When we beat Juventus, it felt like the club had come of age
Part Two of CLIVE CORBETT’S look back at Wolves’ UEFA CUP run of fifty years ago. This week, the home leg ...
THE unfinished European business was attended to on the evening of 22nd March when the Express & Star welcomed the Italians with the headline ‘Piacere Juventus!’
Having fielded their best available team in Turin, Juve, surprising all but former player John chose to
Charles, rest Causio, Anastasi, Capello
Furino
and to keep them fresh for a key league game against secondplaced local rivals Torino. Not that this particularly offended most in the first 40,000-plus Molineux crowd of the season.
On 34 minutes Hegan chipped a perfect shot that dipped at the last minute just inside Piloni’s near post to put Wolves ahead, capping a fine allround display by the mercurial Scotland-born Northern Ireland international.
Defender also remembered an instance of Danny Hegan’s humour during the match: “Danny had tremendous ability but was also so funny, the funniest bloke I ever met. During the match he kept looking in the pocket of his shorts and saying to
‘Helmut, do you fancy a drink?’”
Helmut Haller, Danny Frank Munro
Soon after Hegan’s goal, French referee Michel Kitabdjian booked Dave Wagstaffe, later adding John Mcalle and Silvio Longobucco (Waggy’s marker). Wolves’ number 11 recalled losing his patience with the disgraceful treatment being meted out by Longobucco: “I came in for quite a few body checks and shirt-pulling during the game and afterwards my body was a mass of bruises and scratches. Italians always had lots of tricks, you expected it.”
Steve Daley remembers the manager’s warning: “It was just the way they were. Bill Mcgarry told us that it was going to happen so we had to get used to the fact, just get on with it. He told us: ‘Don’t retaliate, they only want to antagonise you and make you come back at them and do something to get you booked or sent off and miss the next match.’”
Nearly ten minutes into the second half, Wolves doubled their lead as Derek Dougan deftly flicked home a header from a right wing Wagstaffe corner. This equalled the record of nine European goals in a season by a British player that then rested with Manchester United pair Dennis Viollet and Denis Law.
Penalty
But in a rare second half Juventus attack with six minutes left Frank Munro handled the ball to present Helmut Haller with a penalty that he duly converted. Suddenly the 1966 West German World Cup star was looking capable of singlehandedly turning the tie, as Mike Bailey recalls:
“I had seen Haller several times before and had not been terribly impressed, but at Molineux he put on a one-man show with his marvellous skills.”
There was an unhappy sequel for Haller. He was traced in the early hours after the match, drinking in a Wolverhampton night club. With the game against city rivals Torino due at the weekend, Juventus were furious. They cut his pay and suspended him until further notice.
Home fans were indeed forced to endure a tortuous last six minutes, but Wolves hung on. Bill Mcgarry commented: “We did our real work in the away leg and would
only have had ourselves to blame had we made a mess of the home match.”
In the final analysis it was Hegan who earned the praise of colleague Wagstaffe: “If anyone thinks the goal he scored was a fluke I can tell you different because I have seen him do the same in training many times. Yes Danny is back in the big time where he belongs.”
And so the European dream continued as Wolves progressed to a semi-final encounter with Ferencvaros of Hungary.
Some player memories of the games against Juve ...
Jim Mccalliog:
“There were loads of memorable games with Wolves in the early seventies, but there was so much happening around that Juventus game. When I went to Leeds United at 15 years of age (1962) I knew that John Charles was coming back. He was re-signed from Juve for £53,000. I remember the day when John returned – he was maybe 31 then – the place was mobbed and the next thing we were out training. Big John came out in
an all-white strip, 6 feet 2 and really tanned from all his years in Italy. He was such a god.
“Then comes ten years later with Wolves Bill Mcgarry invited him to come with us to Turin. He told nobody but when we arrived at the airport Big John was there, quite amazing. I spoke to him: ‘You won’t remember me, John, I was 15 and on the ground staff at Leeds United, I’d just come down from Scotland.’
“He replied: ‘I do remember you, Jimmy, and well done, your career has gone very well.’ I think that was probably one of the biggest compliments I have ever had.
Strong
“Juventus then had a very strong team including the then world-record signing, Pietro Anastasi, 440 grand’s worth. Also in the team were Capello, Haller and Causio. There had been some big teams in the competition that year – Ferencvaros, Real Madrid, Rapid Bucharest, Spurs, Spartak Moscow, AC Milan. When the quarter-final draw was made we knew what a game this was going to be for us but we were better playing away from home in the first leg and having the decider at our place.
“In Turin we stayed up in the hills. Mcgarry was always very careful where we stayed – he really controlled
everything, even the food we ate and what we had to drink. He knew his football and nobody would kid him.
“Then there was the game. The teams are out on the pitch and out comes Bill Mcgarry with John Charles. The place went ballistic with everyone singing ‘Charlo, Charlo.’ It was amazing to see Big John walking down the touchline, waving to the Juventus fans – that was a good thing for us. We were playing very well, everything was going fine but just before halftime they scored, but we fought back.
“When I got my goal it was from one of those things that I had done throughout my time at Wolves. Whenever the ball went into the box for the Doog or or young I would try to read where it would bounce, inside or outside the box.
“This time it came outside the box and I hit it on the volley with my left foot. I never even looked, I knew it was on its way. I started running to the side where I thought the Wolves fans were and I was waving my hands to them. I never even saw it hit the net – you know if it’s gone, it’s gone. I hit it sweetly and the first glimpse of the way it had gone told me.
“I thought, there’s no way he’s getting that, it’s good. It was a lovely
Hughie Curran John Richards
moment for myself. I was a big fan of Italian football because many of the best players in the world then were out there. More especially it was a great moment for the team. With Micky not playing I was captain. I felt that I’d got on with my own game and lent a bit more to the team, setting a good example that way. The ball’s in the back of the net, we’ve got a result, one each, it was fantastic.
John Mcalle:
“We played all of the UEFA Cup games under floodlights. I enjoyed all of them but particularly the Juventus games, home and away. The floodlights seemed to make it more focused and created a great atmosphere.”
Phil Parkes:
(The Italians did not take the outcome well, with Parkes facing the full fury of future Real Madrid and England boss Fabio Capello ...)
Spat
“Gerry Taylor played it back to me and I came out to pick it up. Capello just followed through and spat straight in my face, as he said, ‘Wolverhampton! Wolverhampton!’
“Mcgarry was so delighted (with the draw) that he allowed the players a few glasses of wine and John Charles was quick to remind them of the magnitude of their achievement: ‘You know you’ve won. I guarantee half of them won’t come to England now. When they play at home they spit, kick, punch, do anything. If they get a good win, three, four nil, they’ll all go but if they don’t they won’t.’
“Big John, God rest his soul, was right. I’ll never forget that night. Me and Frank Munro had to put John Charles to bed.
Mel Eves:
“I was brought up on tales of Billy Wright and Bill Slater and the Wolves team of the 1950s. As a fan, the night games when Wolves got to the final of the UEFA Cup in 1971-72 were the highlights. Those were magical really.
Awesome
“Of those, the one that really stood out was the quarter-final against Juventus – that was obviously special. It was just awesome watching Juventus coming out in their legendary kit and having watched the majority of their players playing in the World Cup.
“It’s our team and we’re competing with the likes of teams with world class players and more than matching them. That was brilliant.”
Kenny Hibbitt:
“Playing under the lights at Molineux was always special and I think I enjoyed it more under lights than I actually did on a Saturday afternoon. The atmosphere at night matches was so special, especially playing in Europe against the big boys like Ferencvaros and, in particular, Juventus.
“Juventus under lights was unbelievable. I feel that when we beat them the team, the club came of age.
“Having competed against one of the world’s best sides at the time I think it took a lot of fans back to when they beat Spartak and Honved. That was a special evening for us players too.
“Although all European matches under the lights at Molineux were an occasion the Juventus one was incredible.”