It started at Wolves for Bruce Grobbelaar
Bruce Grobbelaar was back in the city where his English top-flight football experience began after paying a visit to Wolverhampton.
Liverpool legend Grobbelaar was the guest speaker at the Cleveland Arms Sports Bar, Stowheath Lane, writes Craig Birch.
He won more honours than any other Liverpool goalkeeper in history with six league titles, three League Cups, three FA Cups and a European Cup.
But he would finish on the losing side on his league debut for the Reds, having previously spent time on loan at Crewe Alexandra in Division Four.
His bow came at Wolves on 28 August 1981, with Grobbelaar beaten for the first time when Mick Matthews scored the only goal of the game at Molineux.
The 32-cap Zimbabwe international went on to win the richest prizes in world club football during his 13 years at Anfield, from 1981 to 1994.
Now aged 59 and living back in Canada, he remains in the game as assistant boss to Paul Dalglish, son of his former Liverpool manager Kenny, at NASL outfit Ottawa Fury.
Grobbelaar feels his modern-day contemporaries have lost touch with their supporters, fearing the riches on offer to players of today put them on a pedestal.
He said: "It's a pleasure for me to come back to Wolverhampton, my first game was at Wolves so it was where my Liverpool career began.
"It's been an honour and a privilege to be here and please keep on supporting the teams that you do. Football fans make everything worthwhile when you are on the field.
"I've had a great career, some of my best friends are the people that I've played with and I've been fortunate enough to have met some amazing talent.
"The game has changed now, it's worth so much more money now than when we played, but I don't get why they can't come out and meet people.
"The general public are the heart and soul of football and if they can't understand where I'm coming from, they need to look in the mirror for themselves. I think it's spiralling out of control.
"Football used to be a working man's sport, but this world is crazy. Sport gives a lot of impetus, but it's a bubble where some of these clubs are not going to sustain where they are."
Former team-mates from his time at Vancouver Whitecaps in Canada before coming to England turned up to the Cleve for a catch up with him.
Former Wolves star Phil Parkes was also a star goalkeeper while Carl Valentine, who would later play for West Bromwich Albion, has now become a Canadian citizen.
Grobbelaar also revealed he's no stranger to the Black Country accent, having played alongside former West Brom defender David Burrows for his last five years at Liverpool.
He joked: "I know about Tipton, because David was the left-back at Liverpool. He told me he was the main man from that town.
"I asked him, 'what about Steve Bull?' He replied 'oh, after him.' We had a good laugh about that!"
