Express & Star

On this day: Wolves are beaten by Boro!

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Tonight all of our Football League teams in the region are in action bar Wolves - but that wasn't the case on 1 March 1980.

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We didn't want the Molineux faithful to feel left out on match-day, so let's take a trip down memory lane to the 1979-80 campaign.

Wolves hosted Middlesbrough that Saturday, ironically their next opponents away from home on Friday night, writes Craig Birch.

John Barnwell's top-flight Wolves would finish sixth that season and win their last major trophy, the League Cup, later on in the year.

Here, Barnwell's side were coming into play on the back of a 1-0 midweek home win over First Division league leaders Liverpool.

The ground had undergone a multi-million pound rebuilding of the Molineux Street Stand the previous year, which would come back to haunt them.

It proved to be the catalyst for the club's near-financial ruin during the next decade and they would later suffer three relegations in the 1980s.

Boro came and parked the bus to great effect and it started to pay off after just eight minutes, when David Hodgson looped him a shot with his right foot.

The visitors and Hodgson caught Wolves on the break again with just 14 minutes on the clock to make it 2-0, leaving them chasing the game.

Winger Mel Eves ran rings around the away defence to no avail, while injured midfielder Kenny Hibbitt made way for Wayne Clarke at the break.

The closest Wolves came to halving the deficit was when Alan Ramage nearly put through his own net, his glancing header coming off the underside of the bar.

Wolves were left in eighth place, as a result, with Boro behind them on goal difference having gained 32 points from 29 games played.