Sky Sports' Johnny Phillips: Delight, despair, joy, pain - It’s all led to this moment for Wolves
On Wolves’ pre-season tour of Switzerland last July, there was a chance to sit down with a few of the players.
We talked about the progress that had been made and the hopes they had going into the 2018/19 season.
Ryan Bennett, at 28 years-old, knew he was reaching a stage in his career when legacies become more significant. What has been achieved?
He was particularly perceptive in his assessment of the possibilities opening up ahead.
“You are looking at it, seeing the players, the training sessions we have day in and day out, and the way we are playing,” Bennett said. “In a few years’ time you could look back and think, ‘I was part of that’.
“You see what the club are doing, the structure they are implementing. You do believe that you are at the start of something special.”
Bennett seized the moment.
The defender has made it into 29 starting line-ups in this Premier League season. But he is not alone.
His team-mates, who took the Championship by storm, have also stepped up.
Some have had to wait for their chance – like John Ruddy, the Championship Golden Glove winner who has spent this season putting the team ahead of himself.
Moved out for Rui Patricio in August, he is back for the big occasion.
The integration of the summer recruits has been critical to the success.
Jonny, Joao Moutinho and Raul Jimenez have moved seamlessly into the team, raising standards further. Leander Dendoncker needed longer, but is now an integral part.
The ‘something special’ Bennett spoke of has materialised quicker than most observers would have expected.
Seventh place in the Premier League is more than the devotees in the stands could have wished for.
And, tomorrow, a Wembley date. A first FA Cup semi-final in 21 years.
The last one was an altogether more dispiriting occasion – a middling second-tier team, which raised its game to get so far, went out with a whimper.
Manager Mark McGhee’s selection meddling led to a non-event against Arsenal, down the road at Villa Park.
For the last time Wolves were genuinely in with a chance of a major trophy, we need to go much further back – the 1981 semi-final against Tottenham Hotspur, lost after a replay.
It was the last hurrah of a great team. Parkin, McAlle, Carr, Hibbitt, Richards and company.
Supporters occupied a different state of mind.
A year earlier, the League Cup had been won, accompanied by sixth place in the league.
The year before that, another FA Cup semi-final had been reached. Challenging for honours was the norm.
Gradually, over the course of this outstanding season, Wolves have shown they can compete at the top once more.
An autumn draw against Manchester City, the reigning champions.
Another draw at Arsenal in November, fearless throughout and frantic at the death – players left the Emirates pitch desperately disappointed not to have won it.
They went one better on another trip to London, with that exhilarating Christmas-time win against Spurs at Wembley.
Liverpool and Manchester United have been seen off in the FA Cup.
United defeated again in midweek, their fans sick of the sound of Tears For Fears.
Memories have been created that will last a lifetime.
And now it has all come down to this – a shot at the final on the biggest stage.
What Bennett said about being ‘part of that’ rings true for every Wolves fan.
This is more than just the match. It is about being part of something that stands the test of time.
Wembley will be an experience that strikes right at the heart of every supporter.
Mums and dads will walk towards the stadium holding the hands of their children just as their own parents held their hands when Wolves were Sherpa Van Trophy winners in 1988, or twice before when those League Cups were won.
Imagine giving a child a day out like Sunday.
Kids will look around the biggest stadium in the land, the sea of gold around them.
They will hear the noise and the songs, feel the excitement. And it will never leave them. Being taken to the match is a rite of passage.
There are those who have grown up and had families of their own who will be able to share tomorrow with the person who took them for the very first time. And it will be special.
There are others who would give anything in the world to share this with a loved one who is no longer here.
And it will be special for them too. Because they know, deep down, how happy that person looking down would be for them.
It has taken too long for this moment.
Mates have grown old together.
School kids who wandered up to the South Bank in the 80s, paying a quid or two, in nice and early, finding a spot on a barrier or down at the front by the fence.
Going out into the world as adults during the 90s and seeing the stadium change beyond recognition while the team stayed exactly where it was for an entire decade.
Settling down in life during the promotions of unfulfilled hope in the 2000s.
Mates, with all the scars and bruises of growing up and growing older, together to share something they have never done before – to watch a Wolves team with a chance of genuinely winning something.
Maybe a few tears will be shed before a ball has even been kicked.
This is a day out at Wembley, with Wolves’ brightest team in a couple of generations, and a tangible prize on the horizon.
The result matters so much, but not that much.
To be able to experience this, whether at the stadium or watching on from afar, is the important thing.
It is about all the other points in time that have led to this.
Everything that flashes before our eyes – the Bhattis, Bully, Scarborough, Sir Jack, John McGinlay, the Millenium Stadium, Kightly and Jarvis, Johnson and O’Hara, 10K2MK, and so much more. It is about being Wolves.
