There were so many great stories, and magnificent performances, associated with Wolves’ League Cup Final win over Manchester City, which took place 50 years ago on Saturday. But perhaps the true romance of the cup was most personified by the man between the sticks on that glorious Wembley afternoon. Paul Berry catches up with one of the day’s heroes.
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“Let me ask you a question,” begins former Wolves goalkeeper Gary Pierce.
“How many people get to play at Wembley on their birthday?”
It’s a good question. To which there may not be a definitive answer.
‘How many people get to play in goal at Wembley on their 23rd birthday, produce a string of fine saves to help their team overcome the odds and defeat star-studded opposition to win a League Cup?’
That would narrow it down just a little bit.
The Gary Pierce story from Wembley, which took place 50 years ago this Saturday, is one of the many where footballing fact proves stranger than fiction.
Deputising for the more established number one Phil Parkes, six months on from being plucked from Huddersfield’s reserves, and in his only his 14th appearance in the Wolves goal, Pierce had an afternoon to dream of – and one he will never forget – as Wolves defeated Manchester City.
The scenes at full time remain, even now, the stuff of legend.
No, not Wolves’ midfielder Steve Daley, who just missed out on a place in the squad, dancing onto the pitch in the shocking yellow tracksuit trousers which were club issue for the day.
More so when uncompromising and often belligerently defiant Wolves manager Bill McGarry, sheepskin coat flailing in his wake, and in echoes of victorious Sunderland boss Bob Stokoe after the FA Cup final ten months earlier, sprinted onto the pitch to congratulate his goalkeeper.
‘I didn’t believe you had it in you,’ he told Pierce.
“Imagine your manager saying that to you,” laughs the man himself, half a century on.
“It was a real shock to see him coming towards me, but also a compliment.”
It sure was. And what a day it was for the young goalkeeper. What a memory.
“Don’t make this about me though,” he continues.
“That back four – Geoff Palmer, Frank Munro, John McAlle and Derek Parkin – they were superb.
“But my man of the match was Mick Bailey, he was unbelievable.
“I have only watched the game back a couple of times but just look at Mick’s performance…what a player.”
Bailey getting to lift the League Cup on that March afternoon was, for all his team-mates, almost as defining a moment as winning the trophy itself.
He was their Captain Marvel, an inspirational leader on and off the pitch, for whom finally lifting a piece of silverware was a fitting reflection of his ability and status within the game.
That it proved an overall team effort which secured Wolves a famous victory under McGarry – goals from Kenny Hibbitt and John Richards either side of Colin Bell’s equaliser – is an unquestionable truth.
And that is exactly how it should, and will be remembered, as the Golden Anniversary of the gold and black triumph arrives this weekend and is celebrated when several of the class of ’74 will be present at Wolves’ next home game against Fulham a week on Saturday.
But the goalkeeping situation and immense contribution of Pierce provided a fascinating and ultimately fulfilling sidenote to an incredible day which will forever have its place in the halcyon pages of the football club’s illustrious history.
“I used to pop into the old Social Club at Molineux during my lunchtimes,” recalls dedicated fan Les Green, who spent most of his working life with British Telecom and the small matter of 23 years scouting for Wolves Academy, unearthing the likes of Joleon Lescott and Danny Batth.
“I got to know a few of the players and I was also playing Sunday League football for Wolverhampton Supporters Club, a team who Gary was training and would watch play.
“We got on well and started to socialise – he’s got an older brother Ray who was like his mentor back home and maybe I filled that role just a little bit when he moved down to Wolves from Huddersfield.
“He had a house in Codsall not far from me and we shared some good times.
“If it was a home match and Wolves had won, we’d go out – this was the time when there were discos everywhere – but, if they had lost, we would go and find a quieter pub somewhere.
“We had some great times and a lot of fun, but I used to hate watching him play because he was a mate and if things went wrong with the team, he would often get the blame.
“I had that same feeling when one of the players I brought into the Academy at Wolves made it through to the first team – you are just thinking, ‘please, everything go well and don’t make any mistakes!’
“I think that when he first arrived Gary was almost wondering what he was doing there.
“This kid from Bury mixing with players like Derek Dougan, John Richards, Micky Bailey, Kenny Hibbitt, Frank Munro and so many more – all such top pros.
“But of course, he came as number two to Phil Parkes, and it was through circumstances that he got thrown into the first team.”
Those circumstances arrived when Parkes damaged his ankle, barely 48 hours after Wolves had beaten Norwich in the second leg of the semi-final to book their place at Wembley.
“We were training at Wolverhampton Racecourse of all places, and as I went to dive to save a shot from one of the kids my studs got stuck in the ground and I went over on my ankle,” Parkes recalls.
“I’d done all the ligaments, and it turned out later that I’d broken it as well.
“It was just one of those things that happens in football, there was nothing anyone could do about it.
“The only good part about it, if there was a good part, was that I knew straightaway I wasn’t going to play.
“It wasn’t like I was hanging on and battling away thinking I might be fit – in the end I was out for about 13 or 14 weeks which I think was the longest time on the sidelines I’d ever had.”
Although Parkes, and indeed the majority of the Wolves camp, anticipated that he wasn’t going to make it, boss McGarry was keen to indulge in a few mind games to keep the outside world guessing.
Whilst the squad had travelled down to Worthing to spend the build-up to the final together and away from the spotlight, midfielder Barry Powell had stayed behind to prove his fitness from a knee injury by featuring in a reserve game at home to Blackburn on the Wednesday afternoon.
And McGarry, in part to try and keep Manchester City wondering, but perhaps more so to keep Pierce relaxed, asked Parkes to play to try and create some doubts around his selection.
“I could hardly walk, let alone play,” Parkes explains.
“But I went out with my ankle strapped like you wouldn’t believe.
“Luckily, I had nothing much to do in the game although it probably still put me back a few weeks!
“I’ve still got a picture of me, stood there in front of the South Bank which was completely empty.”
“I didn’t find out until the Thursday that I was definitely playing,” Pierce confirms.
“I was on top of the world but in one way I was really looking forward to it and in another I wasn’t, because it was such a massive game.
“But I roomed with Frank Munro, god bless him, I loved Frank to bits.
“He was brilliant and just did everything he could to help take the pressure off.”
Pierce had already enjoyed a run in the side towards the start of the season when Parkes was injured, including featuring in two UEFA Cup legs against Belenenses.
But the more senior man had played every one of the League Cup ties enroute to the final as Wolves progressed against Halifax, Tranmere, Exeter, league champions Liverpool and Norwich.
So, when legendary television commentator Brian Moore described the challenge facing Pierce as a ‘tremendous ordeal’ as the cameras panned in on him during the warm-up, it was not without merit.
Although separated by only two points in the league table – City were tenth and Wolves 15th – City were certainly regarded as favourites, particularly with an array of attacking talent at their disposal including Denis Law, Rodney Marsh, Colin Bell, Francis Lee and Mike Summerbee.
The wall of noise which greeted the teams emerging onto the pitch, followed by a rendition of ‘Happy Birthday to you’ from the Wolves fans to Pierce, helped ease the tension.
“When I walked out the tunnel, I don’t think I heard the roar until I hit the first goalpost,” he reveals.
“And then it was frightening!
“It was just about getting my head down, calming the nerves, and doing my best.
“I was concentrating so much I didn’t even hear the ‘happy birthday’ when we were being introduced to the Duke of Kent.
“But there was Big Frank again – he hit me and told me to wave – and then, once the game started, it was just about trying to do what I could.”
Pierce certainly did that in the first half, denying Summerbee low down to his left and then tipping Marsh’s free kick over the bar prior to Hibbitt putting Wolves in front just before the break.
“Kenny was unbelievable, the way he could strike a ball, but I always tell him that was the best mishit shot Wembley has ever seen,” laughs the former keeper.
City responded by piling on the pressure both before and after Bell’s 59th minute equaliser, but Pierce kept them at bay, further saves denying Marsh and Lee to leave the final precariously poised into its final minutes.
And that set it up perfectly for Richards, only still on the pitch struggling with a stomach injury because Dave Wagstaffe had gone off with a thigh problem to be replaced by Powell, to deliver a clinical finish five minutes from time to secure the cup for Wolves.
Which is when at full time Pierce sunk to the floor, a mixture of emotion and relief, before being mobbed by McGarry.
“I think the adrenalin kept him going during that afternoon,” explains proud pal Green, who was watching from the stands.
“And that moment when John Richards scored the winner, was probably my greatest as a Wolves fan.
“Gary played so well, and one save I remember in particular was when he came to the edge of the area to take the ball off Denis Law’s head.
“He’d actually had the hairdryer from Bill McGarry before the Manchester United game the week before, telling him he needed to come out for more crosses.
“For Gary to pick the flight of a long ball when missing it might have led to an open goal was the epitome of what McGarry wanted.”
“I’d had a proper rollocking for not coming for a cross in a practice match before the United game,” Pierce confirms.
“So, in that game I then came for a silly one which I missed, but when I looked behind there were seven gold shirts between the ball and the goal.
“That gave me a lot of confidence, and that win against Manchester City was all about a proper team effort – I owe the lads so much for how they helped me through.”
Never was that team effort more evident than in the warm embrace shared after the final whistle between Pierce and Parkes, who had watched the game with other Wolves team-mates from behind the dugout.
“I travelled down with Barry Powell after that reserve game and while I had been disappointed to miss the game, I was so pleased for Gary,” says Parkes.
“We had always got on well, and from my point of view I knew I couldn’t play, so there was no point looking back.”
“Phil Parkes, what a man,” adds Pierce.
“He was such a good friend and for him to play in that reserve match to help take the pressure off me tells you what sort of a guy he is.
“Look at how many games in a row he played for Wolves – that’s a great goalkeeper, not someone like me who had one great game.
“I still remember him giving me a big hug at the dinner table the night before the game, he was another who was a massive help.”
After the squad had celebrated with a banquet dinner at London’s Hilton Hotel, they returned home the next day to be greeted by thousands as the trophy was shown off from the balcony of the Town Hall.
After that, Green accompanied Pierce back to the Social Club for a pint, where he received a standing ovation, before returning to his home in Codsall where, with brother Ray, they re-lived the game once again courtesy of the highlights on ITV.
“He always stayed so humble with it all and never got carried away, just a lad from Bury,” Green adds of the keeper who admits he never felt completely comfortable in the limelight.
“I remember he once pinched my cap to try and change his luck which included putting it in the net where he saved a penalty at Manchester United the week before the final.
“I’m not sure if he put the cap inside the net at Wembley but he wore it for the photos!”
It was certainly to prove Pierce’s finest hour, and Parkes regained his place a few weeks later, but it was back to Pierce who was an ever-present in 1976/77 when, after being relegated, Wolves bounced straight back to win the Second Division title.
In total he made 111 appearances between the sticks, but that one under the Twin Towers, as the Red Wall in his resplendent goalkeeping jersey, was undoubtedly the most memorable.
Pierce, Palmer, Parkin, Bailey, Munro, McAlle, Hibbitt, Sunderland, Richards, Dougan, Wagstaffe, Powell.
The dogged and determined dozen who, along with McGarry and his staff, etched their names into Wolves’ folklore that magnificent March afternoon.
Three of those heroes – Munro, Dougan and Wagstaffe – are sadly no longer with us, but for those that remain, conversations about the events of that day often become tinged with both pride and emotion.
It was a special achievement from a special group, many of whom, along with others such as Parkes, Daley, Mel Eves, and Willie Carr, who contributed so much to the era, are still in regular touch.
Fifty years on, victory over Manchester City at the home of football remains the memory of a golden triumph built on talent, teamwork and togetherness.
Not to mention the heroics of a young and humble lad from Bury, who made it a birthday to remember.
Many happy returns for Saturday, Gary!
