‘In Hungary there was always somebody watching you’
CLIVE CORBETT looks back on Wolves’ UEFA Cup exploits of fifty years ago this month, when they found themselves in Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe ...
April 1972
WOLVES learned that the UEFA Cup semi-final draw had paired them with Ferencvaros of Hungary, with the first leg in Budapest on April 5th.
Four days earlier Jim Mccalliog marked the event with the opening of his Wolves Service Station on the Penn Road, offering eight pence off four gallons of petrol for the first few weeks. The opening honours were done by Miss ATV 1972.
But on this same day Wolves yielded their unbeaten home record of nine wins and seven draws. It came against Leicester
City as a dominant home showing was undermined by a great display by Peter Shilton. Although the home side were wasteful with their chances, the England keeper twice denied John Richards and a minute into the second half brought off a stunning save from a Danny Hegan drive.
Frantic
Derek Dougan then got the ball into the Leicester net from a Mccalliog pass, the effort was ruled out for offside. Against the run of play the Foxes went 1-0 up on 72 minutes when Bernard Shaw put the ball into his own net from a Keith Weller centre. For all of Wolves’ frantic efforts in the last quarter, the proud home record was gone.
The scheduled Easter Monday and Tuesday matches against Chelsea and Nottingham Forest were postponed to accommodate Wolves’ trip to the Hungarian capital. In the build-up to the game in Hungary Mike Bailey’s understudy Danny Hegan asked to be taken off the transfer list on which he had placed himself in November, but hardy supporters were prevented from travelling by a smallpox epidemic. With the exception of the missing captain and Derek Parkin, Wolves were at full strength for the tie in the cavernous Nep Stadium against a Ferencvaros team that included Hungary’s 1966 World Cup star, Florian Albert.
Goalkeeper Phil Parkes reflects the unease of the Iron Curtain experience: “In Hungary they followed you everywhere. You always felt there was somebody watching you.”
Beautiful
The match kicked off at 5.30 pm as the sun began to sink low in the sky on a beautiful afternoon in the Hungarian capital. Local feeling was that Wolves would get a draw just as they had in Turin. The hosts, who stood third in their league, had played badly in a 1-1 draw the previous weekend.
Derek Dougan was searching for the goal that would see him become the first English club player to get ten in European competition in one season, but it was John Richards who put the Wanderers ahead after 19 minutes with a goal created by Mccalliog and Dougan.
The latter had cleverly drawn defenders away before back heeling to Richards, who ran on to fire home. The response of the Ferencvaros team was emphatic as they surged back into the game with two goals in eight minutes. With half an hour gone Istvan Szoke converted a spot kick awarded for hands against Bernard Shaw. Soon afterwards Albert put the Hungarians ahead, sweeping the ball home classily past Phil Parkes.
In between the home goals Richards spurned a good opening when he shot straight at Bela Voros.
Things remained close until fifteen minutes from time when Shaw conceded another penalty, but this time Parkes saved Szoke’s effort with his left foot. As ‘Lofty’ recalls: “He sent me the wrong way with his first kick, so this time I decided to wait. But again I went the wrong way and just managed to get my foot to the ball.”
The save enabled Frank Munro to head in a precious equaliser from a Dave Wagstaffe corner, as time ebbed away. Wolves were not satisfied with a draw as Ken Hibbitt and Mccalliog both had efforts that narrowly failed to result in further goals for a visiting team that had almost three times the number of efforts on goal than their hosts. However, with two vital away goals under their belt Wolves’ day was spoilt only by cautions (green cards in those days) for Shaw and Wagstaffe (on his 29th birthday) that made them unavailable for the second leg.
In browsing through my scrapbooks, I was reminded of how things have changed over time. Nowadays, in the unlikely event of the match not being shown live on one outlet or another, we can rely on up-to-the minute score flashes on Sky Sports or via websites such as the BBC. Back in 1972 it came via the Express & Star, which appeared at about 7.30pm (two hours after kick-off) in the centre of Wolverhampton. The advertisement for ‘Tonight’s Soccer Special’ ran: “A report of Wolves’ UEFA Cup semifinal with Ferencvaros in Budapest tonight will be on sale tonight … A more detailed report by will appear in tomorrow night’s editions.”
Fans were prevented from travelling to Hungary by a small pox epidemic