George Berry: We’ll never forget that Wembley roar

“It was incredible,” he says. “To see the happiness and love we as a team had brought to the community. It was very emotional. I can shut my eyes and still see it.”

Berry is describing the parade which greeted the victorious Wolves team upon their return from Wembley following the 1980 League Cup final.

On Sunday, it will be 40 years since a single Andy Gray goal was enough to beat Nottingham Forest, the reigning European champions, and secure for Wolves what remains until now the club’s last major trophy.

For centre-back Berry and his team-mates the achievement remains a sense of enormous pride. All have their own, individual memories of the day. All without fail make reference to the support they received at Wembley from those Wolves fans packed into a crowd of 96,527.

“The noise was, almost, unbearable,” recalls Berry. “You went from absolute quiet standing in the tunnel, to the point you could have heard a pin drop, then three steps later it hit you, the sound of 90,000-odd people. It was magnificent. Scary – but magnificent.”

“I’m not sure there is anything which could ever prepare you for it,” admits Mel Eves, who – at the age of 23 – was a year older than Berry and the second-youngest member of the Wolves team.

“I get goosebumps even thinking about it now. You just think: ‘We have got to win this for these fans’. If you were not already pumped up, that certainly got you going.”

It wasn’t only the younger members struck by the sound. Midfielder Willie Carr had previously experienced playing in front of 137,000 fans for Scotland against England at Hampden Park but was making his first ever appearance at Wembley.

“Walking out onto the pitch, all you could see was gold and black,” he recalls. “It really lifted you, the noise.”

Wolves were undoubtedly underdogs against a Forest team just weeks away from retaining the European Cup and who were aiming to win the League Cup for the third successive season.

Yet neither were John Barnwell’s men considered pushovers. On the contrary, Wolves were enjoying a strong season themselves and boasted in their ranks four players – Kenny Hibbitt, John Richards, Derek Parkin and Geoff Palmer – who had played in the 1974 final win over Manchester City.

Barnwell had added further experience at the start of the campaign with the £1.5million club record signing of striker Gray – a League Cup winner in 1977 with Villa – along with defender Emlyn Hughes.

The long-time Liverpool and England captain, then aged 33, was only missing the League Cup trophy from a glittering personal roll of honour which included two European Cups and would skipper the team at Wembley.

“That is what John Barnwell was about. He used to bring in star players,” explains Hibbitt. “Emlyn was a terrific player. I never actually realised how good he was before he joined us. He had a huge influence on Wolves.

“I had been captain before and could have been leading the team out (at Wembley) but I was so pleased for him (Hughes) that he came in and helped us get to another cup final.”

Barnwell began setting the tone for Wolves’ approach to the occasion within hours of their semi-final win over Swindon Town.

“I remember us getting called into Molineux the day after the semi-final, we weren’t due to train,” says Eves. “John sat us down and said: ‘Look lads, I just want to say well done. But if anyone thinks we are going down there to make the numbers up, think again. We are going there to win and anyone not on the same page can get out of the dressing room’.

“We had a few league games to play before Wembley but the mindset had already been established.

“I wouldn’t say we were massive underdogs. OK, out of 10 pundits, seven would probably have Forest to win and maybe three would think we could nick it.

“But in truth there wasn’t that much between us as teams. The big thing was they were more used to big occasions.”

While Wolves headed into the match with a mood of quiet confidence, Barnwell and assistant Richie Barker had also drawn up a tactical masterplan designed to outwit their counterparts, Brian Clough and Peter Taylor.

It involved playing Peter Daniel on the right of midfield in a bid to nullify the threat of Forest winger John Robertson, while shifting Hibbitt inside to partner Carr in the centre.

“Peter was really quick and could close people down really well,” says Carr. “If they got past Peter, they then had to come up against Geoff (Palmer). It was a good plan.”

The system had been discussed in the days leading up to the final but only finally agreed upon hours before kick-off following an extended late night debate between Barnwell and Barker, the latter of whom had doubts over the ability of Hibbitt and Carr to last the pace against the Forest midfield duo of John McGovern and Ian Bowyer.

“It ended up working a treat,” says Palmer, who played behind Daniel at right-back. “I know John Robertson had a few moments on the ball, but Peter did a superb job on him. That allowed me to cover George and Emlyn in the middle when the ball was on the other flank and vice-versa for Derek Parkin at left-back.”

Wolves’ organisation was always going to be key to their hopes of victory and they found themselves pushed back from the early stages.

“We were expected to get battered and to be fair they battered us for most of the 90 minutes,” laughs Berry. “I think that is why people say I had a good game – because I was in the game a lot.

“They were attacking us relentlessly. But our team had an unbelievable belief within the group.

“Was I nervous? Yes. The biggest thing I had to do was take myself away from the occasion and into the mindset it was just another football match. Otherwise, the nerves would have taken over.”

While Forest had plenty of possession they could find no way through Wolves and Richards had already seen a goal ruled out for a foul on goalkeeper Peter Shilton – a dubious decision which in the modern game would have led to a lengthy VAR check – before Gray made the breakthrough on 68 minutes.

The Scot tapped into an empty net following a mix-up between defender David Needham and Shilton as both went to clear Daniel’s long ball.

But while the goal will never be remembered as a Wembley classic – at least by neutrals – it also owed plenty to the tactics set out by Barnwell and Barker.

“We’d got Andy and John (Richards) up front and we played a direct game,” explains Palmer. “If we got the ball at the back and there was a pass on in midfield we would take it.

“But the manager and Richie would always rather we played in the opponents’ third and our first instruction was always to look for Andy or John. You can see that with the goal.

“I remember a pass got played to Gary Birtles and I slid in. The ball drops to Peter and his first thought was to hit that ball. The rest is history.”

The contest between Gray and Forest’s Trevor Francis, two of the game’s most prolific strikers who had both moved for big money, had been a key storyline in the build-up to the final.

“I was glad Andy was always in our dressing room on matchdays,” says Hibbitt. “He was a winner in everything he did.

“He would argue over tiddlywinks because he was so passionate about winning and he really helped us achieve that.”

Hibbitt was unable to catch up with Gray during the celebrations which greeted the goal, though Berry did.

“I ran the length of the pitch to get to Andy,” he says. “When I got back I could not feel my thighs because of the lactic acid and I remember shouting across to Emlyn: ‘I can’t feel my legs, I don’t think I can run!’.

“He just looked at me and replied: ‘Trust me, you will!’”

Now four decades on, Berry is able to reflect on the impact Hughes had on Wolves and more particularly himself during his time at the club.

“To play alongside an England captain and a player who had won everything, I learned a great deal,” he says.

“The influence he had, when I look back, was big. There were things I didn’t really notice at the time, the odd word here or there. When I talk about our belief as a team, Emlyn played a huge part in creating that. He had won everything and had that calmness of someone who has been there, seen it, done it both in Europe and domestically.”

Berry and Hughes needed to be at their best for the remainder of the game as Forest pushed hard for a leveller.

“It was like the Alamo,” recalls Carr. “Everyone was throwing themselves in front of the ball and I think even Andy Gray was back in our box heading crosses away.”

Forest’s big chance would fall to Martin O’Neill but while his shot looked destined to beat Wolves goalkeeper Paul Bradshaw, Palmer was there to block.

“It could have gone anywhere, I guess,” says Palmer. “We were just doing everything to keep the ball out of the net.

“I don’t think the fans would have enjoyed the last 15 minutes. It was a bit helter-skelter to say the least!”

Finally the whistle went and after celebrating with supporters the Wolves team went up the steps with Hughes lifting the trophy, before players received the League Cup’s then traditional winners’ tankards, the final year before the custom was replaced by medals.

For Eves, whose only previous visit to Wembley had been as a fan for the 1974 final, it remains an unforgettable moment.

“I was still at school in ‘74 and little did I know the next time I went to Wembley I would be playing alongside some of those players,” he says.

“That was the best day I ever had in my career. Winning a final for my club at Wembley in front of nearly 100,000 people? It really is not going to get any better than that now, is it?”