Last season, I thought one of the major reasons Wolves always struggled, was their inability to grind out draws in close matches.

Too often we’d be in games, but rather than keeping things tight and seeing it out, we made a suicidal mistake and allowed the opposition in through the back door.

Case in point, the injury time giveaway at the Reebok courtesy of Ronald Zubar.

Me again

So, despite the inept first half performance today (more on that in the moment) you’ll forgive me for being more than a little satisfied with a well-earned point.

Yes, by the end, we probably should have won it as we dominated possession in the final 20, albeit without punishing a creaky Bolton defence. But a draw is a solid enough result and maintains a slither of daylight between ourselves and the bottom three.

Fletch’s early second-half goal was crucial. No surprise to see him once again getting on the end of a Matt Jarvis delivery to nod in the equaliser. That’s 8 for the season, which is particularly impressive when you consider he’s struggled with injuries. Lets just hope his latest knock doesn’t cost us his services for Monday’s game against Chelsea.

Dave Edwards was another who impressed in the second half, bursting forward to good effect, which just begs the question, why the hell didn’t he start the game?

Throwing Elokobi in and shifting Ward into central midfield was ridiculous. There’s no other word to describe it. Well, actually there are, but that’s about the only one I can publish.

Credit to Wardy, he got on with it as usual and smashed the bar with a superb effort from distance. But that doesn’t paper over the fact that it was wrong of Mick to play him there.

We did nothing in that first half and still could have come in level, which definitely says more about Bolton than it does about our limp, insipid display.

Thankfully, Mick wasted no time in correcting his error and was immediately rewarded with the equaliser. Lets just hope that’s the end of the ‘Ward can play anywhere’ saga.

I think Johnson and Berra both deserve a pat on the back today. Not much either of them could do about the goal and that aside, they dealt with everything that came their way.

The skipper carried on his improvement from a solid second half at Arsenal, whereas Berra has become the model of consistency. The Scot remains a vastly underrated player in my opinion.

Nice to see Foley make a return too. I think we’ve missed his ability to put foot on ball and maintain possession neatly, especially when we’re up against it.

With Frimpong set to join alongside Jonnson tomorrow in the January sales and the team showing more fight on the pitch I think there’s reason to be cautiously optimistic heading into the second half of the season.

If it’s anything like the first, it will at the very least, be interesting.

Happy New Year!

Up The Wolves!

So what would you call our New Year’s Eve visit to the Reebok?

Must win or mustn’t lose?

If we’re serious about surviving more comfortably than last season, I think you’d call it a must win against a team with the worst home record in the league.

Injury time minute heartbreak last season

Bolton have lost 8 of their 9 home matches to date, with just a sole victory over Stoke to celebrate in front of their own crowd.

The stuff of nightmares for Owen Coyle and without doubt, for his side, this is definitely a must-win.

With that in mind, I’d personally settle for a point.

Wolves just have an unpleasant knack of losing these so-called six-pointers so a draw would represent a solid result.

Yes, a win would put satsifactory daylight between ourselves and the bottom, but a loss would suck us right in and the thought of that scenario ahead of a difficult January makes me feel more than a little nauseous.

Interestingly, Bolton haven’t drawn a match yet, so they’re certainly overdue a stalemate.

The Team

We’re forced into two changes with Milijas (wrongly) suspended and Zubar out injured. That’s a hammer blow to our immediate prospects in my opinion, as I rate both of those players highly.

What Mick now does with the team and specifically the midfield will be very interesting, but I suspect we’ll see something like this:

Hennessey, Stearman, Johnson, Berra, Ward, Henry, Edwards, Hunt, Jarvis, Fletcher, SEB

So that’s 442 with Stearman as a straight swap for Zubar, SEB in for Milijas and Edwards in for Forde.

Given Mick’s limited options in the center of midfield, it would appear to be a straight shootout between Edwards and Guedioura to start and I think he’ll deem the latter too much of a risk.

It’s conceivable we could see them both starting in a 451, but I have a suspicion we’ll go for it with two forwards.

Prediction League

5 enlightened souls correctly predicted a draw against Arsenal. 4 of them got the 1-1 scoreline too.

So well done to Karlir-Johanarnt Kristjanson, robin, Morph and Mark for scooping 3 points. The Wanderer takes a single.

Sadly, I think we’ll lose this match as we always lose the ‘mustn’t-lose’ matches.

I’ll go for 2-1 Bolton and just hope I’m slapping myself tomorrow evening for a lack of faith in my team.

If you’re heading to the Reebok tomorrow, have a great time and get right behind the lads.

Up The Wolves.

On the long matchday walk from the pub to the ground, I often use the internet on my phone to check the starting lineup. Today, I had mixed feelings when I read that Ebanks-Blake had been restored to the team signaling a change to 4-4-2.

Whilst it was great to see SEB’s positive contributions in recent weeks rewarded with a start, I couldn’t help but feel a little concerned that Mick had abandoned the 4-5-1 shape that had served us so well.

It was a struggle from minute one for Wolves

Still, confidence was high and with a well balanced midfield and two forwards on the pitch, I genuinely thought we’d have enough to push Bolton hard.

How foolish could I have been?

For the second game running we got off to the worst possible start, failing to clear our lines properly and Richard Stearman skillfully directing a header into his own net.

Just brilliant Wolves.

We then set about shelling balls forward against the two tallest center-halves in the league for our tiny strike-force to contest. What a plan.

Credit to Milijas for getting on the ball and trying his best to craft openings. His sumptuous through ball for Jarvis and long-range stinger were the definite highlights of a poor first half.

Unfortunately, next to the impressive Serb, Karl Henry simply went missing. What’s happened to our skipper? I can understand his reasons for flinching away from tackles, but why has his distribution gone down the toilet too? Get it sorted Karl. He was horrific today and in a four-man midfield, we need our captain to stand up and be counted. Sadly, he looked fragile throughout, which effected the entire team.

With Berra presumably injured in the warm-up and Ward still recovering from his gashed shin, Steven Mouyokolo and George Elokobi deputised in the back four. Did they improve us defensively? I think the answer is a big fat no.

Geroge seemed to put himself about, particularly in the air, but if we’re being as critical of him as we have been of Ward, then you have to point out that two goals were created down our left. Equally, Mouyokolo did a lot of good things, but he was one of the players left bamboozled by Elmandor’s turn for their second goal. And for me, he looked far from assured throughout and alongside the error-prone Stearman, it was very much a ‘make do and mend’ rearguard.

I’ve been saying for weeks that Berra has been a key figure for us and unquestionably his heading ability and reading of the game were two things we desperately missed yesterday. If he’s fit next week, I would restore him to the starting eleven without a moment’s hesitation.

At the other end of the pitch, SEB and Doyle struggled to impose themselves against Knight and Cahill, which was understandable given the type of service they were provided. However, you’ve got to be disappointed that neither managed to get on the end of the numerous balls that were delivered across the Bolton six yard box, particularly in the dying moments.

Credit to Fletcher for coming on and making a difference. Not only did he stoop low to bag his third Premier League goal of the season and setup a grand stand finale, but he also got in round the back moments later, rolling the ball across goal only for everyone in a gold shirt to make the same run.

The fact that we came so agonisingly close to snatching an unlikely point should not paper over the cracks of what was a below-par performance, made all the worse by slack individual errors.

Bolton will rightly mark this down as a great away performance, but as good as they were, I again feel Wolves were their own worst enemies.

Next week’s visit to Blackpool now falls firmly under the category of ‘must-win’, rather than ‘mustn’t lose’.

And the clear message from this match was simple – ‘must do better’.