Saturday saw the third FA Cup meeting between Wolves and Shrewsbury Town - well, the fifth in reality as the previous two encounters went to replays.
It is also the third time that Wolves have seen off their Shropshire neighbours. but it is interesting to relate that on the two previous occasions, in 1979 and 2019, Wolves went on reach the semi-final of the competition.
So is the Jorgen Strand Larsen-inspired win an omen or simply more fanciful nonsense? Historian and author Clive Corbett is on a quest to find out…
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On 10th March 1979, third division Shrewsbury Town travelled to Molineux for the first competitive meeting of the two teams. It also reunited assistant manager, Richie Barker, who had left Town to join John Barnwell at Wolves, and player-manager, Graham Turner, who had taken over on his departure.
The 32 year-old Turner had led the Shrews to the first FA Cup quarter-final in their history, beating Cambridge United, Manchester City and Aldershot on the way.
A later hero at Molineux as he led the recovery in the late 1980s, Turner very clearly remembers the matches: "That was the quarter finals, my first year as a manager. We drew one-all at Molineux, Ian Atkins scoring late on with a penalty. We played quite well there on a mud heap, but were well beaten at the Meadow - I recall Willie Carr scoring one of the goals.
"But for a club the size of Shrewsbury to have gone to Molineux and get a draw was a great experience. We ultimately went on and got promoted, winning the third division championship. The reason I was manager at Shrewsbury was because Richie Barker had left to join John Barnwell at Wolves as coach so that left the gap for me, there’s always ties, as in 1982."
The first match was played in front of 40,946 spectators and was covered by Hugh Johns and ITV’s Big Match. In a tightly contested game Billy Rafferty put Wolves ahead on 71 minutes with an instinctive strike at the North Bank end.
As he recalls: "I ran to the near post to meet Steve Daley’s free kick, but only got in a glancing header. As quick as a flash, the ball was knocked out to me by a Shrewsbury defender. Willie Carr, who was standing behind me, shouted, 'Hit it'.
"I just met it on the volley and I can remember thinking to myself that I was glad it went into the roof of the net because there were defenders stood on the line."
With time running out, Shrewsbury pressed forward in search of an equaliser and Derek Parkin conceded a penalty that Ian Atkins gleefully converted to set up a replay.
Parkin recalls a very poor playing surface: “There was so much mud it was difficult to get the ball off the ground. From around November onwards Molineux had a bit of a diamond shape with just mud in the middle of it. There was grass where I played left-back so I came off nice and clean and spick and span while others came off filthy."
The second match was played at Gay Meadow three days later and Wolves set up the twelfth FA Cup semi-final appearance of their history with a 3-1 win. Willie Carr put Wolves ahead and Rafferty doubled the lead with an excellent header just after the interval. A Daniel penalty half-way through the second-half finally put the tie to rest.
This paved the way for Wolves’ first semi-final appearance for six years, against Arsenal at Villa Park on 31st March. Unfortunately, in front of a crowd of 46,244, an out-of-sorts Wolves fell to second-half goals from Frank Stapleton and Alan Sunderland.
On the occasions that they did threaten, the Wanderers were denied as old by Pat Jennings, but Sundy’s decisive goal set the Gunners up for a memorable final match against Manchester United that they won 3-2 in the last minute courtesy of another strike from the former Wolves man.
Forty years later, in 2019, the teams came together earlier in the competition, with the first match being played at the New Meadow on 26th January. Wolves had raised their fans’ hopes by seeing off Liverpool in the third round, but after a goalless first-half the hosts drew first blood through Greg Docherty.
When Luke Waterfall made it two with just 19 minutes remaining it looked like Nuno’s cup dream was over. Coming on as a substitute, Raul Jimenez halved the deficit with a quarter of an hour to go before Matt Doherty headed home in injury time to level things up. Raul and Matt would share the scoring honours with four each in the cup run, both netting in the ill-fated semi-final at Wembley Stadium.
The replay was played at Molineux 10 days later and it looked as though it would be a trouble free evening when Doherty put Wolves ahead after just 90 seconds. But the spirited Shrews would not lie down. First James Bolton headed home on 11 minutes before Josh Laurent fired home from long range on 39 minutes.
Doherty once again came to the fore, heading an equaliser on the stroke of half-time. Despite continuous Wolves pressure after the break it took a classy finish from Ivan Cavaleiro to decide the tie.
Wolves would see off Bristol City and Manchester United to set up a semi-final against Watford. With 12 minutes to play they were two goals up and a first FA Cup final for 59 years beckoned, but all Wolves fans know what happened next.
So is this all meaningless history or an indication that this could be our year? We won’t know the next stage of the story until mid-February so until then, your guess is as good as mine!
