Bully's Big Night Out is huge charity success

“Not the buildings or the directors or the people who are paid to represent it. It’s not the television contracts, get-out clauses, marketing departments or executive boxes. 

"It’s the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city.

“It’s a small boy clambering up stadium steps for the very first time, gripping his father’s hand, gawping at that hallowed stretch of turf beneath him and, without being able to do a thing about it, falling in love.”

It’s a powerful and well-used quote.  One which was delivered - and perhaps chiefly relates - to a very different era.  But one which still carries so much relevance.

The strength and unity of a football club is so often derived from measurables which can’t actually be measured.

More of a case of the culture, the unwritten sense of belonging where fans feel part of – and that they are contributing to – a special time in the club’s history. Of which there have been many.

For anyone among the near-700 who enjoyed a rip-roaring three hours at the University of Wolverhampton at the Wulfrun Hall last Thursday night, they will know exactly what this means.

The chance to wallow in nostalgia, listen to and enjoy stories from a bygone era, and remember why – on and off the pitch – progress made in football in recent times to the detriment of the raw energy and personality which preceded it, has not been without its losses.

Sky Sports broadcaster and lifelong Wolves fan Johnny Phillips hosted a night to mark a belated celebration of the club’s legendary goalscorer Steve Bull’s 60th birthday.

The pair were joined on stage by Andy Thompson, Andy Mutch, Robbie Dennison, Mike Stowell and Don Goodman.

“What a line-up,” enthused Bully midway through the evening, almost taking a step back and transporting himself almost four decades back into the annals of Wolves’ history.

The atmosphere was electric.  The sense of togetherness palpable.  The language sometimes industrial.  But wow.  How to bring hundreds of people together with a common love of their football club and these particular individuals for their contribution to it.  One of those truly special nights.

And let’s remember.  They didn’t even reach the Premier League!  Another example, were it needed, perhaps like the League One title-winning season under Kenny Jackett, or the lower-league revivals that these players delivered under Graham Turner, that sometimes you don’t have to be sitting at the top table to carve your names into Molineux folklore.

“For three or four years we had the time of our lives,” said Dennison.  Many fans probably concur.

“There were no airs or graces about any of us, we all wanted to get stuck in and make a name for ourselves and for the team.

“And to do that at such a massive club as Wolves was amazing.

“It was a group of lads who liked each other, enjoyed each other’s company and had the craic.

“On a personal level we wanted to progress and see how far we could go – but the main thing was that we all just loved playing football.”

As ever with a group of former footballers, especially when they have been so close, when they meet up again, it is like they have never been apart.

In the ‘green room’ before going on stage, the conversation was loud, relentless and uncompromising.

A couple made the most of a ‘pre-match’ glass of vino or two, and such was the level of on-stage dialogue and banter – perhaps on a par with many stand-ups to have graced the same stage – Stowell at one point ventured that he would like to become Mutch’s agent and unleash him on the comedy circuit.

When it came to the football chat, of which there was plenty, the subject matter, and the guests, were neatly divided into two broad sections.

The first, featuring Bull, signing-day partner Thompson, strike partner Mutch, and mercurial winger Dennison, focusing on the post-Chorley late Eighties revival under Turner which featured back-to-back promotions and the Sherpa Van Trophy final success at Wembley. And defied the condition of the stadium at that time - mice, cockroaches, water leaks and all.

The second, with Wolves’ most-used goalkeeper Stowell and another of Bull’s strike partners Goodman entering the fray, discussing the agony of not quite being able to take the next step, the play-off near misses, but several highlights such as the penalty shootout comeback against Sheffield Wednesday and FA Cup quarter final victory at Leeds.

Many of the stories will have been familiar to the eagerly anticipating audience crammed into the Wulfrun.  But they never get old, being greeted with the same relish and laughter as the first time they were told many moons ago. And there were also several new nuggets of information as Phillips expertly nudged the guests into opening the treasure trove of memories which accompanied their Molineux stays.

Among the old favourites were, of course, the car park training sessions which saw a professional football team spend Friday mornings putting a shift in on a grit and pothole-filled surface on the North Bank, within eyesight of the cabin that housed the club shop.