Magic memories for a Wolves hero

This Monday marks 30 long years since Wolves last won a major trophy but for Willie Carr the memory's the best day of his football career remain.

Willie Carr was always determined to remember the 1980 League Cup final.

And by having the match of his life in the season of his career as Wolves beat the then European champions Nottingham Forest 1-0 at Wembley, he didn't disappoint.

Five years to the day since he made his Wolves debut in a 7-1 win over Chelsea, the flame-haired Scotland international was instrumental in shackling John McGovern, Martin O'Neill and Ian Bowyer to bring home the cup.

"I'd never played at Wembley or in a cup final, and at 30, I was beginning to think it would pass me by," said Carr, who at 60, became a grandfather for the second time with the birth of Evie on February 23.

"I thought that maybe I wouldn't get the chance to play in a cup final in my career, and I tried to make the most of it.

"I always remember Geoff Palmer saying when he was 19, he couldn't remember much about the 1974 final, so at 30, I wanted to remember everything."

Flame-haired Carr was always known for his composure and on the field, as he proved 13 months later when he netted the last-gasp penalty to win Wolves an FA Cup semi-final replay.

And his cool demeanour was to prove handy amid the stress and nerves of a final.

"The thing that got me about Wembley was the huge blast of noise when you come out of the tunnel, and the other was the whole ground seemed full of gold and black," he said.

"Coming out of the tunnel, you're looking to see your family, but once you've spotted them, all we wanted to do was win the game."

Winning the game may have seemed unlikely against Forest, who were then one of the major powers in the land under Clough at his best.

But despite being underdogs, Wolves had big-name players such as Emlyn Hughes, Andy Gray and John Richards and Carr always believed they could pull off their second Wembley triumph in six years.

"Forest were going for their third League Cup win in a row and they were European champions, so they were the big favourites," he said.

"But if you looked at them as individuals, they didn't seem that daunting.

"It wasn't until Brian Clough got hold of them and got them into a way of playing that they had all that success, so I was never in awe of them.

"John Barnwell had a plan to beat them: he moved Kenny Hibbitt inside alongside me and moved Peter Daniel out wide to combat John Robertson because Pete was very quick, and it more or less went to plan.

"The goal was a bit lucky, but I could see it happening as it unfolded – as could Andy Gray.

"Pete hit a long ball for Andy and Peter Shilton and David Needham were both ball-watching instead of looking for each other.

"In the last 20 minutes we came under pressure but that was always going to happen because they were chasing the game."

The success may have been wild scenes of jubilation among the fans, but as Carr reveals, there was a low key element to the players' celebrations.

"They took us back to the Mount Hotel which was OK – I think 'Barney' did a deal to keep us there because we had the open-top bus tour the following day, but I think we'd have preferred to stay in London, to continue the night," he said.

"The final had been a cold day and the heating on the wives' coach broke down, and then when we got back to the Mount, we came down for dinner and there wasn't room for all of us at the table.

"I think myself and Geoff Palmer closed the bar that night into the early hours after seeing off the three-piece band!"