(Car) Park life made Gary Bellamy Wolves ready

“Training was very similar most weeks. We’d do some work on a Monday, running on a Tuesday, day off Wednesday, ‘man-to-man’ on a Thursday and then car park on a Friday. Sometimes lifting the cars out of the way to clear the ‘pitch’, and more and more supporters coming to watch week after week. It was a different world.”

De Bruyne and Haaland will of course be gracing a far more salubrious environment than the nooks, crannies and potholes of the old North Bank car park as Manchester City take on Manchester United in the FA Cup final at Wembley this weekend.

But, and no tittering in the corner, few cup finals at the national stadium could have been as eagerly acclaimed and hailed as a key turning point as that which rounded off the Sherpa Van Trophy, 36 years ago next week.

Wolves and Burnley, such historic footballing institutions, founder members of the Football League with a host of honours between them, had found themselves languishing in the Fourth Division.

In that 1987/88 season Wolves won the league, and Burnley finished 10th.

And in the cup competition open to the bottom two divisions of the league pyramid, the strength of both proud and loyal fanbases was in full effect as 80,841 flocked to the Twin Towers.

For Bellamy, at the end of his first full season at Molineux, it was soon clear what the match meant to both sets of supporters.

“Everyone was very relaxed as we got on the coach to make the journey to Wembley, and then I remember just thinking, ‘wow – look at all those fans’!” he recalls. “At the back of the coach we were standing up to get a better view of this sea of heads all the way to the stadium, with both sets of supporters mingling without any problems.

“Seeing the image of all of those fans was one of the first things I remember about the day and also one of the most memorable.”

For Wolves, and indeed Bellamy, it was a second visit to Wembley in successive months, having been part of the Centenary Classic tournament involving teams from different divisions, in which Wolves drew with reigning top-flight champions Everton thanks to a Robbie Dennison thunderbolt, before losing on penalties.

Bellamy missed his spot-kick during that shootout, albeit it was no disgrace to be thwarted by Neville Southall.

But a month later came redemption, with a typically-composed performance, not only in switching from right-back into the centre after injury to Ally Robertson, but also hammering a long-range free-kick from distance against the crossbar in the first half.

“I remember that free-kick but I don’t remember much of the match, apart from when watching it back on video,” says Bellamy. “But once you’re out there and in the zone and concentrating, it’s almost like you are playing a normal game and you try and shut everything else out.”

For Bellamy, that came quite naturally.

Although a defender who was happy to pile in with a robust tackle, or fly into an aerial challenge, his calmness and composure on the ball were such that he felt most at home on the ball in the centre of defence, including as sweeper – and captain – when Wolves returned to the Championship equivalent.

Perhaps that should come as no surprise, as the young and emerging Bellamy was one of those annoying types who was highly proficient in many different sports whilst growing up.

Worksop-born, he represented Nottinghamshire at cricket at under-15 level and was offered an opportunity to continue with the under-18s, was a junior professional at Austerfield Golf Club as well as playing for Chesterfield’s reserves at football at just 14.

An embarrassment of riches. And opportunities. Although not, ultimately, a difficult decision in terms of which path to take.

“In terms of the cricket, it was still the time when players had to get a job in the winter, golf was only ever a hobby and football was always the number one priority.”

Taken on by Chesterfield, Bellamy made an impressive start to his career, chalking up over a double century of appearances as the Spireites won the Division Four title, and attracting attention from the likes of

Brian Clough at Nottingham Forest and Billy Bremner at Leeds.

Bellamy was also close to joining Birmingham City only for the respective chairmen to prove unable to agree a deal, so when Graham Turner came calling at the start of the 1987/88 campaign, it was to head to a division a bit lower than the defender might otherwise have been anticipating.

An early-season injury didn’t help Bellamy in his bid to oust multiple player of the year holder Steve Stoutt, but ultimately, he won a regular place in the side, including for the decisive end-of-season run-in and those two Wembley appearances, as goals from Andy Mutch and Robbie Dennison secured a 2-0 win against Burnley in the Sherpa Van.

A second successive promotion then followed, during which Bellamy missed only three games, before hitting the second division, where an opening-day defeat at Middlesbrough wasn’t a sign for what was to come next, as Wolves adapted to finish 10th and the Teessiders only narrowly avoided relegation.

“We had a great blend in the squad at that time, of youth and experience and different personalities,” says Bellamy.

“And we were all what you might call normal people, all on very similar money, and with a nucleus over those two promotion years of about 15 players, and Graham, Barry Powell and Paul Darby as manager and coaches.

“We just got on a roll and something John Stones said recently about Manchester City reminded me of those days.

“He said he didn’t even know they were playing Arsenal the following week, and that was the same for us back then in that it didn’t matter who we were up against – they were always going to be more worried about us than we were about them.

“When I first arrived at Wolves, we were all very much aware how important it was to get things right, because if we didn’t, we could lose one of the biggest clubs in the country, one of the original founder clubs. But we did get it right, and it was thanks to a complete team effort.

“In that first season we not only got more points and scored more goals than anyone else, we also kept 28 clean sheets, a club record.

“And Wembley for the Sherpa Van – when I’ve been back for a couple of dinners, I have met fans who said that was the first Wolves game they had been to, and that they were hooked ever since.

“It probably helped bring back the Wolves fanbase and it’s been great to see how they have done in recent years.”

That magnificent May afternoon is the last time Wolves reached a cup final at Wembley, although they have since visited the ‘new’ version of the national stadium to win at Tottenham in the Premier League and agonisingly lose against Watford in the FA Cup semi-final.

Bellamy eventually moved on after five years at Molineux during which he had made 165 appearances and chipped in with nine goals.

His cause wasn’t helped by becoming the victim of a freak illness during a pre-season tour of Sweden, when he contracted Lyme Disease, a bacterial infection that is spread to humans by infected ticks.

“I think it was a gnat that had bitten me on the foot,” Bellamy explains. “I didn’t think much of it, but not long after we were in training and I was in the wall and was hit by a shot from Paul Birch.

“Within a short space of time my arm was completely bruised but I still didn’t put two and two together.

“I think when we got back there was a friendly against Shrewsbury and when a corner came in at the near post, I pulled out of going for it, which was very unlike me, and the other guy came in with a header. Well after that I had some blood tests and my platelet count was way lower than it should have been, meaning my blood wasn’t clotting properly.

“If I’d gone in for that header, and the other fella had headed me, I might have suffered a blood clot which could have killed me.

“Someone was certainly looking down on me that day!”

Bellamy did go on to make a full recovery, and, although never a regular at Wolves again, after a loan spell with Cardiff he spent several years with Leyton Orient where he was once again pretty much an ever-present.

From there he moved into non-league with Chelmsford City where at one point he was not only player-manager but also commercial manager, chief executive, community officer and development officer!

“I had quite a long business card in those days,” he laughs.

Bellamy helped a young team play some really good football, securing an opportunity to step up at Conference level with Dover Athletic, but after a defeat in the last round of FA Cup qualifying to a Hereford side under his former boss Turner, and with goalkeeping legend Southall lined up to come in and replace him, he was relieved of his duties.

Braintree Town was his next managerial port of call, but, once that came to an end, Bellamy decided to step away from working in football.

Initially he moved into the leisure industry, but has since spent many years working in social housing, still in the area in which he finally hung up his boots.

Now 61, he works for Eastlight Community Homes, testing fire alarms in accommodation which are mostly occupied by older people.

As for his own sporting prowess, the cricket is no more, having signed off around seven years ago by knocking 94 for a local council team against his own Little Waltham team on a Thursday night and then 114 for his own side on the Saturday. It couldn’t get any better than that.

He does, however, still enjoy a regular round of golf, and has recently returned from a trip to sample the courses of Morocco.

Whatever the venue and whatever the sport, and whether it was on a ramshackle car park at the back of the North Bank, or the snooker-like green baize of Wembley Stadium, Bellamy has always shown that he is – just as depicted the headline in the Worksop Guardian when he was just 15 – a ‘man for all seasons’.