Former Wolves man Lee Mills is still living the dream

For Lee Mills, who has played for both Wolves and Coventry and is now working for Wolves Foundation, it’s a competition that launched his career 30 years ago this week.

Lee Mills enjoyed his finest moment in a Wolves shirt by firing home a thunderbolt in a giant-killing

FA Cup win at Ipswich.

But it would ultimately end up costing him his lift home on the team coach.

The powerful striker and Andy Thompson had notched the first half goals which ultimately proved enough to secure a 2-1 victory for Wolves in the fifth round replay at Portman Road.

“It really was the moment which kick-started my career,” Mills reflects.

“Ipswich were in the Premier League at the time so it was a big upset, and I never thought I’d be involved in a game like that let alone score a goal.

“I was brand new to it all at the time, and after the game I was doing a media interview, and the coach went without me!

“I didn’t really know the protocol, a journalist asked me for an interview and so I just started talking to him.

“A phone call came back to the club from the gaffer (Graham Turner), asking where the hell I was, as they were well on their way back!

“He told me I had to get a taxi back but I think the fact I had scored meant I didn’t get into much trouble!

“And it was a goal which set me on the road to a decent career.”

It was quite a scalp for Turner’s Wolves at the time.

A special cup night, but also a little reminder, as the current Wolves crop approach a big tie of their own against a team from a division below a week on Saturday, that accidents can happen!

Whilst focus from head coach Gary O’Neill and his staff and players will currently be completely zoned in on Fulham in the Premier League, fans are already daring to dream of a return to Wembley, possibly twice, if they overcome Coventry – another of Mills’ former clubs - in the last eight at Molineux.

For the man himself, that night 30 years ago last weekend provided one of just four goals he would score for Wolves, and was certainly the one with the highest profile and significance.

His career would blossom later – he would go on to play in the Premier League and Europe – but how he originally broke through, and joined Wolves in the first place, remains a story all on its own.

Born in Mexborough in South Yorkshire, Mills initially made his name in semi-professional football with some prolific goalscoring exploits with Stocksbridge Park Steels.

This was combined with an apprenticeship with his local council during which he was also studying accountancy on a day release, and it looked like a desk job was where his future lay.

But one of his team-mates, winger Simon Howe, was attending a trial game at Walsall and the

Saddlers needed a striker to make up the numbers, and so Mills went along as well.