A Place For Bobby Too, Surely?

Barry Powell is going and can’t wait. Bobby Gould, surprisingly, was still in the ‘don’t know’ category when we checked a couple of days ago.

Wembley figured prominently in their respective careers and will do so for the present-day generation of Coventry players when they contest the Championship play-off final with Luton on Saturday.

Powell was a 20-year-old with just under 12 months of first-team football behind him when he went on as substitute for a stricken Dave Wagstaffe in Wolves’ unforgettable League Cup final triumph over Manchester City in 1974.

Gould not only played from the start of the 1969 final between Arsenal and Third Division Swindon but also scored an equaliser in what later turned into one of the stadium’s biggest shocks.

“I’m going with my son and am really looking forward to it,” said Powell, who has ‘previous’ for supporting his former clubs at the venue.

We at Wolves Heroes had the pleasure of his and wife Tina’s company en route to and from the 2019 FA Cup semi-final disappointment that Nuno’s side experienced against Watford.

The Kenilworth-born former England under-23 international moved to the Sky Blues in a part-exchange deal that brought Willie Carr to Molineux in March, 1975.

He played exactly 100 more League games for Coventry (164 against 64) than he had while at Molineux – and all of them, for both coubs, were in the top flight.

He still lives in ‘Sky Blue country’ and shares with Luton boss Rob Edwards the distinction of having also spent several years in the backroom team at Wolves.

Gould, like Powell, had two playing stints at Molineux and is revered in Warwickshire from when he topped 25 goals in helping his home-city club pip Wolves to the Second Division title in 1966-67.

He then had two spells as manager at Highfield Road but is due back in Wolverhampton in the autumn when a ‘The Gouldfather’ night is held in is honour at the Mount Hotel.

The 76-year-old had the good fortune to be in the sell-out crowd at the twin towers when England beat West Germany to lift the World Cup 57 summers ago.