A Precious Meet-Up At The 19th

Friday, September 5: Great to spend half an hour or so at the Wolves FPA golf day with Charles Bamforth, who has flown into England from California to give one of the addresses at the emotional farewell to Marston’s, the city centre brewery we used to know as Banks’s. Matt Murray is one of the other guests at tomorrow’s closing ceremony in Chapel Ash and will no doubt be engaged in conversation by Wolves Heroes’ no 1 guest contributor, who has a particular interest in the careers of Wolves keepers.

Saturday, September 6: How lovely to have a meet-up with Vince Bartram at the hotel Eastleigh used for their refuelling and team meeting before this afternoon’s game at Tamworth. He was his usual affable self in signing some keeper jerseys for Wolves fan Carl Falconer and, as the Spitfires goalkeeper coach, was happy enough when the home side had a first-half penalty saved. A first ever trip to The Lamb for John Lalley and I still ended, though, in a 1-0 Tamworth victory.

Tuesday, September 9: Well done Sam Vokes! Those who thought the former Wolves and Wales striker was finished when he signed off his long Wycombe stint with a serious injury in the spring are being forced into a rethink. A few weeks short of his 36th birthday, he is now four first-team appearances into his stay at Gillingham – his 11th club – and headed the winner in their recent League Two victory at Oldham.

Friday, September 12: A look through issues 93 and 94 of Backpass underlines the fact that this has been a desperately sad few months for Wolves fans of a certain age. In the earlier of those issues, the one bearing a colour photo of Sir Alf Ramsey on the front cover, there are obituaries of Peter McParland and Evan Williams, as well as one of Mick McGrath, the Blackburn defender whose own goal helped Stan Cullis’s side to victory in the 1960 FA Cup final. All this in a wretched year also marked by the deaths of Mike Kenning, Colin Booth, Gary Pierce, Dave Woodfield, Diogo Jota and Brian Owen.

Wednesday, September 17: And so Bruno Lage goes the same way as Nuno Espirito Santo. European embarrassment in seeing an early 2-0 turn into a 3-2 Champions League home defeat against Qarabag last night put an end to his second spell in Lisbon after just over a year.

Wednesday, September 24: A reminder of how fans can contribute to the fund set up for Geoff Palmer before his abseil from the roof of Molineux’s Billy Wright Stand…..please click on Wolves Foundation: Molineux Abseil 2025 if you wish to donate to this very worthy cause. Geoff has already surpassed his expectations easily by aising more than £1,000.

Friday, September 26: Enjoyed a coffee on the Torbay sea front this morning with Dean Edwards, who has just arrived back in the south-west following a Wolverhampton visit that took in the Molineux clash with Leeds. It was reassuring to see him on good form following his disclosure on Facebook recently that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Monday, September 29: Just under three weeks on from his sacking by Nottingham Forest following a row with the club’s owner, Nuno Espirito Santo took charge of his first West Ham game tonight and was presumably encouraged by the 1-1 draw at Everton. We know he has been back to Molineux as Forest boss, but January 3 is the date his Hammers side are due here.