A Month From Hell – Or Just The 1984 Normal?

“It’s worse than when the Bhattis were here” was a lament voiced once or twice when Wolves were marooned on two points in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

Most will have dismissed the remarks as hysterical over-reaction born out of exasperation and repeated disappointment but just in case anyone began to take them as something approaching fair assessment, we decided to look back at a few weeks of autumn, 1984.

The Bhattis were two and a bit years into their ownership reign and Tommy Docherty was their chosen man as manager in succession to 1982-83 Second Division promotion winner Graham Hawkins.

A month and a half after the start of 1984-85, the gloom was descending as quickly as it had in the chastening top-flight experience 12 months earlier.

We pick out a few ‘lowlights’ as a snap-shot example of just how bad things had become…..and all these are taken from within the space of a few weeks of each other. Thank goodness we had The Doc’s wise-cracks to provide some relief….

October 6: Wolves led 2-0 in 21 minutes against Notts County at Molineux but Martin O’Neill struck to start the visitors’ fightback and a John Pender own goal eventually sealed a 3-2 defeat for the home side and a fourth successive League loss, with 13 goals conceded in the process. 

October 9: A dire 0-0 draw at home to Fourth Division also-rans Port Vale saw Wolves stumble to the third round of the Milk Cup, courtesy of a 2-1 win in the first leg. “We started badly and fell away” Docherty said of a game watched by 5,964.

October 12: Tony Evans had the surprise of being named in the 16-man squad for the following day’s game at Oldham. Despite scoring two in the reserves against Burnley in midweek, Docherty had said he wouldn’t play him at Boundary Park because his all-round game wasn’t good enough. Ouch!

October 13: A training injury to Tommy Langley and Jim Melrose’s slow start on loan with the club meant Evans didn’t just help carry the kit. He actually lined up from the start against Wolves’ fellow strugglers – and guess what? He scored twice. This was mid-1980s Wolves, though, and they managed to concede three at the other end as they were left in 19th place. The Doc said: “I don’t look at the table at this time of year.”

October 16: Satisfaction at the recent purchase of David Barnes deal was undermined by PFA chairman Gordon Taylor, who was angry as Wolves supposedly owed a total of up to £30,000 at the time to five former players – Kenny Hibbitt, Wayne Clarke, Mel Eves, Tony Towner and Mick Matthews. The players’ union reckoned the Molineux decision-makers should be honouring those debts before incurring others and succeeded in summoning the club to appear in front of a Football League commission to explain their actions. 

October 20: A first win in seven League games (2-1 at home to Crystal Palace) came complete with some vintage Docherty. Visiting boss Steve Coppell complained at half-time that the visitors’ box was too far from the pitch, to which his counterpart replied: “I told him ours was too near and said I wouldn’t mind moving it to the other side of Waterloo Road.” And he added in his press conference: “I told the players at half-time that if there was no improvement, we would only get 2,000 at our next game. We were terrible.” Evans and Melrose scored in front of a crowd that numbered 6,665 but there was little encouragement for the first of those two afterwards. “It’s just as well Evans has scored goals because, if he doesn’t, he hasn’t got much else to offer.” Ouch again!

Shall we go on? Docherty fired his assistant, Jim Barron, and Tommy Cavanagh, Martin Buchan, Alan Hudson, Stuart Pearson and Bryan Hamilton were in the frame to replace him. Cavanagh, a no 2 to the manager at Manchester United in the 1970s, had already watched several Wolves games that season while the club had failed in a move earlier in the season for Buchan, who was then playing for Oldham. One other name mentioned was Michael Docherty, of whom the Wolves boss said: “Michael is a fantastic coach and I’d love to see him here but I don’t believe father and son relationships work in football.” Doc Jnr was subsequently appointed at Molineux and Wolves endured a mid-season run of four and a half months and 19 games without a League victory. You really couldn’t make it up!