When The Under-21s Were Under Heavy Molineux Influence
Steve Bull and Andy Mutch on England duty.
Steve Bull and Andy Mutch didn’t win the European Championships with England Under-21s but they won in it with them.
The country’s progress to the final of the same tournament in Bratislava tonight has had us reaching to the record books for a few tasty morsels we might have long forgotten from the only time the two record-breaking strikers linked up in age-group internationals.
Technically, the duo were still Third Division footballers when they lined up side by side for the Friday-night qualifier against Poland at Plymouth on June 2, 1989.
A few weeks on from helping Graham Turner’s Wolves to a second successive promotion, they remained closely aligned with the Three Lions, too, having just returned from an England B tour of Switzerland, Iceland and Norway.
The trip to Devon brought Bull his 62nd competitive game of the season and Mutch his 59th and they were as sparky as usual in front of a 10,000-plus crowd containing around 500 Wolves fans at the open end of Home Park.
So who did they have as team-mates that night and which player was on the score-sheet eight years before being transferred to Molineux?
David Burrows, a mid-1980s Albion colleague of Bully’s but by now a Liverpool player, was there, so, too, were Paul Merson, Steve Chettle, Russell Beardsmore and skipper Michael Thomas, the latter having hit the dramatic title decider for Arsenal at Liverpool the previous Friday.
Merson (but not Burrows) was also on the field on that unforgettable Anfield night but things were more sedate in the south-west the evening before the seniors meeting of the same two nations at Wembley.
Only ten minutes had passed when Bull produced a lovely headed pass and Beardsmore’s cross teed up Steve Sedgley for a lovely opener. There’s the answer to our earlier question, then!
Thomas, having scored the dramatic title decider for Arsenal at Liverpool the previous Friday, hit a beauty from 20 yards just before half-time and Bull went close several times, only to be frustrated when a penalty was taken by Burrows and comfortably saved. Bull had crashed in a penalty in Norway on the B team tour just before and was coach Dave Sexton’s preferred taker.
On a poor, rutted surface, Mutch was replaced by Merson 11 minutes from time and anxious Wolves fans had it in their minds that this might be the last time he and Bull would line up together.
The Liverpudlian was out of contract that summer and, as usual, there was interest in his partner-in goals as well. In the happy event, both remained at Molineux and continued their heroics at the higher level, not being parted until Mutch joined Premier League Swindon in 1993.
In the colours we remember them best in….the strikers who managed more than 410 Wolves goals between them.
The 2-1 win, made a bit nervy by a second-half goal from the visitors, left England two points clear at the top of their European Championship group and underlined what a lucky omen Bull was. This was the seventh time he had played in an England team and all seven caps had brought victories. No wonder Robson wanted him around the seniors camp for the main-event Wembley clash with the Poles the day after.
England Under-21 team at Plymouth: Brian HORNE (Millwall), Paul LAKE (Manchester City), David BURROWS (Liverpool), Michael THOMAS (Arsenal), Steve REDMOND (Man City), Steve CHETTLE (Nottingham Forest), Andy MUTCH (Wolves, sub Paul MERSON 79), Russell BEARDSMORE (Manchester United), Steve BULL (Wolves), Steve SEDGLEY (Coventry), David SMITH (Coventry).
Bull had yet another curtain call at the end of an exhausting campaign when he went on as sub for the seniors in a friendly draw in Denmark around the time Turner resumed contact with Mutch at Robbie Dennison’s early-June wedding.