Steve Bull

Stephen George Bull (born 28 March 1965) is an English former professional footballer who is best remembered for his 13-year spell at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Bull was born in Tipton and started school in September 1969 at Wednesbury Oak Primary School and moved up to Willingsworth High School in September 1976, by which time he was excelling in school football teams.

The junior teams he played for included Ocker Hill infants, Red Lion and Newey Goodman.

He left school in 1981 to join non-league Tipton Town.

During this time he also held down a succession of factory jobs in addition to playing local league games.

He began his professional career, aged 19, after being recommended to West Bromwich Albion in 1984 by his Tipton Town manager Sid Day, who also worked as a scout for the Baggies.

After initially having to train with the club's youth ranks, he was quickly offered a pro contract and moved into first team contention.

He made his senior debut on 23 October 1985, replacing Garth Crooks in a 2–1 Full Members Cup win against Crystal Palace.

He played there from 1986 until his retirement from playing in 1999, and holds the club's goalscoring record with 306 goals, which included 18 hat-tricks for the club.

He made his league debut as a substitute against QPR, away, on 12 April 1986 (lost 1–0), and his full debut at home to Sheffield Wednesday on 22 April (drew 1-1); they were his only league appearances that season and only appearances in top flight football.

Bull played three Second Division games for Albion after they were relegated in 1986, scoring twice, and also scored one goal in two League Cup appearances for the club.

Bull knew it would be difficult to break the Crooks/Varadi partnership, so was prepared to drop to the bottom tier in search of first team football.

In November 1986, he was sold to local rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers, along with Andy Thompson, for £65,000 where he remained until the end of his professional career in 1999, being one of Wolves' most loyal players.

Bull's debut for Wolves, then languishing in the Fourth Division, was against Wrexham on 22 November 1986.

His first goal for the club came on 2 December 1986 in the Associate Members' Cup as Wolves beat Cardiff City 1–0 at Ninian Park.

In over 13 years at Wolves, Bull broke four of the club's goalscoring records.

He became their all-time leading goalscorer with 306 goals in competitive games (250 of them in the Football League, also a club record) and became their highest goalscorer in a single season when he scored 52 goals in competitive games during the 1987–88 season.

Bull also scored a club record of 18 hat-tricks - the first of them against Hartlepool United in a 4-1 Fourth Division home win on 9 May 1987, the last on 17 August 1996 in a 3-0 Division One away win over Grimsby Town.

Bull's first season at the club saw him score a total of 19 goals for Wolves - 15 of them in the Fourth Division, in which they finished fourth - although they lost out on promotion after being beaten by Aldershot in the playoffs.

In the 1987–88 season, Wolves won the Fourth Division championship and became the first of only five teams (later matched by Burnley, Preston North End, Portsmouth and Sheffield United) to have been champions of all four divisions in the English league.

Bull's impressive total of 52 goals in all competitions during the season included 34 goals in the league, with league hat-tricks against Exeter City and Darlington.

He also scored hat-tricks in cup competitions against Cheltenham Town and Brentford.

His 50th goal came just 15 months after signing for Wolves, when he found the net twice in a 4–0 home win against Peterborough United on 9 February 1988.

In the 1988–89 season, Bull inspired Wolves to a second successive promotion, this time as Third Division champions, with 50 goals - marking a tally of 102 goals in two seasons.

While still playing in the Third Division, he was selected for the England team and scored on his debut against Scotland at Hampden Park.

Thirty-seven of his goals that season came in the league for Wolves.

He achieved his first four-goal haul on 26 November 1988 in a 6–0 home win over Preston North End, scoring a hat-trick the following month in a 6–2 home victory over Mansfield Town.

He managed a third league hat-trick that season in a 5–2 February home win over Fulham.

He also scored freely in the cups, scoring four against Port Vale in the Associate Members' Cup and then against Bristol City in the same competition.

He was capped 13 times for the England team between 1989 and 1990, scoring four goals.

On 24 January 1989, after just over two years at the club, he took his Wolves goal tally to over 100 with a hat-trick in a Third Division game against Bristol City at Molineux, which Wolves won 3–0.

In 1989–90, he finally played Second Division football for Wolves, his first goal at this level coming on 26 August 1989 in a 1–1 home draw with Bradford City.

On Boxing Day, he scored his 10th Second Division goal of the season, before impressively grabbing all four goals for Wolves in their 4–1 win at promotion-chasing Newcastle United on New Year's Day 1990.

On 20 March, in the Black Country derby at Molineux (the first to be played there for six years), as Wolves beat struggling Albion 2–1 to boost their promotion hopes, Bull scored his 20th league goal of the campaign.

A hat-trick against Leicester City followed a month later, and he finished that campaign with 24 league goals and 26 in all competitions, although Wolves missed out on the playoffs and the chance of a third successive promotion.

He started the 1990–91 season in style with both goals at home to promotion favourites Oldham Athletic, who came away from the Molineux with a 3–2 victory.

These goals took his tally in all competitions to 150 goals in just under four years with Wolves.

A hat-trick in a 4–0 home win over Bristol City took him to 11 Second Division goals by 6 October, and he reached the 20-goal margin (for the fourth reason running) on 26 February as they beat Port Vale 3–1 at home.

A hat-trick at home to Oxford United in a thrilling 3–3 draw came the following month, and Bull finished the season with 25 goals in the league and 26 in all competitions, although once again Wolves missed out on the playoffs and the chance of promotion.

Late in the 1991-92 season, he scored his 195th competitive goal for Wolves after just over five years at the club, breaking the club's decade-old goalscoring record set by John Richards.