It is somewhat ironic, either side of last night’s visit of Fulham, that Wolves are otherwise locked in the middle of successive weekend assignments away at Bournemouth.
Because, up until 40 years ago, they had only ever played each other twice. And both of those, like this Saturday coming, were in the FA Cup.
Since then, they have crossed paths on no fewer than 18 occasions. In recent years, it has become a regular fixture. At times, it has turned into something a little bit tasty! Not just last weekend, when Illia Zabarnyi became the third Bournemouth player to be sent off in the last four meetings, before Matheus Cunha grabbed Wolves’ winner.
Back in January 1957, Wolves, who would win the league title in the following two seasons, were beaten 1-0 at home by Bournemouth whose goal came from Rowley Regis born Reg Cutler, whose son Gary later spent several years on the Molineux playing staff.
Not only that, but Cutler actually brought the goalposts down when colliding with the woodwork at the end of a run. Hitting the post, quite literally.
Their first league meetings, in 1985/86, came during Wolves’ spectacular fall from grace prompting Bournemouth to do the double.
And, while honours have been more even in recent times, who can forget the 2-1 defeat of December 2014 when Wolves had Rajiv van la Parra and Matt Doherty were both sent off, prompting chairman Steve Morgan to march onto the pitch to remonstrate with referee Mike Jones after the final whistle.
Anyway. Moving on swiftly. When it comes to previous clashes between Wolves and Bournemouth, another cup clash, the Freight Rover Trophy Preliminary Round meeting in December 1986 no less, may not naturally spring off the page as one to make noise about.
Not on that cold Molineux night was there the sort of packed houses and atmospheres more associated with a modern Premier League tussle or Fifth Round of the FA Cup with a place in the quarter finals up for grabs.
Far from it. And the crowd of just 1,923 was one of the lowest in Molineux history for a Wolves’ first team fixture.
Wolves, following an historic plummet from First to Fourth Divisions in successive seasons, occupied ninth place in the lowest senior league in English football.
Bournemouth, under manager Harry Redknapp, sat pretty in fourth position in the Third Division on the hunt for a first ever promotion to the second tier, which they would duly achieve by clinching the title at the campaign’s conclusion.
For Wolves, boss Graham Turner was just two months into what would ultimately turn into a transformational tenure in masterminding the Molineux revival, and not so long after the departure of the Bhatti Brothers whose stewardship had caused such consternation, it had been something of a rocky opening.
Many fans had been unhappy that he had been brought in to replace popular caretaker boss Brian Little, whilst the manager himself was equally disgruntled at the attitude of the local media.
As was shown in part of his programme notes for the Bournemouth game.
‘I may not be the most popular man in Wolverhampton at present, I think the local paper has helped to ensure that, but the spirit I want is one created by success not failure,’ he wrote.
Turner was, however, certainly looking forward positively to the pre-Christmas cup tie, against ‘one of the most attractive teams outside the top two divisions.’
For further context, it was barely three weeks since Wolves had suffered the ignominy of FA Cup defeat at the hands of Northern Premier League Chorley, still one of the darkest nights to have blighted the club’s proud and illustrious history.
But Wolves did now have Steve Bull and Andy Thompson, Bull having opened his account in the first of the season’s Freight Rover Cup ties, notching the only goal of the game at Cardiff.
At this point however, fans were completely unaware of the impact which Bull and several other new faces would deliver in ultimately helping Wolves clamber up from the abyss.
Peter Abbott is a lifelong Wolves fan and London Wolves member who missed only one match between 1976 and 2013, and that was only because his train broke down enroute to Blackburn in 1985.
“It was less than a month after Chorley, and at that time it really did feel like we would be bottom with nowhere to go,” he recalls.
“I can still clearly remember driving back from Bolton after that Chorley defeat, going through everything over and over again in my mind, to the effect that I randomly called the club first thing the following morning.
“I spilled all my worries for a good half an hour chatting to Keith Pearson (club secretary), who was a good listener!
“We didn’t know at that time the impact which players like Bully, Thommo and Mutchy (Andy Mutch) would have, but, in a strange kind of way, I felt that myself personally, and other fans, were all really invested in it.
“We needed to be ‘in it together’, and it was a case, as Keith told me, that ‘we’d get through it’ rather than it turn into a battle which we would inevitably lose.”
Another fan, Jolyon Birkett, lived out his teenage years accompanied by Wolves’ devastating plunge to the depths of the footballing basement, and subsequent emergence from the ashes.
Taking his place on a football terrace, these were very different times.
“Sitting on the floor at the back of the South Bank on the concrete, with literally nobody there for night games, is what I remember,” he explains.
“They were some of the lowest gates in the club’s history.
“It was two quid for kids and four quid for adults to get in before clunking through the turnstile or crawling underneath if your paper round money hadn’t come through, and the money got thrown into a cardboard box.
“It was about how not to run a business that was going to survive and thrive – pure Bhatti Brothers marketing business strategy.
“I remember the Paul Calf mullets and moustaches, lots of double denim and big white Puma G. Vilas trainers.
“Then the stench of beer and tobacco breath on everyone, and very few women at football, just fighting age men and feral teenagers like me!”
That was the rather glamorous and glitzy backdrop into which Wolves stepped on that Tuesday December night, for the next instalment of their Freight Rover Trophy adventure.
Little did anyone know that it would turn into such a dramatic and entertaining evening, bringing with it a touch of goalscoring history.
That’s because Bull’s third and fourth goals of his 306 for Wolves – he had added to his Cardiff winner by doing the same in an away league game at Hartlepool – were the first plundered on home turf at Molineux.
It helped push Wolves into a 3-1 lead by the 55th minute, but some lapses from a makeshift defence shorn by the absence of Floyd Street, Ally Robertson and Peter Zelem, allowed a Bournemouth side featuring Wulfrunian and Wolves fan Sean O’Driscoll to level up at 3-3 as top scorer David Puckett completed a hat trick.
Step forward Paul Dougherty, or ‘Peewee’ to his mates, and, indeed, the Wolves fans.
Dougherty had actually opened the scoring, his first goal at Molineux as well, and would then be the man on the spot to capitalise on Jon Purdie’s cross in the 81st minute, and grab the winner to take Wolves out of the group stages and through to the next round.
It was a particularly special moment for the diminutive Dougherty, even with such a sparse crowd, as he only made two more appearances for Wolves, a Boxing Day defeat to Hereford proving his swansong before heading out to America for a fresh challenge with San Diego Sockers.
“With Bournemouth being a league above, and challenging for the title, I remember we were definitely not expected to win,” Dougherty recalls.
“I remember the roar when I scored a diving header at the far post for one of my goals, a big thrill even with such a small crowd.
“It turned into a good atmosphere and was a rare occasion when we scored four goals!
“I also knew I was moving to America by this point, and having been at Wolves since I was 13, it was pretty special.”
A picture depicting one of Dougherty’s celebrations was featured on the programme for a later game with Exeter – “notice the sleeves had to be rolled up as they didn’t have small sizes,” he laughs.
‘A real tonic for everyone connected with the club,’ was how manager Turner reflected on the victory in his programme notes for the visit of Southend four days later.
‘Following two successive away victories, it was important to produce a performance at home which confirmed our improvement.
‘Although there wasn’t a big attendance, I am sure those who did come enjoyed a hugely entertaining game.’
Wolves actually boasted the second best away record in the Fourth Division at the time, but were not so good at home.
It was a statistic they eventually improved, notably thanks to a late comeback against Stockport in early February that signalled a run of 15 wins and two draws from the final 19 games of the season to propel the team into a third place finish, and a spot in the inaugural Football League play-offs.
The less said about that the better, the first of a painful dose of play-off torment was duly delivered by Aldershot, but the decline had been arrested, the ship had been righted, and back-to-back lower league titles followed to send Wolves back into Championship respectability.
As for the Freight Rover Trophy, Wolves exited the competition in the first round proper, at home to Hereford.
But of course, famously, memorably, the following year, in the competition’s new guise of the Sherpa Van Trophy, Wolves went all the way, beating Burnley at Wembley in front of a crowd that was a mere 78,918 higher than on that fateful night against Bournemouth just 18 months earlier. How quickly things can change.
And what a difference that period made to the Molineux fanbase, not to mention the town of Wolverhampton – as it was then – as a whole.
“As we know, come January and February, the Gods became much kinder to us and the play-offs soon beckoned,” adds Abbott.
“It wasn’t to be on that occasion, but we were now a long way on from Chorley.”
Indeed so. The ghosts of Chorley past were well and truly buried during the following years of the goal-laden surge towards back-to-back promotions, Wembley glory, and a revitalised sense of pride and enthusiasm for the famous gold and black.
“Football and life is a funny old business,” says Birkett.
“From the depths of Chorley and the Bhatti Brothers, unpaid milk bills, a derelict Victorian ground with crowds of 2,000 and an imminent winding up order.
“From that, and no hope or future, to a couple of lads turning up for peanuts from down the road with some others with big hearts and characters, and we’re rocketing up towards the big time again.
“All of a sudden, we had a 50-goal centre forward in the England side and a galvanised town with their chests pumped out again.
“Just like that…the Wolves were back!”
And, while the importance of that win against Bournemouth nearly four decades ago may not have been as significant as last weekend’s Premier League victory for Wolves, nor indeed if they could repeat the feat and book a place in the FA Cup quarter finals this weekend, it was certainly important enough.
It provided one of the many moments of hope which were to help Wolves emerge from the misery of the mid-Eighties.
Out of Darkness Cometh Light.
