I don’t like Stoke City.
I can’t put my finger on exactly why that is, but they’re just one of those clubs that rub me up the wrong way.
There’s a chance that my bitterness stems from plain old sour grapes.
The last time Wolves met Stoke, the Potters won 4-2 at Molineux on their way to promotion
I remember going to the Victoria Ground and seeing Wolves get well and truly stuffed, back when McGhee was in charge. Then of course there was the more recent 4-2 defeat they inflicted on us at Molineux, on the way to automatic promotion a few seasons back. The latter was a particularly hard pill to swallow.
Or maybe my dislike for the Potters is down to jealousy.
After all, they enjoyed a tremendous first outing in the Premiership, finishing comfortably in midtable, far, far away from the perils of the bottom three. And the way in which they set about ruffling the feathers of the big boys and stamping their authority on the top tier, was something I’d hoped to see Wolves achieve. But it wasn’t Wolves, it was Stoke.
I suspect though, that like most petty football-related grudges, I just decided one day that I wasn’t going to like Stoke City and that was that. Consigned to the scrapheap along with the likes of Coventry, Bristol City and a few others I had no good reason to judge.
But like them or not, you’ve got to respect what Stoke have achieved.
Nobody wants to play them, they’re home ground has fast become a fortress and all over they just have the look of a club that’s moving onwards and upwards.
So as we prepare to make the short trip up the M6 to take on the club we’re trying desperately to emulate, can we really expect to get a result?
I think if you’re a neutral, you’d probably say we’re cannon fodder for Stoke at the Britannia. After all, we’re a young team, who like to get the ball down and play, who are likely to get bullied all over the pitch and eventually battered into submission. A home banker on the Pools coupon if ever there was one.
But I think anyone who knows this Wolves team, knows that one thing they’re not afraid of is a scrap. And it’s for that reason I’m quietly confident we can sneak a result on Saturday and push ourselves up a few places in the league, ahead of a daunting November.
We’ll need another giant performance from our back four, but you’d say that this should be a match perfectly tailored for the likes of Craddock and Berra to shine. Both are more than capable in the air and supported by Zubar and Elokobi, should have enough to cope with the bombardment we’re likely to receive.
Maybe I shouldn’t be concerned about Hennessy after recent performances, but I am. I thought he was well protected against Villa, but claimed the odd cross confidently that came near him. We’ll need the same again, but I can’t help but feel if there’s a team perfectly designed to expose his frailties, it’s got to be Stoke.
If we can deal with whatever they throw at us, I think there’s a good chance we can knick the win. With the attacking options we have, I’d always back us to create chances and get goals so a 1-0 or a 2-1 in our favour certainly isn’t beyond the realms of possibility.
I wonder whether Mick will change the starting XI in order to cope with the very specific type of threat that Stoke pose? This time, barring injuries, I think he’ll probably keep faith with the side that lined up against Villa. Namely:
Hennessy
Zubar
Craddock
Berra
Elokobi
Kightly
Henry
Castillo
Edwards
Ebanks-Blake
Doyle
I wonder if he might drop Keogh from the squad all-together and have both Iwelumo and The Hoff on the bench? It must surely be a good idea to have two giants at your disposal for a match of this nature. Probably won’t happen.
In terms of the result, I’m praying Wolves get the first goal (just for a change), as I think that could prove particularly crucial in this match. Should we fall behind, I worry that their steely resolve might just be too difficult to overcome.
I’m feeling confident ahead of this one I must say. With Sylvan getting off the mark last week, I’m hoping for a little run of goals. So with that in mind, I’m predicting 2-1 to Wolves and SEB to score twice.
As always, if you’re one of the 3,000 heading up to Stoke, get behind the lads. It’s a bit of a cauldron inside the Britannia, so they’ll need our support more than ever.
Up The Wolves.
Mick will start with the same side as last week, and I think late on if we need a goal to snath a win or draw he will fight fire with fire, bringing Halford on to compete with Delap!
I’ll say another draw, 1-1 with Berra from a crorner or throw in.
I am scared for Hennessey, but he has been top class for us recently and kept us in the game a few times over the last few weeks. I think Murray would be good against Stoke but theres absolutuley no chance of that.
Sorry guys, I think we will lose the “game of throw ins”. Stoke have developed into what we aspire to become. Tought to beat at home, and even better, pick up the odd unexpected away win ( a la Spurs). We can’t really afford to keep dropping points as we head off toward the bottom 3, so this is a crucial game to avoid that thein blue line and the dreaded red R against our name. Trouble is, we ain’t too crash hot in crucial games are we? 2-0 Stoke and bring on Arsenal…eek
Loving the positivity Dazza
While i don’t like Stoke, you have to admire what they’ve done. They’re not even considered among the contenders for most pundits and bookies. It annoys me though, we should be able to look at the fixture list, see Stoke and say ‘that’s a chance for 3 points’ as we would have a few years back and not ‘we’ll be lucky to nick a point’
Saying that, i’m hopeful we will get something. Can i just come out in support of Hennesey? While he may not command the area in the same way Murray does, he makes some vital saves and is fantastic at the feet of players, great judgement. I know he made some great saves up at Everton.
Besides, how can anybody who saves a penalty at the hawthorns not be a hero?
Yes! Thomas, I also *hate* Bristol City.
Wolves to win 2-1, goals from Castillo (scrappy poke in from a set piece) and Doyle.. but in the most unlikely of circumstances! Wait and see.
I can see us winning this one. I would love the irony of scoring from a long throw. I can see Halford getting a start to add throw ins + (and far more importantly) physical presence. I just don’t know where he’d fit in.
Dazza, so far every team we’ve played you’ve done your Eeyore impression and said we’ll lose – you’ve been right only 40% of the time, so long live your predictions! Anyway, Stoke City…..hmmmmmm…… this is a team that averages 30% possession home and away and their only aim is not to concede a goal and maybe, just maybe nick one at the other end. Their game against Spurs was their exact game plan – defend defend defend (beat up some players) defend add a few reckless challenges in defend, nick a goal and defend some more – Perfect! Unfortunately I would get more enjoyment out of a day out with the Missus at West Edmonton Mall (for the UK residents insert Bull Ring / Trafford Centre). I hate Stoke, I hate their team, their dodgy strip, their f**king freezing stadium and most of all their fat ugly “we’re better than all of you” idiot fans.
There is no reason why we can’t win against Stoke, non what so ever. Stoke consider themselves battling underdogs against every team they play against, however Saturday they will be expected to win by everyone, the media, their fans, everyone. They are not used to this, they will be expected to take the game to us and not sit back and defend and this can and will work to our advantage. Stoke are a team of Champiuonship quality players with the odd exception – Shawcross and Abdoulaye Faye (bothe defenders), we should not fear them!
We will win this game comfortably – 4-1 with all 4 of our goals coming in the first half – Doyle, SEB, Edwards and Craddock. Wait and see! Go on Wolves stick it to the clay heads!
Jed, I said we would beat Villa 2-0… so please get your facts right. I also said we would beat West Ham and Fulham… if you are going to “quote” , you need to do a lot better. Stoke, argue all you like, are a better side than us. Pulis has done a great job, and I would love Shawcross is our team. Yes, I agrre there is NO reason why we shouldn’t beat them, but, alas, I think we still lack the depth of quality to do so. We are also getting to the stage whereby we must starting notching 3 points. Any more defeats and the quicksand that is the bottom 3 will be tugging at our boots. November isn’t looking good for too many points. My early season euphoria has gone, I’m now more realistic and I would take 17th place here and now in May.
Dazza, fair point fella I stand corrected
This is going to sound cock-eyed but, while I agree that Stoke are a better side than us (league doesn’t lie etc) I don’t agree that they have better players than us across the park – their team against Spurs featured players who are no better than we have – Beattie and Fuller are no where near as good as Doyle and SEB. Delap and Etherington couldn’t lick the boots of Matty Jarvis and Kightly (without his huge throw Delap really is shit!). Diao and Whitehead are no better than Henry and Castillo and I would argue they are not as good. Collins is probably a better left back than Elokobi but Wilkinson is gash compared with our Mr Zubar. Hennessey is way better that Simonsen and probably on a par with Sorensen which leaves the centre halves and here I have to say that Stoke’s Shawcross and Faye are better than any of the centre halves we have.
So they have arguably 3 better players than we do – but they are a better team, no question, why I’m not exactly sure because 3 years ago when we were both in the Championship, we would easily have beaten Stoke with the current crop of players for both teams. Maybe it’s a confidence thing who knows!
Jed – I think you’ll find Stoke’s keepers are underrated. I’d prefer to have Wayne in my team (given the stage of his career he is at) as he will become much, much better than Simonsen (I assume Sorenson is still injured) but at the moment they’re probably on a par. Do I have an unhealthy obsession with goalkeepers – probably.
t’OM I’d have Wayne over Simonsen or Sorensen everytime and I agree that he is an exciting prspect who will only get better and better with age / experience. Don’t worry about your healthy obsession with goalkeeprs, we all have them, mine has been this bloody team we follow for way too long!
I’d rather have Wayne too. However my point, sorry if it is a bit laboured, is that if both had to retire from football tomorrow and you could pick 1 in your team today, there’s not that much of a gap between them. However, they won’t retire tomorrow (Wayne has an important match against Stoke on Saturday) and as such I’d want the Welshman at my club.
Interesting to see Ikeme go on loan to Charlton. He will be a class above at League 1 level.
Jed, I agree we have better footballers all over the park than Stoke, however stoke don’t play pretty football so it dosn’t matter a lick that we have more gifted players because come Sat, Stoke will send out a well organised, very physical, well drilled team all knowing how to go about getting 3pts.
Not pretty to watch, but niether are Bolton and both have survived longer in this league than us.
Being better technically is not always enough. I would fight fire with fire and I know people on this blog are going to go ape shit at what I am about to say.
Drop SEB and Kightly for Iwelumo and Halford for this match.
Henessy
Zubar
Craddock
Berra
Elokobi
Edwards
Henry
Casillio
Halford
Doyle
Iwelumo.
Controversial eh????
Interesting choice of replacements Pete. I would argue we could meet the physical presence of Stoke without sacrificing two of our main threats. We’re not going to beat Stoke by playing a physical game, so need to get the ball down and run at them. I would like to see Jarvis in for Edwards, but more realistically it might be Halford. That would give us height from Halford, Zubar, Craddock and Berra at set pieces. And I can’t exactly see Elokobi getting barged out the way at a set-piece either!
We shouldn’t fear Stoke, I would love to see us win as emphatically as Jed predicts and expose Stoke as the overachieving long-ball merchants that they are. My only fear is that we might leave with half the team crocked!
I remember going to the Brittania two years ago, the season they eventually went up. That 0-0 bore draw reminded me how god awful their club is. About 14,000 home fans there, us singing “your ground’s too big for you” and an eery silence throughout. All I hear now is what tremendous fans they have etc. What a joke! Difference between their fans and ours is that their club doesn’t persistently criticise them.
And didn’t their fans hound out Pulis, their best manager, the first time around? Conveniently forgotten. Isn’t such fickleness known as the ‘Molineux Factor?’
Don’t know about you lot, but I was appalled by the comments made by MM about us being negative in the Villa game. It was a cauldron, we sang for 90mins, created one of the best atmospheres I’ve heard in years, and Mick still feels compelled to slag us all off?! That chip on his shoulder just gets bigger.
Anyway, onto the game…If we play like we did Saturday we’ll get something. I’ll again predict that we don’t keep a clean sheet as we never do!
Let’s just keep them quiet for 30mins or so and see how the world’s best fans get behind their team.
I like the idea of the Hoff as a sub late on.
Good controversey EmeraldPete. I think Halford will be shoe-horned in somewhere.
Is it just me or (esp given the flack he has copped) is this game perfectly suited to Big George at left back. Early money on George Elokobi for man of the match. Elokobi long throw, flicked on by Berra to the Hoff for the winner.
“you’ve got to respect what Stoke have achieved.”
Sorry Thomas I have to disagree. As much as it pains me to say it, I have more respect for Albion than Stoke (based on last season). The way Stoke go about their football compared to the Baggies is horrible. Albion last season played some brilliant football whereas Stoke just hit it up and I can’t stand it. (Slightly off topic but did anyone catch the Arsenal game last night? That is how football should be played, and by such young players is a testament to the game.)
But regarding why we hate Stoke. Well for me it has to be the fans. Where I go to school in Newport, there are a fair number of Stoke fans. The accent, their attitude and the city itself is just disgusting.
As far as predictions go I’m going to say 2-0 to The Potters.
ben, I didn’t hear MM had made some comments about a negative atmosphere at the Villa game. What did he say? I’ve only missed the Portsmouth game at the Mol so far this season, and thought the atmosphere at Villa was the best so far.
As I said before, Wolves shouldn’t try to match Stoke in a physical battle, but get the ball down and let Kightly, Doyle, SEB and Jarvo run at their defence. If they do, I predict a Wolves win.
Jed – don’t get me wrong, i don’t like Stoke, but i need to say this. If Stoke would’ve gone toe to toe with Spurs last week, gone and attacked them, they’d have got hammered. If you don’t have better players why not park the bus at Old Trafford, the bridge etc. The fact they nicked a goal was a bonus. There’s no point trudging off the pitch after a 5-0 walloping and saying ‘oh well, we had a go’
That’s what kept Stoke in the league and sent Albion down. I can’t believe some of you would rather see pretty football and relegation rather than the opposite.
Ben – that’s another reason for disliking Stoke. When i hear ‘oh what great fans they have’ i think where were they in the championship?!? The place was half full at best
Are you sure about those comments from Mick? I saw him applaud the south bank a couple of times. Great backing it was too
Andrew. The thing is with Stoke, they won’t let us play the ball along the floor and so I think we should start with either the Hoff or Big Chris just to give us a bit more of a physical threat. Also you mentioned Jarvis, I somehow doubt he will start with Edwards playing so well and with a lot of people (MM included) wanting to play Milijas on the wing. Halford can play there as well; so with a bit of competition Jarvis really needs to step his game up.
Andrewwfc: see link below mate. He basically said we were negative when the 4th official put his board up at the end of the game, as if we were all shitting ourselves that Villa would bag a winner as there was 4mins.
Complete tripe. I heard one or two groans, which was instantly drowned out by a huge collective roar, as if we were saying “come on lads, we can grab the winner.”
Another attempt to stir up a stigma that I’m well and truly sick of to be honest. Why does he concentrate on such banal, spurious nonsence when we were louder than I’ve heard in years. All the Villa fans I’ve spoken to since said we were an unbelievable set of fans.
All MM’s comments do is create a false impression of us to the national media, who never associate ‘Wolves fans’ in a sentence without the word ‘negative.’
I get so angry!
The link is below
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1222895/McCarthy-disappointed-Wolves-fans-reaction-90-minutes.html
Always enjoy a trip to Stoke…not!
When the only place you can have a drink before the game is a Harvester Restaurant it says it all.
Anyway should be slightly different this time with the extra 12,000 glory hunters filling the stands and making a noise.
As long as our lads stand up to the physical challenge and dont surrender like we did at Blackburn i think we can get a point – anything else is a bonus. Trouble is that we need 3 pts from games like these with the fixtures we have coming up.
Off to catch my plane now. Looking fwd to dodging the knuckle draggers outside the away end and watching the “best supporters in the Universe” slope off after a Doyle and SEB inspired victory
Ciao for now
Matt, as fantastic as you make a game at Stoke I’d love more than anything to be able to go.
I have 2 law exams on Saturday (one in the morning, one in the afternoon) so we had better win, just to lift my mood a bit for the rest of the exams.
Matt, as fantastic as you make a game at Stoke sound I’d love more than anything to be able to go.
I have 2 law exams on Saturday (one in the morning, one in the afternoon) so we had better win, just to lift my mood a bit for the rest of the exams.
Why are you catching a plane?
2-1 to wolves, doyle and big chris with a late winner from a milijas cross.
Matt lives in Switzerland I think, and goes to as many Wolves games as most of us. This is if my memory serves me right- which it probably doesn’t.
I really hope MM chooses to start one or two of Halford, Big Chris or The Hoff. I fancy Iwelumo to score if he plays. We need a result here, no doubt about it. But if the boys don’t it isn’t the end of the world but they really have to step up their game against the big boys.
Shame I can’t be there, but I booked a driving lesson without thinking about it!
Ben- That hurts. I admit when 4 minutes went up i wasn’t sure how to feel, but quickly thought ‘hang on we can win this’. I was disappointed to hear the final whistle in the end.
I love Mick, but he was wrong there
i was watching on tv and i have to admit there was an audible groan but when we were up their end with halford throwing them in it was just a roar so that was the final memory over any groans.
Ben – if that’s true I think he got that wrong, but it was reported in the Daily Mail so I’m inclinded not to believe it!
Hallam – In my opinion, if we try and compete with Stoke in a physical battle I can, unfortunately, only see one winner (not us!). Our best bet would be to work hard defending against Stoke’s threat from set pieces, but play the rest of the game to our strengths, with the ball on the ground and getting our wingers involved as much as possible. I think it will be interesting to see which approach Mick adopts next Saturday.
I just had the thought that this game reminds me a lot of Wigan this season. We’re playing away, against a team who is highly fancied, we’re written off (Lawro) as not having the required quality, and our opponents have just come off probably their best win for the last couple of years.
Conclusion
Wolves Win.
I think we need Halford and big Chris from the start in order to cope with the Stoke set piece, both easily better in the air than SEB & Kightly.
I’m on the fence on this one too close to call.
I’d rather have seb kightly and doyle just outside the box to set up the counter attacks. big chris will definitely have a place in this game i reckon but surely after 60minutes!
SEB and Doyle to start for me with Big Chris coming on after 60 for SEB (unless he’s on a hat trick) – in fact we should start with the same team that played Villa. Stoke are no mugs but as I said before this is one of the few games that they won’t be considered underdogs which is going to be unusual for them and instead of sitting back for 90 mins they will be expected to attack – they ain’t used to that and I feel we may just catch them out!
Oh and Hallam, I take exception to the “disgusting accent’ comment mainly because the black country accent is certainly not one to savour! I have to agree about the city and the fans though (and I originate from there!)
Oh and when I say disgusting fans, I mean other than my Uncle who’s a top bloke even if he supports Stoke.
Jed: Black Country accent is beautiful. If Cheryl Cole could talk about gray paes and bacon in a lilting Bilston brogue, I’d love her even more!
Growing up in Stoke makes this the biggest game of the season for me. I follow Stoke in the media and through friends. The difference between the 2 teams is defence, ours always looks frail TBH. Also he must play Milijas to supply the strikers and to shoot from long distance. Anyone who thinks Edwards is a good player is well!!!!!, he has no pace, no tricks and it extremely lightweight. Castillio and milijas in the centre all day. 0-0 tomorrow