The Call From Home

Saturday, September: 7 Was surprised to read a little-known fact in the build-up to the visit of Bulgaria to Wembley this teatime; namely that two midfielders with Wolves connections had won England caps while with clubs overseas. Thank-you to the Daily Mail for reminding us that Paul Ince played for the country while at Inter Milan and Gordon Cowans when he was with Bari.

Thursday, September 12: Found myself meeting up with Denis Smith on a visit to the Potteries and, with more time, would like to have asked him for some of his memories of those old Staffordshire derby days between Stoke and Wolves. A chat about Alan Dodd would have been interesting, too……hopefully another time.

Saturday, September 14: Met up with Andy Mutch and Steve Bull in one of the rooms off the corridor on the first floor of the Billy Wright Stand at this afternoon’s game against Chelsea. “We haven’t been this close for years,” beamed Bully, looking at his long-time strike partner. I won’t reveal our exact whereabouts but let’s just say it wasn’t appropriate to shake hands. Also at the game, as well as the players helping celebrate Molineux’s 130th birthday, were Jason Cundy and Ian Dowie, both part of the media corps for the day.

Tuesday, September 17: Received the second in a little flurry of emails from Wolves fan Soren Plovgaard in Denmark, asking for some details of games played by the club in Scandinavia. Always nice to be reminded of the support Wolves command in that part of the world.

Thursday, September 19: With six wins out of six in the Europa League to date, Wolves have taken major steps since we were talking about Mel Eves being, for some 39 years, the scorer of the club’s last goal in recognised European competition. Eves was summarising at the narrow defeat at home to Braga tonight in a decent match settled by a quality goal on the break.

Saturday, September 21: Sad to read that Benik Afobe’s season is over because of cruciate damage in his knee after three goals in his first five games on loan for Bristol City from Stoke. The former Wolves striker went down in training with no-one near him and was quickly booked in for an operation.

Wednesday, September 25: Missed tonight’s Carabou Cup victory over Reading due to a Devon break that concluded with three hours of walking in the company of Dean Edwards. ……what a brilliant, knowledgeable guide he proved to be! The Torbay-based mid-1980s Molineux striker was wonderful in pointing out all manner of local points of interest as well as the past or present houses of Colin Lee, Frank O’Farrell and Sky’s Helen Chamberlain. He is always keen as well to catch up on news from his beloved Molineux.

Saturday, September 28: Was delighted to see the recently-retired and sun-tanned Michael Kightly on radio duty at today’s home victory over Watford. Word has it that he may also soon be popping up in the world of football agents. Also among us, as usual, was Andy Thompson.