The Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004
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Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C.

Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. is a Wolverhampton-based football club playing at Molineux stadium. Founded in 1888 by Jack Swinbourne, John Bayton and Jack Brodie, it was one of the twelve founding members of the English Football League.

Molineux Stadium situated on Waterloo Road has four stands- Billy Wright, Steve Bull, Stan Cullis and Jack Harris stands.

It enjoyed prominence in the 1950s under manager Stan Cullis, winning the first division championship three times and winning the F.A. Cup twice. The club was described by some as the greatest football team in the world after beating the Hungarian side Honved 3-2 after being 2-0 down at half time. Players in the team included Billy Wright (OBE) who was the first footballer to win over a hundred international caps and captained the England team over 90 times. The club's top goalscorer is Steve Bull with 306 goals. Other notable players include Derek Dougan, John Richards, Frank Munro, Mel Eves, Bill Slater, Ron Flowers and Robbie Keane.

Other honours include winning the FA cup four times in 1893, 1908, 1949, 1960 and the League Cup on two occasions in 1974 and 1980.

The club went through a bad spell in the 1980s, being relegated to the Fourth Division and almost going bankrupt. More recently the club was bought by Sir Jack Hayward and is enjoying better times. This general improvement culminated in manager Dave Jones taking the club through the First Division play-offs, into the Premiership for the first time, in 2003.

The club, got off to a disastrous start in the 2003/4 season playing for 2 months without a single win until earning its first premiership win against Manchester City in October. Sir Jack Hayward also stepped down as Chairman and passed the ownership on to his son Rick Hayward writing off the £4040 million owed to him. The club are commonly known as Wolves; the club logo features a wolf head.

The club's fierce local rivals are West Bromwich Albion, "shit on the Albion" being a common chant for Wolves fans, regardless of the occasion. Also the Subway Army are renound for hooliganism at Wolves' matches.


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