Wolves’ play-off heroes of 2003 don’t get together all that often. When they do, it’s never dull. Paul Berry catches up with a quartet who were back in the city to chat through the highs and lows of their spells at Molineux.
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“I don’t think you’re gonna need to ask many questions.”
Colin Cameron wasn’t wrong.
When footballers are reunited, dressing room alliances rekindled, it doesn’t matter how many years it has been. Very quickly, it’s like they have never been apart.
Especially when they shared such a dramatic spell together, as it was with Wolves in the early 2000s.
A tumultuous time in many respects, ending with a successful piece of history forever etched into the Molineux folklore.
And Cameron, Alex Rae, Mark Kennedy and Matt Murray? Well, they were all a very hefty part of it.
The conversation, before Murray hosts a Q&A with his former team-mates on another special night of nostalgic fun at the Cleveland Arms, is unrelenting.
Remembering games, team-mates, training ground incidents, tunnel rumbles. Catching up on what they are doing now, what they have heard from others. Even a couple of decades on from when they were occupying the same dressing room at Molineux, or in the portacabins at Compton, it feels like only yesterday.
And, with transfer windows always a hot topic of discussion at this time of year, check out the incomings at Wolves in the summer of 2001.
Kennedy (July), Cameron (August) and Rae (September) were joined by Shaun Newton (August) and Nathan Blake (September). Paul Butler was already there, Kenny Miller followed soon after. With Paul Ince and Denis Irwin the following summer. A formidable group. And one which, eventually, brought promotion.
“The thing with Dave (Jones), he brought in a lot of players who had already been there and done it,” says Cameron.
“Players who had won things, who were captains and leaders, so that once we went and crossed that white line, we could sort everything out ourselves.
“It was a strong dressing room, but I think with any football teams that are successful, you have that element of competition.
“I came to Wolves when I was 27, and if I’d arrived at 21, I wouldn’t have lasted six months.
“I just didn’t have the physicality at that time, I wasn’t ready, but those few years later I was ready, and it was the right time to test myself.”
That dressing room was certainly no place for the faint-hearted. Packed with character and personality, at times that would spill over. But on the pitch? They were very much together.
“I actually think we were quite cliquey as a dressing room,” says Kennedy.
“I was part of that, as one of the four (Irwin, Butler and Michael Oakes) who used to travel in together from Manchester.
“We were actually quite institutionalised in that group!
“And yet, whenever we went on the pitch, we were absolutely together.
“At the start of a game, I would look around and think, ‘you’re going to have to be really good to beat us today’.
“I always remember that training was the same, every single day – warm-up, crossing and shooting, possession and small-sided game.
“Terry Connor was great and would work with the younger players but we didn’t do anything else, until we went into the Premier League and were getting beat and so Stuart Gray was brought in.
“But other than that, it was all simplified, the gaffer set us up and then when we crossed the white line, it was all down to us.”
Amid so many strong personalities, Murray was one of the young professionals, joining Lee Naylor and Joleon Lescott as the three fresh-faced band of brothers in the play-off winning team of 2003.
His experience of that time is, therefore, slightly different.
“As a young lad at the time I didn’t notice any real cliques,” he explains.
“But for myself and Nayls and Joleon, it was all about learning from these experienced players who had come into the dressing room.
“It was so different to when I played under Mick McCarthy later on, when we had so many younger players and it needed a lot more coaching and tactical work.
“That wasn’t the case so much with the squad under Dave, and I just remember being so excited when all these top players were coming in.
“I remember when Sparky (Kennedy) joined, and we were doing some training at Cosford which ended with the player having to drive the ball into the keeper.
“Sparky struck it with his left foot and I had never seen anything like it in my life – it was so powerful.
“Those lads had big reputations and so much class on their day, and then the following season we brought in Denis and Incey as well.
“They looked after us as young players, so not only were we together as a team we were together if things ever went off – which used to happen from time to time.”
From time to time indeed. Including one fixture against Nottingham Forest where the Molineux tunnel – in the days when the cameras weren’t allowed in – turned into something akin to the ‘Wild West’. And which left one Forest player unable to return for the second half.
They were that sort of squad. Demanding of high and brutal standards. Maybe the odd clique or two, and the odd in-house ruck. But when it was Wolves against any opposition, it was Wolves against the world.
Yet of course, that culminated in two very contrasting seasons, the trio’s first in 2001/02, and second, which was Murray’s first, in 2002/03.
At times during that first campaign that Kennedy, Rae and Cameron were together, Wolves were irresistible. Arguably better than the following season when they finally did achieve the Holy Grail of promotion to the Premier League.
But having occupied the automatic promotion places for so long, in the closing stages Wolves were agonisingly overhauled by local rivals West Bromwich Albion, before suffering a third consecutive semi-final exit in the Championship play-offs.
“You can tell me the stats, but it felt like West Brom won all bar one of their final matches on the run-in,” Kennedy recalls.
“We just couldn’t get ourselves over the line,” adds Cameron.
Murray recalls an away game at Birmingham when Wolves let a 2-0 lead slip and drew 2-2. All mentioned Kevin Muscat’s sending-off at Grimsby, losing that particular game, and the influential right back for three more. It wasn’t like the wheels fell off, but they were loosened sufficiently for Albion to take full advantage.
But then came 2002/03. Ince and Irwin. Murray in nets. It took half a season to really get going, but it was an FA Cup Third Round win against Newcastle, in which Kennedy scored a brilliant end-to-end second goal, that proved the catalyst.
“I can’t remember who it was, or whether it was in the media, but someone definitely said in the build-up to Newcastle that a win could kick-start our season,” says Kennedy.
“And that’s exactly what happened.”
Wolves only lost twice more in the league after that. Which took them to the play-offs. And, famously, after a 2-1 win against Reading in the first leg of the semi-final, there followed a hugely tense night in Berkshire for the second, in which Rae’s late strike took Wolves through.
Which, as ever, carried another story.
It is a tale so often told, but one fans never tire of hearing, as was illustrated when the house came down at the Cleveland as Rae delivered it once again.
Rae wasn’t a first team regular this point with Ince and Cameron the two central midfielders, but his late goal and celebration after coming off the bench on a nervy night at the Madejski, remains the stuff of legend.
“Myself and Incey used to help lead the warm-up with fitness coach Duncan Russell, who is sadly no longer with us,” he says.
“We’d be jogging and then spin out from the 18-yeard box and every time we did it, there was a Reading fan who had come from the halfway line to scream at us from the stands.
“He was calling Incey every name under the sun, and I remember saying, ‘crikey Incey, this fella clearly knows you well!’
“I was in hysterics, but Incey was absolutely fizzing – the fan had really got to him – so he got us together and said that whichever one of us scored, we had to make sure we properly gave it back to him.
“As it turned out it was me, and that’s why I did that celebration and Incey and everyone was pointing at the fella. He was sat there with his head in his hands!
“It was nice to play a part in such a big moment, securing the win against what was a very good Reading team at the time.”
A 3-1 aggregate victory took Wolves into the final, and the subsequent 3-0 win against Sheffield United at the Millennium Stadium that needs little explaining. It is now embedded in the club’s history.
It was one of those perfect days when everything went right. The first half goals from Kennedy – a trademark left foot beauty – Blake and Kenny Miller, the second half penalty save from Murray which extinguished a potential ray of hope for the Blades, and the thumbs-up from Sir Jack Hayward in the closing stages which told the often-worrying fans that there was no need to panic. The nightmare was over. Promotion had arrived.
“I didn’t feature in the final, which might have been a good thing as I’d been a ‘Jonah’ in losing so many play-offs before, but the lads did great,” adds Rae.
“And my over-riding memory of that day will always be Sir Jack.
“He had given everything to Wolves, and ploughed tens of millions into the club, so it was brilliant to see him finally achieve his dreams.”
For those that did feature on that memorable May afternoon, it just felt like it was written in the stars that Wolves would prevail.
“I remember going for our walk at the hotel in the morning, and just feeling really good about the day ahead,” says Murray.
“I just looked around at our team and squad and just thought we were going to be too good for Sheffield United.”
“The noise when we walked out at the start of the game was deafening,” added Cameron.
“We started brilliantly, and as soon as we got in front, there was no way in hell we were letting it go.
“You sometimes just know when the time is right – and that was our time.”
“I felt really good in the week leading up to the game, I kept myself to myself and was really zoned in,” says Kennedy.
“I remember we trained at Molineux before leaving and Newts (Newton) came up to me and said I was going to win us the final.
“So, when I scored the goal, which was obviously an amazing feeling, he came up and reminded me of that!
“I do think we need to give credit to Matty as well, because his penalty save came at a key moment.
“At half time I remember just praying that we weren’t going to let this opportunity slip, and had they scored from that penalty, I really think they might have been able to come back.”
Murray made the save, United didn’t come back, and Wolves ended their 19-year absence from the top-flight of English football.
Sadly, it was to prove an all-too-brief return, and despite one or two highlights – Cameron sealing the first Premier League win against Manchester City, Rae’s ridiculously good goal away at Bolton, both of them on target in the incredible comeback against Leicester – a lack of sufficient investment left a mountain to climb which ultimately proved insurmountable.
Given their love of the game, personalities and ability to articulate their thoughts so engagingly, it is no surprise that all four remain involved in football.
All three guests on another brilliant night at the Cleveland have enjoyed spells in both coaching and management, with Kennedy currently Under-21s Professional Phase Coach at Birmingham City, Rae assistant head coach at Partick Thistle and Cameron having left a role as assistant at Raith Rovers at the end of last season.
Both Rae and Cameron travelled down from North of the Border for the event, another sign of how much they enjoy catching up to wax lyrical about all things Wolves. Just as when they occupied the Molineux engine room, covering long distances was never a problem.
All reflect on how they have adapted in new roles in terms of how the game has changed, how they try and pass on their experience to younger players who don’t perhaps have to overcome the same challenges in the youth ranks as they once had to.
All are also united in just how much they enjoyed their time at Wolves, despite the ups and downs, and, in particular, that magical day at the Millennium.
“One thing I always remember is that from the day I arrived at Wolves, there was so much spoken about how long it had been since the team were in the top division,” says Kennedy.
“And I was like, ‘I’ve only been here a short time, that’s nothing to do with us!’
“But it was good to be part of the squad that finally put that to bed, even though unfortunately we didn’t manage to stay in the Premier League afterwards.
“I had some of the best years of my career at Wolves and I will never forget that. I think there was a really good connection between the players and fans and to be part of that play-off win was something special.”
“It’s nice to be remembered for achieving something, especially when it’s something that the club hadn’t enjoyed for so long,” adds Cameron.
“We were given an opportunity to get Wolves into the Premier League and I feel privileged to have been a part of it.
“Anyone who was associated with the club will tell you it was an amazing time.”
“We had a lot of egos in that dressing room, and I was one of them,” Rae admits.
“But we also had a very good team, and a boss who put his trust in us.
“The only thing I would question is that bloody song! At Sunderland they would sing my name but at Wolves it was all about having no hair – it could have been worse I suppose!”
Hair today gone tomorrow. It may be over two decades ago, but a dramatic and sometimes turbulent few years was lit up by one afternoon of pure joy and delight.
And those involved will never grow tired of talking about it.
- Main picture courtesy Martin Hodgkiss Photography.
