Wolves can turn things around against Liverpool - they've done it before

Perhaps it’s far-fetched. Too much to hope for. But, lest we forget, it’s only just over 18 months since Wolves dispatched the Reds 3-0 on home turf, in what was unquestionably Julen Lopetegui’s finest hour. And a half.

And yet, that was Wolves’ first home league win against Liverpool in 10 attempts after a run of three draws and six defeats including a sequence of seven games during which they only scored once. Tough times.

However, rewind a few years further, and it’s not so long ago that a Liverpool team perhaps even better than the one which will undoubtedly be challenging at the top level this season, a Liverpool team which was winning league titles and European cups at regular intervals, found heading to Molineux an almighty challenging proposition.

In six meetings, spread across almost 30 years from 1980 to 2010, Wolves remained unbeaten against Liverpool on home soil.

For a trio of those – 1979/80, 1980/81 and 1981/82 – Wolves won all three.

Bearing in mind that during that three year spell Liverpool won two league titles, two League Cups and a European Cup, and it puts that particular home hat trick into perspective.

“For some reason we generally did well against Liverpool at Molineux,” recalls Wolves legendary striker and now club Vice-President John Richards.

“Whether it was the fact we were just able to pick up our game against them, we just seemed to get results.

“It was the same when we played against Manchester City, another good team, but also another who we really played well against.”

Richards obviously has fond memories of several of those Molineux meetings with the red half of Merseyside, notably scoring the only goal of the game in the League Cup quarter final enroute to Wembley success in 1974, and the same again in the league not long before the second cup success six years later.

On that occasion, in February 1980, his second half goal made for a particularly special night as the game was followed by Emlyn Hughes, much celebrated and decorated former Liverpool captain, being surprised by Eamonn Andrews to become the subject of This is Your Life, filmed in the Molineux gymnasium, shortly after full time.

“I’m sure John Barnwell (Wolves manager) and some of the club staff knew that was going to happen but none of the players had any idea but getting the win made the This is Your Life programme even better,” adds Richards.

That then brings it up to Tuesday, November 25th of 1980, by which time of course – only seven months earlier, Hughes had landed the only trophy missing during his Liverpool tenure by captaining Wolves to League Cup glory. It is perhaps ironic that after that Wolves success Liverpool would go on to exert a stranglehold on the competition by winning it four times in succession.

Wolves, though, had struggled to build on that League Cup triumph and sixth placed top-flight finish of 1979-80, still the most successful season in their recent history.

Preparing to welcome Liverpool under the floodlights, Barnwell’s men sat 17th in the table, three places but only two points above the relegation zone.

In contrast, the reigning champions checked in at Molineux in third place, having only lost won of their previous 18 league games of the campaign, and unbeaten in 20 in all competitions including several European Cup assignments enroute to overcoming Real Madrid to lift that particular trophy some six months later.

Wolves, without a win in four and having not scored a goal in three, were huge underdogs.

“We were having a dreadful time,” Richards recalls.

“After the previous season with all the euphoria of winning the League Cup, we’d had all sorts of problems at the start of the next campaign, including injuries, and we were really struggling for points.

“We weren’t any sort of reasonable run, quite the opposite, and I don’t think anyone expected anything of us that night, maybe a draw at the very best.

“We had a young and inexperienced team up against one of the best in Europe, so I am sure a lot of people were expecting the worst.”

Injuries to defensive linchpins Geoff Palmer and Derek Parkin meant Wolves were fielding a pair of 19-year-old full backs in John Humphrey and Mick Hollifield. Willie Carr’s absence in midfield had offered an opportunity for Dubliner Hugh Atkinson, who had just turned 20. Focal point of the team and club record signing Andy Gray was also sidelined, and another 19-year-old, Wayne Clarke, had been deputising impressively.

But on this occasion, and for this particular challenge, Barnwell opted for a more physical threat up front to act as a foil for Richards. And so Norman Bell was brought in for only his second start of the season. At 25, he wasn’t exactly the complete voice of experience, but he had a power and confidence that Barnwell hoped would cause Liverpool problems.

“I’d been frustrated to pick up a fair few injuries during my Wolves career, and we also had so many good strikers at that time,” says Bell.