October 15, 1989 and, in the last minute of the first Black Country derby in more than five years, Steve Bull, West Bromwich Albion reject, chests the ball down and volleys it into the bottom corner of the net at the Smethwick End. Cue bedlam at The Hawthorns.
That felt pretty important. Now, with a Wembley place and a £52million pot on offer, how can the stakes be gauged as Wolverhampton Wanderers welcome their nearest rivals to Molineux tomorrow for the first leg of the Coca-Cola Championship play-off semi-final?
“That was the most intense derby I remember,” Bull, who will to take to the pitch tomorrow to wind up the supporters, said. “I also remember Graham Roberts (the defender, two years later, as Albion led 1-0 in stoppage time) smacking his pocket, as if to say that’s where he’d kept me all game, when we scored. The place went mental.
“It is going to be tense. You can’t compare it to the Glasgow derby – it’s more like Mel Gibson in Braveheart. Everyone’s going to be nervous, thinking, ‘Please don’t let them win’. Hopefully the players will go out there and not think about the prize at stake but think about enjoying the occasion and doing their best. I think the team that’s relaxed can win through to Wembley.”
This season’s glut of derbies have been the first after another five-year gap and Albion, retaining their squad after last season’s relegation from the Barclays Premiership, displayed their class in winning 3-0 in the first two, including an FA Cup cakewalk at Molineux in January, before Jay Bothroyd’s late winner helped Mick McCarthy’s team regain pride in March.
Bull, who scored 306 goals for Wolves after leaving Albion for £35,000 in 1986, said: “At the start of the season, we’d have been happy to stay in this division, with all the big names shipping out. With the turnaround Mick’s brought about, this season will be seen as an achievement whatever happens. Albion are favourites, because they were expected to go up. But I think Wolves have got more heart, more desire. They’ve got some of that spirit we had in the late ‘80s. I can see Michael Kightly, quick and quirky, taking the mickey out of their defence and if Paul Robinson gets booked early doors, he’ll be under pressure.”
Cyrille Regis, before briefly playing alongside Bull for Wolves, starred for Ron Atkinson’s ebullient side at The Hawthorns in the late 1970s and believes Tony Mowbray has helped Albion regain their reputation as goalscoring cavaliers. “I can see Albion being slight favourites,” he said. “They’ve come down but managed to retain their Premiership-class players. They haven’t been consistent this season but hopefully they can get it right over the next three games.”
In 1954, it was Wolves who won the first division title on the last day of the season from Albion who had to settle for the FA Cup. Five years ago, Gary Megson’s team overhauled an 11-point deficit to claim automatic promotion and dunk Wolves into the play-offs. With a Wembley place now on offer, this semi-final promises to seem just as significant.
Don Goodman, having played four years for each club, is well placed to offer a balanced view on the Black Country showdowns. He sees a couple of key tactical areas. “In the FA Cup game, it was men against boys, a full-on pasting and even when Wolves got their own back by winning the league game 1-0, there were signs that they were struggling to cope with the pace of Dio Kamara.
“Gary Breen and Jody Craddock have a job on their hands and will need a lot of help from the full-backs and protection from the midfield. At centre-half, against such pace, you’ll be wanting to drop off, and the full-backs will have to play quite narrow. That then gives the striker the opportunity to drop in to receive the ball, turn and run at the defence. Wolves may consider that the lesser of two evils.
“I think Wolves are playing more as a cohesive unit, whereas Albion seem a collection of talented individuals. In (Andy) Keogh and Kightly, Wolves have young hungry players who are willing to die for the shirt. They absolutely battered Birmingham (City) and somehow lost the game (2-3). But it showed their capabilities.”
Neither club plays The Liquidator before games any more, the tribal anthem much abused by creative lyricists from both camps, while Wolves fans have reclaimed the South Bank through a ticketing technicality that sparked a row last week. This means a reduced travelling support will be housed, ironically, in the Steve Bull Stand. “I long for the next derby,” Bull said in Running With Wolves: Tales from the gold and black country (Thomas Publications, 2004). “Then I can go on the pitch with the microphone and say: ‘All you Albion fans, you listening? You’re sitting in my stand. I could give them loads. I’d clap them all and thank them for coming and filling my stand.”
Courtesy of an exclusive interview with The Times & Steve Bull MBE
THE GREATEST DERBY!
Listen to Bully's thoughts on Wolves v Albion courtesy of expressandstar.com - Click Here
October 15, 1989 and, in the last minute of the first Black Country derby in more than five years, Steve Bull, West Bromwich Albion reject, chests the ball down and volleys it into the bottom corner of the net at the Smethwick End. Cue bedlam at The Hawthorns.
