Another Enjoyable Check On Lofty

Tuesday, October 28: Paid a second visit to see the rehabilitating Phil Parkes, this time in a Wolverhampton nursing home rather than at Oswestry near the Welsh border. Although his serious fall and lengthy hospital stay have obviously taken a considerable toll, his resilience remains an inspiration and he is as pleased and grateful as ever to those who drop by to help pass an hour or two. John Richards and Barry Powell are among the former Wolves team-mates who have been to see him recently and the good news continued with the disclosure that he is soon expecting to be allowed to be taken on some outings.

Wednesday, October 29: Another good turn-out of Molineux favourites at the exciting Carabao Cup game at home to Chelsea tonight. Steve Froggatt, Don Goodman and Chris Iwelumo were all present on behalf of their various broadcasting outlets and were accompanied in the John Hendley media room before the match by the regular commentary box duo of Andy Thompson and Lee Naylor.

Thursday, November 6: Thankfully remembered to send Colin Lee and his wife, Lyn, congratulations and very best wishes on the occasion of their golden wedding anniversary today. It’s quite a coincidence that their big do is taking place on Saturday in a Torquay hotel – around the time Wolves will be playing at the club he has been most closely associated with in the last 15 years or so, Chelsea, and for whom he played for much of the 1980s.

Saturday, November 8: Glad to help the family of 1930s Wolves inside-forward Arthur Buttery by sending them some information and a couple of squad photos that had him on them. A message was sent to us by his great nephew, Adam Buttery, who was brought up in South East London but has been a resident of Hull for the last 25 years. Wolves bought Arthur from Hednesford in 1929 for £400 and he stayed until being sold to Bury in 1932, playing ten first-team games here and scoring six goals. He then briefly returned to Wolves as a guest during the Second World War. 

Monday, November 10: Interesting to see that Kevin Muscat’s Shanghai Port are still two points ahead of their nearest rivals, Shanghai Shenhua, with the race for the Chinese top-flight title in its latter stages. The former Wolves full-back was strongly linked with succeeding Russell Martin at Rangers but the run-in facing a club he took to the championship last season prompted Ibrox decision-makers to look elsewhere.

Thursday, November 20: Contemplation time for Paul Simpson after Jamaica were held to a home draw by minnows Curacao last night and so missed out on automatic qualification for the World Cup. Steve McClaren has already resigned as manager but Simpson, who he took to the Caribbean as assistant boss early in the year, quit the post in the summer to take up an under-16 coaching job in the USA national set-up.

Monday, November 24: Another example of the brutality of football. Kevin Thelwell was sacked by Rangers today a mere six months after his switch from Everton and appointment as sporting director at Ibrox. His largely calm Molineux years must now seem a lifetime away….before his three seasons as director of football at Goodison Park, he also squeezed in a spell as head of sport at Major League club New York Red Bulls. 

Sunday, November 30: Thirty-one days into the year, Wolves beat Villa 2-0 at Molineux. Thirty-one days from the end of it, they were beaten on Rob Edwards’s return to the Second City today to leave the home games against Nottingham Forest and Manchester United in the next week and a bit looking extremely important.