Utter Misery: Birmingham City 2 Wolves 1
Posted by Thomas on 7th February , 2010As a blogger, you often get the chance to vent your anger in the aftermath of a crushing defeat or share your joy after a glorious win. But on days like today, I just feel like putting my head in my hands and sobbing.
I mean, what is there to say?
Does it really matter that Kevin Doyle was once again the best player on the pitch? He was, and by some distance. Tireless running, superhuman hold-up play and a wonderful poachers goal to give us the lead. I imagine he was sitting in the changing room at half three wondering what he has to do to finish on the winning side. I would be if I were him.
Kevin Doyle was once again superb
It probably doesn’t matter either that Adlène Guedioura offered some promising signs in his short cameo. In twenty or so minutes he did enough to show that he might at the very least give us another option in midfield. Had his rasping drive been just a few inches lower, it could have been even better for the young Belgian.
In fact, we had a few good chances to extend our lead in the second half but were largely wasteful in the final third, with players too often dawdling on the ball or picking the wrong option. I’ve got to believe a better side would have killed the game off long before Kevin Phillips turned it on it’s head.
And what about those late goals? Yet again we had numerous chances to clear our lines in the build-up to their equaliser. But for some reason, the ball never seems to end up down field or even in the stands. You could see Blues feeding off this, so it was no surprise they were queuing up at the back post to put it on a plate ‘Super Kev’ (I hate that weasel. There, I said it).
The winner was even worse.
Before you’ve even read it, you know what’s coming. How far was Stephen Carr allowed to bring the ball before Ward even bothered to face him up? I’d say he should be dropped for that, but sadly we’ve got nobody decent to plug the gap. Even when the ball was played across though, why is Berra not all over Phillips like a rash? He’d already reacted slowest for the equaliser, so to let him drift away a second time is criminal.
The pathetic ‘tactical changes’ from our manager was the final slap in the face for Wolves supporters to endure. Why the hell did he take Jarvis off? We’re desperate to try and get back into the game, so he removes the only player that’s capable of making a yard to send in a cross. Where’s the logic in that one? What was Surman ever going to do?
If I’m being ultra-critical, why SEB instead of Vokes? We’d already got to the stage where we were shelling balls in from deep so what was Blakey supposed to do? Am I the only one having trouble envisaging our number 9 rising like a Salmon above Roger Johnson to head an equaliser? Didn’t think so.
Once again, not good enough Mick.
All this and I haven’t even said anything about the 4-5-1 formation, the players being played out of position and Ronald Zubar’s propensity for pushing people in the back inside his own box.
Troubling times indeed.
Far too many questions and only one conclusion. Wolves fans deserve better.
Why can’t Wolves shut teams out? Winning the game after 79 mins losing after 85!! Our status in this division will be lost, not because of our lack of effort, but because our defence is just not up to it.
I am more than disappointed after that game, all we had to do was shut them out. We played too deep for too long.
F**ked off!
the 4-5-1 system has to go, it didn’t work. Would have been a good victory too, and playing that way we should have shut them out.
Back to 4-4-2 and let’s have some bloody chances in a game. sadly i agree we probably won’t stay up now
Gutted.
Rich who would MM put in the midfield? Probably Foley, Mancienne, Henry and Jarvis. Essentially another row of defenders. Although after Guedioura’s performance today maybe he’ll nudge mancienne out of the starting sheet. Wishful thinking i guess.
Does anyone feel that our defence holds off tackling for too long? I’ve been seeing this time and time again but I think it really showed us up today. Our backline always seem to trackback without tackling. I’m looking squarely at carr’s run today that set up the blues 2nd goal.
We’re definitely not good enough to stay up. I hope Doyle finds a better team next season, hes too good for us.
Cann’t believe it…….
played well enough and then loose it to everyone backing off Carr and letting him run from the half way line to get a cross in that he had no right to do!!
To say I’m **ssed off is an understatement but getting rid of MM is not the answer.
God help us if someone takes Doyle out and we are without him for any length of time.
I can’t believe it. So pathetic…I’ve never seen Wolves playing like that before. We are relegated…but we just don’t know it…yet.
Rarely seen such poor defending; far too easy for Phillips.
Defence from hell and manager pursues wingers and strikers in the transfer window and ends up raiding the Belgian league for 2 players who would struggle to make Walsall’s reserve squad.
We score so few goals because of the exhausting shifts being put in by forwards to shield the defenders’ shortcomings at this level.
Fizzy pop league management producing fizzy pop league football .
Gutted.
All I have to say is Blues bring players like Phillips off the bench. We brought on Surman. That clear enough why we are where we are and lose games? There is nothing too deep to analyze here. We have no class. Simple. Full stop.
Once again, Wolves were cheap in the transfer market in *SUMMER* (Jan window is too late), and wasted millions. They will never learn it’s quality (not quantity) that counts. Only quality we bought scored today.
But our stubborn gaffer wanted young and hungry … and here we are. But as he said many times, he doesn’t really care about what others think. So unfortunately we just have to keep listening to his poor excuses and even poorer results as the quality gap becomes more blaringly obvious to everyone but himself.
I hate Kevin Phillips, because when he’s on the pitch there’s always a chance he’ll score.
1-0 away from home isn’t safe until the final whistle has gone.
Still, we have an easy few games coming up. Spurs, Chelsea, Bolton (always a tough match) and Man U.
Honestly, what did we expect ?
you don’t get champagne football with a beer-money team. it was another ‘roll-your-sleeves-up-work harder’performance, but we just ain’t good enough to keep it going for 90 minutes.
at least we know MM is an effective Championship manager, and we’ll sure as hell need that next season.
A decent performance, and we probably deserved more. Thought Henry and Doyle were our best playeers. Mick’s best bit of business? I said Kightly before but Doyle is just fantastic. How did we get him?
Zubar looked good.I worry about the lack of pace between our two centre backs but they didn’t do bad. Bit harsh to say ward should be dropped for that, he’s a good left back.
Only saw second half and hardly saw much of Jarvis. Foley again played well (rather have him at right back) and Mancienne was good as usual.
Guedioura looks like a good player. Tough tackling and good going forward.
Any news on Nenad? Without him we are in trouble, especially as he had just started playing quite well. Jones did alright but looked like getting sent off.
Hi Guys
Kev from http://www.joysandsorrows.co.uk here. Firstly comiserations on today, I thought you did what you needed to do for 70-75 minutes. You disrupted our play, harried us in midfield and in defence. You didn’t allow the back 4 to settle.
Despite our early pressure, I thought you created the better chances and I wasn’t surprised that you scored. I think you actually contributed to your own downfall though.
That challenge on Chucho was awful, the goalie should have at least got booked – but putting that to one side, that of course was why KP came on. He probably would have only got 5 or 10 minutes at the end otherwise.
As someone looking on, I think part of your problem is that MM doesn’t know what your 1. main line up should be, 2. what formation to play.
I watched midweek, and although you were better today, (5 changes?), you still seem to a bit chaotic – especially in defence.
I genuinely think you have enough to stay up – but you have to pick up results from the teams around you and not the top teams like us! (Sorry couldn’t resist!
)
Anyway, all the best for the rest of the season guys.
Kev
Its amazing how after certain games you truly believe you’ll never feel more gutted watching the Wolves. I thought the feeling after Birmingham at home would be the absolute pits, but today leaving St Andrews felt so so much worse.
The fact we were actually in this game for so long, and had we been more clinical at the start of the second half would have had a comfortable two goal cushion, made it so hard to take.
Not sure that calling for the 4-5-1 to be scrapped is the way forward though. If we had another quality striker to stick up top (which we don’t) and had another fit and on-fire winger to put on the right (which we don’t) then 4-4-2 would be worth playing, but we looked loads better playing 4-5-1 today than we did at home to Wigan playing 4-4-2.
The fact that Bowyer, Ferguson and Larsson were all totally anonymous today shows the good job Mancienne and Henry did playing in that 5 man midfield.
I agree with you Thomas about Stephen Ward, after Stephen Carr he was the worst player on the pitch. I do think he’s our best left back at the moment so probably worth keeping faith with him for Wednesday, especially as Im told he did a great job marking Lennon last time we played Spurs.
Jub – I don’t know really, but what i do know is that since we’ve gone 4-5-1, we’ve hardly had any chances on goal. We went defensively and lost, so i think it’s time we went out for all out attack. We need Edwards and Kightly back sharpish so that we can have another option than our right back. Surely even Surman would be better.
To be fair to Guedioura, he looked pretty good, at lest he aint afraid to shoot
We do have one other quality striker to be put up top with Doyle. He hasn’t been fit all season, not been given enough time to find his feet in the best league in the world. also had two great saves from him which would have got him going.
He did a fantastic job on Lennon Super Kev.
sorry, but its time mm is gone tomorrow with the rest of his sunday football backroom staff behind him…we all know its all to late so lets get rid now and not wait for the end of the season..cant blame the team to much,its all about tactics and nous of which mm as none, in this league. please mr morgan get Mark Hughes at the helm you never know with 14 games to go he could turn it around. So sack him MR MORGAN. …BRING BACK THE LIQUIDATOR FOR THE SPURS MATCH TO CHEER UP THE FANS.
To the blouse fan. I would point out that Phillips was ready to come on before Benitez got nailed by Hanhemann. That sub was going to happen at that point regardless of whether Benitez still had both his legs or not.
getting rid of Mick is not the answer. If we go down, he won’t get another chance at the premier league again I reckon anyway.
Hopefully we will get a bit luckier in the future and Kightly will come back and save us.
Kwolf, Ah ha – well that makes sense why he came on so promptly. I’d popped to the loo, and as I walked back into the room saw the Chucho challenge.
only we could make such a hash of our priceless premier league chance-again. i hate the thought of ever watching match of the day; of listening to charlie nicholas and paul merson ‘analysing’ us on sky sports; of seeing dan fox score and assist burnley, of kamara scoring for celtic,let alone robbie. i hate the wolves being typecast as another who couldnt quite bridge that gap. i hate that we’ve pandered to a stereotype again – a club for brian woolnough to refer to when eulogising over the ‘world’s toughest league.’ i hate that we’re a mere sidenote at the end of the news,a clause at the end of a sentence that most reporters cant be arsed to say.
we’re basically back in 2003 again and i hate and resent our board for belittling our beloved club like this, and raking up so many gut wrenching feelings that i thought i’d buried. fuck you moxey.
The Wolves team of this year, would not have beaten teh Blues team from last year. As I have said, we are a worse team..Doyle excepted , than 12 months ago.We are in teh bottom three, we deserve to be, we play tripe week in week out, and even 9 defensive players couldn’t stop a chest down and volley form 8 yards…pathetic!! Act now Morgan, or those early birds will all ned up in a very sore place
Oh..and what the hell was Zubar playing at? We would all have gone apeshit if we hadn’t been awarded a penno for that push. MCCARTHY OUT!!
Or Dazza, you could argue that we got beat 2-0 at St. Andrews last year and were crap, whereas this time we made a game of it. So maybe we have improved
Rich, good try. We lost a game we needed to win, we have players simply not up to the task, we are relying on there being 3 yeams worse than us to stay up, and I’m afraid there isn’t. We rolled over and died when Phillips came on, we haven’t a clue how to defend , even with playing 9 defensive minded players, and as sure as apples is apples, Doyle will be gone in July
Now you will tell me that when we go down, we will bounce straight back up..correct? Sadly the club is wrong from top to bottom, and Moxey’s statement regarding correlation between players salaries and league position has come true. How many points is the safety net… 36…37? and where are the remainder coming from?
morgan risks nothing by sacking mick, surely he can see we’re down so why not sack mad mick and give someone a chance to start preparing for the championship?
who knows, the new manager might even save the season by playing players in their proper positions!
Morgan will tremble at the thought of the redundancy payout, and the cost of attracting a better Manager. So, get used to it, we are stuck with him I’m afraid. He’ll still be here start of the fizzy pop league, so pay for your early birds, and suck it up.
Looking forward to what happens on Wednesday…………hoping for plenty of humble pie.
Balti pie…no humble pie…another nailed on defeat
Daz – just because Brisbane Roar didn’t make the finals – doesn’t mean you have to take it out on Wolves
to yellow submarine:
“Brisbane Roar is a f*cking stupid name, f*cking stupic name, f*cking stupid name”
At least we’re not Portsmouth…
question:
who, or what, is a ‘ segundo castillo ?’
Pathetic – with the exception of Doyle (and the new bloke that came on). This squad has gone backwards and I am in no doubt we will be relegated.
Totally f’ked it up again with poor signings and a lack of investment. Cant wait to see Moxey’s bonus for taking us up (thats a laugh) – maybe he could donate it into the fund available for new players next season.
I see MM is ‘still confident of survival’ – I’m glad he is because I cant see it now. When we go down we will be stuck with donkey players like Hof and Halford for years – not to mention the fact that some of the younger squad members are clearly not good enough to cut it in the Prem so you might as well clear out and start again.
Wish I hadn’t bothered paying £38 to watch Spurs on Wednesday (not to mention the 10p per min ticket office call charge whilst waiting in a queue listening to ‘hi ho silver f*cking lining’!)
Work with two Blues fans – this morning has been unbearable!
It just goes to show how stubborn MM is,he won’t take any of the blame for sundays defeat. He must be dreaming or something else? to think that we will stay up with his team tinkering and inept team tactics,…wonder what side he will put out on wednesday will it be a revolutionary new formation of 1-5-5. system..Anyway i’ll be there on wednesday night cheering the lads on. Lets hope for all our sakes we get the win.. Up the wolves.
These are difficult times and it’s difficult to stay positive, in fact it’s nigh on impossible. I was talking to mu Uncle back home in Stoke on Sunday, he’s a Stoke fan of 375 years or so. Interestingly enough, he tells me that during the tenure of Lou Macari as manager, Jez ‘the grease’ Moxey was interfering with team selections. In fact he was interfering so much that Macari quit. Now if you know anything about Stoke, Macari was treated as the messiah, and still is – I dare say if Pulis got the sack more than a good percentage would be calling for Macari to be re-installed.
So this brings me onto my point – do we know that ‘the grease’ is not having an influence over pitchside events? We know his penny pinching and ruthless tactics in the transfer market has resulted in us missing out on many a player.
For me Moxey is the cancer within the organisation, and I am firmly of the belief that we would be a much stronger and better equipped club if he were removed. One thing I know for sure, Moxey is all about Moxey. He is a selfish and arrogant man who does nothing more than feather his own nest.
Moxey needs to be removed and replaced as soon as – if he is still at the helm in the summer, then we can expect another summer of discontent just like all the others and regardless of what league we’re in!
Anyway, we’ll beat Spurs by 3 goals, draw with Chelski and nick a 1 nil against Man Ure – you read it here first!
Just seen this stat…. Mccarthy 7 wins in 58 PL appearances… the way we play, is anyone surprised? we set up not to win, but not to lose a game… that record is appaling, he has to go
But Dazza sometimes its better the devil you know – let him have his season in the Prem then change in the Summer – mathematically we’re not doomed just yet, changing the manager (as Bolton & Burnley could find out) is normally fatal!
Mathematically, yes, I agree , we are not doomed. But where are we gleaning the requisite number of points to stay up. I doubt we will get many, (if any at all) from the next 4 games. We have enought games left to start with a new manager, get people in their right positions, and play with some sort of tactics. 7 wins in 58 PL games, coupled with so much wasted money (Hoff, Friend, Shackell, Surman,Hill, Halford, Castillo, Milijas,Zubar, etc)…and McCarthy has had long enough to sort it out. We are going backwards at an alarming rate, and, if we do go down, do you really think we can get straight back up again?? MCCARTHY OUT !!
We need American money.
If we got one of the NFL, NBA or MLB owners involved, not the Glaziers or Hicks and co, but one unknown over there in England, then that greaser slimeball skunk moxey would be history, coz most U.S. owners are ruthless bastards, and do not suffer failure gladly.
Having lived here for 20 years, I have been to all sorts of sporting events, and though most of them are rubbish, they put the fans up there, coz they know if the fans desert then the bottom line shrinks. To that end they try to get the best players available, and work magic within the various salary caps, ( another friggin good idea ) to get and keep the best.
How about a smear campaign?
Has any one got any dirt on moxey?
Wouldn’t it be great if moxey has done a Tiger Woods/John Terry?
The good news from here is that they are not showing the game on Wed so all I can do is watch numbers change on my pooter.
Ben, your wife still dresses you funny
FOWB
Daz – do you know if the spurs game is being televised? I can’t find it on Fox’s listings…
T’om I’ll have a look when I get home at the Foxtel listings , may have been updated? You guys have to get up about 4am to watch it eh? I’ll be thrwoing my cornflake sin the air again at McCarthys dumb arse team selections
Clive… try iraqgoals.com , may pick up a live feed from there? Apparently, the feed goes down when we look dangerous…so look forward to complete uninterrupted coverage
Woah Dazza, Milijas is not wasted money. If Milijas leqves in the summer, it will be to a better club who play him more than 60 minutes a week. I reckon he is fit enough but Mick just doesn’t like his type. They all have to put a ‘shift in’. Neither are the others, yet. Surman has played five games and clearly not bought for this season.
Don’t judge Mick after 24 games, judge him after 38.
Jed – You really think Mick would stick around if Moxey was picking the team, or Morgan would have it. And if Moxey was picking the team why would he have those bloody players?!
Clive – I’d rather not have any americans at the club, just look at Liverpool. You can say what you like about Morgan and Moxey but the foreigners treat football clubs as a business and take money for themselves, just look at Pompey
No foreign investors until absolutely necessary, i.e. We get in a position to win trophies like Man City
Bob..what has Miljas done? One paltry goal, and 2 or 3 good passes all season. Luxury player, no tackling, half paced not up to it…get rid
Milijas has 2 goals and 7 assists.
T’om , we are not on Foxtel Thursday morning…have you ever logged on to IRC and chatted with worldwide Wolves fans while game is on? They usually find a live feed for us to join.Let me know..cheers