This accolade represented quite a comeback by the likeable local boy after he was marginalised and put on week-to-week terms. He spoke to Neil Warnock’s Huddersfield just before regaining his place, then impressed under both Graham Turner and Graham Taylor. His long-range fizzer in the FA Cup fifth-round win at Ipswich was the high spot of his memorable season.

There was precious little squad rotation a quarter of a century ago and the midfielder with a wand of a left foot started exactly 50 of the 52 matches Wolves played in all competitions in this latest mid-table Molineux campaign. Mind you, he could run forever and just loved his football. Generous to a fault, he promptly gave his award to the parents of commercial manager Gary Leaver.

Wolves were in danger of losing their upward momentum but this third year of life back in the Second Division was the high spot of Thomas McNeill Bennett’s seven-year Molineux stay. Initially used in Division Three as a right-back, he showed he could fill in as a central defender and a central midfielder as he played 42 of the 51 League and cup matches that season.

It would have seemed wrong if this award had eluded the man who served the club for more than a decade and went on to play more matches in their goal than anyone else in history. In the first year of Hayward rule, the keeper was as commanding as ever and won admiring glances from beyond Molineux, Graham Taylor calling him up for England B duty in Algeria.

The Teessider had played at the higher end of the Football League before his move from East Midlands to West Midlands and made light of stepping up with Wolves again for two seasons in a row. With that impressive left foot of his, he looked at home in a division containing his former club, Leicester, among its big hitters and carried off the no 3 duties to excellent effect.

Individual honours, as well as goals and international calls, were shared between the feared strike duo and the ‘other half’ appeared 23 times on the score sheet for the second season running. He was an unselfish, industrious performer and also attracted admiring glances from elsewhere. Maybe this award helped convince him to stay put after his contract expired in 1989.

From early on, it was a case of who is going to be second? Molineux diehards had been longing for a new hero for several years and here was one delivered by the neighbours down the road. Fifty-two goals added up to a stupendous contribution to the double of Fourth Division title and Sherpa Van Trophy and he decorated his monster haul with four of his club record 18 hat-tricks for the club.

Supporters Club members chose thoughtfully when going for the dependable defender, who worked as a milkman before becoming a pro footballer and returned to the same round after retiring. He included a belter of a goal at Preston and another strike against Halifax in his native Yorkshire in a season’s work that saw him eclipse the newly-signed Steve Bull in the voting.

Player of the Year nights were different in the 1980s but big ‘Bruno’ was a highly popular recipient when presented with his award by Billy Wright at Eve’s nightclub – a venue not unfamiliar with Wolves players going back a decade or more earlier. He was in and out of the side until becoming a regular after the turn of the year as a prelude to what was to come from him.

Finding a top performer during the slide down the divisions was difficult but the young keeper was clearly destined for the big time. He became a crowd favourite in rapid time after making his debut in the opening-day home draw against Sheffield United and missed only four games throughout the season in burning off the challenge of previous winner John Burridge.