A Meeting Of Manchester Minds

Friday, November 4: Was disappointed to hear that I had apparently missed out on seeing Steve Daley at the busy Bryan Robson night that was compered by former BBC WM sports editor Mark Regan at the Cleveland Arms last night. More than one guest told me they had seen the two together – presumably they were friends when playing on opposite sides of Manchester in the early 1980s.

Saturday, November 5: Loved the personal insight I received from Mel Eves by sitting next to him in the press box at Wolves’ entertaining home game against Brighton this afternoon. He wasn’t in his usual co-commentary role for BBC WM and having him at close quarters showed again that ex-professionals are the best placed to pick up on the finer details of a match.

Wednesday, November 9: Did some reading up about the former Nottinghamshire wicketkeeper and Nottingham Forest commercial manager David Pullan, whose recent death was pointed out to us at Wolves Heroes in the hope that we would pass the sad news on to Steve Kindon. The two were good friends in past decades, so much so that Kindo spoke at the wedding of Dave’s daughter, Rachel, the person who initially contacted us. As expected, the ex-Wolves forward has already rung the family to express his condolences.

Saturday, November 12: Ok, we weren’t quite wishing those around us – former England striker Alan Smith included – a happy Christmas as we left Molineux tonight after the Wolves v Arsenal game. But it felt strange knowing we wouldn’t see another Premier League clash at the stadium until virtually the turn of the year. The World Cup finals has made this a very unusual season. It’s still hard to accept that the biggest football tournament of them all kicks off in eight days.

Friday, November 18: Nice to be back in an executive box in the Billy Wright Stand (the one allocated to Gestifute, as it happens) for today’s meeting of the Wolves hall of fame committee. Under the chairmanship of John Richards, Paul Berry, Nick Elwell, Steve Gordos and Richard Green also attended as we talked through arrangements and inductees for the next big dinner, more details of which will be released in due course.

Sunday, November 20: Good luck to Rob Edwards now he is back in work and appears to have landed himself with more normal employers at Luton. How ironic that he has pitched up with the arch rivals of the club who dispensed with his services this autumn in double-quick time. It would be lovely if he could make them see the error of their manic, unreasonable ways.

Thursday, November 24: A shout-out for former Wolves head of media Paul Berry and the series of long interviews he has been compiling for the Express & Star. Today, it was the turn of the well-travelled Mark Burke but the feature he compiled last week on the rise and fall of Ryan Green – Wales’ youngest ever senior international when he played in a 3-0 win in Malta in 1998 – filled a long-standing gap in our knowledge. Great stuff!

Sunday, November 27: Interesting to hear the answer given by summariser John Hartson at the World Cup when questioned by commentator Clive Tyldesley about which of his many matches had been played in the highest temperature. He cited the Tunisia v Wales game under Bobby Gould (in 1998) as the one that had left him closest to collapse before the mercy that came with his withdrawl and replacement. Yikes…I was at that pre-World Cup friendly for the Express & Star.

Tuesday, November 29: So, a comfortable win for England in the British derby and it’s on to tougher challenges ahead. At the same time, we lament the return home of Wales but what strides they have made under first Gary Speed and Chris Coleman, then more recently under Ryan Giggs and Rob Page.