Memorable Reminiscences On Bully’s BI9 Night

It’s the season for landmark birthdays at Wolves and one has stood out above the rest….that of Steve Bull. JOHN LALLEY, who savoured countless of his goals and who has got to know him in more recent years, lapped up a Thursday evening of pure nostalgia in the city centre.

If 60 is the new 40, with better stories to tell and more time to tell them, Steve Bull is making a characteristically barn-storming start to his seventh decade.

An enraptured capacity audience at the city’s Wulfrun Hall paid an emotional tribute to just about the most authentic of Wolves heroes, with the empathy between player and public – forged from arrival day in 1986 – as strong and as absolute as ever.

Interviewed by Sky Sports’ Johnny Phillips on behalf of the Wolves Foundation and interspersed with notable contributions from Andy Thompson, Andy Mutch, Robbie Dennison, Mike Stowell and Don Goodman, he was the central character in an evening that unfolded like a nostalgic rewind of a remarkable story.

It was the unpretentious embodiment of a true local legend who forged himself into a Molineux icon; a player who became the inspirational focal point of a club dramatically reborn. And, seemingly on spec, it was Bull delivering most of the heroics.

Taking the stage to a tumultuous welcome, he kicked off the entertainment by leading the audience in a rendition of the long-standing ‘Stevie Bull’s a Tatter’ ditty which he confessed is his own favourite.

That done, he announced: “If anybody else offers me a belated happy 60th birthday, I’ll throttle them!” It set the scene for an exuberant and passionate exchange of reminiscences spiced with positivity and good humour, with the odd regret expressed along the way.

A montage of some of the finest goals from his club-record total of 306 were shown on screen, serving as a reminder of the range and variation of his remarkable finishing ability. Bull acknowledged the contribution of Andy Mutch along the way and heard his partner observe: “Yes, a great partnership but he’s got a stand at Molineux, I haven’t even got a seat!”

Bully recalled those early days and the Friday ritual of practice games on the unkempt North Bank car park. “We trained there because there was nowhere else (initially) to go. We’d shift parked cars to give us room. Nobody got injured, just gravel in your hands, but this was on a Friday, the day before a game. Imagine that now!”

Andy Thompson explained: “Anybody new got a surprise. Rob Kelly came from Leicester and, on his first day, ended up with a bloody nose and both his hands bleeding. Best of all, he was given the yellow bib for the worst trainer during the session. He wondered what he had done coming here!” Thompson had shared similar emotions as he and Bully, having just signed, witnessed the humiliating FA Cup defeat against Chorley. ‘We both wondered what we’d done making the move. It was a horrible night. But it all changed. The boss, Graham Turner, was a great man, so well organised, and his attention to detail was outstanding.”

Mutch and Robbie Dennison, the scorers in the Sherpa Van Trophy final in 1988, delighted in reminding Bully that he drew a blank at Wembley. Dennison recalled: “Bully never passed. Forty-five (sic) goals he’d got and when Andy scored, it was Bully’s first assist of the season. Even then, he was trying to shoot!” Bully reluctantly conceded the point! “It was a great time,” Dennison added. “We all got on so well, enjoying each others’ company.”

Mutch recalled playing alongside Bull for the England B and under-21 teams. “That was great but what he did in playing for England was a brilliant achievement,” the Liverpudlian went on. “That goal against Scotland….I always knew he had a great first touch off his shoulder!”

Bully himself described the goal as ‘a dream, especially having been told by Mr. Ron Saunders I hadn’t got a first touch.’ Bull said that both he and Paul Gascoigne were unsure about their prospects of making the squad for the World Cup in Italy until they combined at Wembley for Bully’s brace against Czechoslovakia.

“The six weeks at the finals with England went so fast, some of the best days of my life. Bobby Robson was being hounded by the media and kept us isolated but the spirit was great. In the semi against Germany, I was warming up to go on, then we equalised and the boss changed his mind. I just wish I could have gone on. I still think that was our best chance of winning it since 1966.”

From a few years later in the Molineux story, Don Goodman was prompted on the excitement of the penalty shoot-out drama against Sheffield Wednesday in the home FA Cup replay of 1995. “I got the winner and I’d only been at the club for a short time, so wearing the no 9 shirt made me feel uneasy,” Goodman said. “How could I be wearing no 9 with the guy sitting next to me still at the club?”

He and his colleagues also reflected on the team’s failure to secure promotion to the Premier League. “It was very disappointing,” he added. “Graham Taylor had arrived and he was a great human being who protected his players. Wolves should have stuck with him. He was a wonderful football man, before his time with ideas being used now. He went to Watford and got them promoted.”

Mike Stowell thought the play-off defeat against Crystal Palace under Mark McGhee hurt the most. “Jamie Smith pulled a goal back late on at Palace but we let in Dougie Freedman with the last kick,” he said. “Molineux was the loudest I ever heard it for the return. We won the game but lost on aggregate. It was so frustrating.”

Bull described McGhee as a stubborn man. “It was his way or nothing, which a manager is entitled to do,” he said. “The semi-final against Arsenal, when he played Claridge who couldn’t score a goal, with Robbie Keane and me on the bench. We’d become the nearly team. We couldn’t get over the line.”

The sombre tone didn’t last. A pair of boots worn by Bully during his final days at Molineux fetched £2,000 in an auction for the Wolves Foundation, who are set to benefit by a healthy figure. Thommo quipped: “The left one will be brand new. Not a mark on it!”

The evening approached its conclusion with the arrival on stage to rapturous applause of club vice-president John Richards, who paid a fulsome tribute to the man who shattered his Wolves scoring record. He was followed by Bully’s daughter, Grace, who paid the most delightful tribute to her father, expressing the awe she feels that he means so much to so many.

But the final word had to belong to the great man himself: “I wouldn’t change anything. I wouldn’t change where I came from, wouldn’t change the way I speak. And to you, the fans, you are part of the Wolves’ family…..we stick together and now we are in a great place. Keep the faith!”

There was one last terrace song before the final whistle sounded with the entire audience standing in loud and long admiration. It was a special evening for a modest and humble guy. It’s a privilege to know him and a pleasure to have shared in his BI9 Night Out.