Wolves v West Brom: What the Black Country derby means to two of our writers

With 140 years of history behind it the Black Country derby is one of the fiercest, most passionate and most enthralling rivalries in English football - and it’s back this weekend.

Wolves and West Bromwich Albion have been playing each other since 1886, trading victories and fighting for some of the game’s biggest prizes; in 1954 they reached the pinnacle of English football, finishing first and second respectively in the First Division.

The Black Country rivals haven’t played each other since the bad-tempered FA Cup match in January 2024 and haven’t contested a league fixture since 2021 during lockdown, so since Wolves were relegated to the Championship last season, this match has loomed large in fans’ minds.

We’ve asked two of our writers with a personal stake in the derby to pen their thoughts on this Sunday’s game - and the years of build-up.

James Vukmirovic, Wolves fan

I've been a supporter of Wolves since my dad took myself and my brother to a game against Newcastle United in 1992. He thought it would be cold and boring and we'd never want to go back, but then we won 6-2 and it went from there.

I've always done my best to root for the club over the years and while I don't go to games, I still follow the results and roar my support when Wolves are on TV - and this game has been part of my supporting life for more than 30 years.

The first time I remember seeing the two teams clash was 1993 when West Brom hosted Wolves, having been promoted from Division Two the previous season, and despite Steve Bull scoring the opener to widespread derision at the Hawthorns, the Baggies won 3-2 that day and, in fact, did the double that season.

Since then, it’s been a real up-and-down experience watching the derby, from Iwan Roberts bagging three at the Hawthorns in 1996 to a clanger of an own goal by Keith Curle a year later - plus I think his penalty in 1999 may have just landed, such was the height over the bar it went.

There have been tougher moments, including in 2002 when, after being miles clear in Division One, Wolves contrived to finish behind West Brom and miss out on promotion to them. I was at university at the time and a Baggies fan took great pleasure in rubbing my face in it.

I’ve seen us beat them with big wins and also, in front of the television world in 2012, get smashed 5-1, with every goal a deflected one and Mick McCarthy shown the door soon afterwards as we plummeted out of the Premier League (not for the last time either).

While there is always going to be a rivalry between the teams, I personally don’t get the enmity and venom that often goes with it. I have plenty of friends who support West Brom and while there’s banter, that’s as far as it goes.

I just hope the game on Sunday goes without incident, is played with passion by the players and, at the end of the day, delivers a Wolves win - although West Brom have a decent side, so could be touch and go.

Rob Smith, West Brom fan

The life of any modern Albion supporter is tinged with heartache and cruel irony: the doldrums of Guochuan Lai’s ownership, taxi-gate, play-off despair and some bizarre managerial reigns including Pepe Mel, Alan Pardew, Valérien Ismaël and Eric Ramsay to name just a few - it’s enough to test the sanity of any football fan.

But despite the crushing lows over the years, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. No, my one and only regret as an Albion fan is that I started following the club a few months too late to witness the 5-1 win over Wolves in their own ground.

Why couldn’t I have seen the light earlier and been along for the ride on that glorious day in February 2012? Instead it was a relatively routine 2-0 victory over a struggling Southampton in November of that year that inexplicably got me hooked on football and on the Albion.

Sure, I got to enjoy the best of the Steve Clarke reign, with a young and hungry Romelu Lukaku plundering 17 league goals; Youssouf Mulumbu, Claudio Yacob, Chris Brunt and a certain James Morrison giving midfields across the land black eyes; and the man mountains Gareth McAuley and Jonas Olsson protecting a Ben Foster at the top of his game. The 2013 eighth-place finish remains a high water mark.

But it would have been all the sweeter had that season’s many unforgettable games (2-0 at Anfield, 2-1 over Chelsea, 5-5 with Manchester United to name a few) been joined by another glorious day out in Wolverhampton - though of course it would hardly have been a fair fight, such was the disarray Wolves found themselves in.

By then the traditional old rivals had already been consigned to the Championship following the humiliation at Molineux. And in fact, with Albion settling into an unprecedented period of Premier League stability and Wolves going through their own well-publicised struggles in the leagues below, the distance between the clubs allowed the hostility to cool a little - at least in my corner of Shropshire.

But it never went away, and while Aston Villa played the part of despised local rivals well enough for a few years, it was made clear to me that Wolves were the real nemeses.

Of course it took until 2021 for the clubs to find each other again - only by then a global pandemic had ensured no fans would be able to watch them play live. There’s that cruel irony I mentioned. A 3-2 win at Molineux with a brace from the penalty spot by that much-missed magician Matheus Pereira was still one to savour, even if only through the TV screen.

Sadly the less said about the 2024 FA Cup meeting the better: the result was obviously a travesty, but the scenes of chaos in the stands (and then on the pitch) were genuinely shocking to this 21st-century supporter watching on from home. Both clubs have been firm this week in warning supporters what awaits those intent on coming to the game to make trouble, and rightly so.

The aforementioned Morrison played in plenty of these derbies himself and was integral to the 5-1 win. Fourteen years later he has the chance to mastermind another victory - though I’d be over the moon with 1-0 this time around, now Wolves have the theoretical advantage given their more recent spell at the top table.

I had no hope of getting a ticket for Sunday’s match and don’t much fancy my chances for the home game in February either, but I’m determined to make it to a Black Country derby one day. It’s such an historic fixture, and one that West Brom have historically had the edge in - but we all know that means next to nothing when the whistle goes at midday on Sunday.