A Mark In Favour Of The Other Lot!

Wednesday, October 5: Emailed Mark Burke to make sure he had seen the super photo of him in issue 78 of Backpass. I wasn’t sure he was old enough to be a reader of a nostalgia magazine, even one as outstanding as this, but he had seen it. The picture left no-one in any doubts that his main allegiances lie with his boyhood heroes Villa!

Sunday, October 9: Had the pleasure of seeing Fabio Silva score a fine goal for Anderlecht during a hectic weekend visit with John Lalley to Belgium. After taking in the Bruges v Westerlo game last night, we caught the train down to Mechelen for a lunchtime clash in the sun that saw the on-loan Wolves striker very much at the heart of the action. He missed two one-on-one chances that led to goals for his side in their 3-1 win but took a harder chance and was generally a threat. Encouraging!

Thursday, October 13: Really enjoyed the Don Goodman evening at The Firs in Codsall tonight…..what a top guy he is. Fair, articulate, courteous, interesting – no wonder he makes a good summariser on TV.

Saturday, October 15: How wonderful it was to see Wolves and Nottingham Forest contesting a top-flight game again for the first time in approaching 40 years. Here’s hoping we don’t have to wait anywhere near as long to see another one at Molineux, where Morgan Gibbs-White, Willy Boly and Wayne Hennessey all made returns this afternoon as part of the visiting squad. I especially liked the comment of 1980 League Cup finalist Mel Eves. After the game, amid the relief of victory, he quietly (and modestly) said: “We always beat Forest 1-0.”

Monday, October 17: Enjoyed another great catch-up with friends from Wolves and the BBC over lunch today, among them Radio WM’s 90-year-old former Molineux correspondent John Pike. Brilliant reminiscences all round and a commitment to do it again later in the season. Also present at the venue in Wombourne were Jenny Wilkes and her partner Pete, Tim Beech, David Harrison, Nick Owen and chief organiser Ian Winter.

Sunday, October 23: Bumped into Richard Skirrow before and after the Molineux meeting with Leicester this afternoon and realised he still has many friends at the club. In no time as we chatted near the Billy Wright statue, he was approached by Jeff Shi (and family members) and Lee Naylor, then director John Bowater was close to his side after the game. Regrettably, the planned meeting with Mike Stowell didn’t happen, although the Leicester goalkeeper coach was understandably happy enough when we chatted by phone during his journey home to Bristol.

Saturday, October 29: How many Wolves fans picked up on the fact that David Edwards and Mark Little were in opposition today in the Welsh Premier League? It has been well recorded that the long-serving former midfielder plays for title-chasing Bala Town – less known perhaps is that the Worcester-born former England under-19 defender, who played the last of his 27 Wolves first-team games early in their Premier League stay under Mick McCarthy, is with their close pursuers Penybont at the age of 34. And now an admission: We would have had no idea about this meeting but David, on a visit to the Molineux press box last weekend, tipped us off about the fixture, which ended 1-1.

Monday, October 31: Interesting to hear through a friend of Wolves Heroes how many former Molineux characters were seen at the big Championship game between Burnley and Reading on Saturday – and most of them from the same position of the team. The Royals’ senior management duo of Paul Ince and Alex Rae were a ‘given’ but also present was Mick Gooding – still doing radio summarising work on the club’s games – and it will not surprise our regular readers that frequent Turf Moor visitor Steve Kindon was in the crowd. No doubt he was happy at seeing his first employers come from behind and win late on to stay top of the table.