Alf Wood - a real Shrewsbury legend

Legendary defender-turned-forward Alf Wood passed away this week aged 74 after a long battle with dementia.

You would go a long way to find a more impressive personal season by any Shrewsbury player than his 40-goal haul in 1971/72 after manager Harry Gregg, who died in February, made the ‘masterstroke’ of converting Wood into a fearsome forward.

Gregg’s Town were short on goals in the Third Division that year. Wood, signed from Manchester City in 1966 as a young defender after impressing twice against Shrewsbury in the FA Cup ties of 1964/65, had filled the hole in previous seasons, with his bustling style proving a nuisance for defenders.

But the move to sign Scot Jim Holton from West Bromwich Albion to play at the heart of defence as Wood took the No.9 shirt on a permanent basis did not go down well initially.

“I remember Harry saying that he got in trouble at a fans’ meeting after telling supporters he was moving Alf from centre-back to centre-forward,” recalls former Shropshire Star sports reporter Bob Davies.

“He said he was going to bring in someone else in defence and they said he was crazy and that he did not know what he was doing.

“Alf became a prolific goalscorer, it was a masterstroke (by Gregg) really.”

After being moved further up the pitch later in his Town career, Wood was remembered as a bustling forward with a fierce header and strike in his armoury by retired journalist Davies.

Perhaps Wood’s finest 90 minutes in Town colours were early on in that season. A 7-1 hammering of Blackburn in early October, where Town’s marauding forward took advantage of injured Rovers keeper Roger Jones to convert five goals – four headers and a penalty.

Davies recalled: “I vividly remember we beat Blackburn 7-1 and he got five goals.

“I described one of the goals as ‘he nodded it in’ and next time he saw me he said ‘Nodded it in? It went like a f***ing rocket!’

“He was a nice friendly fellow when you came across him, like they all were. You could have a conversation with them all.”

That season, which also saw the Macclesfield-born forward score in seven successive games for Town, ended in a flurry for Wood as five goals in the final two games saw him up to 40 to surpass the record of 39 belonging to Arthur Rowley – who brought him to Gay Meadow six years earlier. Wood was unsurprisingly snapped up by Second Division Millwall for £45,000 that summer after 40 goals in 51 appearances took his Shrewsbury total to 74 goals in 284 games in all competitions.

An inductee into Town’s Hall of Fame, one extract from history book Breathe On ‘Em Salop encapsulates Wood who, while filling in defence wearing his No.9, ‘had a real battle with Andy Lockhead and left the field sporting an impression of the Scotsman’s teeth on his shoulder’.

“He was really a tough player. A tough defender and then a tough centre-forward,” Davies added. “I imagine there were very few centre-backs in that league that wanted to play against him.

“He was not a great big fellow for a centre-back or indeed a forward but he certainly instilled fear into defences.

“He had that presence about him. You knew he would score goals.

“Alf was a very, very popular fellow and deserving of being a club legend.”

Wood, who is survived by wife Joan and daughters Karen and Samantha, was prolific at Millwall, where he holds legendary status after just two seasons and enjoyed spells at Hull, Middlesbrough and Walsall.

He retired after a season with non-league Stafford Rangers in 1978/79. While Shrewsbury were storming their way to the Third Division title, Wood fittingly bowed out in style, netting both goals in a 2-0 FA Trophy final victory at Wembley.