The Last Hurrahs
Hughes made his Wolves début at the Baseball Ground on Wednesday, 22 August 1979 in a 1–0 win over Derby County.
Hughes went on to win the League Cup in his first season with Wolves – the only trophy he did not win with Liverpool – and duly lifted it as captain after a surprise 1–0 win over Nottingham Forest at Wembley. He was also decorated with the OBE for services to football and featured on the television tribute show This Is Your Life.
He continued to be selected for England squads even after leaving Liverpool. He featured sporadically in England's successful qualifying campaign for the 1980 European Championships, he captained the team for the final time in the 1–1 1980 Home International game with Northern Ireland draw at Wembley, and won his 62nd and final cap against Scotland in the next game as a substitute.
Greenwood still put him in the squad for the European Championship finals in Italy as experienced back-up, but Hughes ultimately did not play as England were eliminated in the group stages. Hughes was England's only connection with their previous foray into the finals of a tournament – the 1970 World Cup – but his non-participation in either earned him the dubious honour of being England's most capped player never to feature in a major finals. A more acceptable honour was that of becoming only the fifth player to represent England in three separate decades, joining Jesse Pennington, Stanley Matthews, Bobby Charlton and Peter Shilton. The 57 caps Hughes earned in the 1970s make him the most capped England player of that inauspicious decade.
Read more about this topic: Emlyn Hughes
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