Steve Bull's legend is far from over at 50

And, as Steve Bull turns 50 today, the club's greatest scorer admits he still gets embarrassed at the hero worship enjoys from Wolves fans.

His unrivalled contribution on the pitch is reflected off it in the South Bank songbook: 'Stevie Bull's a tatter, 'Hark now Hear the Angels Sing', 'Lily the Pink' and 'Oooh Bully, Bully' regularly ring out around Molineux on match-day.

Perhaps more than anything, he's one of them. After all, he not only speaks their lingo and lives in the city but regularly joins supporters on away trips.

But the unique bond between Bully and the fans goes far beyond mere language and geography.

It's something deep within that means for those who watched him play can readily identify with.

Wolves fans want to see players giving their all, and no-one gave more than Bully.

It was shown time after time in the all-out bravery and commitment, the grittiness of his performances, and perhaps more than anything, the loyalty he showed to stay at Wolves.

"I do get a bit embarrassed about it," he says. "When we go to the away games, me and my mates pile up in a van,and get a bottle of beer and a pie with all the fans.

"The worst one was at Sheffield Wednesday this season - it was so chock-a-block I couldn't even get off the concourse - I didn't even watch the second half.

"They were singing songs and getting me to sign stuff...but I love it. It keeps them happy and it keeps them coming back here.

"But the only reason they sing is because they want hard workers - and that's what I was. I'd put my shirt on, put my boots on, get out there and give it 100 per cent.

"I think they sing my name because they want to see players do what I used to do."

It seems strange now to think but Bully was once concerned whether he would ever become a fans' favourite.

"I think it comes from the initial bond you strike up," he says.

"When I first came from Albion I think we both wondered how it was going to turn out, but at the time there were only about 3,900 fans here then!

"I was just glad it wasn't 28,000 like it is now, otherwise they would have been booing me.

"Once the first goal went in, they thought 'Hang on, where's this lad from? He's only from down the road, in Tipton, so let's get behind him'.

"I heard them cheering after the first one went in, then after the second one they were cheering even more, and more and more fans were coming every week.

"It grew to 9,000, 10,000 and I was thinking 'They're seeing something here' and the club was starting to get back on its feet again."

As he reaches his half century, Bully is happy and has no regrets about his playing career.

Yes, he'd swap those creaking knees for one last crack of pulling on the gold and black - and almost certainly for another toe-to-toe contest against old adversary Steve Walsh for old time's sake - but he insists he had to finish playing when he did in 1999 for his long-term health.

Nevertheless, his retirement was greeted with heavy hearts from thousands of adoring fans from all over the region.

"If I could turn back time, I'd have two new knees and I'd still get back out there," he says. "The head is still willing, but the knees aren't. I will have discomfort to the day I die.

"It's just wear and tear from the bones in my body and I know, at some stage, I will have to have both knees replaced.

"But until I'm down to my ankles and you can't see my knees I'm not going to get them done.

"At the time, I'd had an operation at the end of the season and I was all ready for pre-season and had had a good week. We were in Austria and Germany.

"All of a sudden I twisted and something cracked and I thought 'something telling me something here.' I thought if I don't stop now, I'll be in a wheelchair.

"I wasn't in pain - I was in discomfort and it's still the same to this day.

"I could have signed for someone like Kidderminster playing maybe one game in 10 but I'd have been just taking money off them and I didn't want to do that.

"I wanted to finish and say 'I've done my job, let me get on with my life now'."

If he couldn't play, then Bully wanted to hand on the number nine shirt to someone who could, and he thought he'd found him in a certain hugely talented teenager from Dublin.

"I wouldn't want people to hold me in low or high esteem; the club was on a steady platform and I thought someone like Robbie Keane could come in and take over my mantle and take the club forward," he says.

"I only had a season or so with a very young Keane, who was a very selfish player but he knew what to do with the ball and he went from strength to strength."

Keane was the youngest strike partner Bully played with at Molineux but he is in no doubt as to who the best one he played with was.

And given they scored just over 300 goals in their seven years together from 1986-93, it's no surprise it's Andy Mutch.

"I played up there with David Kelly, Don Goodman and Iwan Roberts but I have to go back to my old mucker, Mutchy," he recalls.

"He was top drawer, brilliant. He could talk a very good game for a Scouser, but he did put it into action on the pitch. Me and him complemented each other superbly.

"I knew where he was, he knew where I was - if he was crossing, he knew where I'd be and vice-versa so it was a great combination for the seven years we were together."

Mutch was one of the scorers in the game that features as Bully's greatest single achievement, his one Wembley cup win - the Sherpa Van Trophy in 1988, when Wolves beat fellow Fourth Division side Burnley 2-0 in front of 80,841.

"My greatest achievement is playing here for 13 years after being told at the age of 17 that I couldn't play professional football," he says. Footballing-wise, one of the highlights was winning the Sherpa Van Trophy.

"Coming from fourth from bottom of the old Fourth Division to winning that division, winning at Wembley in the Sherpa Van Trophy final in front of about 60,000 Wolves fans was unbelievable."

Mutch was also there but as one of Bully's late-night drinking the evening before one of his most memorable and spectacular feats of goalscoring, at Newcastle on New Year's Day, 1990, which figure as his four favourite goals for the club.

"I can't pick one, can I pick four?" he says. "It's got to be all four I scored at Newcastle.

"We couldn't believe how many people went up there to support us - it was freezing cold but there were about 3,000 fans dressed as reindeers, Santas and snowmen - unbelievable.

"And to repay those fans by scoring four goals was brilliant. When I saw the TV pictures when we got back, I thought 'that's true Wolves fans'.

"A lot of Wolves fans probably don't like me saying that because they'd like me to choose the ones against the Albion, but going back there, they were just normal goals to hurt them.

"For England, I know people will say the Hampden Park one and it was unbelievable because it was on my debut.

"But for the quality of the goal, it was the volley against Czechoslovakia - I was about two metres off the ground and it flew into the top corner. I think it's number 37 in England's top 50."

As he ponders his lists of 'bests', Bully die-hards won't be surprised to learn who his most difficult opponent was.

"It's got to be Steve Walsh - it was always handbags at 10 paces with me and Walshy," he chuckles.

"We looked at each other in the tunnel and we'd say 'is it you that's going to get sent off today or me?!'

"We'd look at each other and growl and once we got out there on the pitch, we'd be battling and scrapping all the time. It was brilliant!

"But the hardest of the lot was his partner at centre-half, a big Irishman Gerry Taggart. Everywhere I turned, it was 'bang' - I couldn't shift him.

"Unless I ran 20 yards forwards and 20 yards square, I couldn't get past him. He's a good friend of mine now and we play golf.

"But he was dirty and hard at the same time, a bit like Stuart Pearce, he always took the ball and put the man in the stand!

"I could hear him coming up behind me with steam coming out of his ears, thinking 'oh no, here he comes'."

Bully and Taggart - by then at Bolton - locked horns spectacularly in what was known as the Battle of Burnden Park in 1997, two years after the losing play-off semi-final when John McGinlay's punch on David Kelly went unpunished.

"We lost in the play-offs in '95 and it was one of the worst days of my career and my life," recalls Bully.

"In '97 it all kicked off between us - there was a 22-man brawl. I can't tell you what went on in there; it was very heated but we shouldn't have done it.

"There were fisticuffs all over the place. We wanted to win and it was a case of 'boosh' in you go, and you start swinging. There were a couple of black eyes and a couple of broken noses in there. Suffice to say it was a frank exchange of views - we both had steam coming out of our ears, but he's a good lad."

Nowadays, Bully is happy to watch his beloved Wolves from the place he calls his 'second home' - Molineux - from his vantage point standing above the tunnel outside the Hayward Suite.

There was a stage where he hoped it could have been in the dugouts.

But after his chastening experience cutting his teeth at Stafford Rangers, he is happy to take a back seat and admits a footballing role at Wolves is probably not for him now.

"I thought I'd get on the ladder and four, five, six years down the line, maybe get back here (Wolves)," he says.

"But they (Stafford) just pulled the rug from beneath my feet. I asked myself whether I wanted to go through that humiliation again and thought no, so my books went back in the loft and here I am now.

"I thought I'd give it a go but I look at it and what about if I came back here and failed as a manager?

"How would the fans remember me then? So it's swings and roundabouts, but I'll leave it there.

"I'm turning 50, I'm two-thirds of a lifespan through to 75 and now I'm going to enjoy the rest of my life."

Instead, he is happy to leave managing the club in the hands of Kenny Jackett.

And he believes the head coach will not only lead Wolves back to the Premier League but will be with the club for a good few years yet.

"Kenny's got a team of young kids who work hard and give 100 per cent, and that's what I want to I see," he says.

"If they don't, I want to grab them by the wotsits and say 'get out there and run yourself to a standstill for this club'.

"Kenny's done a remarkable job - from cutting the playing staff and getting his own squad in, I think he could be one to watch for the future.

"Hopefully he'll be here for a few years to come. I think he will get us promoted, but hopefully not too soon.

"I know we'd all love to be up there again, but let's get these kids ripened first and mature then we can get to the Premier League and stay there.

"The supporters are enjoying the standard of football, the goals, the style of play, coming here and going away smiling."

As for Bully, all he wants from the club is to stay involved with his beloved Wolves.

"I hope I'm going to be here talking about Wolves for the next 25 years," he reflects.

"I'm vice-president here - thanks for Sir Jack Hayward for giving me that role - and I will represent this club in the best way I can.

"I'm gold and black through and through and if anyone says a bad word about Wolves, they will have to answer to me.

"But having the stand named after me, the MBE, playing in the World Cup...I've loved every single minute of it."

So have we, Bully, so have we.

By Tim Nash