Historic thumping that thrilled Molineux

As Wolves gear up for Thursday's match against the Reds, let's take a flashback to a scoreline which would be very agreeable – Wolves 6, Man U 2.

It was a high scoring game against United the like of which has never been seen since.

And this photo from our archives captures one of the goals at Molineux on that day, although admittedly it's going back a bit, to Saturday, October 4, 1952.

The original caption was: "All these Manchester United defenders – Aston, Gibson, Carey, McNulty and Allen – were surprised when Swinbourne's 35 yard shot rocketed towards their goal at Molineux on Saturday, but not 'Express and Star' cameraman Jack Muddell, whose picture 'stops' the ball a fraction of a second before it crashed into the top of the net."

Remarkably United had gone two goals up within 20 minutes, and it was a hard pill for Wolves fans to swallow as it was Wolverhampton-born Jack Rowley wot was to blame. But 20 minutes later Wolves were level through Wilshaw and Swinbourne, and a minute after half time Jimmy Mullen put them ahead.

The Wolves side, bolstered by reserves and with Billy Wright missing, then steamrollered the visitors in front of an enthralled 40,132 crowd – although maybe the United fans among them were somewhat less enthralled.

Centre forward Roy Swinbourne scored a hat-trick to bring his season's tally up to 10. Our Star man at the game reckoned his second, that shot captured by our cameraman, "may well prove to be one of the most spectacular of his career."

Drawn from the reserves were wing halves Bill Slater and Ron Flowers.

"The former looked as though he was playing with an open text book in his hand, and Flowers, playing his second game, might have been a man with a wide experience of the First Division."

Wolves fans, prepare to gloat at our Star man's verdict, and hope for a repeat at Thursday's match.

"Seldom has anybody at Molineux in recent years seen a United side so utterly disunited."