Just like many young boys growing up in the mid-1980s, the sight of Howard Kendall’s all conquering Everton side was enough to make me realise how special the game of football was.

The thrill of staying up late to watch Sportsnight with Dad and the giddy excitement at the spectacle thereafter convinced me that the Beautiful Game was the one for me.

Thank God I wasn’t born a few years ago instead.

Because the team Dad diverted me towards in 1987 created its customary brand of wretched anti-football that does more to drive neutrals away from the game and take up tiddlywinks instead.

Savour it folks. Our ONLY shot on target

No shots on target (bar the penalty), no possession, no pace, no aspiration, no progression and no player within 40 yards of Kevin Doyle at any time.

And all this at the home of the club that first got me hooked.

We are the complete antithesis of those Canon League conquerors of yesteryear, let alone Graham Turner’s heroes of division three.

It was no wonder my two mates were spending more time checking their fantasy football teams than grimace at our pre-planned attempt to pervert the course of football.

Partly because they were bored out of their skulls and partly because all of their chosen players would never ever be playing at Goodison Park on November 19.

Not in a Wolves shirt at least.

It’s no wonder our (wonderfully voiced) fans can lay claim to the most self deprecating song in the whole of football, heard only two or three times a season when we actually take the lead away from home.

“We’re winning away, we’re winning away. How s**t must you be, we’re winning away.”

Doubtless they will be called numpties and mindless idiots by Mick McCarthy in the greatest irony of all.

If this is football Mick, you can have it.

If I wasn’t so desperately sad right now, I’d summon up some bile to throw at you.

It wasn’t the wasted £35 that has saddened me. It wasn’t even the defeat itself or the subsequent baiting by my Everton supporting mate thereafter.

It was the unashamed creation of a spectacle that bears no relation to the game I first fell in love with that really hurt, featuring none of its bewitching, spellbinding characteristics.

Where the good teams have skill, we have sweat. Where Norwich and Swansea have aspiration, we have pragmatism.

And where every other side have a chain of passes, we have a kick-off to Hennessey and a lump downfield to a striker who can’t win headers.

The game itself featured 11 Wolves players giving their absolute all to the cause, looking committed and hungry from the off.

For that, they will not receive any criticism from me. Certainly not Ward for his phenomenal block on the line, or Berra for an amazing last gasp tackle on Drenthe in the first half.

We took the lead through a needless Fellaini trip on Edwards and proceeded to squander possession with the reckless abandon of a pub team.

So what happened next? We work even harder to try to get the ball back and our tiring bodies give way to weary minds.

The agonising inevitability is bad enough. The reputation we have now garnered with yet another set of disbelieving fans just rubs the salt in.

“Thank God we only play these lot once at home this season,” said one pained Everton fan.

The pleasure was all ours.

With Everton currently languishing in 17th place and a small section of their fans planning a protest tomorrow, you’d be forgiven for thinking they’re a club in crisis.

SEB bagged us a point last season

Not so sure about that myself.

Sure, they need investment if they’re to progress beyond the upper echelons of midtable, but a quick peak down their squad list reveals a Premier League side packed with quality.

Jagielka, Baines, Rodwell, Fellaini, Cahill, Osman – these are all proven performers and players most clubs would welcome with open arms.

The first three names on the above list all performed admirably for England too during the break, further emphasising the point that it’s a folly to suggest the Toffees are anything but a responsibly governed and well managed club.

Rant over.

Suffice to say, I won’t be taking them lightly then despite the fact they’ve already been turned over 3 times at Goodison Park this season and sit a point below us in the table, albeit having played a game less.

The 3-0 tonking they dished out to us at Molineux back in April still smarts though, so it would be nice to gain a measure of revenge for that humiliating afternoon of football.

The Team

There will almost certainly be at least one change to the side that started against Wigan a fortnight back. Adlene Guedioura struggled badly in his 45 minutes, so I think there’s a place up for grabs. It’s just a quesiton of who gets it. This is the eleven I think we’ll see:

Hennessey, Stearman, Berra, Johnson, Ward, Henry, Milijas, O'Hara, Edwards, Hunt, Doyle

So that’s Milijas in for Guedioura as the only change, with Edwards reverting to the right-side of midfield. The reason I think Mick will do this is to keep us more compact and difficult to breakdown.

There is of course the option of playing Edwards through the middle and bringing Jarvis in to play out wide, but I don’t think we’ll see that tomorrow. Fletch is also fit again thankfully but I’d expect Doyle to keep his place as the lone striker.

Prediction League

The majority correctly predicted a win against Wigan.

34 in total got the outcome spot-on but only 6 said 3-1 and picked up the maximum 3 points on offer.

So congratulations to Carl, Kowloon Wolf, Hamlet, Liam, wolverine and (cough) me!

I’m hoping for a solid performance tomorrow and if we can produce that, I don’t see a reason we can’t get a result.

I’ll go for 1-1 for the third consecutive season.

if you’re heading up north, have a great time and get right behind the lads.

Up The Wolves!

Whoever decided to take down the famous old North Bank clock would have been blissfully unaware of the poignancy.

At the moment George Elokobi took leave of his responsibilities and allowed Osman to cross for Jermaine Beckford to score, I glanced to check those hands of time I’ve checked 10,000 times before.

Ha ha! 1st goal in 3 years.

It had gone. Not so much time running out for Wolves, but disappeared completely.

No need to stop the clocks when they don’t even exist.

And like the vacant, sad empty space on top of the North Bank roof our defence looked likewise, in a pathetic indictment of a faded championship trophy.

Whoever utters that we were even remotely unlucky to concede the opener is missing the point completely.

Yes we had bossed the game for the first 20 minutes and looked by far the better team, but when your hapless, sub standard left back goes AWOL for yet another week it ceases to be unlucky. It is just bloody stupid.

No wonder they took the clock away. When you’ve had four years to find a competent left back from somewhere, then there’s hardly any point in telling the time anymore.

From the first goal on, Everton showed why they are a team on the cusp of a top 6 place with a clinical, measured display which stank of Premiership efficiency.

We just stank, resorting to the bizarre tactic of hoofing long balls to Sylvan Distin’s head, after emphatically proving for 20 minutes that we could give him headaches when we got the ball on the floor.

Like a quality opening batsman fending off the new ball, Everton eventually opened up, scoring a ridiculously good goal through Neville, the like of which he will never manage again.

And all of a sudden our 4-4-2 formation looked hopelessly exposed, Bilyanatdinov racing into open space to leather another goal of the month contender, as if saved especially for us.

So what has changed?

Yes, Doyle got injured in that damned Ireland friendly, but does that justify an entire formation change and subsequent home battering?

Does the manager not remember when he tried 4-4-2 at home to Bolton? Or Liverpool?

Eight points from 4 games had us all looking at our clocks for this very home game.

But Mick – at his infuriatingly stubborn worst – reaches for a deadly, doomed concoction like a drunkard at the last chance saloon.

What on earth has Adam Hammill done wrong, apart from play a starring role in our recent revival? Would any other manager treat a player this way?

Everton lose Fellaini, Arteta and Cahill before today’s game and keep exactly the same formation in place, using the exact same script from the Goodison Park dressing room.

We lose one player and we lose the bloody lot…

…The formation, the personnel, the game of football, and even the clock that told us how long we had left.

SEB - in the right place

If there is such a thing as ‘Second Season Syndrome’ Wolves are so far showing no signs of contracting the condition.

In fact, on the evidence of yesterday’s stirring second-half fightback, it seems entirely plausible that Mick McCarthy’s young side could very easily eclipse the achievements of last year.

To an outsider, yesterday’s scrappy one-all at Goodison Park will inevitably be attributed to an under-par Everton performance and consigned to the scrapheap of immediately forgettable Premier League stalemates.

Fortunately though, we’re not ‘outsiders’ and we didn’t just watch the ten seconds of footage crow-barred onto the end of Match of the Day, followed by Hansen and Lawrenson talking about the important issue of ‘Arteta for England’. Thanks for that, glad I stayed up til midnight.

No, this wasn’t just a score draw to tick off the coupon. Not to us. It was yet another clear example of just how good this Wolves side actually is.

We were battered in the first half. Everton enjoyed almost complete dominance of the football and spent the lion share of the 45 minutes camped out on the edge of our box. But the fact they only had one slightly controversial goal to show for their authority outlined the determination and character we have in abundance. Whenever danger loomed, there was always the boot of Berra, the head of Craddock or the hand of Hahnemann to rescue the situation.

But a goal down, Wolves needed more than defensive guile to leave Merseyside with anything other than a respectable defeat and having failed to string more than two passes together in the first hour of this contest, things looked decidedly grim on that front.

Enter Adlene Guedioura.

The tenacious Algerian changed the game, not just because of his individual contribution, but because his arrival signaled an important change in shape. Elokobi lumbered off, Ward slotted in at left-back and Matt Jarvis began prowling down his favoured left flank.

Suddenly we looked a threat and it wasn’t long before Guedioura mowed down two blue shirts, shifted the ball out to Doyle and made a lovely run into the box that freed a grateful SEB to fire home a deserved equaliser.

And just how pleasing was it to see our number 9 in there, exactly where we needed him, to gobble up the scraps and complete the comeback? OK, it was a tap-in, but everyone has to start somewhere and if this is the beginning of a long-overdue resurgence, I think we’ll all be delighted for the formerly prolific hitman.

A mention too for Kevin Doyle, for a lovely ball across the face of the penalty area which allowed his strike-partner to cash-in. It wasn’t his best game in a Wolves shirt, but nevertheless it was great to see him back out there.

It seems likely that Steven Fletcher will be fit and ready for the visit of Newcastle next week, so Mick better get his thinking cap on quick-smart and come up with a plan to make the most of his joint record signings and a forward who might just be getting into his Premiership stride.

Other conundrums lie ahead too. Think about the side we put out yesterday, how well they played and then consider the fact that £20 million worth of summer signings didn’t figure, as well as a clutch of other talents who could certainly aid our cause. No Fletcher, no van Damme, Mouyokolo, Hunt, Kightly, Edwards.

Two good results prove nothing of course, but don’t pretend you haven’t enjoyed a cheeky wry smile and an extra skip in your step at how things are shaping up at Molineux.

You can’t fool me.

* Just another shameless plug for my mate’s site as he’s promoting Birthday gifts for her on his excellent gift shop.