Walshy's Words - Epic Battles With Steve Bull

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Walshy's Words - Epic Battles With Steve Bull

Steve Walsh recall his series of titanic tussles, both at Filbert Street and at Molineux, with the Wolverhampton Wanderers and England striker, Steve Bull. He also spoke about the mutual respect these two cult heroes now have for each other.

2025-03-12T17:00+00:00

by John Hutchinson

Published

12 Mar, 2025

Walshy's Words - Epic Battles With Steve Bull

John Hutchinson

2025-03-12T17:00+00:00

Walshy's Words - Epic Battles With Steve Bull

John Hutchinson

2025-03-12T17:00+00:00

Walshy's Words - Epic Battles With Steve Bull

John Hutchinson

2025-03-12T17:00+00:00

Walshy's Words - Epic Battles With Steve Bull

John Hutchinson

2025-03-12T17:00+00:00

Centre-back Walsh, who spent 14 years as a City player between 1986 and 2000, made 449 appearances, many as captain, and scored 62 goals. He featured in six of the seven Wembley appearances that Leicester made between 1992 and 2000 and only missed the seventh through suspension, having played a vital part in the Club reaching their third League Cup Final in four years.

These statistics don’t begin capture the essence of Steve’s contribution to the cause over the years. He seems to have been central to many of the most memorable moments in the 1990s. He embodied total passion and commitment on the pitch.

Although this resulted in several red cards, his never-say-die attitude throughout his career will always be remembered and admired by the City fans who saw him play. It wasn’t at all surprising that he entered the Club’s folklore when he topped the Leicester City voting in the 2004 BBC Football Focus poll which was designed to find out who the fans regarded as their all-time cult hero.

One of the many factors contributing to Walsh’s status was his ongoing battle with Wolverhampton Wanderers centre-forward, Steve Bull. Between 1989 and 1996, the clashes between these two became the stuff of legend and are still talked about today.

Bull is also a cult hero. His 13 years at Molineux, starting when Wolves were in the Fourth Division, coincided with Steve’s 14 years at Filbert Street. Bull helped Wolves to back-to-back promotions, arriving in the Second Division in 1989, by which time he had become an England international when he was still technically a Third Division player.

'Bully' was handed his England caps by Sir Bobby Robson.

He was capped 13 times for England between 1989 and 1990 when he was in Bobby Robson’s squad for the World Cup in Italy. By the time he retired in 1999, he held, and still holds, his club’s goalscoring record with 306 goals, a total which included 18 hat-tricks.

“Bully was one of the best,” Walsh explained, reminiscing about his clashes with Steve Bull. “He’d chase every ball. He was strong. He could finish with both feet. With any ball over the top or down the channels, he’d never give up. He was very difficult to play against for 90 minutes.

“You had to concentrate so hard. There was a lot of intimidation in those days and one of the ways I tried to stop him was to try to intimidate him. Once I’d done that, I felt we had a chance. You dreaded playing against him. Playing against him meant that you wouldn’t sleep on a Friday night.

“You’d have him breathing down your neck and you knew that he’d be very hard to handle. You could kick him as hard as you could, but he’d just get up and get on with it. He was fair. He’d always shake your hand before a game when you were coming out and then we’d end up kicking lumps out of each other.

“Sometimes, there was a clash of heads. I’ve still got scars from when things happened, but although he was hard to handle, he wasn’t a thug. We did both get sent off playing against each other though. Bully was sent off at Filbert Street in front of England manager Bobby Robson when he tried to punch me.

“And I got sent off at Molineux after he’d clipped my heels on purpose and I reacted. We had a bit of a tussle, we both fell down and, as we were getting up, our heads made contact. This was stupid. It cost me two weeks wages and I got suspended.

Captaining the Foxes.

“I missed three matches, so the impact was quite bad for me and for the team. I didn’t seem to learn from this until later in my career. And even then, I was sent off playing against Chris Sutton and missed the 2000 League Cup Final.

“The fans loved these clashes. They loved the passion and the aggression. They knew that when we played Wolves, something was going to happen in the game and, playing against him, it generally did.

“About two years ago, I went over to Wolverhampton to do a Q&A with Bully. There was only one Leicester fan there and you can imagine the atmosphere. It was absolutely fantastic. The Wolves fans welcomed me. I told them the truth, that I did try to kick him.

“You’d never get away with it now, but he’s a great fella. I got to know him after my career ended. I support his charities and he supports mine. When we see each other, we can have a laugh about it now. He’s done a Q&A with me at Leicester and we’ve played in a golf day. I could ring him tomorrow and he’d be great.

“Like me, Bully was very loyal to his club. When he played for England, Wolves were in the Second Division and he turned down opportunities to play in the old First Division. There aren’t many players like him who’d stick with their club in those circumstances while playing for England at the same time. Look at his record, he scored more than 300 goals for Wolves.

“There were some other opponents I came up against who were also a real challenge in the physical sense. One was Billy Whitehurst (whose robust style of play for Hull and Sheffield United among other clubs, attracted much notoriety). I had some battles with him. I’ve still got a newspaper clipping somewhere which said that I had a ‘titanic battle’ with this guy.”

The pair had many battles over the years.

The two Steves faced each other nine times between 1989 and 1996. The sequence began just after Wolves had been promoted from the Third Division and, apart from 1994/95, when Leicester were in the Premier League for one season, the sequence continued until 1996, after Leicester returned to the Premier League under Martin O’Neill.

During that time, Bull scored 10 times against the Foxes. Reflecting on Bull’s scoring record, Steve continued: “Overall, I did okay playing against Bully but he did score a few against us. He’ll say he got the better of me. Maybe, but I don’t know. I really hated it when he scored a hat-trick against us.

“I wasn’t playing because I was either suspended or injured, I can’t remember. That hat-trick hurt me. I just remember him after his third goal running past our fans in the East Stand, giving them some stick and I thought: ‘I should be on that pitch’. It was hard for me to take, to just watch that.”

In the 1992/93 season, Manager Brian Little moved Steve from centre-back to the forward line to play as target man and, in that role, he became the Club’s top scorer with 16 goals before he subsequently reverted to his defensive role.

Thinking back to his season as a target man: Steve said, “You learn playing against people like Bully, and this would have helped me in this role with certain movements and runs. I knew you had to somehow lose your defender in the box. I did score a few decent goals, but my skills were heading the ball, more than my feet.”

Both players assumed legendary status at their respective clubs.

Steve also found himself in opposition not only to goalkeeper Mike Stowell, who later spent many years on Leicester City’s coaching staff, but also to Mark Venus, a player who established himself as the Foxes’ first choice left full-back in Steve’s first season at Filbert Street.

“I started my career at Leicester with Mark,” Steve recalled. “He was a left-footer and a good player. He was always a good friend of mine then. He had a good few years at Wolves.”

Although Steve played against Venus several times between 1988 and 1996, it is his series of clashes with Bull that assumed folklore status. The respect between Walsh and Bull is mutual, with Bull being on record saying: “We came to respect each other more and more, partly because we were both loyal to our clubs.

“Walshy was Leicester through and through and that’s absolutely brilliant. I know that when you stop at one club, you can get to love the place. I’d have Walshy in my side every day of the week. We’ve talked about our rivalry at many public events since, and I consider Walshy a mate.

“He’s a top, top man and, if he needed something, I’d do anything I could.”

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