Former Wolves goalkeeper John Ruddy is the guest on a special Wolves Weekly episode, shining a light on his Molineux career, which was influential both on and off the pitch.
Signed on a free transfer in the summer of 2017, following Carl Ikeme’s diagnosis with leukaemia, Ruddy joined in difficult circumstances but showed his professionalism with an incredible campaign to help the old gold back into the Premier League.
The goalkeeper discusses that season at length, including that famous night at the Cardiff City Stadium, as well as the subsequent years where he provided competition to Rui Patricio and Jose Sa and set the highest of standards at Compton Park.
The 36-year-old is now number one at Birmingham City, and also shares the circumstances behind his departure from Molineux in a fascinating special episode of the Wolves Weekly Podcast, available below.
On the couple of weeks which saw Wolves promoted
“It was huge. The Middlesbrough game was on the Friday night after the international break. We had a lot of players away who didn’t get back until the Wednesday or Thursday – Saiss didn’t get back until the Thursday, hence the reason he was laid out on the floor at the Riverside. He travelled to Morocco, played for Morocco, got back so late and put in a shift like he did against Middlesbrough. We went down to nine men, so to come through that victory was huge.
“We moved on to Tuesday, Hull at home where everyone’s thinking easy three points. Oskar Rasmussen comes up with an unbelievable last-minute equaliser to get what in the end turned out to be a valuable point. Then Cardiff was at the end on the Friday as well. The turnaround of that was something [else], that quickly after an international break you probably shouldn’t have that many games in quick succession, but credit to the staff, the physio department, the sports science department, because they were so effective, not only that season, but the seasons moving forward under Nuno, to get through some of the games the boys did was phenomenal. That week in particular was crazy.
“Victory against Middlesbrough. Point and last-minute equaliser against Hull and then obviously Cardiff on the Friday. Before the Middlesbrough game we’d had a bad spell, we lost to Villa, Norwich at home where I let a loose one slip in last minute. If we’d lost to Cardiff, I think it was three points, we ended up winning, so it was nine points, with a handful of games. That was the moment where you thought we’d done it.
“Without being big headed, but we got in the changing room at the end and you could sense the relief of winning that game, especially because of the dramatic effect of the two penalties – to come through it was huge. I remember being on the bus, being sat at the back with 'Benno' [Ryan Bennett], Danny [Bath] and 'Coads' [Conor Coady] and we turned to Rui [Pedro Silva] the assistant and said, ‘Surely we can have a beer’. So, him and Nuno went to the Tesco over the road from Cardiff’s stadium and brought a couple of crates on the bus so we could have them on the way back.”
On not being defined by Cardiff
“I think it got lost, my contribution over the season. Yes, there was goals I probably could have done better, the Norwich goal, Cardiff at home early doors when I felt I was beaten a little bit too easy, and you’re going to have that as a goalkeeper. QPR away, Conor Washington’s goal, I’ve come out and spread, and it’s hit me, hit him and gone in – you can’t legislate for those things but you’re still getting blamed.
“I look at the rest of it. Middlesbrough at home first game of the season, I made a big save when we’re 1-0 up and we win the game. Reading away, a couple of big saves when we’re 1-0 up, and we go and score another. Games like that, and contributions like that, that I think get overlooked. I’m not taking anything away from the Cardiff penalty save because at that moment, and that stage of the season, it was massive, but that was the 40th or 41st game.
“There’s a lot of games gone before, and I kept 24 clean sheets that season, so that was just one. Some games I didn’t have much to do, no problem, I love those games, but the majority of the time you keep a clean sheet because you’re doing what you need to do. Sometimes it goes unnoticed and sometimes it gets more recognition than other things. For me, I don’t want my Wolves career to be defined as the Cardiff game, I understand it will, but for me that whole first season was a reflection of me as a goalkeeper, more than just one game.”
On setting standards at the club
“My mindset was, ‘What am I going to get from the day’. I’ll do my bit with [Rui] Barbosa or Tony Roberts, I’ve done my goalkeeper bit and made sure I’ve got everything I can out of that, I do my bit in the gym, being in the physical condition to perform as and when needed, then it was about creating standards throughout the whole squad.
“We had very, very good people and it didn’t take a lot of reminding. They knew what they needed to do. You might need to give them a rocket a couple of times to get them back on track, everyone has bad days, but make sure those bad days are few and far between because when you do get the opportunity, and if you don’t perform, everyone will say it’s because you’ve not done things right.
“You don’t want to give people excuses to not pick you, make sure the direct competition for your place is performing well enough so they wish they could give you an opportunity. I had to make sure I was doing what’s best for me, but that reflects on the rest of the team and certainly the other goalkeeper.”
