Thanks to greats such as Jesse Pye and Roy Swinbourne, it took until the 1952–53 for Wilshaw to establish himself in the first team; he bagged 18 goals in 30 games that season. He was a part of the Wolves side that won the league in 1953–54. The club's top-scorer with 25 of Wolves' 96 league goals that season, he described the players poor relationship with manager Stan Cullis, claiming that the club's team spirit was good "because we all hated his guts". They came close to securing the title again in 1954–55, but instead finished four points behind Chelsea. Wilshaw became more of a squad member in the 1955–56 and 1956–57 campaigns, playing 46 games across both seasons. In his time, Wolves were one of the greatest teams in the world and he played in victories over Spartak Moscow, Dynamo Moscow, Valencia, Honvéd and Real Madrid. In his time at Molineux, he managed a total of 117 goals in 232 matches for the club.