When miracles happen: The story of Wolves 4 Leicester 3
Wolves hope to win a few classic matches in 2018/19 – but they may struggle to take part in one as dramatic as this.
Ask most supporters of a certain vintage to list their favourite matches of the past three of four decades and there's a good chance that "Wolves 4 Leicester 3" will be mentioned, writes Wolves correspondent Tim Spiers.
The current crop make the shortish trip to the East Midlands on Saturday for this season's 'local derby' against the Foxes.
Many are tipping Wolves to join the Leicester in challenging for a top half finish – and the two teams possessed similar ambitions the last time they were both in the top flight, in 2003/04.
Back then they just wanted to stay in the league at any cost, but when they went head to head in October things were starting to look decidedly bleak with Wolves in 19th and Leicester rock bottom.
What followed, completely unexpectedly, was one of the most thrilling matches witnessed at Molineux in many a year. There's certainly no comeback that compares to it.
Leicester, thanks to two goals from 36-year-old Les Ferdinand and another from Riccy Scimeca, stormed into a 3-0 lead inside 35 minutes, helped by defending that would make a static caravan look mobile.
Dave Jones' Wolves had only won one of their opening nine matches and fears that they simply weren't good enough at that level were being compounded by a disastrous half time scoreline.
Cue a miraculous turnaround that shook Molineux to its foundations, such was the phenomenal noise that reverberated around the bouncing stadium.
Colin Cameron scored twice in quick succession at the start of the half, compatriot Alex Rae made it 3-3 with a header and then with just four minutes to go Henri Camara, who'd missed a load of sitters in his first few weeks as a Wolves player, bundled the ball over the line to complete a remarkable comeback.
Everyone lost the plot amid the celebrations, even Alex Rae, who after scoring the equaliser whipped his top off during a match for the first and last time in his distinguished 23-year playing career.
"The celebration was embarrassing!" Rae told the Express & Star. "I scored 130 goals and I never took my top off!
"It was just an unbelievable game."
Before the pleasure came the pain of a soul destroying first half in which Wolves were boys to Leicester's men.
"It had been billed as a six-pointer even though it was quite early in the season," Rae said.
"But in the first half we couldn't lay a glove on them. Les Ferdinand caused all sorts of problems, what a handful he was.
"Leicester had an experienced team with boys who'd been around the block a few times, guys like Matt Elliott, Gerry Taggart, Muzzy Izzet, Ian Walker.
"At 3-0 the fans were up in arms because we'd been blown away.
"We'd struggled to adjust to the Premier League and not spent a huge amount of money. Look at Wolves and Fulham now having a right go...we didn't really do that, there wasn't a big out-and-out striker coming in, which we were crying out for.
"We had a number of strikers like Camara, Steffen Iversen, Kenny Miller, Nathan Blake, Dean Sturridge, but no one at that level who could score 15 goals and really make the difference.
"Then again maybe we didn't create enough chances?
"As a group we struggled, if you look at the players they brought in, we didn't quite hack it."
Ultimately both Wolves and Leicester would be relegated, both earning just 33 points.
But the three Jones' team earned here are still frequently remembered by those who were there.
At 3.45pm it was memorable for all the wrong reasons...Wolves' players had given Jones every excuse in the book to tear into them in the dressing room at half time.
But Rae recalls the manager was calm and composed.
"Some managers would give you a rollocking for sure," Rae continued. "I had Peter Reid at Sunderland – he was a scouser like Dave but totally different, he'd come in f'ing and blinding.
"Dave very rarely lost his rag, he was very calm.
"It would have been justified to hand it out, but he was very measured. He said to go out and give a good account of ourselves and if we got the first goal we might have a bit of belief."
Jones sent on Villa loanee Hassan Kachloul who added width and trickery (for just about the only time in his short-lived Wolves spell) and within seven minutes they had pulled a goal back when Cameron expertly steered home Nathan Blake's cross.
When Keith Gillespie rather idiotically handled in the box just eight minutes later, Cameron netted from the spot. Game on.
On 68 Wolves netted their third in 16 minutes when Rae planted home what you might think would be a rare header for a 5ft 8in midfielder (from a pinpoint Denis Irwin cross). Molineux went crackers.
"I scored a few headers in my time," Rae says.
"The crucial thing was to get a goal early after half time, that gave us the belief and we ran with it."
Camara had made a painfully slow start to his Wolves career. It was perhaps unfair to expect too much from the Senegalese striker but in the absence of the big-money signing that never came, hopes rested on his shoulders.
The winner was to be Camara's solitary strike in 23 appearances, before a logic-defying run of six in seven at the end of the season led to a campaign for the striker to stay (which of course he didn't, after going on strike...).
But what a moment it was – made possible by another superb Irwin cross.
"I always got on quite well with the wee man Henri," Rae recalls.
"He'd missed a few one-on-ones at Man United a few weeks earlier but he scored this one and it was a fabulous moment.
"Irwin was spot on with his crosses. Him and Paul Ince coming into the club were instrumental."
Relief, exaltation, jubilation and exhaustion were written over the players' faces. Some of them didn't know what to do. The Wolves supporters certainly did – the roof lifted off the famous old ground.
"It was just a remarkable game to play in," Rae said. "I'd been around the block for a long time at that point but I'd never been involved in a game like that.
"You could wait a lifetime and not see a turnaround like that...it was rather unique.
"One of the things that struck me, some of the Wolves fans had left at half time probably thinking they'd rather be in the pub.
"I used to do a little column in the Express & Star and after that game I was saying it was a shame for the guys who left!
"But then a few days later I went to watch Rangers play Manchester United at Old Trafford and they went 3-0 down after an hour...after preaching to the Wolves fans to not leave early I left to skip the traffic!
"So maybe you can't blame them. But those who stayed had the time of their lives."
Teams
Wolves: Oakes; Irwin, Butler, Craddock, Naylor; Gudjonsson (Newton 22), Cameron, Rae, Camara; Blake, Miller (Kachloul 45). Subs not used: Murray, Iversen, Luzhny.
Goals: Cameron (52, pen 60), Rae (68), Camara (86)
Leicester: Walker; Curtis, Elliott, Taggart, Rogers; Gillespie (Nalis 65), Izzet, Scimeca, Scowcroft; Ferdinand (Bent 64), Dickov (Hignett 64). Subs not used: Coyne, Stewart.
Goals: Ferdinand (12, 15), Scimeca (35)
Attendance: 28,578
