It was a laugh a minute when Kendo was keeper
I was interested to read Dan Shaw’s recent article on the Black Country derby at The Hawthorns on 15th October 1989, remembered for being the first leg of a rare Wolves’ league double in the last thirty years.
Celebrating
Having contributed a Bugle article on the match back on 4th October 2017, I wanted to updates readers on changing fortunes since.
But most of all I have to take the opportunity to remember the one and only Mark Kendall (pictured celebrating at the end of the match) and his contribution to Wolverhampton Wanderers. Born on 20th September 1958 ‘Kendo’ had a colourful career in which he made over 500 club appearances, including spells with Tottenham Hotspur and Newport County to name two, as well as earning an Under-23 cap with Wales. 171 of these starts came in a Wolves career between 1986 and 1990.
Mark joined on loan from Newport and made his Molineux debut on New Year’s Day 1987 against Peterborough. It was a nightmare first start for the keeper as The Posh won 3-0. But the year would bring about a dramatic reversal in Wolves’ fortunes as Kendall missed only one game in a run that took them to an unsuccessful Division 4 Play-off final. He joined permanently for £20,000 on 24th January 1987, the season which saw the Wanderers win the league and Sherpa Van Trophy
double.
When Wolves beat Notts County on 19th April to progress to Wembley, Kendall reflected on a 24th clean sheet of the season and the contrast to his arrival: “What a turnaround from 16 months ago. We lost 3-0 at home to Peterborough on my debut and people were hammering on the dressing room window and calling for the manager’s head. Now the place is alive and buzzing. Most people are happy to go to Wembley once in a lifetime. To be going there twice in a few weeks is incredible, hopefully with the title thrown in.”
Promotion
A week later promotion was assured on the back of a 3-1 win at Mark’s old club, Newport, and on 2nd May Hartlepool were beaten 2-0 at Molineux
for Wolves to clinch the Division 4 title. The keeper’s 26th clean sheet of the season broke Noel George’s record of 25, set in the 1923-24 season, and he would go on to register 28 in total, the last one appropriately enough in the 2-0 Wembley win over Burnley on 29th May.
Jeopardy
The feat was in jeopardy for a while against Hartlepool though as he collided with a post in the process of making the save and had to be temporarily replaced by Floyd Streete. The Kendall family recall the clean sheet achievement with great pride and kindly showed me the trophy when I visited their Blackwood home some years ago. Mark’s son Lee commented:
“The clean sheet record still stands, achievements like that don’t come along every day. Dad was given a trophy to mark that feat.”
After the match Kendall could recall nothing of tipping a free kick against a post before being rendered unconscious: “I had waited 14 years for success like this, and when it came I couldn’t remember anything about it. Virtually the next thing I could remember was Steve Bull showing the trophy off to the fans. I think I also got hold of the trophy, but I might have been showing it to the Hartlepool supporters for all I knew!”
Kendall then had to have a medical but was fit enough to celebrate with a little ball juggling that had manager Graham Turner commenting: “If I had wanted somebody to perform that sort of trick, I would have bought a seal.
The next season Kendall played his 400th career league match, at Bristol Rovers’ Twerton Park on Boxing Day 1988 as Wolves stormed to a second successive promotion.
Penalty
As far as that game against the Albion in October 1989, the details were covered in Dan’s recent article but Mark’s penalty save from Bernard Mcnally was pivotal in setting up the opportunity for a win. Mark felt that he had outwitted Mcnally: “I think I psyched Bernard out a bit. I had seen on TV which way he had put his penalty against West Ham, and we talked about that before the game. But I still had to decide whether to go the same way and I think he knew what was going through my mind.”
Lee Kendall picks up the story: “The fans had all run down the terrace to celebrate thinking he’d scored, but then there was the reaction when Dad saved it. We were at the other end right up in the top corner, a brilliant day. When he walked to the car he was mobbed and passing cars were beeping.”
Last
Making 45 competitive starts it was to be his last season with Wolves. Saturday 5th May was his last match for the club as Wolves succumbed meekly 4-0 to
Lee Kendall recalls that his father was hugely disappointed to be released to join Swansea in May 1990, after 177 appearances for the club:
“Dad had a very successful three to four years at Wolves and he was disappointed when he didn’t get a new contract. They had brought Mike Stowell in on loan from Everton and he did quite well.”
Wife Gaynor vividly remembers the time: “It was a Sunday and we were having a big family BBQ. Graham Turner rang and asked to chat with Mark. We knew his contract was coming to an end, so we dropped the children off at school and drove in.
“We talked on the way about how long we thought he’d get. I
West Ham.
said, ‘You’ve done well, you’ll get two years’, to which Mark replied, ‘I’d be happy with a year’. Mark went in and I sat on the wall waiting. He came out and I could tell by his face what had happened before he said, ‘Free’. We really couldn’t believe it.”
He was taken to Swansea by Terry Yorath and the family moved back down to South Wales. He retired from professional football just two years later and became a police officer in the Gwent constabulary.
Through a happy coincidence I met Mark a couple of times in the noughties, as his daughter Lori became a colleague at Pershore High School. Typical of the man, he came up to coach some of our pupils and presented me with a shirt that he had worn during his heyday at Molineux. Sadly Mark died prematurely at just 49 years of age on May 1st 2008.
Mark’s funeral at St Theodore’s Church in Ynysddu was attended by numerous players and dignitaries from the South Wales Police force. Past colleagues included Ally Robertson, Nigel Vaughan, Andy Thompson, Robbie Dennison, Jon Purdie and Barry Powell. Thommo commented at the time:
Soul
“It was a desperately sad day but the turn-out showed how highly thought of he was by so many people. He was very much part of the life and soul of that Wolves team.”
As the church was overflowing, many had to rely on the service being broadcast outside, and I was privileged to be one of them listening in the warm sunshine of the churchyard.
I observed the poignant scene of a Newport fan attaching a scarf and goalkeeper’s jersey on the fence above us.
The three years that Mark spent in Wolverhampton with his family was very special, as Lee confirms: “Dad once said to me that Wolves was the club and time he enjoyed the most in his career. He had some great times there, we all did and the club played a massive part in our lives.
His son sums up another sometimes neglected contribution that Mark made to the cause; “He had a great ability to strike a dead ball. I don’t think some of Bully’s goals would have come without the old man’s goal kick, a flick on from Mutchy, and bang.”
Steve Bull recalled him fondly:
“Mark was a real character. He was deadly serious on the pitch but full of fun and laughter off it. He loved the rest of the lads and we all loved him. I don’t think I ever saw him fall out with anybody, he was a true gentleman.”
Graham Turner pays his own tribute: “He was a larger than life character. When we played in London, on one occasion each season the London branch of the supporters club booked a pub. We’d have something to eat and a few drinks with them.
“But trying to get Mark out of the place once he’d got hold of the mike was another matter. He started telling jokes and everyone was waiting to get on the coach back to Wolverhampton.
“He was just brilliant in the dressing room, a smashing man who always had a smile on his face. He made the odd mistake in goal but it didn’t seem to affect him too much. It was with great sadness that I heard the news of Mark’s death.”
The Kendall family also remember his affinity for seemingly everyone that he met:
“We went to a lot of Supporters Club meetings, one in Ludlow I remember when he got their Player of the Season, another in Daventry on a very windy and rainy evening. He had big aspirations of becoming an after dinner speaker, he was very, very funny, not to mention his dancing ability. As soon as he walked in, he lit up a room.
Touched
“He did a lot with disadvantaged kids and they always seemed to go for Mark. He was just that kind of guy. The day that Mark died, we had the Chief Police Officer of Gwent and a boy not long out of prison coming up with cards. He touched all kinds of different people and it was the same at the funeral.”
Bully comments further, “Mark used to get some real banter going with the crowd. They kept asking him to show them his backside, and he usually obliged.”
Let Lee have the last word, providing a reminder of the central importance of his father and team mates in the late 1980s that saw the phoenix rise from the flames:
“They are where they are now because of that side.”
Thanks for the memories Mark.