Wolves celebrate club's success at end of season awards - pictures

Certainly not the 710 who packed an event so bereft of interest a year ago the club had to cancel it.

But last night's Player of the Year dinner was as memorable as the 2013 occasion was forgotten. Deep dejection has been overcome by unrestrained excitement for a future re-cast by the impact of the club's record-breaking sweep through a year of League One fixtures and it dripped from every corner of last night's closing ceremony to a healing 12 months.

Chairman Steve Morgan's first public address since the footballing catastrophe that, he admitted, had taken its toll at both a personal and club level, was perhaps the most significant speech of the night.

But the star turn was provided by head coach Kenny Jackett. It's one thing for the media to report Jackett's clear-minded commentaries on his team's progress and ambitions, but it is another experience altogether when the man himself is up there delivering his message.

And last night, Jackett's trademark blend, combining a humility and respect for the opposition with a clear vision and boundless positivity for his own designs, sent a charge of excitement through a public who will enjoy the World Cup but only because they know each day of the showpiece will take them closer to the next challenge for their evolving team.

"We won't be setting ourselves up for a fall in the media, there will be full respect for every team we face," he said at one point. "But make no mistake, we begin next season with promotion our aim. There is nothing for this club to fear. We must make sure we don't waste this season. This needs to be the start of an era...the start of a successful era."

Captain Sam Ricketts joined in the ovation as Jackett continued to hold spellbound an audience rejoicing in the simple emotion of loving their club once again.

It was Jackett's first such event with Wolves and he was clearly impressed. "This event," he said, "has a Premier League stamp about it; the whole club has a Premier League stamp about it."

These are the kind of words that could come back to haunt him and he will be aware of that. But there is a steely confidence in this re-booted Wolves which has been downloaded by the head coach into the club's mainframe. The difference is tangible.

All of which made you feel a little sorry for another "first timer" – Bakary Sako. The popular French forward had to be given his Player of the Year award for last season on the QT and certainly with none of the smiles, back-slapping, fanfares and dramatic video montages lapped up last night.

Sako had to content himself with the Top Goalscorer award as Kevin McDonald, the symbol of a team transformed in style as well as mood, stole the show.

But in a year when there has been much talk of healing around Molineux, it was only right that the owner should share in the process.

Morgan was castigated to the point of abuse a year ago after the disastrous tumble; that mixed reception at the last game of the season suggests there is still a residue of criticism for his role in the club's downfall.

But he was warmly received last night in a forum he does not always enjoy. There were a couple of amusing stumbles, the first when laughter greeted the start of his comments about the development so close to his heart – and given extra resonance by the FFP developments this week – the expansive, top-of-the-range Academy taking shape.

Morgan looked a little non-plussed at first until he realised the diners were chuckling at the pictures behind him of a school age Danny Batth, Jack Price and Ethan Ebanks-Landell from their earliest days at the club.

He then got into a tangle as he recalled the remarkable exodus of Wolves fans to MK Dons this season and the sea of "red and gold" that greeted him. Quickly correcting that to "black and gold" did not come in time to stop everybody thinking of his first club, Liverpool.

But after last year's experience, that is the sort of discomfort Morgan can easily endure.

"The last year has been phenomenal...fantastic," he said. No-one could begrudge him his personal redemption from the agonies that preceded it.