After a gap of 40 years, nearly a third of its history, Wolverhampton Wanderers are back in European competition. Wolves were England’s premier side in the 1950s, lifting three League titles and providing England with its captain, Billy Wright, the first man to reach 100 international caps.
It was Wolves’ victory over Hungarian giants Honvéd that prompted L’Equipe editor Gabriel Hanot to suggest the creation of the European Cup to prove definitively who was indeed the continent’s top side. Wolves were among England’s first representatives in that tournament.
“We’re Wolverhampton, we’re on our way back”
Wolves’ journey since the last European run in 1980 has been a chequered one. Wolves’ financial fortunes matched that of the Black Country and the club went into rapid decline, with the club enduring three successive relegations down to the fourth tier of English football, somewhere Wolves had never been.
It really was the nadir until Sir Jack Hayward transformed the club with his 1990 takeover. Wolves would spend much of that decade as one of the second tier’s biggest spenders but never could quite earn promotion to the Premier League.
As did the goals of Steve Bull
Former FC Porto manager, Nuno Espirito Santo, seems to have broken the malaise, taking Wolves up as EFL Champions in 2017-18 and then a seventh-place finish in their first season back in the Premier League, built on a spine of Portuguese players.
The matchday experience at Wolverhampton Wanderers
This Europa League group stage match against Slovan Bratislava was pumping. Slovan fans bounced and clapped in their way through the game in decent numbers. Wolves fans were most vocal in the Sir Jack Hayward Stand behind the goal that Wolves prefer to attack in the second half.
The other stands are named after prolific striker Steve Bull, Billy Wright and Stan Cullis, manager during Wolves golden era of the 1950s.
Molineux Stadium has been hosting football for more than 130 years. Back then, the club was a founder member of the Football League in 1888 as Wolverhampton Wanderers but had started life as St. Luke’s FC church team in 1877.
The stadium is nestled in a lee under a ring road, wedged between the University and housing. It’s also conveniently placed within walking distance of the town centre and station, as many old grounds are.
Molineux now holds 32,000 and the four main stands form an interesting whole without stands in three of the four corners. The acoustics are fantastic, though, and Wolves fans were pretty noisy throughout. When the team gets going, your ears really ring, it’s quite something compared to other grounds in England.
The crowd on my visit was 29,789.
How to visit Wolverhampton Wanderers
Molineux is less than 500m from the centre of Wolverhampton and just a ten-minute walk from the bus and rail stations. You can buy Wolves tickets here but need to set up and account.