WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS
Premier League, Molineux, Tuesday 1 April 2025, 7.45pm BST
West Ham United kick-off British Summer Time with an early spring midweek evening fixture at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The Hammers travel up the M1 and M6 to the West Midlands to take on a Wolves team who sit one place, but eight points, behind their visitors.
West Ham won the reverse fixture at London Stadium in December, with Jarrod Bowen scoring the winning goal 18 minutes from full-time.
Wolves have endured a challenging season, failing to win their opening eight Premier League fixtures to drop to the bottom of the table.
Former West Ham midfielder Gary O’Neil was replaced by experienced Portuguese Vítor Pereira as manager in December and results have improved to the point where Wolves should stay up.
The hope at Molineux will be that happens, then Wolves can put together a more consistent campaign in 2025/26.
How to get there…
Driving to Molineux is fairly simple, but parking in the vicinity of the ground is less so, with most of the nearby car parks restricted to players, officials and permit holders on matchdays.
If you do want to drive, head up the M1 and then take the M6 to junction 10. From there take the A454 via Willenhall to Wolverhampton Ring Road.
At the first roundabout, take the fourth exit (A449 to Stafford), go straight on at the next two sets of traffic lights, then filter right at the third set of lights into Waterloo Road. Molineux appears on the right.
Car parks are available in Birch Street (WV1 4JW), Redhill Street (WV1 1NR) and Whitmore Hill (WV1 4RU). To book a parking pass contact the Ticket Office on 0371 222 1877.
Trains leave London regularly for Wolverhampton, with direct services from Euston leaving at .40 past the hour, arriving just under two hours later. Alternatively, you can change at Birmingham New Street, with slower overall journey time.
From Wolverhampton station, it’s only a ten-minute walk to Molineux.
After the game, there is one direct train back to London at 22.45, arriving into Euston at 01.17.
Where to stay…
With this being a midweek fixture, you may opt to stay over, rather than drive back to London - or wherever you reside - in the early hours of Wednesday morning. If that is the case, Wolverhampton is a sizeable city with plenty of places to stay.
Unsurprisingly, the city centre itself has the usual budget chain options, plus a range of more upmarket hotels.
What to do…
As the second-largest settlement in what is known as the West Midlands Conurbation (Birmingham is the largest), Wolverhampton is a city with plenty of attractions to keep you occupied.
Named after an Anglo-Saxon noble woman named Wulfrun, who founded the city in 985, there has been a settlement where modern-day Wolverhampton lies since the seventh century.
More recently, Wolverhampton grew rapidly during the 1800s following the discovery of coal and iron deposits in the area.
The National Trust-owned Wickwight Manor was built in the 1880s to house the family of local industrialist Theodore Mander, and is now the top-ranked tourist attraction in the city, and home to an extensive art collection. It is situated three miles north of the city centre.
For families heading to Molineux, the Wild Zoological Park is situated in nearby Bobbington (DY7 5EP) and is home to dozens of species of reptiles, insects, mammals, primates and more.
What’s happened there before…
West Ham United have won on two of their seven most-recent visits to Molineux in the Premier League, including a fortunate 2-1 victory last season in April 2024.
That afternoon, the Hammers fell behind before Lucas Paquetá levelled from the penalty spot and James Ward-Prowse curled in direct from a corner with six minutes to play. Wolves then had a late Maximilian Kilman goal ruled out on VAR review for an offside against young substitute Tawanda Chirewa.
Prior to that, Jesse Lingard ran the show in a 3-2 success in April 2021 that helped the Irons secure European qualification at the end of that season.
For our previous win in the West Midlands, you have to go all the way back to August 2009 and our first-ever Premier League meeting, when Matthew Upson and Mark Noble scored in a 2-0 victory.
Looking back through the history books, our biggest-ever win at Molineux was a 5-1 FA Cup second-round victory in our first-ever meeting with Wolves on 5 February 1910.
Our best league win at Molineux was a 4-1 Second Division success on 16 December 1922.
We have beaten Wolves 5-0 twice in the top-flight, on both occasions at the Boleyn Ground, on 20 August 1960 and 7 September 1964.
