Chewed up, spat out and pulled relentlessly through the wringer, but ultimately, Wolves are alive and kicking in the Premier League.

We’re safe.

Enjoy it. Relish it. Savour every last drop of it.

Worth remembering

Then take a deep breath and relax.

All the other discussions can be saved for another day because at this precise moment, nothing else matters.

For example, it doesn’t matter that our first half performance was the stuff of sick, perverted nightmares. It doesn’t matter that Jason Roberts was made to look unplayable or for that matter that Junior Hoilett was made to look like Pele. Forget it, it doesn’t matter.

Today was about one thing and one thing only – survival.

Survival, in any shape or form, however scruffy, scrappy or downright jammy it needed to be. Just survive.

And we did that, albeit with the helping hand of others.

In fairness though, we kept on chugging away and it’s well worth remembering that even before Spurs hammered the final decisive nail into Birmingham’s coffin, this ‘never say die’ Wolves team had muscled their own way out of the bottom three, thanks to Stephen Hunt’s delicious curling finish.

That crucial second goal followed Jamie O’Hara’s belting strike from another well-worked short free-kick. On a pleasant side note, if the rumoured £5 million permanent deal for the on loan Spurs’ midfielder comes to fruition, that will be a fantastic piece of business.

By stark contrast, I don’t think anyone in gold will be keen to see us shelling out the mega-bucks on Michael Mancienne right now. He was appalling today and when he scuttled off at half-time, I think most of us breathed a sigh of relief. He just couldn’t cope with the physicality of Roberts and coupled with massive lapses in concentration against Blues and Sunderland in recent weeks, you have to question whether he has what it takes to play consistently as a center-back in the Premier League.

But as I say, discussions such as these are for mulling over on another day.

In fact, it can all wait for another day because I quite simply have nothing left to give.

The opera that is Wolverhampton Wanderers football club have once again battered me into an empty shell of a man and left me feeling numb from the experience.

Same again next season yeah?

I’m up for it if you are.

Up The Wolves.

Make no mistake about it, we’ve arrived at game 38 of the Premiership season in a favourable position.

When you consider how the table looked just a fortnight ago, it’s remarkable that we can lose this final fixture and still have a decent chance of retaining our top flight status.

However, we can’t think like that.

Mouyokolo got a rare start in the massacre at Ewood Park

We have to look at this game objectively, hopefully win it to secure three Premier League victories on the bounce for the first time in our history and in doing so render events away from Molineux irrelevant, to us anyway.

Blackburn of course are in an almost identical position and will be just as hungry to get the job done themselves, without the need for outside interference. Their away form reads won three, drawn three and lost 12. So objectively speaking, they don’t travel particularly well.

What they have shown in recent weeks though, is a real appetite for the scrap. Avoiding defeat against West Ham and Man Utd were monumental results when you consider the position they’d be in without those two points.

Steve Kean’s side also boast some strong characters with Robinson, Salgado, Dunn and big Chris Samba all proving their worth at the business end of the season. They’ve got power and pace throughout too, which was demonstrated perfectly as they bullied and battered Wolves 3-0 at Ewood Park in the reverse fixture.

They can be got at though and if Wolves come out on the front foot, as they have done in so many big home games this season, there’s no reason we can’t secure the points. Team selection, as always will be key and I reckon we’ll see one change from the side that started against Sunderland last weekend:

Hennessy

Foley
Craddock
Mancienne
Elokobi

Jarvis
Henry
O’Hara
Hunt

Ward
Fletcher

So that’s Jarvis in for Guedioura, based on our improvement in the second half at the Stadium of Light. Whether that’s the right decision, I’m not sure. Guedioura is a strange sort of player; capable of brilliance but equally, a sloppy mistake. He looked lost against Sunderland as he does in so many away games, but seems to play far better at Molineux. I’d probably stick with Guedioura, as much for his physical presence as anything, and introduce Jarvis from the bench.

Prediction League

No less than 15 of you correctly predicted we’d win last weekend, but alas, not one person said 3-1. So all of you armchair pundits pick up a single point for your efforts.

To round off the season, I think we’ll draw this match. I’m going for 2-2.

Ultimately, as I’ve stated a few times now, I think that will be enough to keep us up.

If you’re at Molineux this weekend, really get behind the lads so we can make sure we do everything we possibly can to avoid needing favours from elsewhere. Whatever happens, it promises to be a highly memorable occasion.

(Stay) Up The Wolves.

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I’m sure every Wolves fan knows the bottom of the Premier League like the back of their hand. Six teams are within three points of the dreaded drop, heading towards one of the most exciting final days in a number of years.

There is one match that worries me though; Blackburn v Manchester United. Every part of my body is telling me that Blackburn are just two points clear of us, surely I want them to lose. Now I have no fondness for Chelsea, and at this stage I couldn’t care less who wins the title, but I want Blackburn to win.

Steve Kean's side have a massive role to play in the relegation drama.

There are two reasons for this:

1) A Blackburn win puts them on 42 points and given their superior goal difference, they are virtually safe.

2) A Manchester United loss means that they have to take the game against Blackpool seriously as anything less than a point would surely see Chelsea snatch the title.

Why would Blackburn being safe be good for us? Well, obviously we play them on the last game of the season. I get the feeling that IF they came to Molineux needing just a point to stay up, their defence is good enough to shut us out and get it.

And while a point may be good enough for them, it may not be enough for us. If we go into the last game needing a win, which I suspect we will, I’d far rather play a team who are already safe, whose players are thinking more about their spot on the beach than they are a relegation battle.

The second point; while I think about what Manchester United’s second string did against Schalke 04, and hope that they can do the same against Blackpool, I also think back the last day of 2006/07. Manchester United, having already sewn up the title played a West Ham side needing a win to stay in the Premier League. While Manchester United played a reasonably strong team that day, they had one eye on the Cup Final the week later and lost 1-0. West Ham stayed up.

We can’t afford for United to take their eye of the ball in this match. I’m hoping that they will want to celebrate lifting the Premier League trophy with a win in front of their fans, and continue their near perfect home record, but given the way Blackpool play, they will put those reserve team players under a lot of pressure, more so than Schalke did in a tie that was effectively dead.

As much as it pains me to say it, if on Sunday we cannot catch Blackburn, part of me will be reasonably happy.

You can follow Tom Bason on Twitter (@toomb86)

Well, what a shambles.

After last week’s encouraging late fightback against Sunderland, hopes were high for a solid performance at Ewood Park but that quite simply didn’t materialise.

And unfortunately, the problems were all too familiar.

Ryan Nelson made it two in two against Wolves

For starters, I thought the team selection was all wrong. The ever-growing list of injuries certainly did us no favours, but I feel a stronger eleven could have been fielded with the players Mick did have at his disposal.

With Jones ruled out, I would have brought Hunt back into the midfield and kept Jarvis in his preferred position down the left. And at the back, bringing both Berra and Mouyokolo into the side was a big call. I thought George had a great game at centre back last week and was disappointed to see him moved over to the left.

Still, it doesn’t really seem to matter who plays, the same shortcomings are embarrassingly evident.

Defensively, we’re making terrible basic errors and against a side that specialise in set pieces, you can’t afford slack marking and free headers. Ryan Nelson must love playing against us, given the freedom of the 18-yard box to score twice in as many games.

Going forward, it wasn’t much better. Without doubt, if you’re all over the place at the back, you’ve got to be ruthless going forward and Wolves quite simply are not.

You might say we were unlucky to strike the woodwork early doors and you could argue Robinson produced a few saves, but it’s an all too familiar tale of woe. Can we really be that unlucky or are we just not clinical enough in front of goal? I suspect the latter.

Worryingly, things need to improve immediately. We need wins in our next three league games to avoid being completely cut adrift by the New Year.

And we certainly can’t give goals away to Birmingham next Sunday as they’re not the kind of team who’ll return the favour.

That game is now massively important for Wolves, but given our horrendous form against local rivals, coupled with our propensity for self-destruction, I harbour very little hope.

Things certainly don’t look good.