The Story of the Wolves – Part 46
THE building process at Wolves overseen by Major Frank Buckley (outlined in Part 45) continues this week in Cartoon 75.
Although his long-term influence at the club would not match that of Stan Cullis and Joe Gardiner, Tom Galley was a key player in the pre- and post-war years.
Cannock-born (4th August 1915) Galley served Wolves from April 1934 to 1947, making 204 appearances at halfback or as a forward (occupying six different positions during his career at the club), scoring 49 goals.
Tom made his debut on the opening day of the 1937-38 season (28th August) when Gordon Clayton scored a hat-trick in a 3-1 home win over Manchester City. He was captain of the Wolves team that won the 1942 Wartime League Cup by beating Sunderland, and a member of FA Cup team that lost 4-1 to Portsmouth
in 1939.
The Wartime Cup was won 6-3 on aggregate, with Wolves winning the second leg 4-1 at Molineux. The line-ups on 30th May 1942: All the Wolves players received war savings certificates instead of the traditional medals.
Wolverhampton Wanderers: Sidlow, Dowen, Taylor, Robinson, Galley, Dorsett, Broome (1), Mcintosh, Westcott (1), Rowley (Manchester United, 2), Mullen.
Hat-trick
Sunderland: Heywood, Gorman, Eves, Housam, Hewison, Hastings, Spuhler, Stubbins, Whitelum, Carter (1), Robinson. Attendance: 43,038. Receipts: £4,552.
Galley scored a hat-trick for Wolves in the FA Cup third round second leg 8-1 thrashing of Lovell’s Athletic on 9th January 1946, a match in which he showed his versatility by turning out at centre-forward. He played twice for England, in 6-0 and 4-0 wins over Norway and Sweden in a close season tour of Scandinavia in 1937. Tom scored against the latter on debut.
Tom later played for Grimsby Town, Kidderminster Harriers and Clacton Town, passing away on 12th July 2000 in Cannock.
Of the other four players pictured, only one had more than a passing relationship with the club. Cyril Spiers was a goalkeeper, born in Witton but whose services were secured from Tottenham Hotspur.
He only featured in eight games between 1933 and 1935 before retiring. The Molineux careers of George Beattie and George Goddard started in the 1933-34 season when they played 28 and 17 games respectively, scoring 9 and 13 times. Beattie, who hailed from Newhills, had signed from Aberdeen and netted 6 times in 16 starts in the following campaign before joining Blackburn Rovers.
As for Gomshall-born Goddard, snapped up from Brentford, he played just once more in 1934-35 prior to a move to
Sunderland.
As for Mark Crook, his playing record of 81 appearances and 16 goals between 1929 and 1934 masks the highly significant contribution he made to the success of Wolverhampton Wanderers in the post-war years. Crook left Swindon Town for Molineux and his first start came on 5th October 1929 in a 2-1 win over Bristol City. After a final appearance in the FA Cup 4th round defeat to Sheffield Wednesday on 26th January 1935 the winger joined Luton Town. But Crook, born in Morby in 1903, became famous for establishing the Wath nursery of footballing talent. In essence he developed
the first football academy, Cortonwood in the Yorkshire town of Wath, and, amongst others, discovered and brought to Wolves Ron Flowers, Peter Knowles, Alan Sunderland and Steve Daley.
Nursery sides
Mark retired from playing just after the war following a spell in the lower leagues and returned to Yorkshire to open a fish and chip shop. But he famously set up two nursery sides – Wolves Juniors for under 17s and Wath Wanderers, for older boys. In addition to the successes, it is reckoned that Wolves missed out on
Alan Ball and the Charlton brothers.
Stan Cullis was of the opinion that the young Alan Ball would not make it in the top flight and it is said that Bobby and Jackie were allegedly offered money to join Manchester United and Leeds United respectively, while Wolves refused to offer cash for them to sign for the club.
Crook spent thirty years as a Wolves scout, finally quitting the role when his health began to deteriorate in the mid-1970s.
He died in 1977 and with his passing the Wath school of excellence came to an end. But the legacy of Mark Crook must never be forgotten.