Dave Jones on Wolves' play-off glory and Prem disappointment

“I knew on the day we were going to win.’ Dave told me, as calm as you like.

“Before kick-off I had that warm glow that I hadn’t had since my Stockport days. If you look back at the video from that day, Sheffield United were on the pitch looking around the stadium, my lot didn’t want to do that.

“They didn’t even want to go down a few days before. They just came out of the tunnel on the day, no waving, looked straight ahead and remained focused. We would have beaten anyone that day.”

I marvelled at Dave’s confidence, but I didn’t feel that way as a supporter. Being a Wolves fan all my life I could always sense that disappointment was never too far away.

My analogy was that of a snake charmer. You always knew that a bite was coming and being 3-0 up at half-time still didn’t settle my nerves or of those supporters around me.

“I asked the players at half-time to make a choice,” Dave recalls. “Go out and entertain or shut up shop. Only one player wanted to entertain and that was Nathan Blake and he soon got shouted down by the lads. Then they got the penalty. They could have scored the penalty and we’d have just opened up, they couldn’t deal with us.”

The confidence that day was oozing.

I confided in Dave that even after Matt Murray’s magnificent penalty save that I was still on tenterhooks awaiting a comeback. Then Sir Jack put his thumbs up and told us we were up. I believed it then.

“A lot of people think that I never got on with Sir Jack but I did,” says Dave. “I had my arguments with him. When I arrived at the club he told me that I had to get rid of my Mercedes as it had to be British.”

The differences of opinion were football-related too. The main gripe being the lack of investment when Wolves finally did get promoted.

“I never got to ask him why he didn’t invest when we went up. I wanted a training ground at the time, he didn’t. The fight I had to even get portacabins as we had been getting changed at the nearby tennis and squash club at Newbridge.

“It cost us Martin Keown who drove straight past our training ground and signed for Leicester. Jez Moxey was aware of the problem and I could see his disappointment.

“We were already three weeks behind the two teams that had already got promoted because of the play-offs. I then went to London for a meeting with Sir Jack. I had lined up four or five players including David James and Trevor Sinclair.

“I was expecting £20-25million. When Sir Jack told me it was £3m, I should have got up and walked away.”

It was to be an arduous season for Dave and his budget squad who in reality were given no chance.

“There was disappointment from the players as they knew we needed help. Sir Jack asked me how much it would cost to win the Premier League? I told him he hadn’t got enough money so why don’t we just consolidate? He then asked how much to finish top half? When he said three million I said give it to me and I will use it at as confetti at my daughter’s wedding in the summer as that’s all it’s good for.”

Dave was up against it but he remained resolute and gave it his best shot despite being armed without any weaponry.