Express & Star

Dave Edwards: Reliving the old days with Shrewsbury and Wolves team mates was special

I absolutely loved rolling back the years at the Meadow on Sunday.

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There was so much work that went into making Sunday’s match happen, so much effort from so many, I was delighted everything went smoothly.

The thing I will take away with me and that I enjoyed most is the dressing rooms – both the Town and Wolves dressing rooms.

I look back at my time from the back end of my Wolves career, time at Reading and being back at Shrewsbury, the dressing rooms there are nothing like they used to be.

I realise they can’t be like they used to from a camaraderie perspective, football has evolved so much.

Even though it’s a team sport, modern-day football is much more of an individual sport too, with everyone so concerned about their own career, which is absolutely right and fair enough. Rolling back the years and reliving an afternoon as a group of players was so special. All the lads appreciated it.

Even Town lads from different eras, it just all clicked in the dressing room. Having all the banter fly around the dressing room immediately was great fun and it carried on to the pitch. Being in the blue and amber shirt was some of the fondest times of many of those lads’ careers.

Dave Jones and Karl Henry were brilliant for Wolves, it’s like they haven’t aged at all!

Wolves didn’t have as many players so I think they tired after the break. But there were some top Town performances in the 4-3 comeback win.

The stand-out one for glimpses of quality has to be Grant Holt! His goal was absolutely sublime, incredible, I don’t think there will be any goals at the Meadow better this year!

He also had a little Cruyff flick hit the bar in the first half, it looked over the line, but with no VAR play was waved on!

Mat Sadler and Gav Cowan were really comfortable all game at centre-half, both can still play. Scott Howie – maybe not as fit as he used to be but his distribution was very good. It’s probably because he can’t kick it very far!

There are still some very fit lads, Ben Herd, Ben Davies, Marc Pugh, I was lucky to have 20 players or so with Town, everyone contributed – and there will definitely be some sore legs early this week.

I was so humbled by the lads turning up to play. Ben Davies came from Grimsby, Scott Howie and Dave Timmins, the old goalie coach, came down from Scotland, Grant Holt from Carlisle, Ben Herd from Hertfordshire, first and foremost it shows how much they love the club.

It was also special to have Joe Hart down from north of the border. He said he’d bring his family down which was really nice, to have a family catch-up. He made a lot of fans’ days, he was great with pictures and autographs. I know how much he appreciates his time here. And he had to fly straight back up on Sunday night.

Jamie Tolley was lead joker and always has been. He’s a barrel of laughs. The captain’s armband was on Mat Sadler’s shirt and every time I went in it’d be on Tolley’s shirt. He was adamant he’d be skipper! Sam Aiston is such a big character too – but everyone was involved and welcome. It was very special.

Mickey Brown and Spinky were great as gaffers. Mickey loved it, suited up a million dollars, having a right go in the technical area.

It was a magical day I will always remember. Thank you so much to the fans who came, we raised loads of money for Little Rascals and Shrewsbury Town Foundation.