30 years ago: Wolves sign Andy Mutch

The Scouser netted 96 times in 289 league games over a seven-year spell at the club after joining Wolves on 22 February 1986,

The popular forward, who was inducted into Wolves' Hall of Fame in 2013, is best remembered for a goal-laden partnership up front with club legend Steve Bull.

But there was no sign of 'Bully' when Mutch rocked up at Molineux to come on board, after a £5,000 fee had been agreed with non-league Southport.

Coming into a club that had won all of England's major honours came at a time when Wolves were heading towards their lowest ebb - relegation into the bottom tier of the Football League.

Becoming a full-time footballer in the process was all weighing heavily on Mutch as he drove down the M62 to put pen to paper, landing elsewhere initially after a mishap!

He said: "My mind was just racing about what was ahead of me and Manchester was not the place I needed to be on this particular day!

"I'd missed the turn off for Wolverhampton and had to re-route, so I turned up about an hour late to sign. It wasn't the best start to my career at Wolves."

Mutch's dream of making the game his living had come true, though, having fell out of the professional ranks after starting out with Everton.

Wolves boss Sammy Chapman spotted him and paid a small fee to take him from the Sandgrounders, where he'd made his senior debut.

Mutch said: "I was a schoolboy at Everton, at a time when the club was very successful. It didn't work but, when I was 18, they asked me to come back. I played 18 games for the reserve team.

"I left again and went to Southport, who were part-time and in the Northern Premier League, and got a day job delivering fridges.

"We'd played at Kidderminster Harriers in the FA Trophy, it was a replay after we'd drew 1-1 at our place. We lost 6-1 there, but I got the goal!

"Sammy was the Wolves manager, at the time, and was there watching the game. I'd scored lots of goals for Southport, so it wasn't a surprise that someone had come in for me.

"What I was actually getting paid when I went to Wolves was buttons. It was probably less than I earned playing football and working.

"But Wolves were a club that was synonymous to me. I used to watch 'Kick Off' with Gerald Sinstadt as a kid and they were always on television."

It was, by no means, an easy time to be a Wolves player with the club heading for relegation from the old Third Division under the disastrous ownership of the Bhatti brothers.

Wolves went through three managers in his first year, but settled on Graham Turner in the October who would lead them to two promotions.

One of his first acts was to sign Bull and Andy Thompson from Albion in a double deal, with Bully and Mutch spearheading the rise through the divisions.

Mutch also scored the first goal, with Robbie Dennison getting the second, at Wembley as Wolves beat Burnley 2-0 in the 1988 Sherpa Van Trophy final.

He said: "I wanted to do my best when I got to Wolves so I moved in with an old couple, Edna and Fred, in Aldersley. I was there until the end of the first season, then I got my own place.

"We'd train anywhere we could, there was so many places I couldn't start to tell you. The ground was falling to bits. The club was not in a good place.

"The team was pretty much done and dusted when I turned up, they were going down to Division Four and that was that. It was tough for a young player coming in, it was a real learning curve.

"Sammy may have been the manager but he always felt like a caretaker, looking after the players while the club were in dire straits. No disrespect to him, but he'd been the chief scout.

"Brian Little took over for a short time, but there was obviously a bigger picture. We were fifth in the league and had just won twice when he got the sack.

"Graham Turner came in the October and brought a new type of professionalism into the club. He was a stickler for detail, there was no shirking in what he asked you to do.

"He always knew how to get the best out of me. I always rated him as the best manager I've ever played under."

Turner spent seven-and-a-half years at the helm before making way for Graham Taylor in 1994 and sold Mutch the year before his departure.

Premier League new-boys Swindon Town came calling for a £250,000 move in August 1993, meaning Mutch played in the new entity of the top-flight during his career and, ultimately, Bully didn't.

He would go on to play for Wigan Athletic and Stockport County before dropping back into non-league with Barrow,, then returning to Southport for a short spell.

He hung up his boots working as a coach for the old Telford United and later managed Vauxhall Motors, Burscough, Northwich Victoria and Stafford Rangers.

The 52-year-old said: "I never wanted to leave Wolves, but I got the feeling from the club that they thought it was time for me to move on.

"I went to Swindon and played in the Premier League, but it was very different to being at Wolves. The fans were good, but it wasn't the same.

"You'd have something like 10,000 supporters at home and around 800 away. There was always more with Wolves and they were very noisy.

"I had the time of my life with Wolves, nothing else ever came close. It was a great ride to be on and they were on their way back to where they should be by the time I was gone."

Mutch was talking at 'An Audience With' him and Bully at Wolverhampton's Cleveland Arms Sports Pub on Stowheath Lane.