Monday, January 6: Was gutted to be forced to miss the home game against Nottingham Forest because of a bout of flu that also wrote off New Year’s Eve as a non-event. TV coverage of the game was not without its encouraging moments but no-one in gold and black had a smile anything like as broad as the one sported by Nuno Espirito Santo afterwards.
Thursday, January 9: Continued the regular exchange of emails and texts established in the last few weeks with the compilers of the keenly-anticipated forthcoming book about Wath Wanderers. The research is apparently unearthing some unexpected discoveries and an ever-lengthening list of Football League players who emerged from Wolves’ feeder club. It’s a remarkable story, one that deserves to be properly told and well read.
Monday, January 13: Met Pat Nevin for the first time and chauffeured him from the railway station to the sports and social club in Cradley Heath at which he was appearing on stage alongside David Speedie and Kerry Dixon this evening. Colin Lee, a former Chelsea team-mate of all three, was more than interested in the meet-up and asked for his kindest regards to be passed on. Noticed from the copy of Nevin’s book that I was getting signed that he was in the Scotland side at Hampden Park on the day Steve Bull made his sensational goal-scoring senior international debut.
Sunday, January 19: Started watching the excellent Fergie two-parter on the BBC and enjoyed both seeing and enjoying the views expressed by Mark McGhee and Denis Irwin, among many others. The two ex-Wolves men offered insight into the master manager’s work at Aberdeen and Manchester United respectively and were well worth watching. Irwin was also spotted in the crowd today at the first Old Trafford game played following the death of Denis Law.
Saturday, January 25: A decent battle but ultimate dejection on the occasion of Arsenal’s visit to Molineux this afternoon. The visitors’ winner deep in the second half was perhaps not unexpected once the game had become 10 v 10 but was disappointing for those with Wolves’ interests at heart, including – in the media areas – Andy Thompson, Lee Naylor and Mel Eves. Geoff Palmer was also present and, would you believe it, so was Pat Nevin! He was on duty for 5Live after being switched from the Liverpool v Ipswich game at a couple of days’ notice.
Monday, January 27: Enjoyed having a proper catch-up with Rob Kelly while he was in Spain with Aarhus’s players, preparing for their mid-February return to action following Danish football’s long winter break. The former Wolves midfielder and coach is always great value in a conversation and didn’t disappoint as we spent 20 minutes on the phone, with the forthcoming visit by Vitor Pereira’s side to his local League club, Blackburn, among the topics covered.
Friday, January 31: What do John Burridge, Steve Harrison and Alan Ainscow have in common? Apart from the obvious fact that they all served Wolves, they also lined up together in the same Blackpool team who were fated at a dinner in Bloomfield Road’s Sir Stanley Matthews Lounge tonight. The event was the Mickey Walsh 50-year dinner – the celebration of the 3-2 home win over Sunderland in January, 1975 in which the forward used his left foot to strike a fantastic winner that was chosen as Match of the Day’s goal of the season.
Saturday, February 1: Joy – and relief – at a derby victory over the Villa! Following a run of four successive League defeats, how big did these three points feel? Especially on a day on which Leicester and (less expectedly) Ipswich were beaten. It was a strong performance for most of Molineux to savour, with goals near the start and right at the end, and the welcome underlining of the fact that Wolves shouldn’t just be waiting for games against the bottom eight for picking up the points that can sweep them away from danger.