Thursday, May 4: Woke to the extremely sad news that Vicky Wright had passed away at 63 following a short illness. The first daughter of Joy Beverley and Billy Wright came into this world a few days before the long-time Wolves and national captain played his 100th England game – the clash with Scotland at Wembley soon after his club had retained their League title. What happy days they were! We send our condolences to the family and Vicky’s close friends.
Saturday, May 6: Another home match day, another three points…..made all the sweeter by the fact the victory came in a local derby against Villa. There seemed to be an acceptance immediately afterwards that survival had been achieved but Wolves have been safe for a game or two really since the victory over Crystal Palace. Too many out-of-form teams below them needed to take more points than they were capable of.
Saturday, May 13: Received a webcam call from Greg Fellows in which he informed me that he was clad only in his shorts as Southern Spain was sweltering. It was way too much information for so early in the day but the main purpose of the call was to express the wish that our good mutual friend, Paul Cook, had something to celebrate this evening after Chesterfield’s National League play-off final against Notts County.
Monday, May 15: Had a close-up of the pain being felt by Mike Stowell during Leicester’s sobering 3-0 home defeat against Liverpool tonight. With two games to go, the 2015-16 Premier League champions are in big danger of going down – a sad prospect for their long-time goalkeeper coach in the spring in which he was inducted to Wolves’ hall of fame. The mood at the King Power Stadium does seem seriously depressed.
Wednesday, May 17: Enjoyed a hall of fame dinner debrief meeting in one of the executive boxes at Molineux late this afternoon. It was nice to be assembling with the pressure off and (if the feedback is a good guide) with the job having been well done. It’s not exactly a case of ‘Right, now on to the next one’….there may well be at least a couple of years until the next batch of heroes are inducted.
Saturday, May 20: Was disappointed to miss the chance of seeing Kevin Thelwell at Wolves’ home game against Everton today but such are the nerves at Goodison Park that he could be forgiven for not feeling at his most sociable. Had the consolation of seeing Steve Daley instead while I was waiting outside before kick-off and also had a good catch-up with former Toffee Dave Jones, who was doing a corporate turn in the various hospitality rooms in the Billy Wright Stand.
Monday, May 22: Talking of Dave Jones, was sorry to have to decline an invitation to the ‘Sir Jack’s Boys’ night at Wolverhampton’s Grand Theatre – the latest on-stage production hosted by Sky Sports’ Johnny Phillips. Hard to believe it’s 20 years ago this spring that those players demolished Sheffield United at the Millennium Stadium and finally took Wolves to the Premier League for the first time.
Friday, May 26: This is a big week for anniversaries. Today is 20 years on from Cardiff and it is now almost 35 years to the day since Wolves beat Burnley 2-0 in the Sherpa Van Trophy final at Wembley in front of more than 80,000. Such happy memories!