When Steve Kindon delivered a Cup KO!

Kick-off in a crucial FA Cup quarter final and passionate Midlands’ derby in front of a crowd of over 50,000 was barely minutes away.

Players were going through their customary warm-ups, loosening the limbs, straining the sinews.

And then, all of a sudden, one of the stars of the show, the talismanic experienced striker, crashed to the ground.

He had been struck in the head by a ball sent powerfully over from the left wing by the substitute.

Welcome to the weird, wild and not so wonderful prelude to the last FA Cup quarter-final between Wolves and Coventry, which took place this very weekend, back in 1973.

“This is how it was,” begins Steve Kindon, the unintentional protagonist behind the whole incident whose skills as a pacey and powerful forward are matched by that as a skilled and extremely humorous raconteur.

“When we used to warm up, I’d be on the left wing near the tunnel sending in crosses for Lofty (goalkeeper Phil Parkes) and John Richards would be in and around the penalty spot.

“Lofty would put his hand up in the air if he wanted me to lob in a cross, or hold it out if he wanted me to drive one with more power.

“I’d cross one in, Phil would catch it, and then John would fire two or three into Phil’s chest, then I’d cross one in again.

“Before that Coventry match, our striker Derek Dougan was doing his own pre-match routine and, once he was warm enough, started to walk towards the North Bank to conduct the Wolves fans who were singing his name.

“Phil put his hand out, requesting a driven ball, so that’s what I did, I drove the ball towards his chest. And then, about three yards before it reached him, the Doog was walking the other way, not looking in my direction, and the ball smacked him on the side of his head.

“As I used to say many times while doing my after dinner speaking, for once in my life I had actually hit the ball accurately.”

With Dougan lying crumpled on the floor, all hell broke loose. Sammy Chung, later a promotion-winning Wolves manager but at this time assistant to Bill McGarry, sprinted on from the dugout, smelling salts at the ready.

Kindon and hos concerned Wolves team-mates crowded around.

“We had some great back-up players at that time, including Kindo, our substitute that day,” recalls Richards, who had got to know Kindon as a fellow sports-mad Lancashire schoolboy born in Warrington. “He was exciting, and always a threat who could ignite a game when coming off the bench.

“On that day he created some excitement even before the game had kicked off, knocking out Derek with a beautifully drilled cross intended for Lofty. After the ball smacked him on the side of the head, he was unconscious!”