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!

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.

Everyone makes mistakes, but Ronald Zubar’s last gasp brainwave might well go down as the one that hammered a rusty nail in our relegation coffin.

On a night that Robbie Keane scored on his West Ham debut – consigning us to the bottom of the league – a more miserable script could not have been dreamt up, unless John McGinlay’s piggy frame was dragged back out from retirement.

I hope your uncle is proud, you prat

Maybe the happy clappers will finally get it now. A glass half empty is not viewed as such for the satanic fun of it. It merely looks that way because of endless nights of torture like this one.

Most of us still remember McGinlay’s swinging right hook on David Kelly’s nose in 1994.

Many of us will remember Eidur Gudjonson’s double in 1999, to kill our best chance of a play off place under Colin Lee.

But none of us will remember the last time we beat them away in the league though will we, because it hasn’t happened in bloody decades.

Adam Hammill looked extremely promising on his full debut, while our 4-5-1 system made us far more resolute than the Liverpool shambles, with Stearman and Berra immense.

All that is left is a pile of sickly, nauseating quotes about how unlucky we were, rehashed from a vault of familiar, sugar coated soundbites.

Whether the same authors will write about the state of the game with 15 minutes left remains to be seen though.

Bolton and Coyle, desperate for the win, hurled on Moreno and Sturridge to accompany Elmander and Davies in a four pronged attack.

Mick on the otherhand, chose to bring on Stephen Ward for Matt Jarvis, with O’Hara replacing Edwards.

However gut wrenching this defeat feels, the levels of pragmatism that we have to swallow in the Premier League plays a far bigger factor than a Ronald Zubar slip-up. (It’s 270 minutes since our last goal, remember.)

Too afraid to unleash SEB or Fletcher (let alone Milijas) for the gaps they might leave behind, and too nervy to take the game to an average team, knowing that we can’t keep clean sheets.

When Mick can’t afford to be brave with his team for the inadequacies an approach would unveil, is it any wonder fortune never favours us?

And whilst I find it deeply frustrating that Mick failed to draft in defensive reinforcements, I’m glad the circus is leaving town until the summer.

Bolton won the midfield battle at Molineux

On the plus side, Adam Hammill and Jamie O’Hara could prove to be valuable additions so it’s certainly not all doom and gloom as many would have you believe.

Lets also not forget that we felt suicidal at the end of last year’s January window, but it all turned out fine and dandy come May. A repeat of that scenario isn’t completely out of the question.

Mick will no doubt want his squad to justify the faith he’s consistently shown in them and tomorrow’s game at Bolton would be a good place to start.

Back in December, we looked at the home game against Owen Coyle’s side as the chance to kickstart our faltering season, only to find ourselves 3-0 down after an hour. And despite the fact we fought back admirably to within a whisker of nicking an unlikely point, the performance was greatly disappointing.

We’ll need to do much better this time, particularly at the back if we’re to get anything at the Reebok. Their home form has been solid to date, winning five, drawing five and losing just twice.

They’ve struggled of late though and are without a win in their last five league games, which has sucked them back into the midtable scrum. So they’ll be keen to address that slide against the team with the worst away record in the league.

I’m expecting Wolves to stick with the 4-4-2 and I reckon the team will be something like:

Hennessy

Zubar
Berra
Stearman
Elokobi

Hammill
Henry
Milijas
Jarvis

Doyle
Fletcher

Hunt came off against Stoke with a calf injury so perhaps that will open the door for Adam Hammill to show what he can do from the start. Assuming Doyle’s fit, I’d expect his partnership with Fletcher to continue up top.

Personally, I’d sacrifice one of the forwards, probably Fletcher, in order to bring in another midfielder. That could be Jones, Edwards or even O’Hara, but I think the extra man in the middle of the park is necessary. Bolton overran us at Molineux, particularly Muamba who I thought was outstanding on the day and we can’t have that happening again.

Prediction League

Most people went for a win against Liverpool a fortnight back, hence a low scoring week. Nobody went 3-0 Liverpool but Rob, Jed, Super Kev Doyle and t’OM all got a point for predicting defeat.

Tomorrow’s a tricky one.

Bolton will be well up for it and licking their lips at the prospect of another home win. They’ve brought in Daniel Sturridge on loan from Chelsea too and he’ll inject some real pace and trickery into their attack.

Still, we’ve deserved more than we’ve got on the road this season and the players will recognise the importance of this game with Man Utd and Arsenal to come. I’ll sit on the fence and say draw.

2-2.

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

Up The Wolves!

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’.

Wolves defended bravely to see out a 2-1 win at Molineux last season

It will be a tough game against Owen Coyle’s men and you only have to look at the league table to realise this. Currently, the Trotters lie fifth and above the likes of Spurs, Villa and Liverpool.

Curiously though, they’ve only won three games this season, which is amazing when you consider Wolves, who occupy 19th position have won twice. Still, seven draws and only two defeats tells you they’ve built their success on being difficult to beat, so this promises to be a stern test for Mick and the boys.

Stephen Ward’s injury could open the door for either Elokobi or van Damme to find a place in the starting eleven, whilst injuries to Edwards and Doyle are also being assessed. I’d imagine Doyle will play if he’s got a hand injury as he made it through the second half against Arsenal with the aid of strapping. Edwards probably won’t be risked if he’s carrying a muscle strain.

This is the team I reckon we’ll see:

Hahnemann

Foley
Berra
Stearman
Elokobi

Hunt
Henry
Mancienne
Milijas
Jarvis

Doyle

Prediction League

Well done to Kowloon Wolf for being the only armchair pundit to correctly forecast a 2-0 Arsenal win on Wednesday. Eight other people said we’d lose, but none got the score right.

We need to be looking at a minimum four point return from the next two games, so we really could do with three points tomorrow, in order to lift some of the pressure heading into next weekend’s game at Blackpool.

My head says draw and my heart says a narrow Wolves win.

Providing we don’t make any sloppy errors at the back for a change, I’ll back us to edge this one.

1-0 to the Wolves.

As always, if you’re going to the game, have a great time and lets really get behind the lads. A win tomorrow could kick-start our season.

Up The Wolves.

* Oh, I wanted to mention the ‘Comment League Table’. I was contacted last week by a Wolves Blog regular who wanted me to change how his name appeared in the table, which was really easy for me to do. So if anyone else wants their name changing on there, let me know. Also, I know some people have commented using two different email addresses, which will mean they have two tallys running simultaneously. If that is the case, let me know your two emails and I’ll combine them to give you one overall number. Hope that makes sense.

In fact, about twenty minutes into the second half, I’d realised it wasn’t going to be Wolves’ day. Having hit the inside of the post twice, only to see the ball bounce along the goalmouth and out to safety on both ocassions, it was clear that luck certainly wasn’t on our side.

View from the away end (click to expand)

Matt Jarvis should have equalised after motoring away down the left, cutting inside superbly, but then delaying his shot a second too long with the goal at his mercy. He was actually fouled inside the penalty area prior to getting his effort away, but I wasn’t surprised to see the referee turn away the muted appeals.

The tricky wide man also stung Jussi Jääskeläinen’s hands in the first half, latching onto a flick through and firing in a vicious first time shot, that the Bolton keeper did well to turn around the post.

Just not our day. Luckless in many respects.

But luck had nothing to do with our poor defending.

We generally did well from set pieces, doubling up on Kevin Davies and staying tight on the likes of Knight and Elmander. But in the crucial moments prior to half-time we switched off and got punished.

Guedioura didn’t do enough to stop Lee dancing passed him on the byline, Kevin Foley allowed the Korean to come in too far and when the ball was played across, whoever should have been marking Knight wants shooting.

You have to say it had been coming though.

Craddock and particularly Berra didn’t do well enough to repel the threat of Bolton’s front two, all too often flicking balls on to help their cause rather than heading them away to safety. That allowed them to construct a handful of excellent opportunities, which needed smart saves from Hahnemann and a goal line clearance to keep the scores level.

Berra was poor. There’s no hiding from that fact and he needs to improve if he’s to keep his place in the side. He positions himself well most of the time and is excellent when the crosses are raining in, but he’s just not being strong enough, quick enough or good enough on the ball to cope with the demands of the Premiership. I’ve been his biggest fan at different points of the season, but recently he’s disappointed.

I felt disappointed with Ward, Guedioura and Henry too. There was too much dilly-dallying on the ball from those three, which constantly saw possession surrendered easily.

David Jones seemed the only midfielder capable of getting the ball out of his feet and picking out a proper pass. He was man of the match for me with an excellent all round performance; coming within a hairsbreadth of capping it with that superb free-kick that walloped against the post.

There were other decent showings from the likes of Jarvis, Foley and the evergreen Kevin Doyle, but we just never did quite enough in the crucial moments of the game to come away with a result, which is hugely disappointing.

There wasn’t enough desire to go out and get that goal to put us in the driving seat. It was only when we went behind that we showed a bit of spark, which is just so typical of many of our away performances this season. Then of course, there’s that lack of cutting edge, which is proving crucial when the half-chances do come our way, as there’s nobody out there to strike the killer blow.

That looks like it could cost us.

We’ll need to show more in our other relegation showdowns against Burnley and Portsmouth or we’ll almost certainly be hearing the unmistakable hiss of fizzy pop.

In the meantime, we’ve got Man Utd to look forward to next week.

Goodie!

Oh how I long for a similar outcome tomorrow.

What a result that would be.

Wolves defended bravely to see out a 2-1 win at Molineux

And what a time it would be for Wolves to finally throw down a marker and take a giant step towards a second consecutive season of Premiership football. You see we’ve steadily accumulated points throughout the campaign, mainly pulling out results when we’ve absolutely had to, but never really pushing on or doing quite enough to put daylight between ourselves and the dropzone.

Tomorrow is another glaring opportunity to do just that.

Recent performances from both sides suggest there’s every chance of Wolves claiming a famous win. Bolton have lost convincingly on more than one occasion in the last few weeks, shipping goals at one end and failing to register anything at the other. Encouraging signs indeed.

Wolves haven’t exactly been prolific, but the shift to the 4-5-1 shape, the form of Kevin Doyle and the emergence of Adlene Guedioura have given fans a renewed sense of optimism. I would even go as as to say, the majority of supporters genuinely believe we WILL beat Bolton on their home patch.

I just wish I shared their confidence.

This game just gives me an uneasy feeling (which is hardly ideal, as I’m traveling the 90 odd miles to see it). The thought of victory just seems too good to be true, which is perhaps a feeling that’s been cultivated through years of being let down at the crucial moments by my beloved team.

Or am I just being a pessimist? Should I feel bad for thinking that Bolton can’t continue to defend as badly or be as profligate in front of goal? Should I bury my head in shame for thinking that Doyle can’t continue to defy what one player should be capable of doing? Should I beat myself with my mouse mat for thinking ‘this is Wolverhampton Wanderers. We never do things the easy way’?

Time will tell, but I dream of being proved wrong.

Anyway, the formalities. The team picks itself barring disaster:

Hahnemann

Zubar
Craddock
Berra
Ward

Foley
Henry
Jones
Guedioura
Jarvis

Doyle

My prediction is a 1-1 draw, because Wolves are in decent form but I can’t shake the feeling of impending doom, so I’ll sit firmly on the fence.

If you’re going to the game, have a great day out and get behind the lads. It’s a biggun’, so they’ll need the support more than ever.

Up The Wolves.

But for some reason, I just had a feeling that things were going to be different against Bolton on Saturday. And thank God they were!

Milijas - potential realised

Gone was that excruciating, painful rendition of ‘Those Were the Days’ before kick-off, which seemed to set us all off in the wrong mood for our local derby. And back came Stephen Ward and Nenad Milijas to our starting line-up.

Those pair, as much as any other players in an Old Gold shirt, deserve all the praise going for changing the scene around WV1 come 4.55pm. Even the ball boys looked lively, which made a pleasant change.

Let’s hope that our vital 2-1 win over Bolton will banish all those other familiar sights and feelings that we’ve all suffered for the past few weeks and months. I don’t know about you all, but I am still glowing after Chris Foy blowed up for full-time.

I barely remember a win feeling so good! If the same players manage to put in the same kind of performances over the coming weeks until January, then there’s no reason why we won’t all be feeling happy again and looking forward to Match of the Day once or twice. Even if they do put us on at the end!

Our precious three points were earned on the back of something that we haven’t seen at Molineux for ages – an early goal from the home team. If ever a team needed a quick strike to calm nerves and settle the players down, then it was us.

Doyle’s selfless, relentless work won us a free kick, which allowed Milijas to begin an afternoon of torment on the Trotters. His wicked delivery was nodded on by Berra for Craddock to smash home, to the delight of everyone. The fact that the goal was 2 yards offside made it even more joyous.

From then on we hussled and harried Bolton all over the pitch as usual (Brmingham apart). Only this time, we had Milijas to sprinkle some genuine, Premier-class quality on things. How fitting then, that the Serb won us the game with such a memorable goal.

We’ve been banging on about shooting on sight for God knows how long. In Nenad, we surely have the player who will oblige without hesitation. His goal was an absolute joy to behold and I’d have loved to have been a North Banker sat behind it as it swerved and arrowed its way into the top corner.

Nobody can overlook the return of Stephen Ward either. Not only did he bring us balance and intelligence to the left hand side, but he gave us an infectious ethic and enthusiasm, as seen in a brilliant last-gasp interception to keep Bolton at bay. I’m certainly eating my words, and long may that continue.

Dave Edwards also looked far more effective on the right side of midfield than in the centre and fully deserved his ovation when substituted.

Now we just need Mick to stick with this team until the New Year. No tinkering please! It might suffer one or two defeats between now and then, but it will stand a damned sight more chance of picking up one or two other results as well.

Then once January arrives, who knows? If it’s two or three quality players, then we’d all have a feeling that things might be different.

Highlights

The sickening taste of the Birmingham defeat can only be soothed by the tonic that victory and three precious Premier League points brings. Of course, Bolton travel to Molineux needing a result just as badly as us and knowing that defeat would see a faltering Wolves side leapfrog them in the table.

Maierhofer - worth a gamble this weekend?

History isn’t on our side though. In the last Premiership campaign, we drew 1-1 at the Reebok thanks to an Alex Rae screamer and were on the wrong end of a 2-1 defeat at home, thanks to an atrocious refereeing performance from Uriah Rennie. We certainly can’t afford such bad luck this time around.

Put simply, Wolves must get the win. It doesn’t matter how bad the performance is, victory is all that matters on Saturday. But how do we go about getting it?

Mick has to go back to basics this weekend and pick a side with players operating in their naturals positions. I know I’ve harped on about this for ages now, but after last week’s debacle he’s got the perfect excuse to clear the decks and start again. Nobody’s place in the team should be safe.

I’ve given up trying to predict our manager’s team selection though, so instead, here’s the Wolves side I’d like to see take to the field on Saturday:

Hahnemann

Zubar
Craddock
Mancienne
Ward

Edwards
Castillo
Henry
Jarvis

Doyle/SEB
Keogh/Hoff

As you can see, I’m sitting on the fence with the front two, but I’d like to see one of Doyle or SEB keep their place and one of Keogh or The Hoff come into the side. I think we need something different up top and those two players haven’t been given much chance to impress lately.

The defence and midfield both have a more natural shape and that should give us better options going in both directions. The one questionable change is probably bringing Mancienne in at centre-back given that Bolton will probably look to hit Kevin Davies up front. But I think he’d do a good job of picking up the second balls should their big target man win a good number of flick-ons, which I’d image he will.

In all honesty though, I have no idea if this will be anything like the team McCarthy picks come Saturday, and that has to change. He has to find his best eleven soon and stick with it, if we’re to have any chance of making a decent fist of survival.

A prediction is a difficult task. My heart wants to say 1-0 to Wolves, but my head can’t get away from the draw. With Spurs and Man Utd away our next two fixtures, anything but victory this weekend could see us cut well adrift of safety by the time Burnley visit Molineux just before Christmas.

But I’m expecting a big response from Wolves, so fingers crossed for a morale-boosting win.

If you’re going to the game, have a great time and roar the lads on. Something tells me we’re in for a scrap this weekend, so they’ll need the support.

Up The Wolves.