The midfield opened the floodgates on an afternoon where everything clicked, as Mick McCarthy’s team produced a performance to send belief flooding through the team and strike fear into the rest of the Championship.
Jones joins a glut of stars from the day in the second installment of the Big Match Revisited, reflecting on an emphatic victory with Mikey Burrows and Chris Iwelumo, who also starred in that memorable win.
Supporters can watch the feature at 8pm on Monday on Wolves’ official YouTube channel, with the likes of Matt Jarvis and Michael Kightly also joining Jones in reflecting on the latest memorable victory from the club’s proud history.
On the big win against Forest
“I think it was hugely important. It was a statement, it felt that we were definite title contenders, not just with the performance, but with such an emphatic result. It was such an enjoyable game to play in and I think we got the fans optimistic in that game.
“I was just before an international break, so it was a nice to have the two weeks after to reflect on the game and gear up for the next set of games."
On his partnership with Henry that season
“Mick wanted me to get on the ball and make things happen. Me and Karl worked well as a pair, you’d probably say at that time in our careers, Karl was the more defensive one and I was the more attacking one, who’d get in the box and try and get on the end of things.
“He wanted me to play, but you also knew you had a responsibility, that the minimum requirement was maximum effort and doing your job. So, I just knew I had to do that, then express myself on the field and make the team tick and play.
“Karl did have good finishing ability, but naturally between the two of us, he was the one who would see things defensively better than me. He would get in better defensive positions, and I was a bit more attack-minded, slightly.”
On their style of play
“Teams who come up from the Championship to the Premier League often get seen as not really a footballing team. I know that’s changed in the last ten years or so, but when we came up, we were seen as a battling team.
“You’ve got Mick McCarthy who was known as being defensive-minded and organised, so we got a reputation as being a tough team, but if you look at our team, there wasn’t many big tacklers, we had footballers in the team.”
The second edition of the must-see 90-minute Big Match Revisited is available from 8pm on Monday on Wolves’ YouTube channel, before being available in the archive at tv.wolves.co.uk.
Big Match Revisited will be powered by Blyth Group, an industry-leading construction company driving investment and infrastructure across the UK.
