How Wolves plunged to the lower leagues and nearly ceased to exist - Part 6: A season over early
In more detail than ever before, the Express & Star tells the full Bhatti brothers story - a troubled era which saw Wolves plunge to depths of the lower leagues and face financial oblivion. In Part 6, promoted Wolves make another bright start to the season but nagging doubts about the club's ownership and a series of abysmal performances on the pitch effectively ends their season after just seven games.
At 3.03pm on August 27, 1983, Geoff Palmer scored the fastest goal of the new season to give Wolves a 1-0 lead against champions Liverpool.
Admittedly, the goal came from the penalty spot, and Wolves ended up settling for a point after Ian Rush equalised early in the second half. But this was a powerful statement of intent by Graham Hawkins’s newly promoted Wolves.
“Ignore us at your peril,” wrote Express & Star man David Harrison.
“All those doubters, and I include myself among them, who prematurely dismissed Wolves as First Division strugglers were made to reconsider their forecasts on Saturday,” he said.
“Wolves matched one of Europe’s top teams not always in the department of pure skill, but with sheer courage and endeavour. Now they need fear no-one.”
Certainly, it was hard to imagine the change in atmosphere at Molineux in the 14 months since Dougan and the Allied Properties team had taken over Wolves.
