Straight talking Mark McGee on his Arsenal FA Cup call, Wolves near misses and helping young coaches

Paul Berry met up with him ahead of a fundraising engagement at the Mount Hotel.

Speak to any Wolves fan who witnessed the Mark McGhee era and there is usually one question which quickly comes into the conversation.

First on the agenda is not usually a discussion of the play-off near miss against Crystal Palace and the incredible atmosphere in the second leg at Molineux.

Or not perhaps the league double over nearest and dearest West Bromwich Albion, including a sensational 4-2 win at the Hawthorns in which Iwan Roberts plundered a hat trick.

Not about giving Robbie Keane his chance on a pre-season tour, and then in the first team, being rewarded with a match-winning brace on his debut at just 17.

And nor even the run, with away draws all the way, to the last four of the FA Cup, including a memorable and dramatic giant-killing victory away at Leeds United.

No.  It’s usually, plainly and simply, to enquire as to McGhee’s thought process behind picking his team for the semi-final against Arsenal at Villa Park.

Namely why Steve Claridge was preferred up front with Steve Bull and Robbie Keane left on the bench, and Dougie Freedman not even making the matchday 16.

During a 45-minute chat in the boardroom at the Mount Hotel, sharing a pot of tea with both McGhee and former Wolves club secretary Richard Skirrow, with whom he remains in touch, he knows exactly what’s coming in the interview with Matt Murray which will follow as part of the charity night organised by supporter Carl Falconer.

“I know that’s what fans always want to know, and while I can’t remember everything about that day, I can definitely recall part of my thinking,” he begins.

“First of all, of the three teams we could have faced in the semi-finals – Newcastle and Sheffield United being the other two – we got Arsenal, who hadn’t lost in about 12 years!

“I had to think of the best way to try and get a result against them, and just felt there was a danger that if we went too attacking and kept giving the ball back, we might score one, but could concede three or four.

“We needed to try and keep the ball, and at that time, Steve Claridge was the best we had at that.   Infact, he was one of the best in the league.

“Obviously I knew how good Bully was at scoring goals but he was always so much better facing the opposition goal rather than trying to hold the ball up.

“So, Claridge was always going to play up top, and then it was about picking the two players either side of him.

“Keaney had played a lot of football in what was still his first season and I felt he was maybe suffering a bit from fatigue, so I went for Don Goodman and Paul Simpson either side.

“What I then wanted was for those two not to worry about tracking back when their full backs pushed on – we needed to leave them up there and let the rest of the team deal with any overlaps and crosses.

“That meant that when we got the ball back, we could get it up to Claridge, and those two could get in and around him to provide support.

“The problem was that it was completely against their instincts not to track back, it wasn’t natural to them, and so they kept doing it, and when we did get the ball back, there was no support for Claridge.

“As it was, we only lost 1-0, and I know fans weren’t happy, but as a coach and manager, I had to try and think of a way to try and stop them given they were absolutely flying at the time.”

It’s an explanation. Not perhaps one that will appease many of those frustrated supporters, even 27 years on.  But a thought process which explains how McGhee and his coaches Colin Lee and Mike Hickman at least tried to derail the Gunners’ juggernaut.

In mitigation, Wolves were eighth in the Championship at the time. Arsenal, second in the Premier League, were en-route to a league and cup double.  They had lost just one of their previous 22 games, and went on to score 19 in winning the six which followed, including plundering one five, two fours and a three!  

Containment was a strategy, which ultimately didn’t work, but amid fan frustration at not perhaps ‘giving it a go’ with the two more natural goalscorers, McGhee’s more cautious approach did at least keep Wolves in the game. And, lest we forget, it was another 21 years before the club reached another FA Cup semi-final, ending in a far more painful – gruesome even - finale against Watford.

McGhee continues, on a similar theme. “When I first went into management, I asked Sir Alex Ferguson:  What is the most important thing I had to do?”

“He said you have to make decisions. And back your judgement.

“Whether it was team selections, substitutions, moments, you had to make decisions and have the bottle to back your judgement and not fudge decisions.

“That is what managers get paid for.”

McGhee is a very open and erudite speaker. Agree or disagree with his decisions, and many will still disagree with that FA Cup selection, not much is hidden away.  There is very little PR or politics, and a sense of straight-talking which often got him into bother, and also secured Skirrow a trip to the recording of the Parkinson chat show at television studios in London.  More on that later.