'Keep dancing' - why win over Shrewsbury mattered
- Published
The smiler returns.
No doubt most professional footballers are pleased with their career choice – so they should be, you might say – but it's hard to think of many who so obviously find such joy in their work as Rodrigo Gomes.
"It was a perfect day, perfect return," he said after making his first appearance since an operation in October. Bounding on to the stage grinning like a Strictly winner, he scored a goal, brought the house down, and grinned some more. Keep dancing.
Granted, Shrewsbury Town were not Premier League opponents, but in a season which has generated so much angst for the club and supporters, there was no reason to be modest with their celebrations. There is a growing sense that the dark clouds are beginning to lift. Relegation may still be coming, but a brighter time beyond that is starting to appear in view.
Taking pleasure where they can on the journey will be necessary to pull Wolves through the tougher parts, and they will need happy warriors like Gomes to light the way forward. Reading the room, Rob Edwards gently admonished my suggestion that it had been a very satisfactory day. "I think we can go a bit more than that... it was an enjoyable day all round," he said. So it was.
That enjoyment, rather than the football itself – good though much of it was – may be the long-lasting benefit from the weekend, and more rewarding over time than the awkward assignment of Grimsby Town in the fourth round. Not only was the attendance rather larger than many predictions – more than 21,000 in the home sections – but you could tell that this was not entirely the usual crowd.
On social media, proud parents announced the day that their children were going to Molineux for the first time. For many Wolves-supporting families, a season ticket for everyone is a financial impossibility. The club's decision to cut prices so sharply for this fixture gave them an opportunity to reconnect, and pass on that connection to a new generation. A young child who sees six goals the first time they're taken to football is probably going to want to go again.
And that matters because, if by next season the glitz and worldwide pull of the Premier League has gone, Wolves will need those people to help them start a cycle of renewal.
All clubs experience this sometimes. For some in that youngest generation, Shrewsbury in January 2026 will be the day the football bug bit, the day the cycle began again.
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