Wembley played host to the FA Cup and Championship play-off finals last weekend. The Champions League final will follow this Saturday. Some hat trick, that.
As the national stadium, it has, of course, been the home of unparalleled drama, of triumph and disaster, whether in its current guise since being redeveloped in 2007, or from its original opening in 1923.
But trophies and medals awarded following big finals at Wembley Stadium aren’t the only footballing accolades which have been handed out within the ‘HA’ postcode.
Just down the road is the OVO Arena, an indoor facility with a 12,500 capacity which is the second largest in London – behind the O2 – and ninth largest in the United Kingdom.
It was previously known as the Empire Pool, and, during that time, between 1968 and 1986, served as the venue for a five-a-side competition involving top teams from both England and Scotland.
Ah, five-a-side football. That staple diet of football-loving friends and work colleagues across the kingdom, whether just playing for fun or in leagues at the likes of Dunstall, Sixes, Goals and many other locations across the Wolverhampton area and beyond down the years.
This tournament, however, was different. This one was serious.
The Daily Express National Five-A-Side involved professional clubs and not only attracted capacity crowds at the indoor arena but also millions of viewers elsewhere being screened on the BBC’s iconic Wednesday night Sportsnight programme.
And Wolves? Well, Wolves won it. Twice! One of only two teams, along with Southampton, to emerge victorious on two separate occasions.
“We played a lot of five-a-side in training and had a lot of players who were good at it,” recalls Kenny Hibbitt, a member of both of Wolves’ winning squads in 1975 and 1976.
“The likes of Steve Daley, Alan Sunderland, Willie Carr, myself, Martin Patching, we were all comfortable on the ball and felt we could pick a pass from any distance.
“We were all used to that style of football and all bounced off each other, and I think that helped us achieve what we did.”
The set-up and format for the tournament will come as no surprise for dedicated five-a-side aficionados, whatever their level.
No passbacks to the goalkeeper, the ball not allowed to go above shoulder height, and initial matches split into four-minute halves before the timings increased as the tournament progressed. Any drawn matches were decided by a penalty shootout.
And managers would generally send their top and first-choice players, even though the tournament was generally played in a November midweek sandwiched between league fixtures.
After Charlton won the inaugural event in 1968, former Wolves keeper Michael Oakes’ Dad Alan and Colin Bell were part of the triumphant Manchester City side the following year, and then Bobby Charlton and George Best helped fire Manchester United to success in 1970.
That was the environment and the quality in which Wolves were operating at the time and yet, as the eleven-a-side game showed, the gold and black class of the Seventies were very much home in that sort of company.
And so, to the 1974 and 1980 League Cups won next door at Wembley, several other knockout semi-finals, a UEFA Cup final in 1972 and finishing fifth in the league, can also be added two other notable triumphs.
Daily Express five-a-side national champions, at the double!
Wolves’ coach for the two successive tournament wins was Brian Owen, who initially arrived as a player/coach under Bill McGarry, making several appearances after an impressive career spent largely with Watford which featured a Third Division championship and FA Cup semi-final.
Owen had played under the McGarry/Sammy Chung managerial pairing at Vicarage Road and so, after a spell at Colchester, the now Wolves boss initiated a reunion at Molineux.
And then, as Owen moved into coaching, McGarry, in ‘75, and Chung, in ’76, asked him to take the team down to London for a spot of five-a-side!
“I was the coach anyway and worked with the players every day, so I was comfortable enough taking the team,” Owen explains.
“We had so many good technical players – Kenny, Willie and others – and five-a-side really suited them.
“I can still remember arriving as a player coach having had a really bad injury at Colchester.
“We went up to play five-a-side in the gym above the Social Club, and I couldn’t believe the pace that the players operated at.
“I’d only really played in the Third and Fourth divisions and the skill of the likes of Waggy (Dave Wagstaffe), Hibby and Willie (Carr) was unbelievable.
“Also, when I first arrived, I also played some reserve games with those lads and others such as Alan Sunderland, Steve Daley, Geoff Palmer and Hughie Curran and again, their quality was fantastic.”
Wolves were actually relegated under McGarry in the 1975/76 season, just a couple of years after their Wembley League Cup glory, before returning straight back to the top-flight, after Chung took over, as Second Division champions.
On both occasions, the mid-season sojourn down to the Empire Pool Arena was a successful one.
In ’75, a 3-1 victory in the final against Tottenham thanks to goals from Hibbitt, Carr and Mike Bailey secured the trophy, and, 12 months later, wins over Bristol City, Ipswich and Rangers set up a final against Stoke City, which Wolves won 2-1.
That wasn’t without controversy however, amid claims that Hibbitt’s indirect free kick which clinched the victory had gone straight into the net past Peter Shilton, not touching a Stoke player.
Hibbitt’s view, and that of referee Ray Lewis, was that it had been deflected in via Garth Crooks and, all this years later, the Wolves legend is doubling down!
“Yes, it definitely took a touch, I did it deliberately,” he explains.
“I was right on the ring of the area and knew I could score directly so I toe-poked it onto him for the deflection.
“The referee knew what I’d done so he was absolutely correct to give the goal, and we won the final.”
The gentle suggestion to Hibbitt, in the wake of the late penalty he won years later in the 1981 FA Cup semi-final against Tottenham, that controversy appears to follow him around at these big events, draws a forthright if tongue-in-cheek response.
“Do you know what?” he begins.
“I remember the once I did a Q&A and asked the audience who had scored our first goal in the 2-2 draw against Tottenham in the semi-final.
“Not one of them knew it was me!
“All they wanted to talk about was the incident which led up to the penalty – that’s life isn’t it?”
One thing everyone could agree on was the atmosphere created at the tournament with fans of all different clubs packed into the arena creating an impressive spectacle not just for the players but also Sportsnight television viewers to enjoy.
“It was exciting with such a lively atmosphere in front of full houses,” adds Hibbitt.
“I enjoyed every minute of it and all the lads loved it, we had a great time.”
Someone else who had a great time was Les Green, a dedicated Wolves fan who was good friends with keeper Gary Pierce, and would later spend the small matter of 23 years scouting for Wolves Academy, unearthing talents such as Joleon Lescott and Danny Batth.
For the ’76 competition, as Wolves defended their five-a-side title, Green enjoyed a ringside seat!
“I was mates with Gary and while I always tried to stay on the periphery when it came to him and the players, he invited me to travel with him and Brian down to London,” Green says.
“We met up with the other players on the car park outside, it was all very ad hoc, and then Brian told me to grab the kit.
“That meant I could walk with the lads straight to the dressing room and no one stopped me – none of the lanyards you need these days, I was kitman for the day!
“I then ended up in the players’ area, behind the goal, with a perfect view of all the games.
“After the lads had won the competition, I was with them back in the dressing room and Sammy Chung walked in, and didn’t bat an eyelid for me being there, he just accepted it!
“I carried the trophy back out to the car – it gave me something to do – and then with Brian and Gary we stopped at a social club in Watford on the way back.
“We just put the trophy on the table and watched the highlights on Sportsnight with a pint and a plate of sandwiches!”
That social club was actually home to a football team run by Owen’s father-in-law at the time, and the coach was delighted to have played a part in the successes at both tournaments, the hat trick attempt foiled the following year by a first round defeat on penalties at the hands of Ipswich.
Owen’s career is something of a unique one in that he played, coached and was a physiotherapist and scout across every division in England.
He also spent many years involved in the international set-up at different levels with England, including serving as physio for the youth team which won four out of five European championships between 1970 and 1975.
As a player, he occupied every position apart from goalkeeper, and, in such a varied and far-reaching career, his spell at Wolves remains fondly remembered.
“It was a great time for me,” says Owen, who would later go on to work for Bobby Robson at Ipswich and David Pleat at Luton.
“I found the people in Wolverhampton to be very warm and friendly, and remember packed houses of maybe 50,000 or more creating such a fantastic atmosphere at Molineux.
“We had some really good players and the lads were great to work with, I really enjoyed it.”
Hibbitt too, meanwhile, was pleased to see the club lift silverware in the shadows of Wembley where he had notched such an important goal in the 1974 League Cup final win against Manchester City.
“When I think back, I don’t think winning that five-a-side competition was recognised as a big achievement at the time,” he recalls.
“But to do it twice was exceptional.
“We were always competitive so whenever we played a game or tournament we wanted to win.
“We certainly didn’t go down there to make up the numbers, we were determined to go all the way, and got that bit of luck you need to go on and achieve it.”
Different five-a-side tournaments have come and gone since the end of the Daily Express version at Wembley, including a national Masters event for former players which Wolves actually won with the likes of Andy Thompson, Don Goodman and David Kelly back in 2008.
Even that competition is no longer running now and, thinking back to a time when current first team players would be involved in such an intense event in between two major league fixtures would be enough to bring managers, coaches and medical staff out in a cold and nervous sweat!
Could it be viewed as an additional training exercise? Did it have an adverse effect?
Well, after Wolves won in 1976, and arrived back home in the early hours of the Thursday morning, they were faced with a home fixture against Millwall on the Saturday.
They won 3-1 with two goals from Sunderland and one from Daley, both of whom had been part of the victorious five-a-side squad.
Very different times!
*This article first appeared in the Express & Star.
