One of the best days of my life – Saturday 2nd March 1974. Wolves at Wembley for the first time in 14 years, underdogs, with three key players carrying injuries and expected to be beaten by a star-studded Manchester City team. And Wolverhampton was buzzing!
Our build-up during the week before the game included a trip to Worthing, on the south coast, away from the local distractions, and away from the prying eyes of the media. Manager Bill McGarry didn’t want it known that Waggy (Dave Wagstaffe) and myself had slight muscle strains and, more worryingly, that goalkeeper Phil Parkes was unavailable to play. The story was that Lofty had an ankle sprain, but we all knew the true extent of his injury – a broken ankle. Sadly, the goalkeeper whose performances had taken us to the final was never going to be fit in time.
On Thursday, we moved to a hotel in Hertfordshire and spent the evening at a West End show, ‘No Sex Please We’re British’ starring Michael Crawford. Friday was our usual light training session followed by the team talk. McGarry and Sammy Chung were trying to keep everything as normal and as low key as possible. But the nerves were there, the tension could be felt within the squad, understandably in many ways because, apart from the Doog (Derek Dougan), none of the other members of the team had ever appeared in a Wembley cup final.
The moment our 1974 team etched themselves into history 🏆 pic.twitter.com/tHNsK8Up5q
— Wolves (@Wolves) March 6, 2024
Saturday was the big day, and one of my lasting memories is of our coach driver, Sid Kipping, immaculately dressed as usual, but today there was a huge gold carnation in his buttonhole. His drive down Wembley Way was probably the slowest on record. Sid wasn’t going to rush his special moment as he waved to all the Wolves fans lining the route – this was his cup final as well!
The match itself is well documented, with plenty of coverage available online, and to summarise my view on why we won – it was the fans and our defence. Walking out of the tunnel onto the pitch was spine-tingling, the noise from the Wolves fans was deafening and gave us all a great boost. Watch the match and see how Pierce, Palmer, Parkin, McAlle and Munro performed, with Captain Marvel, Mike Bailey, bossing the midfield. Together, they were the difference.
That night, we had a banquet at the Hilton Hotel in Park Lane. To their credit, and all thanks to Chairman John Ireland, we were always having a celebration event regardless of the result. Of course, the victory made it even more special. The hotel also did their bit by having a large, stunning ice sculpture of a wolf on the top table.
Fittingly, the fans gave us the final memory of that amazing weekend, with their reception as we did our open-top bus parade into the town and onto the balcony of the Town Hall the following day. I can still visualise them now – hanging out of windows, up lamp posts, on roofs and packing the streets. It was a gold and black fiesta.
A very special time and, in my opinion, it’s what football is all about - fans and players creating memories.
John Richards
