I think it’s fair to say that whenever the Wolves have played at home in the Premiership this season, there has always been a degree of expectancy and excitement. However, despite Arsenal’s flair and Chelsea’s money, this was always going to be the big one: Manchester United, probably the wealthiest football club in the world and currently top of the league versus the Wolves, currently bottom. Matches simply don’t get bigger than this.

Would Sir Alex field his strongest team or would he rest some of his stars? Well – we soon found out. Yes, barring injuries to Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs, this was his best X1. Wolves on the other hand were without Camera and Blake.

Another early kick-off, to suit TV (no comments), a highly charged atmosphere and what turned out to be a record attendance and we were away.

The match started at a fair old pace with strong tackles going in from both sides; no patient football here, with both Alex Rae and Rio Ferdinand picking up injuries early on, Butler was booked rather harshly and both Rae and Ince had shots that were well off target. As the first half progressed, United seemed to be channelling most of their attacks down their right hand side with Fletcher heavily involved. This put pressure on Lee Naylor, who needed all the help he could get from Mark Kennedy. Half an hour gone and there were one or two scary moments in the Wolves penalty area, Oakes coming for a rather awkward ball that he failed to collect but fortunately Kennedy managed to clear. At the other end, Iversen was winning most of the balls in the air but unfortunately Miller wasn’t always suitably positioned to take full advantage of them.

As half time approached, United really put the pressure on with Van Nistelroy missing a sharp chance right in front of goal. Wolves battled manfully, kept their shape and went off at the break with a clean sheet knowing full well that they would have to do it all again in the next 45 minutes.

The second half started with both teams attempting to win midfield supremacy. Ince and Rae were outstanding but were matched by the ‘regal’ Keane and Paul Scholes who seemed to be everywhere. However, it was the Wolves who came nearest to breaking the deadlock when Paul Ince curled a 25 yard shot against the post with the United keeper well beaten. Following this, Scholes brought a great save from Oakes in the Wolves goal.

Wes Brown replaced Ferdinand and at this stage, Wolves were matching United in all areas. Then half way through the second half, it happened. From nowhere, Miller had the ball at his feet, side-stepped Brown who slipped, took the ball on and calmly stroked it past the United keeper into the net. The impossible was now a possibility; could the Wolves hold on? The crowd went wild. Needless to say United threw everything at the Wolves but there was magnificent defending by every single player and I don’t think I’ve ever seen both Kennedy and Newton work so hard on their defensive duties.

The three minutes of added time seemed like an eternity and I tried not to break into an inane grin for fear of a return goal in the dying seconds. The Wolves held on and at the final whistle the crowd were ecstatic echoing memories of the Millennium Stadium way back last May.

I stood for a few moments staring at the pitch (with my firmly fixed grin!) to let the result sink in. Then the cherry on the icing on the cake – I celebrated with a few bevvies with Bully – what a perfect day!