DIMINUITIVE WOLF

Happy Birthday Gary Lineker; at 56, you are looking good. Yes, it is the goal poacher's birthday but we know all about him, so why not turn our attention to another birthday boy, Norman Deeley, once of the great late 1950s champions, Wolverhampton Wanderers. Deeley was born on November 30th 1933 and despite his small stature at 4'4", he played for England U15 Schoolboys in 1947 and is recorded as the smallest player to win a schoolboy cap. He then grew a bit.

As an introduction to this, I can just remember watching, on a black and white TV,  Peter McParland of Aston Villa smashing Ray Wood into his own goal during the 1957 FA Cup Final beginning the downfall of Manchester United.
http://sport.bt.com/video/man-utd-keeper-knocked-out-in-1957-fa-cup-final-91363983712008 The following year, the revitalised post Munich disaster, United side suffered the same fate in the 1958 Cup Final when Bolton's Nat Lofthouse bundled Harry Gregg into the net for another goal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13prB-g5fDU
1959 was the Nottingham Forest defeat of Luton Town. I saw them all.

In the 1960 FA Cup Final, Wolves' Norman Deeley was the man of the match, scoring twice in a 3-0 defeat of Blackburn Rovers. Although his performance at Wembley won him Man of the Match, he had gone into a tough tackle with Rovers' defender Dave Whelan, whose leg was broken. Rovers were down to 10 men as there were no subs and the Wolves ran riot. Some say Deeley was lucky to stay on the pitch after the challenge. This clip does not show the tackle!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SmzON6BVFw

Born in Wednesbury, he was destined to join Wolves where he stayed for 11 years. He made his debut against Arsenal winning 2-1 and then did National Service before making 235 appearances at Wolves scoring 75 goals and winning First Division championship medals in 1958 and 1959. He played 41 out of 42 games in the first winning season scoring 23 goals. In the following campaign he turned out 38 times scoring 17 times. In August 1954 he starred in a pulsating Charity Shield match when WBA and Wolves drew 4-4.

His success with Wolves led to two England full caps on an unsuccessful South American tour. he lost his England place soon after that. Deeley went on to play at Leyton Orient and helped them to promote from the Seecond Division as runners up in 1961-2 only to see them relegated the following season. After Orient he went "west" to Worcester City, then Bromsgrove Rovers and ended his playing career at Darlaston Town. He later was a steward at Walsall FC and ran a community centre nearby

Here is Norman dwarfed by two Wolves......who are they?

Deeley died on 7th september 2007. Gary is still with us.