Price Is Right In Shropshire

Tuesday, April 2: Interesting to note that Jack Price is back in these parts after his time at Colorado Rapids – with Shrewsbury, to be precise. His first two games have even been marked by an appearance on the score-sheet, in a draw against Oxford. Can we assume he will be watching a game at Molineux soon, as he has been inclined to do when in the Midlands in recent years?

Saturday, April 6: Plenty of late disappointment at the West Ham game this afternoon that was attended by the usual suspects – Dave Edwards, Lee Naylor, Mel Eves and Andy Thompson. The match can best be summed up by the short sentence: No strikers, no points, loads of controversy. 

Sunday, April 7: Delighted for Darren Ferguson to see him victorious again at Wembley this afternoon, this time in the EFL Trophy final against Wycombe. Where would Peterborough be without him? Can they now crack on after last season’s play-off semi-final heartbreak and make it a double by winning promotion as well?

Wednesday, April 17: Only a few days on from our story on here about Rob Kelly having a difficult and miserable time of it alongside Leam Richardson at Rotherham in the second half of this season, the axe has fallen on them both two weeks after the club’s relegation back to League One was confirmed. Rather than give the two League One title winners even another few months of elbow room, the New York Stadium board have instead reappointed Steve Evans, this time on a three-year contract.

Saturday, April 20: Quite an array of former players were in a packed media room at the live-televised Wolves v Arsenal clash this evening. There was absolutely no surprise in seeing Andy Thompson and Lee Naylor in there prior to radio summarising duty but we also had the company of Lee Dixon, who was co-commentating for Sky, and, more curiously, Simon Grayson and 1990s Swindon and Middlesbrough striker Jan Aage Fjortoft. Saturday night matches have been few and far between in Molineux history, so how strange that the last two stagings of this fixture have been at that time of the week.

Sunday, April 21: Sent a message for Matt Murray after seeing him at Molineux yesterday, informing him that Maccabi Tel Aviv and their title rivals, Maccabi Haifa, had both had big home victories over the weekend. Seven games to go in the Israeli top-flight season and there’s still a seven-point lead at the top for Tel Aviv, the club where Robbie Keane is head coach and Mike Stowell the goalkeeper coach, both of them extremely well known to Matt.

Monday, April 22: Heard the unbelievable news that Barnsley have sacked Neill Collins with just one game of their League season to play. They haven’t been out of the top six since early October and appointed the 40-year-old former Wolves central defender only last July after his promising spell with Tampa Bay Rowdies. I wonder what Barnsley boy Mick McCarthy makes of this treatment of one of his 2006 Molineux signings. 

Wednesday, April 24: Another home defeat and another load of VAR controversy. Gary O’Neil, who oversaw an outstanding defensive performance by Bournemouth when they won here by the same score last season, must have been stung by this loss, even if the visitors played well enough to have been two or three up at half-time. The Molineux head coach would have to be superhuman to not be smarting after being beaten by the club who harshly got rid of him a year ago. 

Saturday, April 27: Lovely to see Jan Thomson outside Molineux before kick-off this afternoon and to be told her grandson was one of the mascots at the home game against Luton. Her husband, Bobby, played for both clubs, as well as for England, and would no doubt have been hugely proud of seeing his seven-year-old namesake on the pitch. Jan was accompanied, as usual, by Barry Stobart’s widow, Maureen, while, on the other side of the ground, Steve Daley and newly-installed club vice-president John Richards had early-1970s Molineux reserve Gerry Farrell for company in the worldwide lounge in the Steve Bull Stand. Another ex-player here today was Arsenal legend Perry Groves, who spent 18 months as an associate schoolboy at Wolves more than 40 years ago.