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How Frank Munro caught Wolves' eye

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In just a few weeks, club football will return as fans get a glimpse of their new-look teams when they contest pre-season friendlies.

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Non-league players will get to pit their wits against the professionals, while a host of teams from League One and Two have organised fixtures against elite sides from the Premier League and Championship.

For the vast majority of players, the games will be used to improve their fitness as they prepare for the 2016-17 campaign.

But as former Wolves favourite Frank Munro will testify, you never quite now where an impressive performance will lead.

During the summer of 1967 – having just retained their First Division status – Wolves jetted off to America to take part in a pre-season tournament.

After sweeping aside the opposition, they met Aberdeen in the final and beat the Scottish outfit to win the competition.

But it was Munro who stood out with the wing-half grabbing a hat-trick – which included two penalties – against Ronnie Allen's side.

Allen opened negotiations to sign the Scot and, six months later, the boss got his man after agreeing a £55,000 fee.

Now in the West Midlands, Munro's nous and aerial ability ensured he hit the ground running and he quickly formed a commanding defensive partnership alongside John Holsgrove.

In 1971, he helped the club win the Texaco Cup and then won his first of nine caps for Scotland. But much greater success was to follow.

In 1972, Munro starred as Wolves made it all the way through to the UEFA Cup final under the guidance of boss Bill McGarry.

The two-legged affair marked their first ever final of a UEFA football tournament.

But it was Spurs who went on to win the trophy after securing a 3-2 victory at Molineux in the first leg before holding Wolves to a 1-1 draw in the second.

Despite the disappointment, Munro responded emphatically with arguably his finest moment in gold and black coming two years later.

A Man of the Match performance at Wembley helped Wolves to a 2-1 win over Manchester City in the League Cup final, with Kenny Hibbitt and John Richards on target for McGarry's men.

Munro left Wolves three years later after Celtic agreed to pay £20,000 for his services. But he departed a firm fans' favourite, having appeared 371 times for the Molineux men.

That warmth of feeling again shone through in 2011 when Munro died aged 63. Fellow club icons Dave Wagstaffe and Phil Parkes were at his bed-side when he passed away.

And the pair, together with John Richards and Mike Bailey, helped carry his coffin into a memorial service at St Anthony's RC Church in Fordhouses, Wolverhampton.

It was a service that was also broadcast outside, with many proud Wolves fans turning up in shirts and scarves to pay their respects.

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