Wolves U21

St. Luke's F.C., set up by John Baynton and John Brodie in 1877, merged two years later with Blakenhall Wanderers to take the Wolverhampton Wanderers name, and everything the club's academy has built since sits on that foundation. Wolves U21 is the branch of it that develops rather than competes for silverware: it plays in Premier League 2 Division One, the Premier League Cup and the EFL Trophy.

Category 1 status arrived in 2012, and a further restructuring followed in 2019. The U21s themselves play their home matches at Aggborough Stadium in Kidderminster, some distance from Molineux and its 31,750 capacity, which the young side uses only occasionally.

The fixture that matters most to whoever follows this level is the Black Country derby against West Bromwich Albion's U21s, with Aston Villa, Birmingham City and Stoke City filling out the list of nearby age-group rivals.