Danny Hegan has agreed to give his first interview in many years – after being tracked down by www.wolvesheroes.com to his home in Birmingham.
Ever since the launch of this site two months ago, we have been chasing the former Wolves midfielder, who has been a notable absentee from Molineux reunions for decades.
Even his one-time team-mates had lost touch with him, although he spoke to Frank Munro by phone just after the death of Derek Dougan last summer.
Various readers of our articles pointed us in the right direction, though, and a second lengthy walk round some of Hegan’s known watering holes last Friday bore fruit.
We are indebted to the friends who led us, via an introductory phone call, to his door, where Danny was very happy to make contact and to take delivery of a complimentary copy of David Instone’s 2007 Wolves In Pictures book.
He seemed pleased to be told his photo appeared in it three times – one of them a goal of his past Peter Shilton and another an action shot from him challenging in the UEFA Cup quarter-final tie away to Juventus in 1972.
“The home leg of that tie was when I joked about having Helmut Haller in my pocket,” he recalled with a twinkle.
His eyes also lit up at the memory of his audacious chip in the UEFA Cup final against Tottenham and of how he and The Doog celebrated on a long flight to link up with Wolves in America after they had helped Northern Ireland beat England at Wembley.
Hegan, whose accent reflects his birthplace in Glasgow rather than the fact he played seven times for the country he chose to represent, played 70 times for Wolves from 1970 to 1973.
He turned 65 this summer and also played for Sunderland, Ipswich and Albion as well as for Albion Rovers and in South Africa.