"Number 44 - Wolverhampton Wanderers will play... number 49 - Cambridge United."

[Continued from part 1]

Two goalkeepers have plied their trade for both Cambridge and Wolves. The first of these was Roger Hansbury. Roger had previously had a loan spell with the U's whilst he was with Norwich, but a failure to break into the Canaries first team due to the fine form of Kevin Keelan and Chris Woods saw Hansbury move to Hong Kong to play for Eastern Athletic. He returned to England with Burnley in 1983, making 83 appearances before moving to the Abbey in 1985. After 37 appearances for Cambridge he moved onto Birmingham and then Cardiff City, and it was when he was with the former that he had a loan spell with Wolves where he made three appearances in the 1988/89 season. Roger now runs a greeting cards shop in the West Midlands.

The second of the goalkeepers is Scott Barrett. Scott began his career with Derbyshire side Ilkeston Town but signed for Wolves aged 19 for an undisclosed fee in September 1984. 35 appearances later he signed for Stoke in July 1987 for a £10,000 fee, and 60 games for Stoke and loan spells at Colchester and Stockport followed before he was released in the summer of 1991.

He subsequently signed for one of the sides he had spent time on loan at, Conference side Colchester United. It would be with Colchester that he would complete a feat only achieved by a handful of goalkeepers - he scored. Wycombe was the location, with the game between the top two sides in the Conference evenly poised at 1-1 in injury time and heading for a draw. Barrett launched the ball from his own area, and due to the fact that he had an above average kick on him, it sailed into the back of the Chairboy's net. Colchester went on to win the league and promotion back to the Football League on goal difference from Wycombe after they had both amassed 92 points.

After a three year period with Gillingham, Scott was signed by new U's manager Tommy Taylor to be the number one.

Barrett made 135 appearances for Cambridge until January 1999 when he moved on a free transfer to Leyton Orient to link up once again with Taylor, having lost his place in the U's promotion-chasing side to Arjan 'Ice' Van Heusden. Scott ended his playing career with Orient in the summer of 2003 and soon after became the assistant to Mark Stimson at Grays Athletic. When Stimson moved to Stevenage at the start of the 2006/07 season Barrett followed him and later stayed loyal to Stimson when in November 2007 he took the reins at Gillingham, one of Barrett's former clubs.

Midfielder maestro Micky Holmes joined Wolves in 1985 from Bradford City and played in 83 league games scoring 13 goals, including a run in 1987 when he scored seven goals in seven consecutive games; a club post-war record he shares with Kenny Miller and Jimmy Murray. Micky left Wolverhampton at the start of the 1988/89 season and following a brief spell with Huddersfield Town he joined Cambridge United where he made 11 appearances including four as a substitute. He left Cambridge the following summer and played out the rest of his career at Rochdale, Torquay, Carlisle and Northampton. Holmes is currently a scout with Blue Square Premier side Stafford Rangers.

Four former Wolverhampton Wanderers youth team products have appeared in the Amber and Black as well.

The first of these was Forward Nathan Lamey who made six appearances for the U's between August 1999 and his release in January 2001. Following his release he signed for Solihull based Moor Green FC and later had spells with Hinckley United, Hitchin Town, Halesowen Town and Hednesford Town. Last season he netted 31 goals for Bromsgrove Rovers as they won promotion from the British Gas Business Midlands League Division One. He was released in October 2007 and has since signed for FA Cup loving Chasetown, but will be unable to play any part in their FA Cup games having already played in the competition for Bromsgrove in the qualifying rounds.

Chris Clarke also came through the youth ranks at Molineux. He was released by Wolves without a first team appearance and went on to play for Halifax Town until a £120,000 move to Blackpool.

Having made 60 appearances for the Bloomfield Road side, he became one of Claude Le Roy's first signings, but only made one appearance as a substitute, coming on for Shane Tudor in the 79th minute in Le Roy and Renard's first match in charge.  It was a 2-1 victory over Cheltenham Town in a match that saw John Turner score the U's 2,000th League goal. Chris now plays for Bradford Park Avenue, the side that Cambridge replaced in the Football League in 1970.

John Beck's final signing of his second spell in charge was the loan signing of a winger from Wolverhampton Wanderers called Shane Tudor.

Shane had only made one appearance as substitute for Darren Bazeley in a 1-0 win for Wolves against Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough. He later made the move to the Abbey Stadium permanent and went on to make a total of 148 appearances, scoring 26 goals along the way, some of which were exceptional strikes. None more so than his stunning goal against Rochdale at the Abbey in March 2003, a strike hit with so much venom that he injured his hamstring in the process and limped off the pitch immediately.

Tudor's career with Cambridge ended in the summer of 2005 as Cambridge lost their league status and slipped into administration. He signed for Leyton Orient for the next two seasons, winning promotion to League One in the first of those two, but was released at the end of the second season as Orient looked to rebuild after narrowly escaping relegation.

Tudor signed for Port Vale in the summer but following the exit of Martin Foyle as manager he was sent out on loan to Shrewsbury in League Two but didn't make an appearance as his hamstring problems struck again and he returned to Port Vale for treatment.

One of Tudor's team mates in the Wolves Academy was Jermaine Easter. Jermaine was released to Hartlepool without appearing for the Wanderers' first team and it didn't work out much better for the pacy forward with the Pools either as he was restricted to just substitute appearances.

In February 2004 he linked up with Tudor again, this time with Cambridge United, initially on loan, but the deal was to be made permanent in the summer when Easter's contract with Hartlepool ran out.

Cambridge were struggling on and off the pitch and this reflected Easter's confidence as his pace would create him several chances every game but he was unable to take them. His 13 month spell with the U's yielded 9 goals in 43 appearances by the time Steve Thompson let him go on a free transfer to Boston United.

Jermaine rebuilt his career with Stockport County, scoring 11 goals in 23 appearances, and he was signed by Wycombe Wanderers for an £80,000 fee as a replacement for the recently departed Nathan Tyson.

Easter scored 28 goals in 70 games for the Chairboys, including the equalising goal in their 1-1 draw with Chelsea in the League Cup Semi-Final 1st Leg. At the end of October Jermaine joined Plymouth Argyle on loan with a view to a permanent move in January when the transfer window opens. Whether the deal will go ahead is not certain as he was signed by manager Ian Holloway before he departed for Leicester; however it is unlikely he will return to Wycombe as he fell out with manager Paul Lambert after being denied a move to Plymouth in the summer and consequently being left out of the side.

Playing 50 games for Wolves and scoring once, Shane Westley also played three games for the U's in the autumn of 1995. He signed for Wolves for £150,000 from Southend United in the summer of 1989 before a move to Brentford for £100,000 in October 1992. After joining Cambridge in August 1995, following his release from Brentford, he struggled to hold down a regular place in the side and was signed by Lincoln City manager John Beck.

He was in the twilight of his career but made a move into coaching and when Beck left in March 1997 Westley took the helm. He won promotion with the Imps to the third tier in 1998 but following a poor start to the next season he was sacked in November.

He returned to Cambridge in February 2001 as Beck's assistant as they helped Cambridge to escape relegation following the dismissal of Roy McFarland.

A poor start to the following campaign saw Beck and Westley removed from their jobs and John Taylor put in charge. They did however leave behind something positive for the Cambridge faithful; amongst the many signings made by Beck and Westley was one David Kitson.

That's it for now, but we await with anticipation what should be a fascinating match at Molineux in January, with the knowledge that if we see performances like those from Sinton, Streete, Claridge and Craddock then we are in for a wonderful match.

Bye for now and keep bouncing!!

Come on you U's

Neal Suckling

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