Johnny Phillips: Wolves playing in Europe! All Stars are giving back

Wolves All Stars formed more than 30 years ago and have stepped up their fundraising fixtures across the UK, living up to their motto: Giving something back in Old Gold and Black.

A fortnight ago, the team – made up of players who represented the club at senior and youth level and your Express & Star columnist – headed out to the Costa del Sol for the Field of Dreams tournament against the veteran sides Mijas Old Boys and Walking Dead, at Finca Naundrup sports complex in Calahonda.

Field of Dreams is a local football club in the region set up by ex-pats Matt Gore and Martin Tigue, helping kids of all nationalities and backgrounds develop their skills in a friendly and secure environment.

Neil Edwards, who played up front for Wolves in the Third and Fourth Division during the 1980s took a coaching session for the youngsters before the main event kicked off.

Edwards then linked up with former Molineux team-mate Jon Purdie for joint-coaching duties with the Wolves All Stars, in the absence of manager Mel Eves.

It was no easy task trying to rally a team who had ignored management’s advice to ‘take it easy’ the previous evening during a lengthy reconnaissance trip to some of Calahonda’s finest hostelries.

Even those of us who strategically flew out early on the morning of the tournament to avoid the wreckage of the Friday night struggled to live with the heat of the Spanish midday sun.

Micky Holmes holds the record for scoring in consecutive games at Wolves with seven goals in seven matches but doesn’t like to mention it (unless you’re within 50 yards of him).

He shared captaincy duties over the two matches with fellow midfielder Paul Jones, who has long since lost the blonde perm which characterised his stays at Walsall and Wolves.

Egyptian mummies have less bandaging around them than Colin Taylor’s knees, but the former front man still got around the pitch.

Full-back Kevin Ashley, once a £500,000 signing by Graham Turner, now works as a scaffolder which is perhaps appropriate as most of his team-mates needed propping up by half-time in the first match.

The energetic Brett Hayward, a member of the Wolves youth team during the 1990s before going on to enjoy a successful career in non-league football, topped the scoring charts in the tournament.

Sadly his goals couldn’t prevent the All Stars going down to successive defeats against opponents far more acclimatised to the conditions, who also saved their drinking until after the event.

Nonetheless, there were some fine performances from the men in Old Gold and Black (more yellow and black, in truth, owing to the cut price deal struck with Adidas for some surplus stock a couple of years ago).

Special praise must be reserved for Jackie Gallagher. The former striker is no longer worth a million pounds but at 64 years old he can still hold the ball up well and he showed his stamina and class with some slick moves on the dancefloor each evening on tour.

It was fitting that the trip was sponsored by Fellows Healthcare; certainly a few of the players looked in need of resuscitation by the time they checked in for their return flights on Monday afternoon.

“I was an apprentice at Wolves who never made it and looked up to these guys,” said Simon Dunkley, who has recently moved out to Calahonda to pursue his second career as a blues and motown musician. “Getting the chance to play with them again is fantastic. It’s the players who haven’t quite made it to the top who seem to want to do a bit more too, they understand the importance of where they’ve been and what they can offer.

“A lot of them have been released during their career and it seems to bring them together. We all just want to play football really, and to be associated with the old gold and black, well it is special all over the world isn’t it?”

All Stars chairman Jason Guy, who helped Dunkley arrange the tournament, added: “Getting all the lads together and listening to them rolling back the years talking about the 80s and 90s teams is priceless.

“As a Wolves fan I’m in a lucky position to hear their stories first-hand. The club of today has a huge status now, pushing for Europe each season, but a lot of these players were playing for Wolves and earning less than your average working man and they’ve all had to find new careers since retiring.

“Some of them are so unassuming you wouldn’t even know they’ve played football.”

The camaraderie among the All Stars made it a hugely enjoyable and uplifting trip – it would be harder to find a more welcoming bunch of ex-professionals.

The fundraising element should not be overlooked either, with good causes benefitting from their efforts each time they take the pitch.

“I was brought up in a children’s home so the fact that the money we raise goes to different charities is the other thing I love about it all,” Dunkley continued. “I’ve played for the All Stars since 2006 and it’s great to see so many charities benefit along the way.”

The Spanish tournament was fundraising for Field of Dreams and the neo-natal department at New Cross hospital, in Wolverhampton, and the All Stars are already planning their 2023 charity tour.