A Heads-Up From Bob

Memories Of How City Were Held Way Back When

Bob Hazell.

If only Wolves could have hung on against Manchester City for a repeat of the result that Bob Hazell helped bring about when the same club visited Molineux in his playing days.

The giant centre-half was a guest of the club at the big game three days ago and watched from the press box as Gary O’Neil’s side produced the sort of defensive master-class he would have been proud to be part of.

And he modestly acknowledged, when prompted, that the only goal of his 37-game first-team career at Wolves came in a 1-1 draw against the same opponents in March, 1978.

“It was a header at the North Bank end….probably from a corner or free-kick, but I can’t be sure about the details,” he said.

“I know we were having a tough time, as the club are now, and every point was important. I was gutted they couldn’t quite see it through and walk off with a draw this time. That would have been a good result.

“But City are a much stronger team today than the one I used to face and they just managed to have the final say.”

Sammy Chung’s team eventually pulled themselves comfortably clear 46 seasons ago and Hazell will be hoping the present-day squad can do likewise despite their painful start to the season.

His second visit of the week to the stadium was nevertheless an uplifting experience that he hopes to repeat very soon…..certainly much sooner than the long absence he had before attending a Black History Month event there last week and sitting alongside Beverly Knight for a q&a.

“I remember coming to a match when Jay Bothroyd was playing here because my son was friendly with him,” Hazell added. “And I have recollections of seeing QPR at Molineux around the same time….people there like Les Ferdinand often find a ticket for me when they play games in the Midlands.

“I know how much the stadium has changed over the decades but being here at the weekend still felt very ‘Wolves’ to me.”

Hazell, 65, and now well into retirement following 25 years of helping young offenders through sport and working at a high level in foster care, has been featured on this site more than once before. 

Bob in more recent times.

We highlighted how he – and not Albion’s Laurie Cunningham – in 1977 became the first black professional to play for any England team and how he had contributed richly to Wolves’ journey to a 1975-76 FA Youth Cup final meeting with their Black Country rivals.

With QPR, there was also a losing appearance in the 1982 FA Cup final against Tottenham at Wembley (in a replay) after Albion had been overcome in the semis but, less happily, he fell victim to a costly late sending-off in fourth-round defeat at Arsenal in 1978.

“As I approach reaching three score years and ten, I look back on my life and find myself saying two things,” he said. “One is that there is nothing like seeing an offender I helped – maybe through getting him playing football on a social services programme involving Birmingham City – and realising I had contributed to getting him on a better path.

“The other is that, although I walk now with a stick and have had four spinal operations, I would still have wanted to live out my football career as I did – even if I had known what lay ahead.”

 

 

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