Of all the weird, wild and not so wonderful events to have afflicted Wolves in the early to mid 1980s, having a TV crew sat on the bench next to a wide-eyed apprentice preparing to make his first team debut, has got to be right up there.
That’s the fate which befell then 17-year-old Dubliner Derek Ryan, ‘Dodger’ to his mates, as he made his treasured Molineux bow against Sheffield United.
It is 40 years this week since Wolves welcomed the Blades on the opening day of 1984/85, a first game at the helm for new boss Tommy Docherty.
Ever the maverick, even as he approached the end of his career, the former Scottish international player, and Chelsea, Aston Villa and Manchester United manager, had agreed to a request from BBC Manchester to grant exclusive behind-the-scenes access to Wolves’ youth team squad.
And in particular, to Ryan, over from Ireland to pursue his footballing dream, and Steve Blackwell, a Wolverhampton-born striker also looking to make his name, to see if either, or both, would progress to the professional ranks.
It was Ryan who made it onto the bench as the only substitute for the seasonal Second Division curtain-raiser. Accompanied by reporter and cameraman.
Imagine how much broadcasters would pay for such access today!
“Forty years – wow – I’d never have thought it had been that long,” Ryan, now 57, reflected this week.
“I wouldn’t say we were approached about doing the programme – we were told – although had we not wanted to do it, I am sure it would have been fine.
“Tommy Doc had come in and the profile of the club was raised because of him, and that’s why the documentary was done.
“I remember we were told what was going to happen both as a group, and individually, with myself and Steve becoming the focus in terms of being the two who would meet the Doc to find out about our contracts at the end.
“And we were both offered deals as it turned out.
“At that age, it was a nice bit of fun, there was a novelty around the place, and we had a really good group of around 14 lads at youth team level.
“They were happy days I have to say.”
Happy days indeed. A total of 40 Wolves appearances for the young and ambitious forward, which featured five goals.
Converted initially from a striker to a right winger, and then back to a striker, Ryan’s spell at Wolves followed the typical rollercoaster ride of anyone connected with the club during those turbulent times.
For him though, it was all positive. It was exciting. This was the sort of opportunity he grew up dreaming of. And then it became a reality.
As a youngster he played for St Kevin’s, his local team in Dublin, from Under-14 level, and soon started to impress.
Wolves had an excellent scout operating in the area, Eddie Corcoran, who would later spot the talents of Robbie Keane, and Ryan’s direct running and ability on the ball caught his eye.
After travelling over for several trials during the school holidays, in January 1983, Ryan put pen to paper on a two-year YTS apprenticeship.
The adventure had begun.
“Since I was knee high to a grasshopper, I just wanted to play football,” Ryan explains.
“So, to move over from Ireland to England was a natural progression, it wasn’t a huge thing.
“If you wanted to become a professional footballer, you had to leave home.
“It was strange that in the first year I didn’t feel homesick at all, but in the second I did, maybe because things weren’t going so well.
“But I was always settled in Wolverhampton, I was in digs with a couple who looked after me really well, who made it home from home, and that’s why I was able to do so well in my second pre-season ahead of getting my debut.”
There were none of Ryan’s family or friends at Molineux on that breakthrough afternoon four decades ago. The decision to include him as substitute came too late to be able to sort any travel arrangements.
He did, however, have plenty of company in what accounted for a dugout at a decaying Molineux back in those days. Docherty on his one side, and the BBC reporter on the other.
“It was obviously a big day but I have to say, I don’t remember too much about it,” Ryan recalls.
“But because of the programme, I can obviously see that I had the camera there in my face, and Tommy Doc was talking to me about different things going on during the game.
“I’d had a good pre-season, he’d moved me from striker to the right hand side and I’d been flying, scoring a few goals.
“And I remember there being a really lively atmosphere at Molineux that day, Tim Flowers was also making his debut in goal, and I got on for the last 20 minutes or so at the end.
“It’s obviously a good memory, but one I think I can recall mainly because it’s all still there on the programme rather than from my actual memories!”
What Ryan can remember more clearly is his first goal, which came at the opposite end of the campaign, and what ultimately proved the decisive strike in a 2-1 win against Huddersfield on May Bank Holiday Monday, the final home game of the season.
Still only 18 at the time, his breakthrough was perhaps also the result of the efforts of Frank Upton, such a highly-rated coach among apprentices of that era, although one who eventually lost his job not long after Docherty took the helm.
“Frank was always hard on us at times, but he was also fair,” is Ryan’s verdict.
“Some of it was an act I think, making sure we knew our place, in the sense that we were 16 and 17-year-old kids who had the world at our feet and probably thought we were going to be superstars.
“Frank knew only too well that there was actually a big, wide world out there that the majority of us were going to end up in.
“He was just making sure we were aware of that and how lucky we were to have the opportunity to be a footballer.
“And that first goal is a really good memory for me.
“I remember it being a Bank Holiday Monday, and I came off the bench, I think at half time.
“I had John Humphrey playing behind me at right back, which I always really enjoyed because he was such a good player, and while unfortunately we were well on the way down at that point, scoring my first goal was still special.”
The documentary which featured Ryan and Blackwell, entitled ‘Moment of Truth, showed the life and times of those young lads aspiring to become professionals, from carrying out all their daily chores in the dark and dingy stadium corridors, to training at Castlecroft and other venues and travelling to a reserve game on a midweek night at Scunthorpe and promptly getting beat 6-2.
The complete chaos that was about to envelop the club, which had already nearly gone out of business in 1982 and would go close again in 1986, wasn’t completely there for all to see, and Ryan admits, that even as the team suffered their second of what would prove three successive relegations, the more youthful element were blissfully unaware of the club’s downward trajectory.
- Express & Star subscribers can read the full feature here – https://www.expressandstar.com/sport/football/wolverhampton-wanderers-fc/2024/08/29/when-derek-dodger-ryan-was-the-wolves-tv-star/
