At Home Away!
Matt Jarvis – now an articulate voice in the world of broadcasting.
Monday, November 4: Excellent to have had a post-match meet-up on Saturday evening with Per Dyrholm, the Dane who kindly gave us a tour of Aarhus when we were over there in early August spending time with Rob Kelly. Per has no more than a passing interest in the fortunes of his home-city club but is utterly devoted to Wolves and visits here when he can, including this weekend with family members for the 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace that left us all with distinctly mixed feelings.
Wednesday, November 13: Ex-Wolves players continue to have a regular voice on the airwaves. We’re well used to hearing plenty of Don Goodman as one of Sky Sports’ leading co-commentators but, on one day this month, Dave Edwards, Matt Jarvis, Chris Iwelumo and Michael Gray have all been working for the broadcaster on the same night.
Sunday, November 17: Tim Flowers has been confirmed as the new manager of Alvechurch, which adds a new dimension to his highly entertaining appearance with John Burridge at the Mount Hotel three nights ago. Given that we heard on Friday morning that this thorny move from nearby Redditch was on the cards, the negotiations must have been on the mind of the former Wolves and England keeper when he kept us royally entertained with his anecdotes at Budgie’s side.
Thursday, November 21: Mark Kendall’s son, Lee, has been placed in caretaker charge of National League South club Bath City following the departure of Jim Barron and his boss Jerry Gill. Jim has had a fair bit of publicity in recent months by virtue of the fact he has still been coaching at such a decent level at 81 but the termination of Gill’s seven-year stint in charge was followed soon afterwards by his own exit.
Saturday, November 23: Received an excited ‘Wow, what a super performance!’ message from Chris Richards following this afternoon’s stunning victory at Fulham. Chris is the technical expert on this website and it’s fair to say our collective spirits are now considerably higher than when we watched the Wolves v Palace draw side by side in the Molineux press box three weeks ago and observed more defensive jitters than was good for our blood pressure.
Monday, November 25: Talk of Fulham leads us to reflecting again on what a great survivor Stuart Gray is. The former Wolves coach and caretaker manager is a major part of backroom team at Craven Cottage – he had a spell as acting boss as far back as 2015 and was appointed the club’s defensive coach the year after. His face in and around the technical area is still a regular sight on match-days for TV viewers, although he is now 64.
Andy Thompson…..a Molineux press box regular for many years.
Wednesday, November 27: There has been mourning among past Express & Star sports desk staff for the second time in a few weeks, following the death of the paper’s long-time correspondent in the Walsall press box, Chris Smith. ‘Smudge’ was a good friend of Kenny Hibbitt’s and kicked off the Molineux legend’s autobiography – a task then taken over and finished by Tim Nash. After retiring from journalism, Chris had several seasons as a Wolves steward but, much earlier, had the pleasure of reporting from Hampden Park on Steve Bull’s goal-scoring debut for the senior England team in 1989.
Saturday, November 30: A painful afternoon’s viewing at Wolves v Bournemouth following two victories in a row and the building of a four-game unbeaten run. Dave Edwards (working in the broadcast area with Jacqui Oatley), Andy Thompson and Lee Naylor were all in the media room before kick-off but the VIP visitor was Robbie Keane, who watched from the directors’ box after spending a few nights at the home of the club’s former Academy chief Chris Evans. The superstar’s son, Robbie Jnr, has spent the week training at Compton as a break from his club, Shamrock Rovers, and was also at Molineux today, when his dad made sure he found out Steve Bull to exchange warm greetings.