Fans flock to 'House that Jack Built' for emotional tribute

But this day was different, writes Wolves fan Tim Spiers.

'The House that Jack Built' was all-but packed, its 28,000 inhabitants lingering in near silence, waiting to pay tribute to one of their own.

They'd brought banners, they'd brought flags, they'd lustily chanted 'Jack Hayward's Barmy Army' in the subway, they'd queued in lines dozens-long to buy special commemorative programmes and they'd left flowers and shirts by the Billy Wright statue, pausing to read messages and tributes.

And now the majestic, goosebump-inducing sounds of Elgar pierced the Molineux air as a cast of players and managers took to the turf to remember Sir Jack.

These were scenes not witnessed since Billy Wright's death in 1994.

Back then the mood was one of tragedy and heartache at the loss of Wolves' most decorated player – The Last Post was played and there were tears aplenty on a solemn day at Molineux.

There were tears here too but the done thing in 2015 is to celebrate the lives of the football men we lose and so the atmosphere was for the most part uplifting and positive.

It is surely the way Sir Jack would have wanted it.

He wouldn't have approved of mass morbidity or sombreness.

He probably wouldn't have approved of us all making such a big fuss about his passing. Rename the stadium after him, some have suggested, forgetting that Sir Jack once promised to 'haunt' the ground if that ever happened.

No, with that famous boyish glint in his eye that no one who witnessed it would ever forget, Sir Jack would wanted a celebration, if there had to be something.

And his fellow Wolves fans responded in kind with vigorous applause and songs sung with zeal.

Sir Jack of course never played for Wolves, nor managed them.

Remarkable then that he could have left such an indelible mark on a football club and it isn't just Wolves fans who recognise that – a banner reading 'RIP Sir Jack' was held aloft by Blackpool supporters during a minute's applause.

Team captains Danny Batth of Wolves and Blackpool's Tony McMahon laid wreaths behind each goal and 2,000 gold and black balloons – plus 91 'Union Jack' balloons – joined Sir Jack in the heavens as Molineux rose as one. These were stirring moments.

The perfect tone had been struck and as the former players and managers, plus members of Sir Jack's family, walked off the field the fact there was a football match to be played seemed largely irrelevant.

Throughout the game two giant photos of Sir Jack plastered over the redundant video screens loomed large, a constant reminder of the great man.

They captured his most iconic Wolves image, that of him smiling with two thumbs up during the famous play-off final win of 2003.

And underneath, the words he left in the visitors' book at the club's museum, 'glad to have helped'.

On went the game and, fittingly, the team triumphed.

They left it late but a dramatic climax with two goals in the last four minutes whipped Molineux into a fervour.

Sir Jack, of course, would have loved it.

Amid a cauldron of noise 'thumbs up if you love Sir Jack' rang around the stadium and the masses responded in kind.

It reflected a remark made by Sir Jack's long-time companion Patti in the programme.

"He loved Wolves," she said. "He loved Wolverhampton. He loved the people of Wolverhampton and anyone who called Wolves 'their team'."

Well, they loved him too.

The city will soon get its chance to bid farewell to one of its most famous sons.

But this was Wolves' way of saying goodbye.

Altogether now, "he's one of our own, he's one of our own, Sir Jack Hayward, he's one of our own".