Back on Track: Wolves 2 Fulham 1
Posted by Thomas on 20th September , 2009Well done Wolves. 3 points, 2 goals and plenty more to be positive about.
Despite having to hang on towards the end, we were good value for this win after a strong team showing, littered with impressive individual performances.
Kevin Doyle - Off the mark
Kevin Doyle opened the scoring and his Wolves’ account with a fine reaction header. He was a bright spark throughout and showed some real touches of class. Hopefully more to come from our record signing.
Castillo was strong and influential on his debut. OK, he’s not exactly Pele but he breaks the play up and adds a much needed physical presence to the midfield.
Dave Edwards also deserves a mention for a performance full of endeavour, capped with a second-half bullet that put Wolves two to the good. Can he keep his place in the team, given Kightly is back in action and Jarvis continues to look a threat?
Our much maligned defence stepped up their game, giving nothing away apart from the slightly dubious penalty that allowed Danny Murphy to bring Fulham back into the match. Berra was particularly impressive, crunching into tackles and heading absolutely everything away. He was probably my man of the match.
Hennessy was quite simply immense, handling flawlessly and plucking crosses out of the air for fun. When he commands his area, like he did today, he looks the complete package. Let’s hope he continues to improve and progress.
The real bonus ball was the return of Kightly and SEB. Neither had much time to make an impact, but just having them out on the pitch seemed to give everyone a lift. I expect both to continue their comeback with a start against Man Utd on Wednesday.
So it’s happy days again. We move onto Old Trafford with renewed confidence and nothing to lose. Whatever the outcome against the champions, we can at least enjoy the week knowing we’re nicely back on track.
* I’d like to draw attention to the fact I correctly predicted the outcome, the scoreline and the first scorer in this match. I also predicted the outcome and scoreline from the Blackburn match. Feel free to lavish me with praise, but more importantly, make sure you read my Man Utd preview to see If I can make it a hat-trick.
Did anyone else hear the daft woman ring into the BBC 606 radio phone in and tonight and carp on about how Keogh had a bad game? Not only she did put her point forward in the least articulate way possible, but her point was completely flawed.
Keogh played fine by me, and when you realise that he and Edwards have both been key features in our two wins this season it seems difficult to see how either can be dropped, despite the talent we have coming back from injury.
Agree with you Tom about Castillo, he broke up their moves and almost always did spmething useful with the ball.
Great performance today, same again against Portsmouth please!
I hope Mick and Fergie get into a little give and take before the game. I wonder if Mick can hold his own?
Anyway, my prediction is Man U 2-1, scoring the winning goal 8 minutes into extra time.
What I’m trying to figure out is – is there going to be a dominant 11 players who start most of the games or is it going to be a guessing game before every game?
Is this the way it is with most teams or is this just a shake down period for Mick to decide who his starting 11 are going to be?
I hope we treat the Carling Cup game with the same disdain as Manure always have. Do not filed any of our key figures, Saturday is far more important
I hope we do put in some of our key players, i.e Kightly and SEB. Give them another run out
I think we’ll put out a stronger side than we normally would because better players are in need of match fitness. I hope we do them, the further we progess the better chance we have of taking it seriously.
All in all another good home performance, if only we had got the right result in the last two as well….
Thomas, can you come and pick my Gold Lotto numbers, I did two system 9′s on Saturday… so covered 18 numbers from 45…and didnt get one!
Mind you I remember backing a horse called Wolverhampton in Grand National about 25 years ago, and it died in the stable overnight
Given the way the results went Saturday, Burnly and Birmingham winning, this really did need to be three points. Early in the season to be saying must win, but I think it was.
Thomas, in what way was that penalty even slightly dubious?????
Well done to the boys, I think Berra and Edwards in particular had strong outings. We will get a Man U reserver team hammering Wed, but couldn’t care less. Use it as a training / rehabilatation session and give SEB and Kights a more competitive runout.
Pete, I only say it was dubious because Zamora had been backing into our defenders the whole game and I just thought the ref might have taken that into account.
Mancienne was a little silly in grappling with him when he had his back to goal, but for me, it’s a little soft. Had that been Vidic wrestling with Keogh, there’s no way we’d get the decision.
all hail thomas the next derren brown!
what a great match yesterday was. ok a bit nervy near the end but to start both halfs as we did, pressure the opposition and score some good goals and create good chances, i couldnt ask for much more. kightly and seb back from injury, the hoff and castillio get home debuts and both doing well, defence shoring up. the list of positievs go on. yes it is only one match but at least we know we can do it, jsut got to keep the work rate up.
trying to follow the game online yesterday was horrible though. no live streams, i got audio for about 10mins first half, and the last 25mins in the second. the live updates on the bbc were mostly about the manchester derby. i understand why but when they only put up info when we scored and when they got the penalty, that was pretty terrible. also with only 4 games yesterday and all of them full of goals i expected a little more %share on match of the day and some analysis. we dominated and made last years 7th place team look average. our play made them poor until late into the 2nd. stupid baggie charles!
sam…. i got live streaming at iraqgoals.net, however this kept breaking up/buffering and being generally frustrating. Pity I can’t buffer the wife, and pause when she starts whingeing about me staying up to listen to the games!
Thomas, it’s a fair point about backing in and if it was vidic & Keogh, but dubious nothing, it was even a clear goal scoring chance and Mancienne did well to stay on the pitch because if he didn’t drag his man down it was looking odds on 2-1 anyway.
Sam, I was pissed off we didn’t get Hanson & Dixon pouring over our performance with the post match analysis and praise our performance deserverd. As you rightly say Sam, we made a European team look ordinary.
Has anyone see the tabloids today? In particlar The Sun?
Keogh as the star man with the tag line of “Movement in spades” and Elokobi made there weekend prem dream team. Outstanding.
I notice the Keogh critics have decided not to show on the blog today………MMMMM, interesting!
@ Emerald Pete I don’t think anyone on this site is a Keogh boo boy, but yes there are some critics, and I happen to be one of them. Yesterday his performance was excellent and he created a goal and defended from the front. I have nothing to criticise him for based on yesterdays performance! Unfortunately on other occasions there have been reasons why he has been criticised, and as a ‘comment’ based blog then everyone is entitled to their point of view – Keogh does not score enough goals full stop! His work rate and enthusiasm is second to none and I applaud him for that. Yesterday puzzled me a little, Keogh played well up front made a goal – Dave Edwards played really well and scored a goal – The Hoff comes on for………Edwards with Keogh moving positions – why not just sub striker for striker?? Then Kightly comes on and replaces………Jarvis with Keogh moving positions! I just wonder if Hennessey needs to come off will Keogh fill in as a keeper?
Again this is detracting a little from yesterdays fine performance and all the players deserve a pat on the back because everyone of them played extremely well! I’m really pleased Keogh played well, and he did play well!
Wow, nothing seems to divide opinion like young Andrew Keogh.
I can see both sides of the argument.
He certainly isn’t proficient enough in front of goal and it’s infuriating when he’s presented with a chance and doesn’t even look like scoring.
That being said, I recognise the value he adds by dragging defenders out of position and linking play. He’s a better player away from home, which I think has a lot to do with confidence.
I didn’t think he had a particularly great game against Fulham but he competed well and setup the second goal. It was completely ridiculous that he stayed on when all those subs were being made. Like Jed says, when Kightly came on why would you take a natural wide player off like Jarvis and put Keogh out of position on the right. Strange indeed.
This debate will rage on no doubt.
I think the reason for the Kightly-Jarvis substitution, as opposed to it being Kightly for Keogh was to do with Jarvis being knackered, and Keogh still having a bit in the tank. Given how we seemed to be holding on for the last 5, I think it made sense to leave on someone like Keogh with the stamina and enthusiasm to chase everything and, as Jed says, defend from the front.
If there’s a genuine reason, fair enough. But one thing is undeniable, Keogh is woeful on the right of midfield.
The same thing always happens; he gets the ball on the edge of the area but instead of just crossing it or running it into the corner, he turns around, dallies on the ball and eventually loses possession trying to pick out a pass.
I saw it happen in about 10-15 of our 23 home games last season. Hilarious looking back on it, but not so much when you’re hanging on in the dying seconds, trying to run down the clock.
I thought Keogh was one of the poorer players! Seriously. Even for his assist i was yelling at him like a mad man because he took so long to pass it to Edwards. The way he unnecessarily turned back instead of playing it early between the 2 defenders meant that Edwards was nearly covered. Fortunately he made a good pass in the end and Edwards tucked it away. Otherwise i thought his general play was good at times but very poor at others. I was amazed when he inexplicably dribbled the ball over the sideline in front of the Steve Bull stand. He took about 3-4 touches and there was no-one near him. Good players just don’t do this. In general i’ve been thoroughly delighted with the quality of his performances so far this season but surely he’s destined for the bench. If SEB isn’t played i will be livid beyond belief. If Mick was pissed off with some fans wanting Freddy to play ahead of Elliott, Kyle or Keogh, just wait until he picks Keogh ahead of SEB. The fans will turn on him very quickly.