The quiet voice in Wolves' success

There is one man with over a decade's service with Wolves who would probably get an equal reception from Portsmouth fans at Fratton Park on Saturday.

Fans once lampooned him as 'Clipboard' but manager Mick McCarthy reckons his appointment is his best decision yet in the Molineux hotseat.

With 11 years' at the club, one-time Pompey striker Terry Connor is the only one of the backroom staff to survive the regimes from Colin Lee to Dave Jones to Glenn Hoddle and now Mick McCarthy.

From youth team coach under Lee and John Ward to reserve team manager then first team coach under Dave Jones to finally assistant manager to McCarthy, it has been a long road to public recognition for the former Leeds, Brighton and Swansea striker.

The 47-year-old, now coaching in the top flight once graced as a player with Leeds and Portsmouth, remains largely a man of mystery to the Molineux masses.

Little more is known of the Sutton Coldfield-based father of three grown-up children, other than his online Wikipedia where West Midlands connections include scoring the only goal on his debut for Leeds at 17 to beat Albion and later being signed by former Wolves forward Jimmy Melia for Brighton.

Having politely turned down interviews throughout his time at the club, it's not easy to coat many more layers to Connor, who would be as shy in front of the notebooks and cameras as he is as ebullient, enthusiastic and methodical in a tracksuit.

The modest but jolly Yorkshireman's only concession around the time of his anniversary of his decade's service was that he would grant that interview if he gets to 20 years!

The first insight into perhaps why Connor has lasted so long came on on Wolves' pre-season training camp near the southern Spanish town of Jerez in 2003.

Not much older than players such as Paul Ince and Denis Irwin at the time in a dressing room no-nonsense Paul Butler once described as "like something out of the Wild West," Connor would have found his influence and relationship very different to the one with the "young and hungry" brigade seven years on.

But in the burning heat of the Spanish sun, the unmistakably bubbly West Yorkshire tones of someone enjoying himself could be heard as the backroom staff took potshots at goalkeeping coach Bobby Mimms after training, while carrying out various impersonations of Leeds strikers of various vintages.

It was hilarious, but his infectiousness was as penetrating as his burning passion for the job when the time for laughing stopped.

Seven years on, it's something not lost on McCarthy - or his players, who equally praise him persistently and rightly so.

It cannot have been easy to transform a team that had stuck fairly rigidly to 4-4-2 over the previous three and a half seasons halfway through a Premier League campaign to suddenly play 4-5-1 and convince a group of hitherto untried players at this level that it would work.

But the manager and Connor managed it so, to his credit, the manager has always been the first to acknowledge the contribution of his assistant.

There can be no finer tribute than to compare him to his trusted lieutenant Ian 'Taff' Evans, now Wolves' European scout.

McCarthy said: "No one could replace Taff because he's been my mate for 25 years, but the nicest thing I can say about Terry is that I can't see the joint where my right arm went and Terry came in, except I've still got Taff as well, so I'm very fortunate.

"When he had players such as Nathan Blake, Paul Ince and other older players, no doubt he'll have done his job just as diligently and as well, but I think he'll have got a far better response from this group as a young, first-team coach than he would have done from them.

"They're willing to learn and he's hugely experienced. When Taff said to me he wanted to pack in because of his hip – he said 'have you got anyone in mind?'

"I said I hadn't, but I knew who I'd got and I said Terry Connor will be the coach, and then he became assistant manager. Of all the decisions, choice or recruitments I've made, that's probably been the best I've ever made in my career.

"Losing someone like Taff, but getting Terry Connor? It didn't get any better. He's very thorough, very professional, very methodical in what he does and there are some things he can supplement me with and vice versa.

"But that's nice to be able to fill in the gaps with each other. He's an excellent coach who loves working with the players.

"Before and after training, he's the one who loves to get on the training pitches and work with the players.

"He's a very, very good coach and knows the game and knows this club."

McCarthy revealed he has acted on serious interest in Connor in the past to keep him at Wolves.

The manager said: "There's been interest in him as well from elsewhere, so I was always keen to resist that and keep him from going before I made him assistant manager in 2008.

"I made sure that departure didn't happen, because I wanted him to stay and he's a terrific first-team coach."

Players too, relish Connor's input, as midfielder David Edwards describes life under the Wolves assistant boss.

The Wales international said: "It's not a case of him saying 'right, I want you to do this.' It's a case of 'do you want to do this? Do you want some extra?' and he'll put on the sessions to coincide with that.

"He'll do it as long as it's OK with you and so the lads are so eager to do well, they're more than happy to do these sessions. He puts on some fun and exciting sessions at the end of training as well and it's enjoyable. It's nice to see your game improving.

"It's great to be a player in that environment – the coaches are so desperate for us to do well. They want to stay out and train longer with us, so it's brilliant for people of my age who are developing.

"Most of us are in that age range where we want to improve so when you've got TC and the gaffer working so hard, it's a nice environment to be in."