Invites Issued To Join Viking Invasion

Colin Brazier and Steve Daley have adopted the spirit of Wolves’ forthcoming season of jet-setting by accepting invitations to a major supporters event in Norway.

The best part of 40 years on from leaving Molineux, the duo are on the guest list for Viking Wolves’ 30th anniversary celebrations early in 2019-20.

Utility man Brazier was part of the last Wolves squad to qualify for recognised European competition through serving as substitute in the League Cup final victory over Nottingham Forest in 1980 and going on from the bench in three of the earlier ties.

He again figured as a sub in the UEFA Cup tussles with PSV Eindhoven the following autumn and is due to travel with Daley and their wives to the August 30 bash at the home of frequent Molineux visitor Odin Henrikssen in Bergen.

More than 50 fans, including some from Wolverhampton, Bridgnorth, London and Berlin, have so far signed up for the dinner in a marquee in the garden of the suburban house where Odin lives with his wife Cecilie.

“The players will be on stage, there will be a tour of the museum and we have space for over 100 guests,” he said today. “It is all happening on a Friday night – it’s not an international weekend, so it will be possible to go back early on the Saturday morning if that is the day the Wolves game is to be played that weekend.”

Other Molineux favourites are in the process of being invited and we all hope Wolves are still in the Europa Cup by the time they assemble in Scandinavia.

Daley was part of the squad who reached the 1972 UEFA Cup final and famously scored in the opening minute of the home second leg against Ferencvaros in the semi-final. He has skippered Wolves in a friendly in Norway.

Odin was interviewed at home last month by Sky Sports reporter Johnny Phillips and had the misfortune to suffer a serious heel injury in the end-of-season game at Molineux for overseas supporters.

He was also kind enough to accommodate this website’s chief writer David Instone, who is a Viking Wolves honorary president, on a two-night trip arranged around a Brann Bergen home game several years ago.

He proudly pointed out to us then that Wolves Heroes co-owner John Richards had played in Bergen in 1977 in an England under-21 side also containing Peter Daniel.

Guests at the August 30 bash will be given a tour of Odin’s handsome basement museum and will be entertained by a players’ Q & A as well as a big screen showing items of Wolves history.

The house is 15 minutes away from both the city centre and its airport – anyone interested in attending can either contact us for more details about the function or make direct contact with the organiser on social media.

Wolves, who also go to China in July shortly before their Europa League baptism, have made four visits over the decades to Norway – but all have been on summer tours and not for any competitive European matches.

The last of the trips to the land of fjords and mountains was in 2004 with Dave Jones as manager.