and a half earlier because of waterlogging and was memorable for Sinton, who was replaced after 80 minutes. He is the youngest player to play a League game for Cambridge, this appearance coming on the night Graham Hawkins’s team of Second Division pacesetters were embarrassed, initially by a goal from Keith Lockhart – later to sign at Molineux.
Wolves were among the many clubs interested in signing the rising mid-1980s star that was David Platt. He scored against them for Crewe in a 1-1 Fourth Division draw at Gresty Road on September 13, 1986 and provided further close-ups of his undoubted talents in follow-up clashes of the clubs. Graham Turner and Ron Jukes missed out on him but Villa, Bari, Juventus, Sampdoria and Arsenal didn’t in a magnificent career that also brought him 62 England caps and the international captaincy. As a Three Lions team-mate of Steve Bull, he peaked at Italia 90.
Remember that emotional ovation Kenny Hibbitt received when returning to Molineux as a Bristol Rovers coach at Easter, 1989? There was plenty of applause that day for Cornishman Nigel Martyn as well. The visiting keeper performed heroics to help the West Countrymen to a surprise 1-0 victory that briefly halted Wolves’ promotion momentum. Martyn was born a couple of weeks after England’s World Cup final triumph and later played 23 times for them, also appearing in an FA Cup final for Crystal Palace and going on to Leeds and Everton.
No goals, one point each, but the headline – if we had known it at the time – was Darren Anderton’s Football League debut when Wolves and struggling Portsmouth were deadlocked at Fratton Park on November 3, 1990. The Southampton-supporting 18-year-old played the first 70 minutes of the 0-0 draw and admits he was surprised by the pace of the game and almost had to crawl off on his hands and knees when replaced.
Chesterfield had two familiar Wolves names in their ranks, Lawrie Madden and Darren Roberts, when they took on Graham Taylor’s Wanderers side at Saltergate in the first leg of a League Cup tie in September, 1994. Also lining up for them in their Bully-dominated 3-1 defeat was 17-year-old Kevin Davies, later to emerge as a legend at Southampton and in particular at Bolton, with a single England cap won along the way.
Eddie Howe didn’t hit any major heights as a player but is a highly regarded Premier League manager from his stints at Bournemouth and Newcastle. With the then unfashionable third-tier Cherries, he faced Wolves in a Worthington Cup second round first-leg clash at Dean Court on September 15, 1998. A Darren Ferguson goal earned Mark McGhee’s men a 1-1 draw but Howe was also in the visiting line-up who pulled off a surprise 2-1 win in the Molineux return.
Possibly a more obscure one….Michael Carrick was four months past his 18th birthday and on loan to Swindon from West Ham when he lined up against Wolves at Molineux on November 20, 1999. Colin Lee’s side salvaged a 1-1 draw with a late goal from Haavard Flo but the quiet north-easterner in the visiting ranks was destined for the greater heights; 34 England caps and the manager’s job at his old club, Manchester United, to be precise.
On a baking early evening on the outskirts of the Portuguese capital in July, 2002, Dave Jones’s Wolves were hammered 5-1 by a Sporting Lisbon side containing a 17-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo. During pre-season in the following year, the precocious star forward joined Manchester United and faced Jones’s newly-promoted side in one of his early games in red and white. Almost a quarter of a century later, he’s still going!