Wolves v West Bromwich Albion: Why the Black Country derby means so much

Wolverhampton Wanderers v West Bromwich Albion. The Black Country derby. A fixture that goes back to the very dawn of English footballing time itself.

Now it’s back as a league fixture for the first time in more than five years, and in front of fans at Molineux since 2012.

It was first contested as a league game in December 1888 – the very first season of the Football League – when Wolves won 2-1. However, Albion had already won their first two meetings, in 1886 and 1887, both in the FA Cup.

Since then, there have been so many derby memories, both magic and tragic at opposite ends of the emotional scale.

And, since the explosion of televised football, so many of those moments captured on video to be relived – or mentally erased depending on your allegiance – over and over again.

It’s a fixture that the Black Country never stops talking about, the first the fans look for when the sides are in the same division.

And the pre-match banter begins earlier with every staging – and every look back at all those derby highlights from the past 40 years.

Steve Bull’s first derby goal in 1989, a toothlessly grinning Iwan Roberts’ Hawthorns hat-trick in 1996, George Ndah’s double on the back of an inspired Keith Andrews performance in 2001 and two-goal Steven Fletcher’s matchwinning efforts in May 2011 to help keep Mick McCarthy’s side in the Premier League.

For Albion, there was Darren Bradley’s 35-yard screamer in 1993, Bob Taylor’s late Hawthorns clincher in 1995, Jordao’s Molineux matchwinner in December 2001, the season when Albion pipped Wolves for promotion by three points, and Carlos Vela’s injury-time equaliser in Roy Hodgson’s first game in charge in 2011.

And then there was that famous 5-1.