Springboks defeated by a goal from one of their own
Part 15 of our look back at the famous floodlit friendlies that brought a glow to Molineux in the 1950s
September 29th, 1958
Wolves 1 South Africa 0
Wolves selected all three of their South African players to play their fellow countrymen
Friendly Attendance: 13,511
FIVE years earlier, South Africa had participated in the inaugural encounter under the Molineux floodlights.
With Wolves having completed two tours of South Africa and having three South African players in their team, there was a close tie between the two sides.
The Wolves South African contingent was made up of vice-captain Eddie Stuart and two of the club’s younger players; Des Horne and Cliff Durandt, who were both members of the successful FA Youth Cup team of the 1957-58 season. The final of that competition had produced a thrilling game, with 13 goals that saw Wolves coming out winners 7-6 against
Chelsea.
The South African team had an interesting itinerary. Whilst on tour they were due to play games against Norfolk County, the British Universities,
Everton,a Welsh National XI, Preston North End, an English National XI, as well as a trip to Ireland and fixtures with Heart of Midlothian in Scotland, followed by Chelsea and Southampton. Of the South African team there were only two players who had played for the tourists in the 1953 encounter; insideright Wally Warren and centre-forward Les Salton. At the age of 26, Warren had the interesting profession of being a diamond cutter, and having played 15 times for the Springboks was the most capped player in their team.
Les Salton, also aged 26, was an electrician by trade and played as centre-forward, known for his terrific shooting ability with either foot.
Wolves fielded a strong team but were without Billy Wright and Peter Broadbent, who had been selected by England for a match against Northern Ireland in Belfast.
Unlike the 1953 fixture, where there was a crowd of over 33,500, for the 1958 fixture there were just over 13,500 inside Molineux. For those supporters that made the effort, the re-match would prove not to be one of the floodlit classic games.
It was a game where Wolves created numerous chances and on a different night they could have won comfortably against the amateur opposition. The Wolves players were denied numerous times by an excellent performance from visiting goalkeeper Adrian (Rocco) Smith as he made some outstanding saves.
Wolves selected all their South African players for the game, with Durandt playing his first senior appearance. It was left to fellow South African, Des Horne, the Wolves winger to beat his countrymen under the Molineux lights. In the 13th minute he volleyed a corner from Micky Lill to find the back of the visitors’ net.
With Wolves leading 1-0 at the halftime break the home crowd would have hoped that they would see further goals in the second half. However, despite the home team having a lot of the possession and creating opportunities, similar to the first-half they were denied further goals through a combination of wayward shooting and the brilliance of Smith, who kept the score-line down to the one solitary goal.
For Wolves Eddie Clamp, Jimmy Murray and Bobby Mason all had good opportunities to increase Wolves’ lead but failed. As the game drew to a close, the home crowd’s frustration grew and upon the fulltime whistle many of the small Molineux crowd had already left, leaving the few remainers to vent their frustration to what had been a poor game. The Daily Mirror newspaper’s headline the following day was suitability appropriate: ‘Springboks lose to Springbok’.
The next floodlit friendly game at Molineux would be see Wolves again face opposition from the Soviet Union as Dynamo Tblisi would visit, for what would turn out to be the highest scoring game of the floodlit series.