Narrow Win Tops Off A Flying Visit 

An under-the-radar trip back to these parts by Neil Emblen has highlighted a remarkable turn-out of former Wolves players at the games against Burnley and Nottingham Forest in the last few days.

The man nicknamed ‘Gribbers’ by coach Steve Harrison in 1994 has very rarely been seen at Molineux since he and his family uprooted to New Zealand approaching 20 years ago.

The 52-year-old is now one of the assistant coaches at Colorado Rapids, the American club with whom Jack Price has parted company this autumn following five seasons of service.

Emblen found time for a Wolves match-day visit on a return to the UK, though, and said: “I promised to take my dad to a game over here and decided this was the place to come!

“It would be great to do it much more often if it wasn’t for the distances involved. It’s always wonderful to be back here.”

Emblen found time to be interviewed in the fanzone before the midweek victory over Burnley and then sought out refuge for a few minutes in the worldwide lounge on a bitterly cold night. 

Well, it certainly opens doors if you have a good mate who has his name adorning the stand, he and Steve Bull having lived some years back – one after the other – in the same house on the edge of Codsall.

Andy Thompson, virtually an ever-present in the press box as a radio summariser alongside Mikey Burrows, was one of the those to find Emblen out after being alerted to the fact his former team-mate was in the stadium. David Kelly, working for BBC WM, was another man under the headphones and under the floodlights.

Lee Naylor has very much been around, too, and Emblen just happened to arrive in the worldwide lounge as John Richards – a member of the board and then a managing director for much of his time here as a player under Graham Taylor, Mark McGhee and Colin Lee – was on the mic, addressing visiting fans from different parts of the world.

Keith Downing, in between jobs following his departure from Birmingham with John Eustace in mid-autumn, is another to have been seen at the ground more than once in recent weeks, with the question-and-answer duties in the Billy Wright Stand corporate areas having been undertaken at the last two games by Stephen Ward and Phil Parkes respectively.

Sightings of Mel Eves have been more rare than usual since we rang him in the week for input to our Martin Patching obituary but David Edwards has attended both matches.

And we can stretch a point by saying the large number of former Wolves players at Molineux was swelled yesterday by the presence of Morgan Gibbs-White and Willy Boly in the Forest line-up, even if Wayne Hennessey remains outside their squad after an injury that has prevented him playing any senior games this season.

The keeper’s only direct match-day involvement in 2023-24 has been one-off unused substitute duty for Wales.

Steve Hodge, a legend at Forest and a coach here in much more recent times, also attended yesterday’s 1-1 draw between the clubs.

*Our further mention of Martin Patching and Lee Naylor above – they made their first-team debuts for Wolves at 16 and 17 respectively – has prompted us to challenge our readers.

Can anyone come up with any other players who started their senior careers here so young? We will give a thank-you in print to anyone who comes up with lads we hadn’t previously thought of.