Dean Edwards: The ex-Wolves striker who did Steve Bull a big favour

Being denied the chance to build on a promising initial impact at Molineux ultimately opened up doors and other experiences which the former striker would otherwise not have been able to enjoy.

Including twice finding the net at Wembley!

And that’s football.

Sometimes it’s not just talent and hard work that determines the trajectory of a career.

There is timing, opportunity, relationships with team-mates and managers, and also, luck.

As England prepare to kick off their European Championships campaign this weekend, the last Wolves player to make an appearance at a major tournament is still Steve Bull, 34 years ago, at ‘Italia 90’.

And yet, when talking about timing, and opportunity, Bull’s England career might not have got off to the explosive start which it did, had it not been for Edwards.

Because, as was outlined by Wolves club historian Peter Crump at his latest excellent talk at Wolves Museum last week, the goals plundered by one Wulfrunian striker paved the way for another from just down the road in Tipton to make his international bow.

The story goes like this.

In defence of the Sherpa Van Trophy back in 1989, Wolves, then runaway Division Three leaders, were expected to comfortably overcome Torquay, sitting 11th in Division Four.

Incredibly, and despite two late Bull goals clinching a 2-1 away win for Wolves on a rain-sodden night in Devon in the first leg, the second proved far from a formality and the Gulls flew off with a place in the final thanks to a 2-0 success, 3-2 on aggregate.

Edwards, by now a Torquay player, two years after moving on from Molineux, scored in both legs, including the crucial opener at his former stomping ground.

That took Torquay to Wembley for the final against Bolton, played at the Twin Towers on Sunday May 28th.

Amid Wolves’ devastation at their semi-final collapse, and even if he didn’t know it at the time, for Bull, the cup exit was pivotal.

Because, having amassed five England under-21 caps as an overage player, towards the end of Wolves’ season he picked up three caps for England ‘B’ – scoring twice – impressing sufficiently to secure a senior Three Lions call-up from Bobby Robson.

He then came off the bench at Hampden Park to score on his debut in a 2-0 win against Scotland. On Saturday May 27th.

Had Wolves reached the Sherpa Van Trophy final, Bull wouldn’t have been involved in the senior international set-up and, in all likelihood, not been excused from the final league fixtures to represent England ‘B’.

Given his goalscoring form and unstoppable determination, he would surely have made it to the England set-up eventually.

But, thanks to Edwards and Torquay, that process was quickened, helping Bull to quickly become part of the Three Lions furniture and head to the 1990 World Cup.

“I hadn’t really thought of it like that until Crumpy mentioned it in his talk, I’ll have to let Bully know as well,” Edwards laughs.

“It was quite a weekend, that.

“Friday night was the title decider when Arsenal beat Liverpool at Anfield, and then on Saturday we travelled to Wembley with Torquay to prepare for our final the next day.

“We were there in time to watch England and I was rooming with Mark Loram and we both jumped in the air when Bully scored – we were buzzing!

“Bully was flying the flag for all of us from the lower leagues at the time which was brilliant, and he’s such a great lad, isn’t he?

“I’ve always got on well with him, what you see is what you get with Bully, he’s stayed so down to earth all this time.

“I was on my way out when he came to Wolves and I think I only ever played alongside him once, in a Birmingham Senior Cup tie, and I was on the bench in a league game at Preston when he started.

“When I left, I followed his career with great interest, in a way he took my shirt, but if there was ever someone who was going to take my shirt, I couldn’t have wished for anyone better.”

Edwards may not have hit the goalscoring heights of Bull during his own career – very few did.

But he has every reason to feel proud of his own footballing CV, onto which Wolves could have featured earlier than it eventually did.

Born and brought up within a stone’s throw of Molineux, Edwards attended Northicote School and, from around the age of 12, was training at the famous Wolves Social Club on Tuesdays and Thursdays alongside others such as keeper Tony Coton and striker Wayne Clarke.

From 15, he was also attracting interest from Aston Villa, and trained with them on Saturday morning as well.

Approaching school leaving territory, Wolves still hadn’t made any sort of move to offer Edwards an apprenticeship and so, taking his lead from a friend and Sunday League team-mate, he wrote to Shrewsbury and was granted a trial.

In the first trial game he scored against Wales Under-18s. And so, was asked back a few days later for another chance to impress. Only thing is, he didn’t ask the identity of the opposition.

“I trained at Wolves as normal on the Tuesday, and turned up at Shrewsbury on the Wednesday with no idea of who it was against,” he recalls.

“When I got there a coach told me it was Wolves, and at this point I was starting to panic!

“Joe Gardiner was Wolves’ chief scout at the time, a brilliant guy and I loved him to bits, but he was a big imposing man!

“I tried to dodge him when I ran onto the pitch but he collared me coming off and asked me what the hell I was doing!

“I said that it didn’t look like Wolves were going to give me anything so I needed to look around and he told me he would have a word.

“But I scored again in the match, and as soon as I came off, the Shrewsbury manager Richie Barker, who would go on to be assistant at Wolves, said they wanted to sign me and offered me an apprenticeship.

“I was delighted, it meant I didn’t have to go and get a job, so I pretty much signed it straightaway.

“It was a few days later that I was at home and a telegram arrived from Wolves saying they too wanted to offer me an apprenticeship.

“To be honest I was absolutely gutted, I’d already committed to Shrewsbury, but it still turned out alright in the end by being able to join Wolves a bit later on.”

More on Wolves later. At first, life was good at Shrewsbury.

Then in the second tier, Edwards progressed to the first team and enjoyed pitting his wits against defenders from the likes of West Ham and Chelsea, and later Wolves boss Graham Turner, initially a team-mate, became manager and championed his striker’s cause, including handing him a two-and-a-half year contract.

But at some point, and Edwards still isn’t quite sure why, things changed.

While there was never any sort of personal falling-out between the two, at a professional level Turner was no longer offering Edwards the same opportunities, to the extent that he was actually moved on to Finland, where he was among the goals, for Vaasan Palloseura.

He spent a couple of years in Finland, their season ran from March to October, and when he returned it was to back to Shropshire to play for Telford United at a time when they were challenging at the top of the Conference and enjoying some memorable FA Cup runs.

At the same time, he was scoring a lot of goals back in Wolverhampton Sunday League, which caught the eye of Wolves boss Sammy Chapman.

So finally, he was given a chance to represent the club he had supported as a boy, with Hughie Curran and John Richards among his heroes, Edwards making his long-awaited first team debut for Wolves with several substitute appearances before his first start, at home to Brentford.

He scored, in a 4-1 defeat, after which he celebrated until the early hours before, still, going to play Sunday League.

“I got subbed off on the Sunday I was that bad,” he recalls with a laugh.

“And Sammy then found out I had been playing Sunday League, and he too, asked what on earth I was playing at!

“The thing was, I didn’t have a contract at Wolves, so I wasn’t getting paid, and the money I got from Sunday League was paying for my petrol to get to Wolves!

“After that, they sorted me a contract, which of course I was delighted to sign.”

Edwards, despite the team’s difficulties as they completed their devastating descent from First to Fourth Division in that 1985/86 season, flourished as a fully-fledged Wolf.

Forming a promising partnership with Andy Mutch, there was a spell of 11 games together at the end of that season where, between them, they contributed 13 goals.

Finding the net was no problem for that Wolves team, but keeping the back door shut was a different matter, and so, a third consecutive relegation was confirmed.

And then, shortly into the following season, with Chapman having moved on, and then also caretaker boss Brian Little, Turner checked in at Molineux.

His tenure was to prove a gamechanger for Wolves, and launch an incredible revival, but for some players, including Edwards, it proved the end of the road.

“I remember Brian Little coming in the one morning and telling me to pack my bags because we were both on our way,” he explains.

“For a minute I thought that meant he’d sorted me out with a decent move, but it actually meant that Graham was coming in, and so both of us would be gone.

“He did play me in the first couple of games but then bombed me out, and I went to see him and said it was clear he didn’t fancy me as a player, although there was never anything personal.

“This time he sent me to Sligo Rovers in Ireland - before that it had been Finland - I’m not sure there were too many other places further away!”

Edwards scored 10 goals for Wolves in 34 appearances, a more than decent return, although a certain partnership of Bull and Mutch were probably always going to be difficult to shift.

His own career however, continued in the same goalscoring vein, initially with Exeter, and then perhaps most spectacularly with Torquay, including that Sherpa Van success over Wolves.

Did his exit, his relationship with Turner, play a part in the motivation for his goals across the semi-final? It would be difficult to play it down.

“There were a lot of motivations over that week,” Edwards replies when discussing the two games which straddled the devastating Hillsborough tragedy, initially putting the second leg in some jeopardy.

“Yes, I had a lot to prove based on what had happened, and I also remember no one giving us a chance in the second leg after Bully’s late goals in the first one.

“In the tunnel I remember shouting, ‘come on lads, we can do these’, and Thommo (Andy Thompson) responded with ‘what are you on, Deano?’ That fired me up even more!

“When I think back, there is no way we should have won that game, but we did.

“I got another goal, we had a veteran keeper Kenny Allen who came back in and was making Gordon Banks style saves, and Bully – for once – couldn’t hit a barn door with a shovel.

“I remember thinking that maybe it was going to be our night, but we were knackered towards the end, we’d run ourselves into the ground.

“I looked up at the clock on the North Bank and it was at ten past nine, which was around time games would finish with the old 7.30pm kick offs.

“The ref ran past, and I said to him that must be it now, and he told me that the clock was ten minutes fast!

“To be fair we managed to see it out and were euphoric after the game, and I got a handshake through gritted teeth from Graham and Ally Rob (Robertson).

“So, it was definitely revenge for me in a way, but at the same time, as disappointed as I was in leaving Wolves, I went on to have a decent lower league career and experiences which I otherwise wouldn’t have enjoyed.

“Sometimes I think thing are just mapped out for you when it comes to a career in football.”

Edwards’ successful three years with Torquay saw him not only score at Wembley in the final, a 4-1 defeat to Bolton, but again in the Fourth Division play-off final in 1991, the Gulls eventually prevailing on penalties against Blackpool.

He would later return for a second spell at Exeter and brief stay at Northampton before rounding off his player career in Malta, Hong Kong and in non-league.

Moving into management, he has since worked at Bideford and Barnstaple, along with closer to home, particularly enjoying success at Hednesford and when working with Mel Eves at Willenhall Town.

He also returned to Torquay to work as Commercial Manager at the request of then CEO and former Wolves boss Colin Lee, although by this point the club were struggling and almost went bankrupt.

The two have always stayed in touch and are now involved in a new podcast – Back on the Ball – where they join Devon-born broadcaster David FitzGerald to relive their footballing experiences and interview guests from the world of football and beyond.

Edwards also has a book out later this year – Wolves, Gulls and other Footballing Wildlife - and, whilst now based largely in Devon, certainly has a continuing legacy of all things Wolves, particularly with regular visits back to see family, and events and talks such as last week at the Museum.

Not so long ago he delivered a talk of his own, to students at Moreton School, and, for many years after finishing his career, turned out for Wolves Allstars. Although, now 62, he admits getting revved up for a charity match in Plymouth next month is proving a challenge!

His memories remain positive, not least of fun times spent at home in Bushbury with team-mates Mutch and Keith Lockhart, and visits from others such as Floyd Streete for a cup of tea with Edwards and his parents.

He lived the dream, playing for his home-town club, and representing the team he had first watched as a five-year-old, from his Dad’s shoulders on the South Bank.

That Dad was Joseph, Edwards’ biggest supporter, who sadly passed away back in 2020, but not before joining his son for one final pilgrimage to Molineux.

Back where it all began and a fitting finale to their collective Wolves story.

“My Dad had dementia in his later years but we managed to get him back to Molineux, for a lookaround,” Edwards recalls.

“It brought back all the memories of when he first took me to a game, all those years ago.

“I was hedging towards Manchester United at the time and wanted him to get me a United rosette outside, but he soon put a stop to that!

“It was great to get back inside the stadium with him – we sat in the dugout and he went on the pitch and scored a goal in front of the South Bank.

“It just felt like the perfect way to end the Wolves journey which we had both enjoyed so much.”