Wolves heroes remembered with Christmas anniversaries

Buckley, born in Urmston, Manchester, in 1883, arrived as Wolves’ secretary-manager from Blackpool in July 1927, succeeding Fred Scotchbrook. 

The nearly 17 years that he spent at Molineux laid the foundations for the successes of the 1940s and 1950s. Buckley had first joined the Army in 1898, serving in the Boer War. 

Between then and the outbreak of World War One he played as a no-nonsense centre-half for a number of clubs, including Aston Villa (never making the first team), Brighton and Hove Albion, both Manchester clubs, Birmingham, Derby County and Bradford City. 

Whilst at Derby County he gained one England cap. During the war he became a commanding officer in the 17th Middlesex Regiment (where he commanded the Football Battalion), seeing action and receiving wounds to his lung and shoulder at the Battle of the Somme, and rose to the rank of Major. 

After demobilisation Buckley was made player-manager of Norwich City, then in the Southern League, and was there until 1920. Out of work for three years the Major returned to football management at Blackpool in 1923, where he spent four years in the hot seat.

Five years after arriving at Molineux he led Wolves back to the First Division after an absence of 26 years. After a difficult start in the top flight the board persisted with him and the team managed a fifth- place finish in 1936-37, followed by the runners-up spot in 1937-38. If Wolves had won the final game of that season, they would have been champions but they lost 1-0 at Sunderland and Arsenal took the title by beating Bolton 5-0 at Highbury. 

In 1938 Buckley agreed a new ten-year contract with Wolves, and told a local newspaper: “Since coming to Wolverhampton ten years ago I have become so bitten by the Wanderers bug that no other club could ever interest me. I shall be happy to spend my football life with the club I so love.” 

In 1939 Wolves came close to completing the League and FA Cup double, and in 1942 won the War League Cup with a 6-3 aggregate in the two-leg final against Sunderland. However, admitting he was now “feeling vulnerable”, Buckley tendered a shock resignation in February 1944 so he could take the manager’s job at Notts County for a reputed £4,000 a year, a big salary in those days. He later took charge at Hull City, Leeds United and Walsall, before retiring in 1955.

Frank Buckley’s contribution to the success of Wolves cannot be underestimated. He signed and developed some brilliant players, including Stan Cullis, Dennis Westcott, Tom Galley, Bill Morris and Jimmy Mullen, although he famously first rejected Billy Wright before being persuaded to change his mind. 

Buckley developed a more direct style of playing football, as Stan Cullis wrote: “It was simply the task of the defenders to get the ball forward as quicklyas possible and not to over-elaborate their roles. The wingers were to take opposition defenders on and cross the ball to the central attackers whose job it was to put the ball in the net. He wanted fewer dribbling moves and more passing.” He added that players were expected to do exactly as Major Buckley ordered otherwise, “you'd very soon be on your bicycle to another club.”

Four days after Buckley passed away, on Boxing Day 1964, Dave Wagstaffe made his Wolves debut in the 1-0 home defeat to Aston Villa. The match also proved to be the last outing in a Wanderers shirt for Peter Broadbent, who accepted a £10,000 move to Shrewsbury Town just three weeks later.

Peter Broadbent was born in the small pit village of Elvington, between Canterbury and Dover. At the age of 17 Peter was sold to Wolves by Brentford for £10,000 in February 1951, making his debut in a 3-2 home defeat to Portsmouth on 17 March. 

Peter won three League Championship medals in the 1950s, shining in the series of floodlit friendlies in the mid-fifties against Europe’s finest club sides and reaching his majestic peak in Wolves’ successive Division 1 championship-winning seasons of 1957-58 and 1958-59. In 1960 he was an ever-present member of the FA Cup winning team, scoring twice in the process, in a season when Wolves missed out on the Double by one league point. 

He also played in eight European Cup ties (scoring four times) and four European Cup Winners’ Cup matches (scoring on three occasions), along with FA Charity shield matches, scoring in the 1959-60 win over Nottingham Forest. 

He made his full England debut in the 1958 World Cup finals in Sweden in a group play-off against the USSR. The fact that his international career amounted to seven matches and 630 minutes in a period of under two years is scant reward for a footballer of Broadbent’s talent. 

His two England goals came in a 2-2 draw with Wales at Villa Park on 26 November that year, and he was also awarded one under-23 and one ‘B’ cap. His final England game came at Hampden Park just 18 days before Wolves beat Blackburn Rovers at Wembley.

Broadbent later moved to Aston Villa and Stockport County where he played his last Football League game in April 1970.For a gifted footballer about whom it was said that his famous body swerve was so good that it sent Molineux’s South Bank the wrong way, the story of Peter Broadbent cannot be summarised in facts and figures. 

However, to score 145 goals (including one hat-trick in 1958) in just short of 500 appearances (a return of around a goal every three and a half games) is a remarkable achievement for what we call today a midfielder. After a long struggle with Alzheimer’s Peter died on 1 October 2013 – quite simply to the man (Steve Gordos) who wrote the definitive biography, he will always be Peter the Great.

As for Waggy – although he swiftly became a huge favourite with the fans, he was helpless as Wolves were relegated to Division Two at the end of that 1964-65 season. A return to the top-flight was not immediate but he was ever-present in the 1966-67 season (scoring six league goals) when Wolves gained promotion behind Coventry City. 

After Wolves consolidated their position in the top flight between that season and 1970, Waggy’s most successful campaigns at Molineux came in 1970-71 and 1971-72.

He missed only nine games out of 110 in those two campaigns as Wolves finished fourth in the league (1971), won the Texaco Cup and lost out narrowly to Spurs in the UEFA Cup final. 

In the second-leg of the final Wagstaffe evaded his marker, Cyril Knowles, to crash home a fine equaliser as half time approached. Flying in off the post it was one of his favourites. 

Earlier that same season his screamer in a 5-1 November thrashing of Arsenal had earned him the BBC Goal of the Month accolade. The away match at Southampton in March 1972 marked Wagstaffe’s 400th league appearance and his fine form was rewarded by a call up to Sir Alf Ramsey’s Football League team against the Scottish League at Ayresome Park. The fact that he never received a full cap for his country is one of football’s greatest travesties.

Waggy was always top box-office, most notably helping Wolves to a 2-1 League Cup final win over his former club in March 1974. 

His last goal for the club came in a 7-1 win over Chelsea on 15 March that year and his Wolves’ league career ended as it started, at Molineux against Aston Villa on 23rd September 1975 in a season when Wolves were again relegated from the top-flight. 

After a total of 404 starts and 31 goals for Wolves, Waggy eventually made a permanent move to Blackburn a permanent one and was their player of the season in 1976-77. 

He retired from football in 1979 but in 1984 was invited by Derek Dougan to come back to Molineux as manager of the Social Club, or Molineux Centre. 

For the full story of Waggy’s adventures during the club’s darkest hours, look no further than the chapter, ‘Back to Molineux’ in ‘Waggy’s Tales’. He also later ran Waggy’s Bar in the Stan Cullis Stand in the redeveloped ground. 

Having been inducted into the Hall of Fame in January 2013 Wagstaffe suffered a heart attack just three months later. After a short illness he died aged 70 at his home in Wolverhampton on 6 August 2013 and the club paid tribute to his memory at the Gillingham game four days later. His funeral, attended by many former colleagues and hundreds of fans, took place at St Peter's Collegiate Church on 22 August 2013.