You can always put your shirt on Wolves Blog to produce some sturdy, hard wearing debates with a dash of flair and a weave of nostalgia.
So what if the lads are still in pre-season, the season ticket is in the post and Mancienne is still washing his hair? The Wolves Blog production line is ready for another fashionable item for discussion.
I was in the loft a few weeks back and stumbled upon all of my old Wolves shirts, so I thought I’d share them with you and compare and contrast them with today’s much maligned Burrda number.
To make this exercise a completely comfortable fit, I have a Primark-proof formula to establish my favourite Wolves shirt I have ever worn.
I am giving each shirt a mark out of 10 for style, plus another mark out of 10 for its success on the team, multiplied by the first memory in my mind when I think of it.
This then, will give you the most successful Wolves shirt since the late 1980s. Fact! Well, only the ones I’ve ever owned.
I’ll start with the shirts from 1987 to 1990 for now, and post my 1990s shirts later in the week.
1987/88 Spall / Staw Distribution
My first ever kit, so nostalgia says it gets a high mark. Beautiful bold v-neck, strong, yet subtle shadow stripes, and the kit that made me a Wolves fan.
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Apparently Ron Flowers had sold out of the Liverpool Crown Paints strip that I yearned for (well, so Grandad and my old man said) and Ron only had this unrecognisable gold shirt left. I fell in love with it, and soon loved the notoriety of supporting a team that none of my mates knew of.
I also thought Ron Flowers was family friend who I’d never met, such was the warmth with which he was associated. Pretty cool of Grandad’s mate Ron to own so many football shirts for us to choose eh?!
Unfortunately, we played Chorley three times in this strip (including horrid white shorts at Burnden Park if memory serves), the lowest point in our history.
We did then sport the same strip the year after, winning the Sherpa Van Trophy and division four, and Bully bagging 52 goals.
Style: 9 plus
Success: 7 multiplied by
My first memory: 8 (Looking at the ‘We’re Back’ LP record sleeve, and seeing the players on the picture, glistening in this strip)
TOTAL: 128
1988/89 Scoreline / Manders Paint & Ink
I didn’t think the last shirt could be beaten, but this tops it. Forget the fact that the sponsor’s name rubbed off in the wash, this was a beauty.
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It featured the same lovely v-neck style, but with narrower shadow stripes all over, and tight, ball breaking shorts. An ode to an 80s kit if ever I saw one.
I loved the Scoreline brand on the sleeves most. I thought it was ingenious that a football shirt could tell you what direction you should be kicking towards on the pitch, thanks to the little arrow. It was as if we had a secret weapon that other sides didn’t.
How else do you explain pissing the league, an endless run of almighty thrashings and Bully’s outrageous eye for goal?
I soon revised my belief when I cottoned onto the fact that some players played the way they were facing, and they’d get confused attacking both ends at the same time. (Maybe Jackie Gallagher can be explained!!)
I gave Graham Turner the credit instead.
My first memory of the team in this shirt is my first ever game. Reading at home. Kendall, Bellamy, Thompson, Streete, Robertson, Robinson, Vaughan, Chard, Bull, Mutch, Dennison. God bless the lot of you! Won 2-1.
I’m sure we did the double over the Albion in this strip too, the year after, thanks to a pair of Bully winners. It doesn’t get any better does it?
Style: 9 plus
Success 9 multiplied by
First memory: 10
TOTAL: 180
1990/91 Scoreline / Goodyear AND Bukta / Goodyear
Talk about exciting! Not just one new kit in a season, but two! And a new club sponsor in the form of Goodyear, one of the world’s most recognisable brands.
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No Jez Moxey to blame for cynical exploitation back then, but Scoreline went bust halfway through the year (at least I think they did), so Bukta came in and took over.
It was shadow squares, like a gold table cloth to start the season with, and then beautiful little Wolves crests in the body of the shirt once Bukta took over.
Check out the popped collar on these! This shirt was exciting, and nothing like I had ever seen before. Notwithstanding the cock up with the manufacturer, it signalled the dawn of an untapped commercial era, even from our little wooden shack of a club shop at the back of the North Bank.
I’ll always remember seeing the lads in this for the first time. It was Oldham Athletic at home, in glorious August sunshine.
Dad told me to take two pairs of cotton slips to the game, as I would piss the first pair within five minutes of kick-off, such would be the hilarious sight of the ‘worst striker in history’…Ian Marshall.
Good job I took his advice on board. I’d soaked my pants in sheer panic when this terrifying tramp / bear hybrid smashed in an outrageous hat-trick. We lost 3-2.
Dad promised never to insult an opposition player ever again in a bid to get me back onside. That lasted all of 6 games until Frank Stapleton got the same treatment from ‘The Oracle’ as we prepared to play Blackburn.
‘Never had such a talentless, overrated donkey ever made more out of the game’, apparently.
I reached for the three pack of boxers before we set off this time, just in case my previously unquestioned father might actually be spouting bollocks again.
I’m glad I did, as the ex-Manchester United forward bagged a clinical hat-trick in the first half hour, with a touch more finesse than Marshall. We lost again 3-2. Nice work Dad.
Incidentally, that was the last time Blackburn Rovers ever won at Molineux and the last time Dad has ever talked down of an opponent before a game. I think it may have been the last goals Stapleton ever scored in his career too.
I was also mascot in the Bukta version of this kit, against the Albion at the Hawthorns. Rob Hindmarch scored in the 8th minute of injury time to get a 1-1 draw.
We finished in 12th for the first of many, many seasons.
So with all that in mind:
Style 7 plus
Success: 6 multiplied by
First memory: 2 (Two marks for each of Bully’s goals against Oldham)
TOTAL: 26
And finally…
Wolves on Tour 1989 / 90 T-Shirt
In the bin liner, amongst all the old gold, I stumbled upon one or two leisure T-shirts as well.
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This particular one, which I’d forgotten all about, almost made me laugh and cry at the same time.
To celebrate our promotion to Division Two in 1989, Dad bought me this little top, as we looked forward to some heady away days in some esteemed company.
Talk about irony…A T-shirt with an emaciated looking wolf on the front, whose tongue is hanging out like he’s gasping to get on the M1 down to Brighton.
And on the back, a map of the UK, with 23 pinpointed locations to whet the appetite for the new challenges that lay ahead.
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The prospects of Boothferry Park, The Goldthorne Ground, Dean Court and the Manor Ground were so damn electrifying that we made an official top to commemorate them!
Little did we know that these once thrilling propositions would turn into utter nightmare scenarios as we made the same journeys, year after year, for the next 20 odd seasons.
We certainly didn’t need a T-shirt to remind us!
Those blissfully unsuspecting days – completely ignorant of the slings and arrows that lay ahead – are those that I still miss today. I’m either a glutton for punishment or too bloody sentimental for my own good.
Brilliant post Ben.
Love that Wolves on Tour tshirt. I’m not surprised they stopped making them after 12 seasons in Divison 1 (or the Championship if you prefer). Just goes to show how expectations change.
And I can hand on heart say I would rather wear any of those shirts than this season’s Burda top.
Oh and on a side note, I’ve created the Wolves Blog fantasy football league at http://fantasy.premierleague.com
The code you need to enter to join the league is: 474801-115640
I’ll do a post about it later on in the week, but just giving commentators advanced knowledge.
Is it the same league as last season so should automatically be entered
I think..
Yeah, I think last season’s members do get automatically re-entered once they’ve re-submitted their team for the new season.
Hopefully we’ll get one or two (or 50) new members.
Where did you finish last season Hallam?
I started strongly but faded away badly.
Really don’t know. I always enter these things and forget about them only very occasionally looking at them. So probably not very high…
I’ve just joined the league. Thanks Thomas.
It’s by far the best fantasy league game available. Must remember not to pick Wolves players all of the time!
Cheers
(Yam Yam Wanderers)
I’m in too, Allez t’OM
Amazing post.
I had fun reading it. I love the second strip,
the Scoreline/Manders one.
It’s beautiful.
Nice one Ben. I’ve still got my Manders Scoreline hanging in the wardrobe with a pre-MBE Bully signature to boot. Hasn’t been worn (skinny fit) or washed in years so the sponsors logo is still as vibrant as the day it was bought.
Hilarious blog and pinpoint gnome placement to boot. What more can we ask for?
spot the gnome should become a regular feature of WB
Thanks for the lovely comments guys. I was a bit worried it was a bit ‘war and peace’ but there was so much I wanted to write about them all!
Kowloon, me pissing about with my little gnome behind the camera for ages made those snaps worthwhile. Chuffed you spotted them!!! (simple things please simple minds!)
Ben, war and peace is ok, because really Tolstoy couldn’t come up with a narrative better than the history of WWFC
Must say I don’t really care about the shirts. As long as they’re the right colour.
I never buy them. I don’t know why, but I’ve never bought a replica shirt. I have several other team’s shirts (Arsenal and Aldershot mainly) but never a Wolves one…
And Ben don’t you dare say a thing about the Arsenal
Shaun just forwarded me your little conversations about me haha
Hallam, I see where you’re coming from. I’ve got a shirt with Henry 8 on the back from the promotion season. It’s associated with too much joy (incl me going to Mol for the first time) for me to even consider buying a new one.
I have only ever worn one of my replica shirts to a match. It was the day we beat QPR to go up. It was the only game I saw that season, what a time to pick to come over the pond!!
I have a box full of shirts from down the ages, and I will never wear them, just keep them in pristine condition, and when I win the lottery, I will have them all framed and hung on the walls of my “man cave”.
Yeah, right.
Excellent post, Benjamino, and you’re right about your dad, he does spout bollocks from time to time!!!
FOWB
I wear mine all the time, having only lived in Wolvo for 3 years it’s always been important for me to represent the Wolves as I potter about in my free time. I have to wear my most up-to-date wolves top on match days, and then all the others whenever I don’t have to look smart. I have ruined a few family days out by not being allowed into a restaurant in a Wolves top, but there’s usually a perfectly accommodating eatery nearby.
Sorry that this is a bit off topic (cracking article Ben, love the omnipresent gnome), but as a Wolves fan with too much time on my hands before the start of the new season I thought it was my duty to bring to bring to everyone’s attention the best thing since Stefan Maierhofer’s personal website. I for one can’t wait for the online shop to open….http://adleneguedioura.com/index.php
Amazing. Thanks for that Super Kev, just amazing.
‘The Classy Bull’ – ha
Hilarious copy throughout that site in fact, obviously written by some johnny foreigner.
Good work Super Kev.
Good article Ben. I’m sure it’s worth far more in sentimental value, but whilst searching for a birthday present for the old man I considered a vintage Wolves tops, and found those Staw tops command around 100 quid a piece (even more if you have the white away one or a sherpa van final one).
How about getting some for the WolvesBlog shop Tom?!
Nice one Ben
For me it’s the Nutmeg mid-nineties one, old gold, town crest, lovely stuff.
Skel (aka Shaun)
I liked the one that had tyre marks all over it, and the black away top c. 1991?
Brace yourself for part II Dazza! I never owned that mudflap shirt but I’m sure I can find a pic of one and review. What game sticks in your mind most when thinking of that strip? I bet a pound its 4-0 away at St Andrews when another Dazza scored a hattrick?!
Yes…as Max Boyce always said… I know because I was there… I’m sure that was the same game that Bully clattered their keeper in a 50/50 ??
Darren Roberts, much under rated I always thought
For 10pts, who scored the 4th goal? Incidentally, I thought Roberts was playing because Bully was suspended? Although I too remember a keeper getting clattered.
Mr Psycho himself !!
Bully must have clattered their keeper in a different game, but definitely in front of the Tilton Road
I always liked the away one from that season, it was blue with black sleeves and gold piping on the shoulders. proper classy like
On something completely different. We really shouldn’t sell Henners or Ikeme because they fill home grown slots. Just a thought that randomly came to me.
Being a blawger is like being in charge of your own personal insane asylum.