In the same way that Portsmouth after winning the first league title of the 1950s would not have envisaged being relegated in the final season of that decade, so Wolves, just five years on from being the inaugural FA Cup winners of the ’60s, could not have foreseen themselves in the year of ‘Rubber Soul’ and ‘Like a Rolling Stone‘ dropping out of the Top Twenty (or 22 in this case).
Portsmouth, like Wolverhampton Wanderers, also had successive league championships to their name, consecutively champions as the 1940s gave way to the 50s. But aside from a near miss in 1955, Pompey were unable to arrest a steady decline and following a couple of close run-ins with relegation, never looked capable of beating the drop in 1959 – going from top to bottom in the space of nine years.
For Wolves, however, the fall from grace was even more accelerated. The 1960 FA Cup triumph was their second post-war Wembley glory day, the first being a 1949 success against Leicester City. In between they had secured three league championship wins (1953/54, 1957/58, 1958/59), missed out by a whisker on three more and with a series of victories over top notch foreign opposition in high-profile friendlies, forged a reputation as the foremost exponents of English football at its most forceful.
But as the 1960s unfolded past glories began to count for little. Wolves, like a crooner in the big band era, suddenly found themselves old hat as innovative new combos from North London, Merseyside and Manchester began dominating the top chart positions.
From their position of prominence as the 60s dawned, the slide was such they suffered the ignominy of relegation in 1965, this after two lower half finishes in the previous three seasons. The descent even made a casualty of revered manager Stan Cullis, under whose stewardship Wolves had chalked up two FA Cup successes, three league championships and won admiration not just from those on the packed Molineux terraces, but opponents far and near.
Cullis was sacked in September 1964, ironically after a 4-3 win over visiting West Ham, their first victory of the season coming after an atrocious start yielding six defeats and a draw from the first seven games. Scot Andy Beattie took the reins for the rest of the season during which relegation became a racing certainty long before mathematics took over. Through 1965-66, their first campaign outside the top flight in almost 40 years, Wolves top scored in Division Two but twelve defeats put paid to a concerted promotion bid, Beattie as a consequence losing his job.
Next into the breach was former West Brom and England forward Ronnie Allen, first on a caretaker basis, the appointment made permanent in time for the 1966-67 season. With Mike Bailey, whom Allen had signed for £40,000 from Charlton Athletic in the spring of 1966, installed as captain, the team was starting to become populated with players (goalkeeper Phil Parkes, Gerry Taylor, Peter Knowles, Dave Wagstaffe), who would be at the fore during the near and distant future.
Yet in a campaign where Wolves again topped the second division goal scoring charts (netting 88, one more than the previous year), the promotion that looked likely became all but assured with a signing Allen made in March 1967.
For a fee of £50,000 striker Derek Dougan moved from first division Leicester City to Molineux, the Northern Ireland international making an immediate impact by netting a hat-trick on his home debut – his haul of nine in eleven games ensuring Wolves finished runners-up to Coventry City, who pipped them to the second division title by a point.
Their return to Division One in August 1967 coincided with the formative football watching years of your genial host at here at SAMTIMONIOUS.com. The nine seasons ahead were a mix of delight and despair, fascination and frustration, my Dad standing beside me a link between memorable moments under Cullis and the early ’70s excitement about to unfold – Molineux having hardly changed during the intervening time.
There would be noteworthy cup runs, impressive league victories, commendable top six finishes, the emergence and development of accomplished young players. But by 1976 influential performers of recent times had moved on without being replaced, heady times in Europe and a Wembley win counting for nothing as relegation once more came calling – Wolverhampton Wanderers back in the place where our combined journey began almost ten years before………….
1967-68: Division One (17th/36pts). League Cup – second round; FA Cup – third round; Top scorer – Dougan (17).
As the summer of ‘Sgt. Pepper‘ drew to a close, when Wolves took the field at Fulham on Saturday 19 August 1967 only three players remained from their last first division fixture, which had occurred 26 months before. Even in a relegation season, the night of Monday 26 April 1965 was one of particular ignominy as five days before an FA Cup Final meeting against Leeds United, Liverpool manager Bill Shankly took a virtual reserve side to Molineux, (four of his players making their one and only first team appearance), the paucity of the opposition made clear as they returned to Anfield having won 3-1.
But a foretaste of what lay ahead was evident in those scoring the goals as Wolves left Craven Cottage with the points.
Given both would be present for the most significant visit Wolves would make to the capital in the seasons ahead – the 1974 League Cup Final still some seven years away – it was ironic that skipper Bailey and talisman Dougan should score in the 2-1 win over Fulham, each player destined to a have major bearing on the side through the foreseeable future.
Three days after the opening day victory in SW6, over 50,000 crammed into Molineux for a Black Country derby against West Brom. During 90 minutes of unrelenting action, the last-gasp Albion equaliser that resulted in the sides sharing six goals was so vehemently disputed by ‘keeper Parkes he was sent off for dissent – an otherwise encouraging first week concluding with Dougan, fast becoming the first authentic crowd favourite since the early-60s, scoring twice in a 2-0 home win over Leeds.
But if the aim was steady consolidation it would be achieved the hard way, the rest of the campaign developing into a terrain of undulating pathways. After two wins and draw from the opening three games, the following four weeks brought five straight defeats that included a second round League Cup exit at Division Two Huddersfield Town.
As autumn passed their fortunes improved to the extent the only loss incurred through a run of eight games came against eventual champions Manchester City. The hit and miss nature of results continued up until Christmas, producing little in the way of consistency yet plenty in regard to entertainment – as witnessed by your genial host whose first sight of Molineux came as a seven year-old in the 4-3 defeat to Stoke on November 18 1967.
Indeed, a pattern had emerged of them scoring plenty, (only the top four of Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool and Leeds scored more that season in front of their own supporters), but at the other end Wolves leaked like sieve.
By the time Allen spent £80,000 on Derek Parkin of Huddersfield – making him the most expensive full-back in England at the time – and bought Aberdeen midfielder Frank Munro for £60,000 in the early weeks of 1968, his side were already embroiled in an 11-match winless streak, including a shock FA Cup third round exit at second division Rotherham. This disconcerting spell was bookended by a 3-2 December home victory over Fulham and 2-0 win against visiting Sunderland on Saturday 9 March.
When Wolves lost at Coventry as March drew to a close and dropped to third bottom, the prospect of an immediate return to Division Two began to loom, only for the outlook to improve with victories in the next two matches. Dougan took his goal tally to 17 with three in the 6-1 rout of Nottingham Forest, yet it was not the last hat-trick scored by a Wolves player that season – former England international Frank Wignall, a £60,000 signing from Everton a few weeks earlier, achieving the feat when Chelsea suffered a Molineux defeat.
This fluctuating season finally came to a close seven days later on May 11 with a 2-1 home win over Spurs, Wolves, on amassing 36 points, finishing four clear of relegation in 17th.
1968-69: Division One (16th/35pts). League Cup – fourth round; FA Cup – fourth round; Top scorer – Dougan (11).
On retaining their first division status at the end of a season that produced more creaks than peaks, manager Allen surprisingly made no summer forays into the transfer market. The inactivity exposed shortcomings within his squad when the first couple of months brought only two wins, culmination of this disheartening period arriving on Saturday 28 September when they received a 6-0 Molineux thumping off Liverpool.
To make matters worse, on being hit for six by the Anfield outfit two of the haul were netted by young striker Alun Evans, who a fortnight before had left Wolverhampton for the red half of Merseyside, the £100,000 fee the British record at the time for a teenager.
Things improved slightly over the next few weeks although wins were still as rare as G.B. gold medals at the concurrent Mexico Olympics, the irony lost on nobody when Allen was sacked on November 16 following a 1-1 draw at Burnley. Wolves, having recovered from a League Cup exit at second division Blackpool, had embarked on their best run of the season so far, the point at Turf Moor a third game without defeat.
For their fourth manager of decade the Molineux board turned to renowned disciplinarian Bill McGarry, who had recently guided Ipswich back to the top flight. Portman Road had been another place to experience the shifting sands of 60s football, the East Anglians relegated in 1964, just two seasons after winning the league title under Alf Ramsey – who now as a Knight of the Realm was enjoying laudable success in his current post.
Caretaker bosses Jack Dowen and Gerry Summers oversaw a 5-0 win (the biggest of the season) over Newcastle in their only game at the helm, McGarry taking charge for the visit to European Champions Manchester United where they suffered a 2-0 reversal. Seven days later the new manager was off the mark when Spurs were beaten by the same score in his first home match – but the next ten league games only produced one win, Tottenham also extracting a degree of revenge by winning a fourth round White Hart Lane FA Cup tie between the sides in late-January.
February had come and gone by the time McGarry had a third win to his name, an early Dougan goal earning the points at destined for the drop QPR. It was however, an important one-off win rather than portent of better days through to late-April, the sole victory before the season end coming against a Manchester City side with their minds on the FA Cup Final.
While holding champions-elect Leeds to a Molineux stalemate was no mean feat, it became a grueling slog to the finish line, a 4-1 defeat on Tyneside against a Newcastle side primed for two-legs of a forthcoming Fairs Cup Final in the closing game, a fitting end to a fitful campaign. Ultimately Wolves finished a place higher (but with one less point) than the previous season – 1968-69 encapsulated in the fact of not having once recorded successive league victories.
If there was a saving grace for McGarry it came in the consistent good form of young striker Peter Knowles, who free from the injuries that blighted his early career, had scored nine goals (second only to Dougan), and won four England U-23 caps.
Such was the reputation Knowles had gained as a top-class talent in the making, inclusion in the 1970 England World Cup squad could not be discounted. Liverpool and Manchester City were among his admirers with Wolves naturally keen to keep this prized asset on their books………
1969-70: Division One (13th/40pts). League Cup – fourth round; FA Cup – third round; Top scorer: Curran (23).
In the summer of ’69, to quote a phrase, if McGarry felt his squad were in need of steel he went shopping in the right place, signing full-back Bernard Shaw from Sheffield United and Scottish international midfielder Jim McCalliog from neighbours Wednesday, both of whom would be reliable performers through their respective Molineux careers.
Yet in terms of long-term payback, the decision to award John Richards a professional contract as the new season approached would reap the greatest dividend.
Having presided over just four league wins to date in his 23 match tenure, McGarry then achieved the same amount straight off the bat when 1969-70 arrived, adding a couple of draws as Wolves found themselves holding down third place after six games. Following a late-August defeat at Coventry they went through September undefeated, but a visit from title-chasing Everton on the first Saturday of October served notice of the thrills and ills to be found inside English football grounds.
The visitors edged an exciting encounter by the odd-goal in five through a game played against the backdrop of crowd disorder leading to over twenty arrests – and to cap it all Dougan was sent off for speaking out of turn to a linesman, his dissenting comments leading to an eight-week suspension.
Such was the terrace pandemonium and related pitch invasions, the authorities undertook an investigation whose findings moved Football League president Len Shipman to make the sadly prophetic comment, ‘I am very concerned that unless we act we shall have a major crowd disaster on our hands.’
In the absence of Dougan, goalscoring responsibilities fell mainly to Scottish forward Hugh Curran, who McGarry had signed from Norwich City the previous spring. In his efforts to find the net Curran (the scorer of nine goals already), would not be supported by Knowles who made the shock September announcement that he was retiring from the game with immediate effect on becoming a Jehovah’s Witness – and while Wolves would continue to register him as a player through the foreseeable future, this gifted individual, at the age of just 22, had played his last in the professional arena.
Despite Dougan’s absence and the departure of Knowles, Wolves maintained a steady course through the autumn and reached the turn of the year in fifth – early January bringing the anomaly of losing a third round FA Cup tie at Burnley one week, then beating the same opposition comfortably on their own ground seven days later.
Dougan returned to the scoresheet in a 2-0 victory over visiting Ipswich on January 24 1970, yet the game would have sombre consequences being the last they would win all season. The following week the return fixture with Everton again had ramifications for Dougan, who left the Goodison Park pitch with a fractured cheekbone suffered during the 1-0 defeat against a team destined to become league champions.
This time his presence would be missed as Wolves failed to win any of the next nine games for which he was sidelined, although when Dougan did return the four straight defeats that followed saw McGarry’s side drop into the bottom half – a final placing of 13th an altogether disappointing return given the season was not without promise at the halfway stage.
In a bid to sharpen the attack McGarry had paid Leeds £80,000 for ex-England international Mike O’Grady when the season was still in its infancy and would shortly spend £50,000 on Arsenal striker Bobby Gould. But what would prove the most potent strike pairing was now on the radar as 1970-71 approached, Dougan returning to full fitness and Richards having made his league debut in February 1970.
1970-71: Division One (4th/ 52pts). League Cup – second round, FA Cup – fourth round. Top scorer: Gould (24).
For a season that would bring improvement bordering on the miraculous, things began in such inauspicious manner that four defeats in the first five games, combined with a League Cup exit at second division Oxford United, suggested Wolves would spend the season striving to avoid relegation rather than give chase to a European spot.
Yet when a comprehensive 3-0 home win over Manchester City on October 24 lifted them to sixth on the back of a nine match unbeaten league run, it began to appear square pegs had been found for the same shaped holes.
By converting Munro into a centre half and slotting him alongside the increasingly dependable John McAlle, McGarry had hit upon a ball-playing/ball-winning combo in central defence. The introduction of Kenny Hibbitt (a late-60s signing from Bradford Park Avenue) into midfield added energy, telling passes and extra goalscoring dimension – his winner in the 1-0 February home defeat of FA Cup holders Chelsea, a genuine goal of the season contender had the cameras been there to capture it.
At this point Wolves’ FA Cup hopes had been dashed in a fourth round defeat at Derby, where they had triumphed in the league a couple of weeks before, but four and five match unbeaten runs were becoming a much more regular occurrence. At times these sequences included progress made in the Texaco Cup, an invitational tournament sponsored by the petroleum company for clubs from across the U.K. not participating in Europe – Burnley, Nottingham Forest, Stoke, Spurs and Wolves the English entrants in this the inaugural season.
Three days after wrapping up the league campaign with a home win over relegated Burnley, Wolves suffered a 1-0 second-leg Texaco Cup Final defeat against Hearts, but still lifted the trophy by virtue of a 3-2 aggregate margin having triumphed at Tynecastle a fortnight before.
They would not be eligible to defend the trophy as by amassing 52 points, their highest top flight tally in ten years, a UEFA Cup place had been secured. Such a total saw them finish fourth, which not only amounted to the most elevated placing Wolves had managed since 1961, but at the time of writing remains the high water mark for Wolverhampton Wanderers during the past 63 years.
1971-72: Division One (9th/47pts). League Cup – second round; FA Cup – third round; UEFA Cup – beaten finalists; Top scorer: Dougan (24).
Of all the anomalies attached to Wolverhampton Wanderers during the period in question, there is none stranger than how fate began and ended this convoluted, at times highly commendable season.
Through a curious mix of highlights (they beat four of the top six at least once) and thin spots (poor home form from February onward), Wolves, in the breakthrough season of prolific striker Richards, were more often than not an entertaining watch – the campaign opening and closing with a draw against Spurs.
On August 14 the curtain went up with a 2-2 Molineux affair against Bill Nicholson’s outfit (Wolves somewhat symbolically letting slip a two-goal lead), before ending at White Hart Lane nine months later. The UEFA Cup Final second-leg on finishing 1-1 secured the trophy for the North London hosts’ – who a fortnight before had scored a 2-1 first-leg triumph.
The improvement in evidence the previous season was shown to be no fluke as 1971-72 started in pleasing manner, only one defeat in the first eight league games (and that to a 90th minute penalty at Anfield), saw Wolves perched fifth as September came to an end.
Momentum on the league front went askew through October and early November and while there was also a League Cup exit at Manchester City to contend with, Wolves had met the UEFA Cup challenge with relish, their first sortie into Europe for ten years providing an aggregate winning margin of 14-2 from the first two rounds.
If Wolves had a better week during the entire decade than November 13-20 1971 it has slipped the notice of this observer. Two goals from Richards accounted for last day title winners Derby one Saturday, the next recent double-winners Arsenal were ripped apart on a sleet-bound Wolverhampton afternoon where conditions resembled that of ‘Ice Station Zebra‘ – the reigning champions buried in a second half goal avalanche in a suffering a 5-1 reversal, the opener from winger Wagstaffe voted ‘Goal of the Month.’
The defeat of Brian Clough’s Derby set in motion a twelve match unbeaten trot that eventually ended in a third round FA Cup replay defeat at Leicester – a ten match undefeated league run ending eleven days later at the end of January with a 5-2 Maine Road clumping off current league leaders Manchester City.
From that point onward further European gains came the priority. After overcoming East German side Carl -Zeiss Jena prior to Christmas, the campaign resumed in early March with the tough task of overcoming Italian giants Juventus. In Turin a second half McCalliog goal earned a 1-1 draw, the job completed two weeks later in a cliffhanger second leg, Dougan’s ninth (and final) goal on the UEFA Cup trail ultimately clinching progress to the semi-finals by virtue of a 2-1 win.
While patchy league form continued into April, Wolves kept finding among their group someone who made the difference against overseas opposition. While Richards and Munro obliged with goals in a 2-2 semi-final first leg against Ferencvaros, they returned from Budapest on level terms thanks to a penalty save from Parkes – something he was to repeat in the second leg (once again from Szoke) when Wolves, with goals from young midfielder Steve Daley and Munro again, squeezed through to an all-England final against Spurs on recording another 2-1 victory.
Before Tottenham arrived at Molineux on Wednesday 3 May, Wolves notched their seventh and eighth away win of the campaign – only champions Derby (8) won as many times on opposition soil – but erratic Molineux form remained a curse as two Martin Chivers goals saw the visitors to a 2-1 UEFA Cup Final first leg success.
The capability to beat anyone, however, resurfaced five days later when a 2-1 victory over visiting Leeds, (who 48 hours earlier had lifted the FA Cup) denied the Elland Road side the league and cup double. Don Revie’s men succumbed to a 2-1 defeat in front of a near 54,000 Molineux crowd – the title instead going by a point to Derby, whose fixtures had been completed the previous week.
When the campaign finally ended on Wednesday 17 May with the UEFA Cup Final second leg, Wolves, despite a valiant effort – Wagstaffe scoring another stunning goal – were unable to overturn the first leg deficit, a 1-1 draw resulting in Spurs becoming the first British club to lift two different European trophies.
For Wolves it was an agonisingly close step toward tangible glory – the wait for a piece of major silverware going on a little while longer yet.
1972-73: Division One (5th/47pts). League Cup – semi-final; FA Cup – semi-final; Top scorer: Richards (36).
With Wolverhampton-based glam rockers Slade currently establishing themselves as the most successful chart act in the U.K., it remained to be seen whether Wolves could bring some overdue football success to the town.
The run to the UEFA Cup Final and good, sometimes intermittent, league form was testament to what was capable when things clicked – the goal threat now offered by the Dougan-Richards partnership needing the support of defensive solidity at the other end.
Due to their excellence as a duo, McGarry had over time sold Gould, O’Grady and Curran, his eggs not quite all in one basket as Steve Kindon, a £100,000 1972 summer buy from Burnley, was purchased as cover for the strikers and provider from the wing, Wagstaffe.
Familiar rearguard failings were evident as the first two games of 1972-73 were lost (Wolves shipping five in the second at Arsenal), yet they responded by then going four without loss, this run coming to an end with the customary defeat at Anfield.
On the final Saturday of September Richards netted his first senior hat-trick in the 5-3 win over visiting Stoke (he would notch another in a late-season thumping of Everton), but aside from League Cup progression at the hands of three sides from the lower divisions, October and November were pretty much a write-off.
Indeed, December was only five days away when a barren spell of seven league games without victory came to an end, Wolves having dropped to thirteenth by the time they beat Sheffield United at Bramall Lane.
December in fact would have been deemed a success had it not been for a two leg, 4-3 aggregate defeat against bogey side Spurs at the semi-final stage of the League Cup. The opening month of 1973 saw Molineux packed twice in quick succession – although both Manchester United (FA Cup third round) and league leaders Liverpool both left empty-handed, the New Years resolution in the home dressing room something along the lines of ‘to play well every week.’
It certainly seemed the case as mid-February brought commencement of an 11-match unbeaten run that carried them up the table and through to an FA Cup semi-final against Leeds at Maine Road, where once again Wolves fell one fence from Wembley. The cup holders won through with a second half goal from skipper Billy Bremner, after which they survived an onslaught that saw Richards and Dougan both hit the woodwork.
The remaining seven league games passed with a sense of breaking even – three wins, three losses and draw – but a fifth-placed finish brought with it another crack at the UEFA Cup, Wolves finishing four places higher than the previous term, albeit with the same number of points.
From a campaign where Richards proved himself the outstanding young forward in English football (such prowess earning him his solitary England cap in the end of the season Home Internationals), there was still a feeling, despite two lengthy cup runs and any number of fine league performances, that more should have been achieved.
They had beaten champions Liverpool, taken points off most of those around them and outscored all but three sides – yet at the same time, four of the lower half conceded less with points frittered away in fixtures against the bottom six.
This strange mix of sure to score attack, but open door defence was a means of winning plaudits – but still, as yet, no prizes.
1973-74: Division One 12th/41pts. League Cup – winners; FA Cup – third round; UEFA Cup – second round; Top scorer: Richards (18).
With a clutch of young players who had progressed from the youth team (Steve Daley, Alan Sunderland, Barry Powell, Geoff Palmer, Peter Eastoe), all now members of the first team squad, McGarry resisted making any outfield acquisitions in the summer of 1973, although the signing of goalkeeper Gary Pierce from Huddersfield Town would prove £40,000 wisely spent.
Opening the season with successive wins may have hinted at some new found consistency, but proved misleading as the next nine outings brought only two wins, both against Portuguese part-timers Belenenses in round one of the UEFA Cup. This poor run of five straight league defeats coupled with two draws ended on the first Saturday of October, when fourth-bottom Wolves managed to see off Manchester United (one place above) in what would prove the last visit to Molineux by the Old Trafford side for almost two years.
As a consequence of their wretched start, Pierce had replaced Parkes in goal – his run of 127 consecutive appearances ending in mid-September – while up front the goals had dried up for Richards, Wolves suddenly without constancy at both ends of the pitch.
There was little to write home about in dispatching third and fourth division sides in the League Cup particularly when one Saturday after another resulted in no headway being made in climbing away from the lower reaches of Division One – and in the first season of the bottom three going down, one place above the drop zone was no place to be as Yuletide fast approached.
Although the UEFA Cup was no longer an issue following a second round exit against East German side Lokomotive Leipzig, just as the country began suffering an energy crisis and imposition of the three-day week, Wolves rediscovered some power – Richards affirming his blip was temporary with the brilliant individual goal that defeated visiting Liverpool in a League Cup quarter-final.
With Slade at number one with ‘Merry Xmas Everybody‘ as the year came to a close, Wolverhampton was also in clover on the football pitch. While Noddy Holder and co eventually saw their run come to an end – most of the populace by early-January relieved they would never hear the song again – that of Wolves kept on going, reaching the start of February with only one defeat in their previous 13 games (and that a third round FA Cup replay loss at Leeds).
Not only had they climbed into a mid-table berth, Wolves had also reached the League Cup Final – a second leg strike from Richards, whose goal touch had returned in abundance, enough to beat Norwich and set up a Wembley meeting against Manchester City.
Beneath the Twin Towers on Saturday 2 March 1974, the 14 year wait for silverware came to an end, recent set-backs in the UEFA Cup Final and domestic semi-finals put to flight as Pierce, on the day of his 23rd birthday, produced an inspired display. He was beaten when England international Colin Bell cancelled out a first half goal from Hibbitt, but with extra-time looming Richards, who due to injury had been a peripheral figure, seized on a loose ball in the City box – his fierce low drive sufficient in taking the League Cup to Molineux.
It was also significant in being his last meaningful kick of the season. Richards was on the injured list thereafter as Wolves moved comfortably through their remaining eleven league games of which they lost just two, the afterglow of winning the League Cup boosted further by a twelfth-placed finish – neither of which seemed plausible back in the dark days of autumn.
1974-75: Division One: (12th/39 pts). League Cup – second round. FA Cup – third round. UEFA Cup – first round. Top scorer: Hibbitt (17).
Having won a major trophy and with it securing an immediate return to Europe, it raised the question of whether this was the peak for a talented if inconsistent team or duck broken, more honours perhaps were in the offing. With stalwarts such as Dougan and Wagstaffe coming to the end of their time in old gold (Bailey would be present through all nine seasons and beyond), replacements needed to be found, a new strike partner for Richards imperative if they were not to become another one-cup wonder of the era.
In the event what occurred was little more than inertia, Wolves finishing 1974-75 in the same place as the previous season only with two fewer points. The campaign proved a desultory episode, manifesting in first hurdle exits in the League, UEFA and FA Cups, an abysmal away record – practically the worst in the division – dashing any hope of European qualification by means of league position.
Two wins and a draw against Liverpool from the opening week was encouraging but a misnomer. Week-to-week performances became so indifferent that by mid-November Wolves had won just four of fifteen league matches, seen their defence of the League Cup begin and end against second division Fulham, while Porto had proved too strong for them in Europe.
Things improved with a five match unbeaten run that encompassed an impressive Boxing Day home win over high-flying Everton, but defeat at lowly Luton in the next league game, followed quickly by a third round Molineux FA Cup loss to Ipswich saw the season drift back into mediocrity.
For a team boasting a number of accomplished players (Hibbitt unfortunate not to receive an England call-up on top scoring from midfield), it was a perplexing state of affairs – never more so than during March when they roused themselves to thrash Chelsea 7-1, Wolves nevertheless losing both games either side of this extraordinary result.
In the final analysis only two sides scored more times at home but with just two wins and only 14 goals on opposition soil they were inferior to everyone bar Manchester City, who still managed to finish eighth.
On entering the second half of the ’70s Wolves had reached a crossroads, the season to have just passed suggesting the direction of travel was anyone’s guess.
1975-76: Division One (20th/30pts). League Cup – fourth round. FA Cup – sixth round. Top scorer Richards (25).
If only winning 27 of the 84 league matches played over the past two seasons gave cause for concern, then a trading loss of over £120,000 through 1974-75 was another cross to bear and no doubt a factor in McGarry only adding full-back Bob McNab to his squad through the summer of 1975. For the former England international, given a free-transfer by Arsenal, it would only be a brief stay, his thirteen appearances all made before the Christmas decorations went up.
By this time and with ‘Bohemian Rhapsody‘ already set for a long reign in the festive number one spot, for Wolves 1975-76 had already descended into the doldrums.
The tone for the calamitous months ahead was set from virtually the first whistle in August. Newly-promoted Manchester United began their return to the top division with a 2-0 opening day Molineux victory that was far more comfortable than suggested by the score line, Wolves needing seven matches to record their first win, the relegation writing already in outline on the wall.
October brought a 5-1 home win over bottom of the pile Sheffield United but nothing from the other three games. The following month produced the rarity of back-to-back league wins, but sandwiched between was a fourth round League Cup humbling at third division Mansfield Town.
If a 4-0 home reversal against Manchester City on the last Saturday of November was the league nadir so far, the response proved equally lamentable in triggering five straight league defeats, the run finally ending with a point at Norwich with 1976 only 48 hours away.
While Queen were singing ‘anyway the wind blows‘ in their big hit of the day, at Molineux the air had been chilly for months. January, however, represented something of an upturn, a six match undefeated run, made up of FA Cup victories over Arsenal and Ipswich (after a replay) and five points from six, prompting many into thinking the tide had turned.
But only one win in the five games that followed (a home success against Burnley who along with Sheffield United were the two sides below them), neutralised such talk, the highlight of February being a Richards hat-trick against Charlton Athletic in the FA Cup fifth round – for which the reward was a quarter-final visit to Old Trafford.
Over the two subsequent contests they offered a good account of themselves, a classy finish from Richards and outstanding display in goal by Parkes earning a 1-1 draw and Molineux replay. Three days later Richards and Kindon fired the home side into a 2-0 lead only for incessant United pressure to prevail – a goal in the first period of extra-time from Sammy McIlroy winning the night for Tommy Docherty’s side by the odd goal in five.
When they registered a 4-1 win at Bramall Lane in the league fixture that followed, it once again made the notion of staying up realistic, but two defeats and two draws (all against sides in comfortable rather than high league positions), brought back the uncertainty.
Richards fired a second hat-trick in seven weeks (his pedigree underlined by scoring 17 league goals in a struggling side) as Newcastle were swept aside at Molineux, but defeats in the space of a few days at Arsenal and Coventry – neither of whom had reason to reflect on 75-76 with any fondness – were to prove fatal. An Easter Monday home win over Norwich ensured the fight went to the final match, but in truth the game was up.
To survive Wolves would have to beat Molineux visitors Liverpool, for whom victory would secure the league championship, yet even then preservation of their first division status would be dependent on fourth-bottom Birmingham losing at already relegated Sheffield United.
With the match moved from the final Saturday of the season to Tuesday 4 May due to Liverpool having players involved with the Welsh national team on the original date, for 45 minutes the improbable looked a possibility – Wolves ahead through a Kindon goal while Birmingham trailed at Bramall Lane.
But the only real miracle was that Wolves, after such a dispiriting season, had taken things to the last knockings and although for an instant it seemed a relegation reprieve might just come to pass, the prospect would be dashed on both counts.
Liverpool went on to score three times in the last fourteen minutes in clinching the first league title of the Bob Paisley era, Birmingham meanwhile fought back to defeat Sheffield United, their survival attained with a three point buffer.
EPILOGUE – 1976-2013:
For third bottom, relegated Wolves, just ten league wins told its own story, the postscript arriving nine days later when McGarry carried the can, his near eight year stay ending when he was sacked on 13 May. There was also the sense of an ending closer to home, Dad changed jobs in the summer of 1976 which meant together visits to Molineux became far less frequent.
With roughly the same group of players, now in the charge of former McGarry deputy Sammy Chung, Wolves returned to the top flight at the first attempt on winning Division Two in fluent style. Although a well-taken Richards goal or slide-rule pass from Hibbitt stirred the soul that season and during the couple ahead, they now had competition within my interests from release date of the next Elvis Costello album and reading every word Joe Strummer uttered to the music press.
Yet as fate would have it there might just have been a happy ending to 1975-76 after all. Some 35 years or so later we began making the occasional Molineux visit, the ground rebuilt and unrecognisable from its mid-70s form. There would even be sighting of a World Cup winner or two – although not as many as between 1967 and 1976 when Banks, Moore, Hunt, Charlton x 2, Ball, Hurst, Stiles and Peters all came into view (George Cohen and Ray Wilson the only two missed), such things important to a football-obsessed child.
It was gratifying, life-affirming in fact, to sit side-by-side and observe the play, (in a change of role, me now looking after Dad) – and yet it was never quite so vivid as the Doog rising to head home a Waggy centre on a Molineux Saturday sometime in 1972.
Hello – hope you enjoyed another exclusive production from SAMTIMONIOUS.com
In order to create the best experience for when you drop by to read a page or two, those with the power to ordain such things (me, actually), have decided to remove all external advertising from the site – in other words articles will no longer be subject to intrusive pop-up ads. BUT – and ain’t there always one – should you wish to make a donation toward the on-costs of the most entertaining and original blog-site around, please press on the – ‘DONATE’ – button below. It will be greatly appreciated.
Stay safe everyone and thanks for dropping by – best wishes Neil
SAMTIMONIOUS.com – films, football and fabulous music at The Dominion of Opinion