Silent British Movietone footage of a friendly match between Wolves and Swedish team IFK Norrköping at Molineux on 11th November 1946.

Friendlies against foreign opposition are synonymous with Wolves' history. Floodlit matches against Spartak Moscow, Dynamo Moscow, Honved and Real Madrid captured the imagination of the Wolverhampton public, with huge national interest also shown for the match against Honved in particular.

Wolves had begun to forge links with the continent some years before; legendary manager Major Frank Buckley took his Wolves team on a close season tour of France in 1933 for matches against Racing Club de Paris, Marseilles, Nice and Nîmes. Although the match against Nice proved to be a decidedly unfriendly encounter, with Buckley removing his players from the pitch following serious disorder, the French team visited Molineux for a return friendly the following season.

In stark contrast to the excitement generated by the visits of foreign sides to Molineux in the 1950s - reflected by sell out crowds of 55,000, early encounters with foreign teams at first garnered little interest in Wolverhampton. The Yugoslav team Pavi Kavatski Gradjanski, for instance, attracted just 646 to Molineux on a foggy November day in 1936.

A decade later, the match against IFK Norrköping attracted considerably more spectators, with over 30,000 at Molineux to see the final match of the Swedish team's tour of England. Lajos Czeizler's side had begun their tour with a victory over Charlton Athletic on 29th October, followed by a convincing 5-2 win against Sheffield United and a further victory at Newcatle United five days before their match at Molineux.

Ted Vizard's talented Wolves team included centre half Stan Cullis (in his final season as a Wolves player before later achieving great success as Wolves manager) and players that formed part of Wolves' 1949 FA Cup winning team; goalkeeper Bert Williams, full back Roy Pritchard, wing half Billy Crook, right winger Johnny Hancocks and centre forward Jesse Pye. Williams, Pritchard and Hancocks were also integral members of the Wolves team that won the First Division title for the first time in 1953-54.

IFK Norrköping, captained by Birger Rosengren, were the dominant force in post war Swedish football and completed a third successive league title at the conclusion of the 1946-47 season. In Gunnar Nordahl, Norrköping possessed one of the most prolific strikers in the history of the game. A legendary figure of Italian football, the Swedish international remains AC Milan's record goalscorer with a remarkable 210 goals in 257 appearances. For Norrköping, before his move to Milan in 1949, Nordahl scored 93 goals in 95 appearances and, somewhat predictably, scored Norrköping's goal in the 1-1 draw with Wolves.

Teams:

Wolves: Bert Williams, Angus McLean, Roy Pritchard, Billy Crook, Stan Cullis, David Miller, Teddy Maguire, Alex McIntosh, Jesse Pye, Willie Forbes, Johnny Hancocks

IFK Norrköping: Torsten Lindberg, Knut Nordahl, Oscar Holmqvist, Birger Rosengren, Einar Steen, Lennart Wigren, Halvar Carlbom, Nils Liedholm, Gunnar Nordahl, Eric Holmqvist, Sven Persson

Scorers (not shown in footage):

1-0 Billy Cook (40)
1-1 Gunnar Nordahl (62)