Former Wolves man Barry Powell reflects on golden memories either side of the pond

March of last year marked 50 years since he came off the bench to help Wolves over the line in the League Cup Final victory against Manchester City.

And, in more recent weeks, Powell has had the pleasure of heading Stateside, to Portland in Oregon, to look back on an incredible time in his life, and US football in general, back in 1975.

Powell, along with other former ‘Wolfs’ Peter Withe, Chris Dangerfield and Jimmy ‘Seamus’ Kelly, were back Across the Pond to reflect on a magnificent achievement shared during the first year of the Portland Timbers soccer team, when they won the Western Division of the North American Soccer League (NASL). Timberrr!

A team largely made up of British-based players, then registered knockout victories against arch-rivals Seattle Sounders and St Louis Stars before falling at the final hurdle, and a 2-0 defeat in the final at the hands of Tampa Bay Rowdies in San Jose.

It had been quite the journey however, metaphorically as well as literally, hence why the recent reunion was such a big event and one enjoyed by all who were present.

Albeit it was slightly hastily arranged to the extent that Powell had to rush through his VISA application to get the necessary authorisation barely 48 hours before the trip.

“That was a bit close for a few of us,” he says with a chuckle.

“From that team there were five lads who stayed out in Portland after that first year and five of us, including me, who came back.

“It was the five who stayed out there who were keen to mark the 50th anniversary and from there the club were great with all the arrangements.

“It turned into a fantastic trip.”

There was a strong Midlands connection in the group who went out to represent Portland in that very first season, including Peter Withe, who by that time had spent two years at Molineux, and would later score a European Cup final winner for Villa.

Tipton born Mick Hoban, also previously on Villa’s books, was the Timbers’ first ever signing and met Powell at the airport as he flew in.

There were plenty of special moments, including a cocktail party, dinner at Hoban’s home, Q&A session with the local fans, a tour of the Nike headquarters, and being paraded on the pitch during the Timbers’ 1-1 draw with San Jose Earthquakes.

Powell and company also took the opportunity to meet Timbers current boss Phil Neville – “a nice fella who is doing a very good job” – and got to hear about the multi-million pound expansion planned for their training facility.

“It was great to hear how well things are going for the club, and to bring back memories of that time when we were the very first team to represent them,” Powell explains.

“We literally had a week to prepare when we first linked up all those years ago, so it probably wasn’t a surprise that we lost our first couple of games.

“At the start we had about 6,000 fans watching – by the time we got to the semi-finals, played at our ground, we had 36,000.

“In the space of three or four months we had shown people what soccer – football – was all about!

“I still remember the game against Seattle as that was a proper rivalry, like Wolves against West Brom, and it was just great to have that experience of getting all the way to a cup final.”

If those two 50-year anniversaries are particularly memorable for Powell to have savoured, his place in Molineux folklore is also assured. And is a rare and impressive story.

A first playing stint having headed to Wolves straight from school then preceded a return at the other end of his career, although he’s one of several to have returned to the club for a second visit.

He also then turned into a coach during that second bite at the cherry, a path which his close pal and former team-mate Geoff Palmer when he helped out Brian Little during his own Molineux renaissance.

But Powell is one of the few to have registered a Wolves’ Wembley win as both player and coach, supporting Graham Turner and Paul Darby on an epic afternoon under the Twin Towers for the Sherpa Van Trophy success against Burnley in 1988.

Incredibly, that came almost 20 years after the Kenilworth-born midfielder first arrived at Wolves as an apprentice, although an apprentice who had big aspirations, and was very keen to learn.

When first joining, he recalls meeting John Richards and Kenny Hibbitt in the early weeks – what an education – before then living with Richards and landlady Mrs Eagle, whose son Tony is a well-known Wolves cartoonist, particularly famed for his contributions to the A Load of Bull fanzine.

Youth and reserve players and trialists always used to get changed in the away dressing room at Molineux before training, with the first team occupying the home.  Powell, however, liked to push the boundaries.

“Having already met two first team players and great people in John and Kenny, I was enjoying myself so much I used to venture up to the home dressing room,” he explains.

“The number of times I heard, ‘Powell, get out of there’ – it became a regular occurrence.

“The Doog (Derek Dougan), Micky Bailey, Frank Munro, Dave Wagstaffe – all those other incredible players as well, I just wanted to be around them and try and learn from them.”

Learn from them he did.  So much so that, at the age of 19, Powell landed his first team debut.

Being told his name was included in the first team squad pinned on the dressing room wall ahead of a London double-header at Chelsea and Crystal Palace was quite a moment.  

Even then, he thought he was travelling merely for experience, and to help with the boots and kit, and that was the case at Stamford Bridge, where goals from Dougan and Richards secured a 2-0 win.

That evening, as the team went out to celebrate ahead of taking on Palace four days later, Powell passed the first of many serious tests posed by boss Bill McGarry.

“’Where the hell do you think you’re going,’ the boss asked, sat at the front of the hotel, as I headed out with the lads,” Powell reveals

“Make sure you are back by 12, otherwise you’ll be going home.”

Powell managed to make his excuses with the players and return before midnight, to find McGarry, sitting there, waiting up for him.

“’Well done Babs’, he said.  Babs was what he used to call me.  And then I went off to bed.”

And then, at Selhurst Park, Powell came off the bench for his debut, followed up with his first start, in a Black Country derby against West Bromwich Albion at Molineux.

“Within ten minutes of that game starting, one of the lads went down injured and was having treatment from the physio, and then I was down as I got a split lip from an elbow.

“Guess who had to come and treat me, washing me down and handing me a towel…the Doog!”

Powell enjoyed a consistent run in the team at the end of that 1972/73 season, and similarly the following campaign, including having started six of the seven League Cup ties that had taken Wolves to Wembley.

But he picked up an injury a month or so before the final, and played in a reserve game in the week leading up to prove his fitness, the same fixture in which keeper Phil Parkes appeared despite a broken ankle, to throw City off the scent as to who would play in goal.

That meant Powell travelled down to their Worthing base after the squad, sharing transport with McGarry and Alan Williams from the Daily Express, turning the tables on the journalist when he got a chance to quiz him about his chances of making the team.

“All he could tell me was that Bill had said I wasn’t coming down just for the trip,” Powell recalls.

So it was that he was named as twelfth man on the day, coming on for the injured Wagstaffe just minutes before Richards struck the history-defining winning goal.

“We had been struggling in that second half after City had got on top, but managed to keep them at bay before John stepped up,” says Powell.

“Going to Wembley, walking out at Wembley, listening to the crowd and all the songs they were singing – that was absolutely fantastic and easily the biggest thing I had experienced.”

Powell was a regular for much of the following campaign before, towards its conclusion, asking McGarry if he could follow in the footsteps of several of his team-mates of the time by spending the summer playing in America, and the Portland experience.

McGarry’s initial response was cursory.  Made up of two words.  The second one being ‘off’.  But he then sent assistant Sammy Chung to bring Powell back when he told him it could be a good experience, to ‘help him grow up’.

That was what led to his American adventure, but was also the end of his first spell at Wolves, moving on to amass substantial appearances at Coventry and Derby before another summer in Portland in 1981.

Powell’s travels continued with spells in Hong Kong with Bulova and South China, either side of short stays with Burnley and Swansea, before perfectly bookmarking his playing days with the return to Molineux.

Initially he contacted Little and was given a fortnight’s trial to impress, during which time the manager was relieved of his duties and Turner appointed instead.

A friendly was arranged, and Powell impressed, but told there was no contract available, headed off by invitation to Hong Kong to feature in a very different friendly against a Manchester United team including Bryan Robson and Ray Wilkins.

In the meantime, Wolves lost at Chorley in the FA Cup, and Turner had a change of heart, deciding that Powell’s experience, calming influence and ability on the ball was just what was needed amid the muck and nettles of a Fourth Division rebuild.

He made 16 appearances as the Steve Bull revival gathered pace, but, after missing out in the play-offs, he departed once again.

Only to receive another call from Turner a few weeks later who, having lost his assistant Garry Pendrey to the manager’s job at Birmingham City, was on the hunt for a coach.

“I’d done a few courses but never really done any coaching, but I was never going to turn it down,” Powell reflects.

He became the youth coach, as well as first team, often taking the youth team on a Saturday morning before linking up with the seniors in the afternoon.

Speak to any young player under his tutelage and they will respond in glowing terms.   Wolves reached the quarter finals of the FA Youth Cup and a defeat at Tottenham, and all felt their games improved. They even dragged Powell out on a night out shortly before Covid.

And of course, alongside a couple more playing appearances – his last the 5-1 FA Cup win against Cheltenham in which Bull notched a hat trick – there was the Wembley win which provided such a perfect top and tail to Powell’s Wolves careers.

But in his working life, there was so much more to come.

Powell headed back to another former haunt, Coventry City, to set up their Football in the Community scheme where he spent a very happy ten years.

He then tried his luck in management, taking Aberystwyth Town into Europa in the Intertoto Cup and, after first serving as assistant to Hibbitt at Hednesford Town, later returning in the number one job to guide the Pitmen to a memorable FA Trophy success, defeating Canvey Island 3-2 in the final at Villa Park.   How Powell loves a cup final!

His was a CV perhaps deserving of a managerial tilt at higher level, but unfortunately it never came.

And he has never been shy of hard graft, even if away from the game of football which he graced in many different ways for so many different years.

Having previously worked as a coach and teacher at a school, Powell then embarked on a complete shift with a stint as a Clinical Support Worker at Warwick Hospital, a role involving carrying out observations on patients, taking blood pressure and temperature readings and applying and changing dressings. And plenty of 12-hour shifts!

“That was a job I really enjoyed, and was also very rewarding,” he recalls.

Now, at 71, very happily settled in Balsall Common not far from his Kenilworth roots, Powell is still in close touch with many of his former Wolves team-mates, the ties developed at Molineux half a century ago still proving as golden as the anniversaries which have adorned the last two years.

That team of the Seventies remain a strong Band of Brothers, and have rallied around in recent weeks to support Parkes (Lofty) after his serious accident, and to attend the funeral of Gary Pierce. 

Friendships forged in football, which have endured well beyond.

“We’re all still good mates, just as we were then, and I think that’s so important for any team to be successful,” Powell concludes.

“That was what we had at Portland as well, having come together just a week before the season started.

“Team spirit is so important, and I will never forget the end of that League Cup Final, when Lofty, who was injured, was straight on the pitch to congratulate Gary, who was his replacement.

“I made so many great friends at Wolves, and it’s always special when we meet up and relive all those memories and experiences that we shared.”