“What is a club in any case?” asked the great Sir Bobby Robson.
“Not the buildings or the directors or the people who are paid to represent it. It’s not the television contracts, get-out clauses, marketing departments or executive boxes.
“It’s the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city.
“It’s a small boy clambering up stadium steps for the very first time, gripping his father’s hand, gawping at that hallowed stretch of turf beneath him and, without being able to do a thing about it, falling in love.”
It’s a powerful and well-used quote. One which was delivered – and perhaps chiefly relates – to a very different era. But one which still carries so much relevance.
The strength and unity of a football club is so often derived from measurables which can’t actually be measured.
More of a case of the culture, the unwritten sense of belonging where fans feel part of – and that they are contributing to – a special time in the club’s history. Of which there have been many.
For anyone among the near-700 who enjoyed a rip-roaring three hours at the University of Wolverhampton at the Wulfrun Hall last Thursday night, they will know exactly what this means.
The chance to wallow in nostalgia, listen to and enjoy stories from a bygone era, and remember why – on and off the pitch – progress made in football in recent times to the detriment of the raw energy and personality which preceded it, has not been without its losses.
Sky Sports broadcaster and lifelong Wolves fan Johnny Phillips hosted a night to mark a belated celebration of the club’s legendary goalscorer Steve Bull’s 60th birthday.
The pair were joined on stage by Andy Thompson, Andy Mutch, Robbie Dennison, Mike Stowell and Don Goodman.
“What a line-up,” enthused Bully midway through the evening, almost taking a step back and transporting himself almost four decades back into the annals of Wolves’ history.
The atmosphere was electric. The sense of togetherness palpable. The language sometimes industrial. But wow. How to bring hundreds of people together with a common love of their football club and these particular individuals for their contribution to it. One of those truly special nights.
And let’s remember. They didn’t even reach the Premier League! Another example, were it needed, perhaps like the League One title-winning season under Kenny Jackett, or the lower-league revivals that these players delivered under Graham Turner, that sometimes you don’t have to be sitting at the top table to carve your names into Molineux folklore.
“For three or four years we had the time of our lives,” said Dennison. Many fans probably concur.
“There were no airs or graces about any of us, we all wanted to get stuck in and make a name for ourselves and for the team.
“And to do that at such a massive club as Wolves was amazing.
“It was a group of lads who liked each other, enjoyed each other’s company and had the craic.
“On a personal level we wanted to progress and see how far we could go – but the main thing was that we all just loved playing football.”
As ever with a group of former footballers, especially when they have been so close, when they meet up again, it is like they have never been apart.
In the ‘green room’ before going on stage, the conversation was loud, relentless and uncompromising.
A couple made the most of a ‘pre-match’ glass of vino or two, and such was the level of on-stage dialogue and banter – perhaps on a par with many stand-ups to have graced the same stage – Stowell at one point ventured that he would like to become Mutch’s agent and unleash him on the comedy circuit.
When it came to the football chat, of which there was plenty, the subject matter, and the guests, were neatly divided into two broad sections.
The first, featuring Bull, signing-day partner Thompson, strike partner Mutch, and mercurial winger Dennison, focusing on the post-Chorley late Eighties revival under Turner which featured back-to-back promotions and the Sherpa Van Trophy final success at Wembley. And defied the condition of the stadium at that time – mice, cockroaches, water leaks and all.
The second, with Wolves’ most-used goalkeeper Stowell and another of Bull’s strike partners Goodman entering the fray, discussing the agony of not quite being able to take the next step, the play-off near misses, but several highlights such as the penalty shootout comeback against Sheffield Wednesday and FA Cup quarter final victory at Leeds.
Many of the stories will have been familiar to the eagerly anticipating audience crammed into the Wulfrun. But they never get old, being greeted with the same relish and laughter as the first time they were told many moons ago. And there were also several new nuggets of information as Phillips expertly nudged the guests into opening the treasure trove of memories which accompanied their Molineux stays.
Among the old favourites were, of course, the car park training sessions which saw a professional football team spend Friday mornings putting a shift in on a grit and pothole-filled surface on the North Bank, within eyesight of the cabin that housed the club shop.
“On a Friday morning, before the game on a Saturday, can you imagine?” Bull recalled.
“What we used to have to do, was that if there were cars in the middle, we’d have to shove them to the side to create a runway.
“When we finished, people would come looking for their cars and find they’d been moved 20 yards away.”
“I remember when we signed new players and they’d ask where we were training on the Friday,” added Thompson.
“’Over there, on the car park’, we’d reply. They didn’t believe it.
“I remember when Robert Kelly joined us, and his first day was training on the car park.
“By the time he walked off, his nose was bleeding, his hands were covered with grit, and he was wondering what the hell was going on.
“We all loved it, and we weren’t just walking around on there either – we all wanted to win – especially as it was usually the young players against the older ones.
“The gaffer (Turner) would play as well, and he’d hate it if we younger ones won!”
Then there was the Sherpa Van Trophy final, the incredible day when over 80,000 fans of Football League founder members Wolves and Burnley packed out Wembley for the showpiece of a competition involving clubs from the lower two divisions.
For once, Bull didn’t score – he would do so at Wembley later for England – but he did provide an assist, for Mutch, before Dennison stroked home a delightful free kick.
“I remember back in Northern Ireland as a kid when we’d watch the FA Cup Final on a black and white telly, and to then go and experience that as a player, even in a different final, at a club with such passionate fans, was amazing,” said Dennison.
“And then to go and win it, and score a goal, that just topped it off.
“Everybody said it doesn’t matter who scores the goals, but it bloody well does!”
The joke was deliberate. And the audience duly dissolved into laughter, not for the first time. Bull, jokingly, puts his head in his hands. “I had a day off,” he replies.
“I reckon that ball he played to Mutchy for his goal was actually a shot,” Thompson interjects.
But there was also occasion for Mutch, who stole the show at times with several hilarious anecdotes, to get serious for a moment, despite having started the night receiving a microphone from his striking partner-in-crime with the words, ‘that’s the first time you’ve ever passed to me!’
“We just worked so well together and I don’t think I ever saw anyone who was as determined as Steve when he went out on a football pitch,” said Mutch.
“That was an asset I like to think I had as well, and whenever we went out there on a Saturday afternoon or a Tuesday night, we were out there together.
“We were fighting together and doing whatever we needed to do, we had that hunger, and we had each other’s backs.
“They were such great memories, but I think it’s only after you have finished playing that you fully appreciate them.”
What a partnership. What a team. One who played hard as well as worked hard. The build-up to that Sherpa Van Trophy final involved a pre-match training camp out in Santa Ponsa, barely a stone’s throw from Magaluf.
“The gaffer decided we needed to do something as the final was a few weeks after the end of the league season,” Thompson explains.
“I have to say, I can’t remember too many training sessions.
“A football may have been involved occasionally, but it was a very different sort of training camp, and you have to say that it worked!”
Then there was Newcastle away on the first day of 1990, and the four-goal supershow from Bull which obliterated the Geordies at St George’s Park, despite having consumed a fair few sherbets the night before.
Heading into the Nineties, and having masterminded the extraordinary Wolves revival, Turner’s eight-and-a-half year Wolves’ tenure would come to an end, by which time Stowell had already checked in, and Goodman would later arrive after being signed by Graham Taylor.
The frustration of not being able to make that final push for the Premier League continued with two dramatic play-off defeats.
Against Bolton, thanks largely to the reflexes of an ageing Peter Shilton and a left jab from John McGinlay, and then Crystal Palace, when the late concession to seal a two-goal deficit in the first leg proved a bridge too far despite one of Molineux’s greatest ever atmospheres which greeted the second.
“I joined Wolves from Everton who had won the league title and the Cup Winners Cup, but I felt a longing here,” said Stowell, who would later win the Premier League as a coach with Leicester.
“I have always said I have had two footballing families, as a player with Wolves, and a coach with Leicester.
“At Wolves we had so many big players with big hearts, and fans that created a great atmosphere, even with only two sides of the ground open when I first joined.
“One of the stands was half a mile away, and you couldn’t hear the fans shouting abuse, which was good news for Thommo!
“We got into two play-offs, and reached an FA Cup semi-final, and my sole regret is that we couldn’t make it to the Promised Land.
“We had a fantastic team and fantastic times together, and it’s such a massive shame that we couldn’t string together that precious moment to get there, and give the fans what they deserved.”
“What a great group of lads and an incredible dressing room,” added Goodman, who had already brought the house down by likening Dennison to former Catchphrase host Roy Walker.
“I settled in so quickly, and really enjoyed the area, and the people, who are so honest and loyal.
“The big regret for me was that year we lost to Bolton, because I am convinced we were among the two best teams in the Championship.
“So many great memories though, including that goal at Leeds, but also the penalty shootout win, which came quite early into my Wolves career.
“For me, as a new lad, to have that moment scoring the winning penalty was fantastic, and I’ve still got a photograph of it on my wall at home.”
Regrets, they’ve had a few. But then again, too few to mention.
And if there was a regret they shared from a club point of view, amid all the praise for Turner in masterminding the Wolves revival, they were unanimous in thinking the dismissal of his successor in trying to take it on, Graham Taylor, was premature.
“Graham was a genius who was ahead of his time,” said Stowell.
“He was labelled as the ultimate long ball merchant, but he was so intelligent, with his use of psychology and other things that I only fully appreciated at the end of my career.”
“As well as being a genius in the coaching sense he was also a gentleman,” added Goodman.
“He was a brilliant human being who protected his players, and I think it was a big mistake that Wolves got rid of him, which he proved by going to Watford and League One and taking them all the way to the Premier League.”
It was an excellent night, from which proceeds will be donated to support Wolves Foundation, the club’s official charity, a fitting result given how ingrained this group were in the local community. Points and then pints was also a weekly occurrence back in the day.
And this night wasn’t just about the players.
Alan Blount, the devoted fan who infamously climbed up to the window of the Waterloo Road dressing room and found himself in position to serenade the players with ‘Come on me babbies’ after the second leg of the Sherpa Van Trophy final against Notts County had been lined up as a surprise guest.
Sadly, he was spotted by Mutch and Dennison on their way in, but, even though the surprise was foiled, his appearance was still hugely well received.
And the night came to an end with an emotional tribute from Bull’s daughter Gracie, talking of her pride in seeing at firsthand exactly what Dad still means to so many people, and how much she continues to enjoy experiencing a shared love of all things Wolves.
Football is obviously very different now.
Even with the excellence of the current Wolves team, and the quality that has been on show in recent years to bring so much joy to the Molineux fanbase, it’s fair to say a similar evening with the current gold and black heroes four decades from now would certainly look very different.
Such is the passing of time. The changing of footballing culture. And yet, taking all that into account, there will always be collective emotions which remain untouched, and the popularity of these ex-players, who didn’t hit the same heights in terms of league position as their contemporaries, is still set in stone.
When an all-time hero of yesteryear John Richards, another Wolves goalscoring legend who also served as Managing Director during a chunk of the timeframe being discussed, took to the stage, there was a subtle change to the evening’s atmosphere.
As Richards praised the impact the six delivered during their playing days, shared some jovial back-and-forth with fellow Vice-President Bull about the concession of his goalscoring record, and spoke about what makes Wolves such a special club, a hush descended.
The guests who had spent all evening in a high state of hysteria, regularly interrupting each other and contributing to a general air of raucous and uncontrollable discourse, all fell silent.
Such is the respect and esteem with which they hold the dignity and achievements of King John. A true and powerful level of respect.
“It’s a small boy clambering up stadium steps for the very first time, gripping his father’s hand, gawping at that hallowed stretch of turf beneath him and, without being able to do a thing about it, falling in love.”
Pictures: Jaymo Studios
