The club paid a big fee to Brentford for the transfer of Peter Broadbent, a 17-year-old inside-forward from Dover, who, I thought, could well develop into one of the outstanding inside-forwards of his day. Broadbent, in addition to the normal qualities of an inside-forward, also had considerable pace, and a flair for going past a defender in the fashion of a winger.

Consequently, we often used him as an advanced winger lying on the touchline twenty yards or more ahead of Hancocks. When the ball came out of defence to Hancocks, he was able to chip it accurately to Broadbent who was frequently clear on his own. This stratagem, designed to make the fullest use of the best qualities of both players, was also extremely successful, for the full-back marking Hancocks was caught between two men and played out of the game.

As we were working largely to the law of averages, determined to ensure that the ball spent a far larger proportion of each match in front of the opposition goal than in front of ours, it is a logical sequel that, once we had put the ball into the other team's danger area, we could not afford to allow them to obtain possession of it without a fight. So I needed forwards who could challenge and tackle and struggle for every loose ball.

In 1950, I was fortunate in that I had an ideal player for this type of game in Roy Swinbourne, the young Yorkshireman who came to Molineux from Wath Wanderers, the nursery team of Wolves which is run by Mark Crook, one of our old players. Tall and strong, Swinbourne could gain possession of the ball on the ground and, in the air, he could beat most defenders. As he learned, and removed the rough edges from his game, he developed into a first-class centre-forward for Wolves and was just coming to the peak of his career when he injured a knee in the last minute of a game at Preston.

This unfortunate injury happened early in the 1955-6 season and, although he tried for nearly two years to find his old speed, Swinbourne never recovered from that accident and now he has to be content to referee local games in Wolverhampton. Although the game may have found a first-rate official, football lost a potentially great centre-forward.

At the time of Swinbourne's accident, I knew that Wolves would find it very difficult to replace a key man in the tactical plan. I did not realize that, three years later, as we played in the European Cup for the first time, I would still be without an adequate substitute.

For Swinbourne was one of the few powerful forwards in the modern game who could fight and tackle for every ball in the manner of Peter Doherty, Raich Carter or Jimmy Hagan.

(2) Ron Flowers, For Wolves and England (1962)

Before going to bed I took a walk around Wolverhampton and met Peter Broadbent, the Wolves and England inside-right, who told me I was going to "dig" with him at the house of Mrs. Long in Chester Street, Wolverhampton. "She'll look after you like a mother," was Peter's comforting tip, "and, don't forget, if I can give you any help never hesitate to ask."

The following morning Neal and I had to report to Joe Gardiner, the Wolves trainer, and George Poyser, the club coach, two men of great experience; kind-hearted fellows whose lifetime in the game has given them a human approach to young footballers which I know from experience is a most wonderful thing.

(3) Brian Glanville, The Guardian (1st October, 2003)

Born in Elvington, north of Dover, Kent, Broadbent was discovered as a 16-year-old by the manager of the Dover football club. The following year Broadbent joined Brentford, where he became a professional. Precociously effective, a neat ball player of constructive flair, he was soon a regular choice for the Second Division side.

He was snapped up for £10,000 for Wolves in February 1951 by Stanley Cullis, who spotted that Broadbent was having breathing problems. He secretly had photographs taken of the player and sent him to a specialist, who found that Broadbent was not inhaling and exhaling correctly. Treatment and exercises followed, so that, in Cullis's words: "It has worked wonders and Peter is a different player. We aim to play football just a little bit quicker than our opponents and Peter has fitted into our scheme of things."

That scheme of things was Wolves' famous – or notorious – long-ball game, but Broadbent was a privileged figure in being allowed somewhat more time on the ball. Though he was best known as a maker rather than a scorer of goals, he could get them too, and helped Wolves to the First Division championship in 1953-54, 1957-58 and again in 1958-59. In 1960 he added an FA Cup Final winners' medal at Wembley, when he was inside-left in the team which beat a 10-man Blackburn Rovers. He called it his greatest satisfaction.

In 1954 I saw Broadbent in England's first-ever under-23 international, and his first taste of international football, in Bologna. The team also included the versatile Duncan Edwards, but the Italians won, 3-0.

Broadbent's two full-international goals came in the same match, against Wales in November 1958 at Villa Park. Though reduced to 10 men for much of the game, a gallant Welsh side seemed in sight of victory, but twice Broadbent equalised, first with a clever lob over the head of the Welsh keeper, Jack Kelsey, then with a header. After that one full season in the England team, ending in Rio with a match against Brazil, Broadbent slipped out of international football but for the game in Glasgow the following year.

In January 1965, Broadbent was transferred to Third Division Shrewsbury Town, but he stayed only till October 1966, when he joined Aston Villa. The spark seemed, however, to have gone out of his game in this three years there, for he played mostly in the reserves. He then played a season each for Stockport County and Bromsgrove Rovers, before retiring in 1971.