The goal was under siege in the Cup final, but that just brought out the best in Gary

A tribute to Gary Pierce, who died at the end of May

- By CLIVE CORBETT Bugle correspondent

MAY 24, 2025, saw the sad passing of another Wolves hero, Gary Pierce.

Born in Bury and plying his trade with Huddersfield Town in the third tier, the 22-year-old goalkeeper was Bill McGarry’s only pre-season signing (for £45,000) in the summer of 1973.

He arrived at Molineux just two days before the start of a tour of Sweden but had to wait until 15 September to oust Phil Parkes and make his league debut, in a 2-0 loss at Newcastle.

According to the Sports Argus, Wolves’ form rate was ‘dismal’ and the performance of debutant Gary Pierce provided one of the few bright spots as he ended Parkes’ club record-breaking run of 127 consecutive appearances over three years that had been previously held by Noel George. Gary played just a further five games before Christmas until fate took a hand.

January 26,1974, saw Wolves overcome Norwich in a League Cup tie to reach a first Wembley final in 14 years. Phil Parkes takes up the story:

“The Monday after the semi we went training. Bill (McGarry) said, ‘We're just going to play five a side up in the gym. If you want to go to the race course with the young kids and do some goalkeeping that'll be alright’

“So I did that. We'd only been there about twenty minutes and one of the kids had a shot. I started to go down and my studs stuck in the turf. I couldn’t stop myself and went over. I did all my ligaments and broke my ankle.”