Forward Still Happily Sharing His Memories

David Instone was still fairly new to the Molineux press box when Paul McLoughlin arrived at Wolves with two sizeable obstacles standing in the way of a possible first-team career for him here. He met up with him in Bristol to talk over old times…..a conversation they have updated this week by phone.

We’ve remarked before that footballers tend to be amiable, easy characters to rub along with – and Paul McLoughlin is easier than most.

It was half a lifetime ago that we had last met or even talked but he was politeness and eagerness personified. Well, what’s 30 years or so between friends when there’s a cold guinness on the table and a willingness for a good catch-up?

As a 25-year-old newly-wed, the Bristolian signed for Wolves for £45,000 in the same summer as Shane Westley, Tony Lange and John Paskin, around the time Steve Bull was winning his second senior cap in England’s friendly draw against Denmark in Copenhagen in June, 1989.

McLoughlin, unsuccessful in trials with both City and Rovers in the West Country port, had taken his early steps with Yeovil, had a memorable, championship-winning stint in New Zealand, a spell in Northern Sweden and some mid-1980s seasons with Cardiff. He would later relish playing under the management of Kenny Hibbitt at Walsall, then elsewhere for others in the lower divisions and in non-League, so we had lots to discuss. It was no surprise at all that he looks back with few regrets.

“I’m very thankful for the career I’ve had and I’m happy to chat,” he said by way of the cheeriest of reintroductions.

“I played semi-professional for eight seasons until I was 38, along with renovating properties and running my own coaching school. I earned a UEFA B Licence and coached and managed Clevedon Town in the Southern League.

“More recently, I’ve worked as a contractor in the construction industry for Morgan Sindall and have no intention of retiring. Life is good.”

We rather piggy-backed the good work of both the Wolves Museum staff and Express & Star columnist Paul Berry in reconnecting with the forward, who had been on our radar for years for interview purposes.

They provided us with his number and our call to it quickly drew a ‘yes’ when we passed on an invitation to Mike Stowell’s surprise 60th birthday party in their shared home city in the summer.

“We live in the south-west of Bristol close to the coast and Mike and his family are on the north side,” McLoughlin told me. “It was great to see him again…..the do was such a surprise to him that he was led in blindfolded!

“I am very grateful for the two or three years I had at Wolves. It’s great that you are still in touch with so many of the former players because I have happy memories of my time there.

“Please say hello to Ally Robertson for me. He was very welcoming when I arrived and a fantastic player and character. I could thank so many of the others as well, including Bully, who I sat next to in the corner of the dressing room. I often didn’t understand what he was saying because of our different accents, so I just smiled when I thought the time was right!

“I would obviously like to have played more first-team games but I made the point when I signed that I had taken on one of football’s hardest jobs in trying to dislodge Bully or Andy Mutch. I also said I was there to give it a good go.

“I had done well at Hereford the previous season and had a decent scoring record but those two were top players at the higher level and had amazing records, so I could understand why Graham Turner kept faith in them.”

Across our table, there was a humility and warm-heartedness in everything the 61-year-old said. He recognises that his Molineux stay was no more than a limited success, his four goals here coming across 29 appearances, 17 of them as substitute. His entries on the score-sheet were curiously made up of two match-winning braces – at home to Swindon and away to Blackburn in the space of a month and a half in his first season in the West Midlands.

For the rest of the time, there was lengthy bench duty, plus substantial spells in the reserves and the frustration of injuries, but a loan move down the road helped keep him sharp.

“I can’t say enough good things about Kenny Hibbitt,” he added. “He’s a top guy. I had a decent spell with him and scored a few but Walsall couldn’t raise the money Wolves were asking for me.”

Actually, Paul netted one more goal in the basement division than the records show. His Saddlers total is officially listed as four in nine matches but he was also on target in a 3-1 home win over Aldershot that was declared void after the visitors failed to see out the season because of financial problems.

One of the four that did count came against Hereford, for whom he had also played twice against Wolves (without scoring) in the 1988-89 Sherpa Van Trophy.

I was by no means the only one from these parts that Paul hadn’t seen for decades. Molineux hadn’t seen anything of him either until, in celebration of his 60th birthday two days before Christmas in 2023, he came with wife, Lee, and their three daughters to the 2-1 home win over Chelsea.

The following season, he was back for the Molineux victory against Manchester United – the club he supports – and also attended Wolves’ FA Cup triumph at Bristol City two seasons ago. No wonder he is hailing himself as a lucky omen; one who plans another trip to the West Midlands in the spring.

Sport is very much in the family. The day after we met, London-based daughter Elly ran a personal best in the Bristol Half Marathon and her two sisters, who are both based closer to their roots, used to be team-mates at a women’s football club. Less actively but with plenty of feeling, Paul was busy giving and taking considerable stick during last weekend’s First Test in the Ashes.

“My brother-in-law is Kevin Meacock, who I played with when Bristol won the English Schools Trophy in 1979,” he said. “He was a striker and I think he scored a couple of the goals in the final against Croydon, who we beat over two legs at Ashton Gate and Selhurst Park. Mike Hooper, who went on to play for Liverpool and Newcastle, was our keeper.

“Kev later played for Cardiff and a number of clubs in Australia and introduced me to his sister, Lee, on a blind date. We’d been good mates for about four years without me even knowing he had a sister!

“She and I hit it off for three months or so but she was then left at home when Kev and I went in 1984 to play for Gisborne City in New Zealand. It was a brilliant opportunity and came about because his uncle had moved to the north island.

“The timing wasn’t ideal because I didn’t see Lee for nine months but, football-wise, it was fantastic. Six of the All Whites squad from the 1982 World Cup were in our squad and we won the league.

“Kev met Linda, an A&E nursing manager from Brisbane, while we were over there playing and they married and live in Brisbane, where he teaches and also runs a football academy that his son is involved in. Them settling there together has led to the two of us going over to Australia five times, although I have never been back to New Zealand.

“They have just been over here with us for two months, so that has been tiring but wonderful fun. As well as helping them see a lot of family members, we all spent a couple of weeks on holiday touring round the south of Italy, staying in Lecce (where Wolves won in the Anglo Italian Cup in 1994), Gallipoli and other parts of Apulia.

“We’ve kept a keen eye on the cricket and I was taunting them after the first day by saying England had got Australia sorted out. Before I had decided how I might follow up on that, it was all over and we had lost!”