Steve Bull – Our Best Striker Ever. Full Stop. 

I never thought I would have to write an article about Steve Bull and how good he was. Surely everyone knows this? However, as time marches on, I have had to accept that many Wolves fans never actually saw him play, and so rank Raul Jimenez or Cunha as better than him – as they saw them live in the flesh. 

I guess it is natural, in much the same way that I never fully appreciated John Richards, Norman Bell or The Doog before him, they were just figures on the TV screen, albeit ones that I knew were part of our rich history. 

Therefore, the time has come for a bit of Bully appreciation. 

To understand the love fans of my era have for this man, you must put his emergence into context; we had suffered three relegations and our confidence, as fans as much as players, was shattered. We had lost all belief in our team and could see no way back from the abyss.  

Then, suddenly, a light was flicked on by manager Graham Turner, who signed both Bull and Andy Thompson from our beloved neighbours, West Brom, in November 1986, for a combined tally of 64k (40k for Bully). Has money ever been better spent? 

I doubt it. 

Early appearances of Bully showed his promise, he looked hungry, sharp, fast and deadly, with the only drawback being his dodgy first touch, although his second touch was normally a goal, as Graham Turner famously said. In addition, he possessed a rocket shot that was phenomenal, as he shot with such a low back lift that the ball was often in the net before the keeper could move. Predominantly right footed, he could also whack them in from 25 yards with his left, as he showed against Bolton one misty afternoon at Molineux. 

Bully looked the part as well, with his skinhead haircut perfect for the boot boys on the terraces, who had ensured that we were banned from football grounds in early season 87/88, after the debacle at Scarborough in our opening game of that campaign. 

Coming from London and being a fan of Oi! I loved his haircut, as he was a dead ringer for either Micky Fitz (The Business), Carl (Blitz) or even Gary Hodges (4-Skins). He just needed the bleached jeans and DM boots to complete the image. 

I should also mention his voice, that was, and still is, about as broad a Tipton accent as you will find. This, combined with his penchant for rapid talking, made him hard to understand to non-Tiptonians. To me, though, it just added to his mystique. I was working in North London at the time and just about everybody in my workplace knew about Bully, as every Monday morning I used to bang on about how brilliant he had been the previous Saturday.

In those early days he was raw, but everybody could see his talent. After a very decent first season (86/87) that saw him score 19 goals in 37 matches, he really exploded the season 87/88, when he blasted in fifty-two 4th Division league and cup goals (58 games). My late father, bless him, used to read The Daily Mail and I recall a Terry Venables article describing both him and Andy Mutch, his goalscoring partner. Venables rated Mutch higher than Bull due to his first touch and, who knows, maybe he was correct as Mutch did go on to play top-flight footie, whilst Bully was forever limited to the Championship and our seemingly never-ending 11th place in the table. But that is jumping the gun somewhat. 

Season 88/89 saw Bull have a slight dip in his Wolves career, as he only managed fifty goals in fifty-five matches (3rd Division). However, to make up for this shocking relapse, he also added three goals for the England U/21 team and a couple for England B. 

Not to mention one for the full England eleven on debut! 

I attended all the U/21 and B games, and it was astonishing how many Wolves fans turned up to cheer on our hero. It was like he was one of us, a commoner, on the big stage in front of the big wigs and other assorted footballing dignitaries, who had probably never even heard of Tipton being a part of England. 

Sadly, I missed being at the full international, in Scotland, but I celebrated at home with what seemed like six cans of Strongbow (apologies for my choice of drink but I was only twenty-one and yet to discover proper booze).  

The celebration was bittersweet, however, as I spent all summer petrified that some bigger club would swoop down and take Bully away from the Wolves, a fear I was to have almost until he retired.  

Luckily, he stayed at the Wolves and proceeded to score Division 1/Championship goals by the bucket-load, and all without the assistance of penalties, which was no doubt down to the skill of Andy Thompson, who hardly ever missed. Bully did take one penalty I recall, against Sheff Wednesday in a cup game, and had his effort saved.  

However, it was not all plain sailing with Bully. It seems astonishing, looking back, but Bully was once the recipient of Molineux boos, as he missed chance after chance in a cup game at home to Bolton, when victory meant a trip to Liverpool in the next round. I will never forget the shock I felt as the crowd booed him when he missed his latest chance in that tie, as we lost 0-2. Thankfully the booing never happened again but it really was unreal to behold. 

I have to discuss the usual subjects whenever Bull is mentioned; his love/hate affair with Steve Walsh of Leicester, that terrific competitor who played centre-half and striker. I saw both players sent off at various stages when against each other, both for headbutts that were for real, as opposed to the It Ain’t Half Hot Mumones of today.

The other is his natural skill at winding up West Bromwich Albion, as he scored goal after goal against them. Indeed, his first game back at the Hawthorns is still vivid in my memory, as his last-minute winner, a half-volley that whistled into the net, produced scenes of unbridled mayhem in the away end, with arms, legs and crutches (I kid you not) going everywhere as we pogooed away like 1977.  

One thing that people often forget is that Bully appeared on the BBC long-running sports quiz show, A Question of Sport. At the time he seemed to answer every question with the answer; ‘err, Terry Butcher.’ Whatever, I just loved the fact that he was now in the mainstream and without selling out to the masses.  

Most of our opponents, though, ignored his burgeoning fame and consoled themselves by chanting ‘Bulls**t, Bulls**t,’ when they played Wolves, but most away fans secretly admired him from afar. Even to this day I am constantly surprised by how many confess to such admiration. Just a couple of weeks ago I was emailing the editor of The Cricketer magazine, about an article I had penned for them. The piece mentions that I am a Wolves fan, prompting the editor to tell me that ‘although I am a Liverpool supporter, I grew up pretending to be Steve Bull when I played football as a youngster.’ 

This has echoes of when Bully made the England World Cup squad in 1990. After the first drab 1-1 draw (against Republic of Ireland) there was a campaign, led by the Saint and Greavsie TV show, to get Bully into the starting eleven – ‘Let The Bull Loose,’ ran the tagline. The campaign worked, but Bull failed to score in the tournament, even though he did play four times (one start). Who knows, if Lineker had not scored in the semi against Germany, Bully might have gone on to win the game, as he was warming up when said goal went in. 

Another reference I have to make is the alleged ‘punch-up’ that happened between Bull and Lineker, during the tournament. It never happened, according to Bully, and I see no reason to doubt him. 

After the World Cup Bully’s England career largely fizzled out and so remained at 13 caps and four goals, ended by new England boss Graham Taylor (1990-93), who clearly never fancied him. 

Or so we thought.  

After Taylor was dismissed by England he ended up at Wolves, so my fears about Bully leaving were given an extra and unwanted boost. Surely, he would be booted out by Taylor to be replaced by Carlton Palmer or some other Taylor favourite? 

Luckily, I was wrong, and Bully got a new lease of life, continuing to score goals by the Bully-load (15 in 30 Division 2 games during 93/94). 

Ever consistent, he scored the following Division 2 goals between 1989-1999: 27, 27, 23, 19, 15, 19, 17, 23, 9, 6 (only 17 games). Amongst these it is only correct and proper to mention his 4-goal salvo against Newcastle, whilst hungover, and his brace against Norwich, when he had had no sleep the night before due to his child being born.   

Sadly, his knees, tackled from behind about thirty times per match, were starting to buckle and so Bully was forced into retirement (July 1999). I remember getting the news at work and having to be sent home, so distraught was I at the news. Seems odd now but that was the impact of the man on so many.    

So, Bully may be gone but the stats are still around, and they make for amazing reading; 561 games, 306 goals, 18 hat tricks. Who is going to do better than that? In addition, Bully has a stand named after him, a fanzine named after him, an MBE and a song written about him. What more could a man wish for?  

Therefore, I consider myself blessed as a fan, as I saw Bully score practically every goal live at the ground. True, I never saw him in the top-flight, but I did see a player whose record will simply never be beaten. I wouldn’t swap any of my Bull memories for those of the current generation as he was unique. 

And he really was one of our own.