Wolves In 2004 - Part Three - May, June and July

JUDAS
By Scott Cooper
December 30 2004

WOLVES In 2004: Part Three of our four part special where we look at Wolves in the year 2004. Today we take a look at May, June and July.

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WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS IN
2004

Part Three

MAY

Wolves hosted Everton for the first game in May, but Wolves would have needed to win and hope results went for them if Wolves were to survive in the Premiership.

After going down to an early goal Wolves rallied together putting in one of the greatest second halves of the season. Carl Cort and Henri Camara both scored excellent goals, but the joy was short-lived.

As Wolves celebrated such a great win news filtered through to Molineux that Manchester City had earned a shock win against Newcastle United. The news meant that Wolves had been relegated.

With relegation confirmed Wolves headed North to Newcastle for the penultimate game of the season. Wolves packed the away end and it was a game used as a party for all who traveled.

Mexican Waves and dancing filled the away end of St James' Park and they had something to cheer about when Vio Ganea cancelled out Lee Bowyers' opening goal.

It was a game Newcastle needed to win in order to qualify for the Champions League but Paul Jones became the Wolves hero as he saved an Alan Shearer penalty during injury time. Wolves were down, but certainly not out.

Spurs were the last Premiership side to visit Molineux for the final game of the season. However the game was somewhat of an anti-climax as the end of season party was short-lived as Defoe and Wolves man Robbie Keane earned the visitors a 2-0 win.

JUNE

Wolves assistant Manager signed a new two-year deal at Molineux and Paul Butler's agent confirmed he would not be signing a new contract at Molineux.

However the following week Vio Ganea confirmed he would be staying at Molineux for the next two-years and the Wolves Masters side made history in the Midland Masters by beating Birmingham City 8-0 in the final - a Masters Football record win.

Sadly the following week was one full of tragedy as Wolves Fan Stephen Smith was murdered in Portugal as he celebrated England's win over Croatia. Police later confirmed that the murder was NOT football related and the whole country paid their respect as make-shift shrines were placed in Lisbon and at Molineux.

JULY

Henry Camara decided he didn't want to play for Wolves and refused to return to Molineux.

Aston Villa full-back Rob Edwards signed for £250,000 whilst Wolves paid over £1.7M for Nigerian International midfielder Seyi George Olofinjana.

Henri Camara joined Celtic for a record loan fee but Wolves were hit with the news that Romanian International Vio Ganea would be out for the whole of the 2004/05 season following an injury he had picked up whilst Wolves were on tour in Norway.

A little good news followed towards the end of the month however as Paul Ince signed on the dotted line for one last season.