Did Wolverhampton put Alex Salmond on his quest for independence?

The Scottish First Minister's first visit to England was to watch a Wolves match in May 1971.

His beloved Hearts beat Wolves 1-0 but ended up losing 3-2 on aggregate in in the final of the Texaco Cup, having lost at home 3-1 the month before.

According to the Scotsman newspaper in a profile piece an unnamed university friend recalled: "He went down and back in the same day and expressed no desire to travel south again."

It is believed that Mr Salmond did not return to England again until he worked for the Scottish Office in the late 1970s. "Given the choice," he said in 2005, "I would rather travel west than south."

Mr Salmond insists he will serve Scotland in whatever capacity voters choose, but the No victory in the referendum could see doubts about his leadership emerge.

His failure to secure the win in the referendum will undoubtedly give rise to suggestions that the 59-year-old has taken the Scottish National Parliament as far as he can, and that it may be time for him to make way for a new leader.

While the SNP, as expected, has high support amongst those who believe in independence, the party's success at Holyrood has been secured by winning over voters who do not believe in this but who have respected the SNP's handling of the Scottish economy and popular health and education policies.

Mr Salmond could conceivably continue to push this agenda forward despite the failure of the SNP's central policy, but politics is a fickle business and he has an able deputy in Nicola Sturgeon who may emerge from Mr Salmond's shadow.

Born in Linlithgow in 1954, Alexander Elliot Anderson Salmond was educated at Linlithgow Academy and St Andrew's University, where he first joined the SNP.

Graduating with a degree in economics and history, he worked as an economist for both the Government Economic Service and the Royal Bank of Scotland before being elected as an MP for the Banff and Buchan constituency in 1987.

His election at Westminster followed a turbulent period for the SNP, which saw its number of seats fall from 11 to two in the 1979 general election.

With the creation of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, Mr Salmond went on to serve as leader of the opposition at Holyrood, while retaining his seat at Westminster.

He stood down as SNP leader in 2000 and left the Scottish Parliament in 2001.

Returning as leader in 2004, he guided the SNP to a narrow Scottish election win in 2007 and then led a minority government as he became Scotland's first SNP First Minister.

That success was superseded in the 2011 election, when Mr Salmond led his party to an unprecedented victory, with a crushing defeat of its main rival and pre-election poll leaders Labour.