Final throw of the Premiership dice for ageing Wolves

First Division play-off final: Defeat to controversial Sheffield United manager's side could end the big-spending Hayward era at Molineu

It is not a claim to be made lightly but the case is rather compelling. Wolverhampton Wanderers may today be playing the most crucial game in their 126-year history.

It is not a claim to be made lightly but the case is rather compelling. Wolverhampton Wanderers may today be playing the most crucial game in their 126-year history.

For a club who have won three League championships, the FA Cup four times, the League Cup twice and illuminated 1950's Europe with their pioneering floodlit spectaculars, sampling the Premiership might be seen as relatively mundane.

Yet there is a real it-has-to-be-now feel to their approach to the First Division play-off final against Sheffield United. It is not just the estimated £30m jackpot that elevates this afternoon up among the halcyon days of Stan Cullis and Major Frank Buckley for winner-takes-all importance. In Wolves supporters' case, it is about the Holy Grail, getting there at last following 13 years of hurt - with the knowledge that it could become a whole lot tougher if this latest effort to reach the top flight ends in tears.

The club's chief executive, Jez Moxey, did not baulk at suggestions that today's losers will suffer much more than Southampton did as FA Cup runners-up. "This is more serious," he said. "It's not about the money. It's about putting your marker down in history and putting smiles on faces in anticipation of youngsters coming to watch David Beckham and Michael Owen.

"I was general manager of Partick Thistle for five years and know what it's like trying to drum up support that's just not there. At Wolves, we know we have massive potential.

"The clamour for tickets for the final has been enormous and we've already sold 12,500 season tickets for next season. But it won't mean much if we lose to Sheffield United."

Wolves have failed to seize the wonderful opportunity that the generosity of Sir Jack Hayward has provided ever since he bought control in 1990; so much so that this lovable sugar-grandad will consider standing down as chairman - and more damagingly as benefactor - in the event of defeat. That would be a major blow to Wolves and represent the end of what the 79-year-old - who has spent over £60m - described two years ago as his last throw of the dice.

Then, he allowed Dave Jones large sums in the search for promotion and his fifth Molineux manager chose to pursue the dream by the shortest route - with seasoned pros.

This year, Denis Irwin is 38, Paul Ince 36, Alex Rae 34, Nathan Blake 31, Paul Butler 31 and Dean Sturridge 30, and there are the inevitable questions about the collective suitability of those ageing legs for even another crack at promotion, let alone keeping pace with the spring-heeled superstars of the Premiership.

Irwin and Ince may well call time on their multi-decorated careers anyway, so there's a feeling Wolves will be rebuilding, whatever their division, around the young promise of Joleon Lescott, Matt Murray, Lee Naylor and 23-goal leading scorer Kenny Miller.

The club's prolific Academy offers hope for the future but there is no escaping the fact that this is a major watershed. Either Wolves will be up in the big time tonight or they will be facing possible break-up on and off the pitch and wondering when their chance will come again.

We can only guess the agonies that Hayward is going through. For almost a decade and a half, he has watched his home-town club make such a pig's ear of achieving what the likes of Barnsley, Bradford City, Oldham Athletic and Swindon Town have accomplished in the meantime while Molineux's obsession has turned into embarrassment.

No fewer than 25 clubs have gone up - Bolton Wanderers, Leicester City, Middlesbrough and Sunderland three times apiece - while Wolves have been fiddling around in what their more expressive fans call "the division From Hell". Given that Portsmouth were promoted a month-and-a-half ago, Wolves now have the longest unbroken occupancy of their depressingly familiar grade.

Jones is not a great one for history and sentiment, and bridles at being made to carry more than his share of the responsibility. "Don't burden me with what other managers did or didn't do," he says. "I've been here for two-and-a-half seasons and no-one can deny that there has been progress. Now, we're at this stage for the first time and we have to take the final step."

Wolves have traditionally been a poor play-off side. Long before their various, well-documented runs at the First Division version, they lost to Aldershot in the 1986-87 scramble to get out of the basement section at a time when the final was contested over two legs. But they are good at one-offs and have been to four FA Cup quarter-finals in 10 seasons, including 2002-03.

It will suit them to be seen as up against it. They are dangerous underdogs, as Newcastle United will testify, and they are dangerous favourites - dangerous to themselves. Worthington Cup humiliation at home to lower-division Wycombe Wanderers, Oxford United and Swindon Town in the last four years emphasises the point.

Molineux will be a terrific place to be if ever Wolves do re-establish themselves as a big force in the game. During the long wait, there have been some memorable days and nights, and the "Golden Palace" shouted itself hoarse in the retrieval effort against Norwich City in last season's play-off semi-final.

Even then, though, some fans went prepared for disappointment. At full-time, a supportive banner draped at the front of the Jack Harris Stand was turned round to reveal the words "You've Let Us Down Again". A picture of the flag was used later in the year on the front cover of a fan-written book - a publication that was promptly banned from the club's two shops.

Wolves fans can cope with disappointment. It's all this bloody hope that kills them.