‘I was born under a Wanderers scarf’

“Why are you a Wolverhampton Wanderers supporter?” Iโve been asked for an explanation countless times over the years.
But itโs a valid question. After all, I wasn’t born in Wolverhampton, nor have I ever lived or worked there and even though the School of Art is very close to Molineux, which I visited when considering where I might apply for a degree course, my preferred choice was to study at Coventry.
There isn’t a family association with the city either. Bill Slater, WWFC’s 1960 FA Cup and 3 league championships winning captain, was not a relation.
I was born in Peterborough, the first football match I ever saw was at London Road and I was supporting Peterborough United. It was the last game of the โ60-โ61 season, Peterborough had won the Division 4 title in their first season in the Football League and I was 5 years old. The โPoshโ beat Barrow 6-2, I remember standing with my Mom, Dad & brother on the halfway line and the ‘Football Bug’ bit me.




So my early years as a football supporter were spent watching my local team. However the big teams were at the top of the league pyramid and my friends at school, who were also PUFC supporters, followed a First Division side too. During those years Tottenham, Burnley, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester United, Leeds, Chelsea, West Ham were popular choices. So why, when and how did I choose Wolverhampton Wanderers to be my team?
It was a result of pure serendipity. In the early sixties I was more interested in learning how to play the game, reading about it and watching the Posh whenever I could, I had no particular preference for any club in the top division. But then, in 1963, something really big happened.
Some might believe that the assassination of President Kennedy was the biggest event of the year, but even bigger than that, 1963 was the year I began supporting the Wolves.
I had just turned 8 and despite being 3 years younger than anyone else in the team, I was selected to play for my school, St Mark’s Junior Boy’s School, Peterborough. We played in gold and black, and only one team in Division 1 wore those colours. Wolverhampton Wanderers.





I looked for their result every Saturday as they were revealed on the โGrandstandโ teleprinter, their position in the table and the following weekend’s fixture in our Sunday newspaper. However the Wolves werenโt doing very well. They were struggling. My Dad and grandparents told me that 10 years earlier Wolves had not only been the biggest team in the country and in Europe, they were โโChampions of the Worldโโ. But the tide had turned and they had lost their throne. Unlike the teams supported by my school friends, mine was in decline.
The 1963-64 season was my first supporting Wolves and while my friends teams either won the FA Cup or were at the top of the First Division, WWFC finished very close to the opposite end of the table. The next season was even worse. In September โ64 Wolves sacked their manager Stan Cullis, who had held that position for the previous 16 years, and at the end of October they were bottom of the table – Played 15 Won 1 Drawn 1 Lost 13 Points 3. That ’64-’65 season saw them relegated from the top flight for the first time in more than 50 years. By forming an allegiance with this team I thought Iโd actually put a curse on them! Nevertheless, I didn’t desert my sinking ship. I didn’t drift away. I stood by my team.

Then came 1966, perhaps the biggest year in English football. Having been a regular player for my school team for the previous 2 years I was appointed its captain. Not only did St Mark’s win every available trophy at Junior School level that season, Wolves were promoted back to Division 1 with Coventry City. In addition, a player signed to help secure that promotion had only a few seasons earlier been a hero for Peterborough United……………..Derek Dougan. So thanks to our new number 10 my teams had become inextricably linked and over the next 8 seasons โThe Doogโ became a hero for WWFC too.
Oh, almost forgot, England also won the World Cup.
For almost a decade WWFC actually enjoyed some success. In the top division, on a couple of occasions finishing in the top 6, they reached the semi finals of both FA & Football League Cups before enjoying a League Cup and Texaco Cup win, as well as a taste of European football. In 1972 they were even UEFA Cup finalists, losing to Tottenham Hotspur 3-2 on aggregate in a two-legged final.


In 1974, my last year at school, both my teams achieved success. WWFC won the Football League Cup and PUFC were champions of Division 4, but this was the last season I would follow both teams closely. When I left Peterborough to begin my art school career in the autumn of ’74 my connection with the Posh gradually faded and I became totally committed and absorbed with the fortunes of the Wolves.

My Art Foundation Course was at Loughborough College of Art & Design and I was conveniently located beside the M1, then in 1975 beside the M6 in Coventry following my successful application to a BA Hons Degree course in Fine Art at Lanchester Polytechnic. Having possession of my first car, a red Austin Mini, Molineux stadium was within reach at last. Not only did I become a regular at home matches, I had the opportunity to travel to some away games too.
An alternative to my M6 match day route to Wolverhampton from Coventry was via Dudley, which enabled me to pay a visit to a very unusual pub, the Glynne Arms, also known as the Crooked House at Himley. Now sadly demolished it was a landmark building if ever there was one and its unusual appearance influenced the composition of my very first mural, โPatience Is A Virtueโ, painted in Coventry in 1977.



Spending time in Wolverhampton in the ’70’s felt like I’d ventured into another culture. I would often try to visit a different pub for a pre-match drink but the Fox Inn by the underpass (later renamed The Wanderer), the Feathers on North Street or the Elephant & Castle on the corner of Stafford Street & Cannock Road were my favourites. Not only did I learn that a glass of Bankโs Mild was a local delicacy, I also found great difficulty understanding what the locals were saying! The accent and vocabulary at times gave me the impression I was in a different country, which in a way I was. After all, this is the Black Country. Nevertheless, I’ve never felt like an outsider when visiting the city and to be immersed in the humour and atmosphere generated by Wolverhampton people and the Molineux faithful was an absolutely fantastic experience, even when the team wasnโt doing well. And it still is.
On my first visit to Molineux I stood at The Shed end (the North Bank) and although I’m unable to attend games very often these days, the Stan Cullis Stand as it is now called is still my preferred vantage point. Molineux has undergone several transformations but is still in its original location, which was within the pleasure gardens of the estate of Molineux House.









For 60 seasons Iโve revelled in WWFCโs moderate successes, been frustrated by the promising starts that have fallen short, and feared the worst when the club faced the distinct possibility of disappearing completely in ’82, and again in ’86. There was a sense of irony when the club faced liquidation as the tune which had greeted the team as it ran on to the pitch for several years had been Harry J. All Starsโ โThe Liquidatorโ. (It’s disappointing that this track is no longer the Molineux matchday tune, but due to a disparaging line aimed toward local rivals WBA, West Midlands Police asked that it should no longer be played over the club’s PA system).
I am so thankful that the Wolverhampton city motto, ‘Out Of Darkness Cometh Light‘ (which inspired the club’s Black and Gold colours) actually came true. The club survived and has clawed its way back from the brink of extinction.
Regardless of the result, supporters back a team that has given its all on the field of play and spontaneous rallying calls respond to that effort. Often imaginative and humorous, one of my favourites is the oft updated epic โEverywhere We Go/Corner Shopโ chant, an oral history of the club and funny too even though it references the darkest of days.


















But as any follower of WWFC would confirm, one needs a strong disposition to support this team. In the 9 seasons between 1981 & 1990 we played in 8 different divisions! I remember watching a First Division side in Old Gold & Black playing at Old Trafford, and only 3 seasons later I was just 20 miles but 3 divisions away watching a side in Old Gold & Black playing against Rochdale at Spotland. This was โ86-โ87, the season of our epic FA Cup 1st round 3 game duel with Multipart League club Chorley Town, which we lost 3-0 in the second replay. How much lower could we go? Well the answer came the first game of the following season, Scarborough away, which owing to crowd trouble before, during and after the game was national headline news for all the wrong reasons. Thanks to the unacceptable behaviour of some ‘fans’ the reputation of Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club had fallen to an all time low.

However, there have been so many significant โlowsโ that the โhighsโ have been appreciated that much more. Iโve experienced the agony of 9 relegations, yet the ecstasy of 9 promotions. Iโm happy to report I was at Wembley in 1974 and in 1980 to witness major trophy wins, and enjoyed 5 European adventures; in the UEFA Cup in the โ70โs and in more recent times the Europa League.
Supporting WWFC is like riding a roller coaster. In his book โThe Boys from the Black Countryโ Mark Gold titled one chapter โWolverhampton Wanderers Can Seriously Damage Your Healthโ. I couldn’t agree more. It’s definitely been an edge of the seat, nail biting, heart-pounding, adrenaline-fuelled white knuckle thrill ride. There’s never a dull moment that’s for sure.

I regularly dream that one day I might witness a League title, FA Cup or EFL Cup win, but since the formation of the Premier League in 1992-93 only 7 clubs have won the league title, add 2 more to this list for all the FA Cup winners, and only 5 others have won the EFL Cup. So over the last 32 seasons only 14 different teams have won the 3 major competitions, and as 6 teams in that list are single trophy winners I’d imagine the probability of this being a potential pub quiz question is quite high. (Just in case, the answer is Everton, Portsmouth, Wigan, Middlesbrough, Birmingham, Swansea).
It has become more difficult with each passing season to compete with the elite. Although winning the EFL or FA Cup is still a possibility, it feels implausible to believe that WWFC will ever top the league pyramid or become champions of Europe again. However a few seasons ago Leicester City did achieve this impossible dream by winning the Premier League title only a year after surviving a relegation battle, and even Manchester City were languishing in the third tier 25 years ago. So there is always hope……………..
…………..and as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. famously said, “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope”, which brings me nicely to Norman Stanley Fletcher.


Fletch, the lead character in one of my favourite TV comedy programmes โPorridgeโ, often said that you could lift a heart with occasional โlittle victoriesโ, and there have been times when WWFC have clicked and made life difficult for the ‘Top 6’, lifting the hearts of many a supporter. So thanks to the erudite example of ‘habitual criminal’ Norman Stanley I decided I’d make my own ‘little victories’, and in 2015 started hiding โWolfiesโ in my โBigger Picturesโ.
Many artists have surreptitiously included their own image in paintings, but perhaps inspired by Terence Cuneoโs mice, or maybe even Stephen Cartwrightโs Usborne yellow ducks, inclusion of a little โWolfieโ has now become a second signature.
The first appeared in a mural I referred to as my โSistine Chapelโ. The walls were so large I felt one could easily be concealed within an area of painted graphic texture. I knew the Principal well, he was a Man Utd supporter, a team which had enjoyed success at home and in Europe for many seasons while my Wolves were languishing and drifting between the divisions. Although WWFC are one of only 5 clubs to have won all 4 divisions, they have also attained the unique statistic of being the only club to experience back-to-back relegations twice, so to hide a couple of inconspicuous โWolfiesโ within the boundary of a Man Utd supporter’s lair felt like a super โlittle victoryโ to me.

The next was painted in the music room of the same school, a subtle addition to a portrait of composer Edward Elgar, also โa devoted supporterโ. I awarded him a discreet โWolfieโ button badge painted on his lapel. Unfortunately Led Zeppelin weren’t included in that โThank You For The Musicโ composition or I could have awarded Robert Plant one too (but we did have a brief conversation once in the Molineux car park. With Robert that is. Not Edward).
โWolfiesโ don’t appear in every โBigger Pictureโ but there are 20 ‘little victories’ out there now, which is almost enough to achieve a UEFA Europa League slot, as well as being a number not far short of the size of our first team squad last season.
Anyway, it’s a growing team (and I think โBullyโ approves)…………………and who knows…………………another might appear very soon…………………


Locations:
Sistine Chapel (2) / Thank You For The Music (1) / Play The Game (1) – Fulbridge Academy, Peterborough













Sleeping For Years (1) / Didoโs Lament (1) – Rowlatts Mead Primary Academy, Leicester










Vivaldi (1) – St. Brendanโs Primary School, Corby





Reelinโ In The Years (1) / Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal (1) – Meadowside Primary, Burton Latimer








Jump In, Letโs Go! (4) – Fosse Mead Primary Academy, Leicester












Yesterdayโs Gone (1) – The Clayton Rooms, Oundle School, Oundle




Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me) (1) / Wild Wood (3) – Great Doddington Primary School, Wellingborough












Paulo (2) – Denfield Park Primary School, Rushden






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