Tributes paid at funeral of former Wolves manager and player Graham Hawkins

Club legends were joined by supporters in remembering Mr Hawkins at his funeral at Bushbury Crematorium today.

He died aged 70 last month and is best remembered for managing the side in the early 1980s.

He led the team to promotion in 1983 and was also promoted with Wolves as a player in 1967.

Mr Hawkins was a boyhood supporter of Wolves and is one of the few people in football to play, manage and scout for his local club.

He also served as assistant manager at Shrewsbury Town and had a spell coaching in Bahrain.

Mr Hawkins died following a battle with non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.

He had fought the illness tirelessly since being diagnosed in 2009, raising money for fellow cancer patients at Shrewsbury's Royal Hospital.

Wolves legends John Richards, Mel Eves and Graham Turner were among the large crowed attending the service.

There was standing room only inside the chapel as mourners poured inside to pay their respects.

A gold and black wreath was laid inside the hearse alongside flowers donated by Blackburn Rovers, a former club of Mr Hawkins.

Mr Richards, second only to Steve Bull on the list of all-time Wolves goalscorers, said: "He was a lovely man. I knew Graham from his time as manager. It was my last season at Wolves.

"He was brought in by Derek Dougan and did a fantastic job in the circumstances. The club had just come out of receivership and it was an ageing team."

The former striker said he respected his old manager for his honesty.

"He dropped me, he left me out of the team. But he was very fair, open and honest and I respected him for that," Mr Richards said.

"I was with him at Charlton three months ago for the London Wolves 50th anniversary. He looked quite well, quite strong. It is so sad what happened.

"He was dealing with his own situation, with the cancer treatment but he continued to raise money.

"He raised funds for the benefit of other people, which typified the sort of person he was."

Graham Turner, who took over the Wolves hotseat two years after Mr Hawkins left the club, in 1986, and rescued them from the Fourth Division, said: "He was a gentleman. I worked with him at Shrewsbury and kept in touch through the years.

"The things in his life were family and football. He was such an enthusiastic football man.

"The number of people here today is an indication of the high regard in which he was held."

Mr Hawkins was appointed Wolves manager in August 1982 as a great period in the club's history was coming to an end, charged with taking the club back into the top flight.

Wolves had won the League Cup two years earlier but some of the great names in the club's history, such as Derek Dougan and Dave Wagstaffe, had moved on, while others, like Richards and Kenny Hibbitt were coming to the end of the time at Molineux.

Under the guidance of Mr Hawkins, they bounced straight back to the First Division at the first attempt in 1983.

But the club struggled on their return and Mr Hawkins was sacked in 1984 as the side were relegated again.

Mr Turner said: "He got promotion in his first year but he found it hard going in the second year. It was a big step up for him managing a big club like Wolves and he handled it extremely well.

"All of a sudden he was coming in and working with the likes of Andy Gray but he coped well."

Mr Richards said: "It was extremely difficult, there were no resources.

"This was when the Bhattis took over. We got promoted in 1983 but he was left high and dry with a lack of investment."