Sad Bert Williams blasts woeful Wolves

The former England international goalkeeper, who starred in the club's golden era in the late 1940s and '50s, fears lessons have not been learned from the club's similar demise in the Eighties.

Williams, 93, who lives in Shifnal, passed on his comments through his carer to express his sadness after demotion to League One was confirmed on Saturday.

"This is a terrible blow, unbelievable," said England's 1950 World Cup finals keeper. "But Wolves have been going nowhere and the last two seasons have been horrendous.

"There have been some dreadful displays on the pitch. Players in my day, after such a poor display, would have been afraid to go into the changing room. But we have players with baggage on big wages, which Stan Cullis (former Wolves manager) would never have allowed.

"We have too many players playing for our money and not for the club, in my day we played for pride and passion and we would gladly have played for nothing.

"I never heard money mentioned once in our dressing room. My top wage was £15 a week during the playing season and it dropped to £12 in the summer – even Billy Wright, captain of England, was on the same wages.

"In the 1950s Wolves were not only the best team in the country, we were the best in the world and now we are facing life in the third division.

"Next season won't be easy as teams coming to Molineux will regard it as their Wembley appearance and will play out of their skins. I hope the short-comings of our players are sorted out very quickly.

"We are in this sad position today because we never learned from mistakes in the past. We went down to the fourth division in the 1980s because we built the John Ireland Stand before we built our team to play in front of it and now we have done the same again."

Wolves went into Saturday's final game of the Championship season at Brighton needing a miracle to survive.

But they never had a hope after going a goal down inside five minutes through Kazenga Lua Lua, who later added a second.