Ben Rasmin

Reading 0 Wolves 0

Kenny Jackett is unlikely to be an avid reader of local newspapers.

But the results of a midweek poll run by the Express & Star will have made interesting reading.

Because, when asked if Kenny should be allowed to continue in his role next season, the general consensus was that a change is needed.

Personally, that’s not a view that I share but it does reflect the frustration that is burgeoning amongst an under appreciated fanbase.

Once again, we forked out for the privilege of being underwhelmed in the freezing cold. Though the performance was a slight improvement on Tuesday’s debacle, the end result was the same and respite from our mediocrity seems more illusive than ever.

But how much blame can be laid at the door of our Head Coach?

Surely he hasn’t encouraged, let alone orchestrated, the disassembling of the fluid, free scoring team that had entertained us so very much over the last two seasons.

Cast your eye over yesterday’s starting eleven and you’ll find an assortment of players that, despite their willing, can only be considered downgrades on last season’s alternative.

You only need to consider how many players we have tried in Bakary Sako’s old left wing berth to see the folly of our pre and mid season recruitment drives.

Yesterday’s team selection was once again a case of flinging resources out of the pan and hoping that a winning formula would stick.

Forgotten man Tommy Rowe was restored to the nether regions and Joe Mason, quite amazingly, found himself benched just days after his goal scoring debut.

The result of this latest bout of tinkering was another languid display. Though we saw a lot more of the ball than was the case against Bolton, a lack of pace meant we rarely stretched our opposition.

The injuries that have befallen a number of key players have made Kenny’s job even more tasking but that is unlikely to stave off criticism, especially when we are made to wait three quarters of the game for a substitution.

Such perplexing behaviour is enough to make you consider whether our Head Coach is acting out of protest. Though I suspect otherwise, the reintegration of players formerly deemed surplus to requirements is behaviour befitting of a man who is trying to shine a light on the scarcity of his resources.

One resident of the Last Chance Saloon is at least grasping the opportunity with both hands. Bjorn Sigurdarson worked tirelessly in the lone striker role and, along with the improving Ethan Ebanks-Landell and dependable James Henry, was one of the few players that shined for either side.

However, that is but a crumb of comfort in an increasingly dispiriting tale of mid table mediocrity. The board’s seemingly relentless desire to run the club as little more than a profit centre renders a turnaround in fortunes unlikely and an easing of the dissension amongst the terraces even more so.

It will certainly be interesting to see what sort of response is given to Jez Moxey’s impending Early Bird offer. Surely the CEO can’t be expecting a rapturous uptake given the tripe we have had to put up with both on and off the pitch this season?

Periods of apathy are often remedied by a gesture of sorts and one wonders whether last week’s poll may become more prevalent if performances continue to stagnate.

Kenny has been bullet proof up until now but nobody is safe from the axe in this modern day iteration of the beautiful game.

Food for thought then for a man that needs to learn how to help himself during times of adversity.

Because one dimensional play and tactical inconsistencies are not going to capture the hearts and minds of a fanbase that deserves so much more than what we are currently receiving.

QPR 1 Wolves 1

Blog, QPR

In many ways, Rajiv Van La Parra is the ideal emblem for our current side – undoubtedly talented but perennially inconsistent.

Today the occasionally flying Dutchman enjoyed one of his better days in a gold and black shirt.

A constant menace to a laboured Paul Konchesky, he gave the team a focal point that allowed them to grow in confidence after a disastrous start to proceedings at Loftus Road.

Danny Batth’s needless foul gave the home side a chance to put our defence under pressure. It was an opportunity that the gargantuan Sebastian Polter accepted gleefully, heading crisply past a helpless Carl Ikeme.

That set the tone for a first half that highlighted our dearth of resources, with our main tactic comprising of aimless long balls to a vertically challenged striker.

To be fair to Adam Le Fondre, he was only asked to play the fruitless lone striker role that Benik Afobe occupied before his recent departure.

Speaking of Afobe, unsurprising to see that we’ve yet to reinvest any of the healthy profit we made from his sale. One can’t help but wonder if that would have been the case if we were still flirting with relegation?

Given the way that the club has been run since our brief foray into League One, it seems fair to assume there’s no intention to spend now that safety has been all but assured.

In some respects, a transfer market splurge during the financially imprudent month of January could be considered ill advised.

The squad is crying out for reinforcements – of that there can be no doubt – but we’re unlikely to land our top targets (whoever they may be) at a time when most teams still have something left to play for.

If waiting until the summer means seeing some quality additions being made to our already promising side, then I’m all for it.

But the realist in me says that the only place the Afobe money’s going is into another admirable but ultimately ill advised real estate project such as the recently opened The Way.

Considering there hasn’t been a whiff of interest from prospective buyers of the club, that’s a sobering outlook for the immediate future.

Still, best to concentrate on the positives and our second half performance certainly fits that description.

Other than a late scare, we controlled the game against much more experienced opposition and would have won comfortably were it not for the stellar defending of Grant Hall and Nedum Onuoha.

A crumb of comfort to cling on to until we reconvene against the league’s bottom club, who’ve already beaten us once this season.

Here’s hoping we’ll be cheering at least one new signing onto the pitch by then – let’s not hold our breath though.

Wolves 1 Reading 0

Blog, Reading

‘To put it in gentleman’s terms, if you’re looking for a young lady and you pull one, some weeks they’re good looking and some weeks they’re not the best. Our performance today would have been not the best looking bird but at least we got her in the taxi.’

Ian Holloway, last seen traveling the country in a tour bus that had his face plastered along its side, offered this pearl of wisdom during his tenure as QPR manager. Though it teeters precariously along the lines of chauvinism, it’s certainly rings true when applied to our most recent performance.

There have seldom been games under Kenny Jackett’s tenure in which we have been dominated to the extent we were by Reading. Despite being far removed from the Championship elite, the Royals enjoyed three quarters of possession and, according to BBC WM, managed over 20 shots on goal.

However, the most telling statistic of all is Reading’s ‘goals scored’ tally. Despite a pretty calamitous first half showing, our defence managed to keep the away side at bay and, in doing so, offered hope that improvement is on the way.

Ethan Ebanks-Landell has come in for criticism in recent weeks but enjoyed a most impressive second half.

The January transfer window, along with the returning Kortney Hause, is likely to bring the Smethwick born defender some much needed competition but yesterday’s showing suggested he is good enough to make that contest more hard fought than we initially expected.

Indeed, our defensive application was a world away from the recent Keystone Cops tribute act we’ve had to endure. If we can get some more bodies in over January, preferably in the centre and left back departments, then we’ll have cause to hope that Kenny can finally remedy this season long ailment.

That being said, my Mom made the excellent assertion that, for all of the back four’s recent failings, we have largely been guilty of neglecting the defensive shortcomings of our midfield.

There is nowhere near as much energy in the centre as there was last season, irrespective of the combination Kenny has plumped for over the duration of the campaign.

Kevin McDonald, though still our most influential player, is often guilty of indolence and Dave Edwards appears to have been running on empty for some time now.

The cause of this malaise is difficult to diagnose but is something that also needs to be addressed over the ensuing months. We can but only hope that our flustered manager remains capable of solving such conundrums.

This was a big win for him and will hopefully instigate a revitalisation that will silence some of his more over zealous social media detractors.

One win, especially one as cagey as this, won’t be enough to rekindle Kenny’s love affair with our club. This needs to be a turning point rather than another false dawn.

Or, to revert to the tone of Sky Sports’ premier Football League pundit, the start of a long term relationship and not another one night stand.

Wolves 1 Nottingham Forest 1

Blog, Nottingham Forest

Bill Murray has a Christmas special on Netflix.

But it’s one of his more familiar films that I find myself recollecting in the wake of another frustrating 90 minutes.

In Groundhog Day, Murray plays a disenchanted news anchor that finds himself doomed to relive the same day over and over again until he gets it right.

Sound familiar?

Whilst there’s positives to be taken out of our performance, the final narrative was gratingly familiar.

And, given the club’s current ‘for sale’ status, it’s hard to see a change coming without drastic action being taken.

With Benik Afobe again consigned to the bench, it’s fair to assume that the club is planning for life without their star forward. Hark back to pre-season and this scenario would seem potentially riot-inducing but it now seems the only plausible route to improvement.

If it’s to be assumed that Kenny Jackett can only spend what he raises come January, then cashing in on our most prized asset seems like an unavoidable cause of action.

Afobe has struggled to raise the standards of a developing team and probably needs a move away as much as we need the transfer fee it would provide.

It’s clear to see that we are not too far away from being a formidable Championship side. On Friday evening, the team were enterprising going forward and created plenty of chances.

However, we were once again handicapped by an inability to punish the opposition and our unhealthy penchant for amateurish defensive mishaps.

Despite some questionable signings as of late, Kenny Jackett has proven himself to be a fairly shrewd operator in the transfer market and would likely put any windfall from an Afobe sale to good use.

Mike Williamson’s brief Indian summer at Molineux proved that good defenders are on the market and Adam Armstrong and Tom Bradshaw’s exploits in League One exemplify the attacking talent that is prevalent elsewhere in the Football League.

With half the season almost gone and Wolves four points shy of the play-offs, these are the sort of acquisitions we ought to be looking to make. But that can’t happen without bidding adieu to our current No. 10.

Regardless of Kenny’s thoughts on that matter, he’s likely to have been pleased with aspects of Friday’s performance.

It may have been Ethan Ebanks-Landell’s slack marking that allowed Forest back into the game but he gave a solid performance up until that point – if he can iron the mistakes out of his game, he’ll be a very good defender.

Jordan Graham continued his excellent vein of form and already looks set to be a key first team player moving forward. Watching him slalom down the left is a real treat and the prospect of him improving with experience is something that we can all be excited about.

Forecasting where we’ll be at the end of the month is a task that most fortune tellers would shirk at but recent improvements means that cautious optimism can be indulged for at least the time being.

After all, even Phil figured it out in the end.

Wolves 0 MK Dons 0

Blog, MK Dons

When the winter freeze sets in, you always hope that a game of football can warm the cockles.

There was no chance of that Saturday. Instead we were made to endure one of the most laborious outings in recent Molineux history.

For weeks we’ve been telling ourselves that this Wolves team are too good to go down.

Unfortunately, I think it’s time for us to collectively take our heads out of the sand and accept that there is a real chance we could spend the second half of the season attempting to stave off relegation.

As defeatist as that sounds, it’s hard to argue against when you consider just how bad the opposition were at the weekend.

With all due respect to the MK Dons, I can’t recall seeing a team worse than them for some time. Slicing an improbable number of passes out of play and failing to muster a meaningful attempt on goal until the final throes of the game, they were inept at best.

Unfortunately, we were only marginally better. Whilst we dominated possession and got plenty of balls into the box, we never really looked like scoring. And, with almost half of the season gone, that’s a real cause for concern.

Our cause isn’t being helped by Benik Afobe’s perplexing insistence on dropping deep. Whilst I appreciate he got a goal at Ipswich last week, his influence on the team has waned considerably.

He was so ineffective today that I was actually hoping Grant Holt would be bought on (If anyone can shed any light on why we’ve signed him then I’m all ears).

Admittedly, he was one of many players guilty of wastefulness today. The key difference between Afobe and the rest of our attacking contingent, however, is that we naturally expect so much more from a player who was attracting Premier League interest not too long ago. If he can’t turn his meandering form around soon then it’s hard to see where the goals are going to come from.

Questions must of course be asked of our manager, who is looking more beleaguered by the week. His decision to haul the impressive Jordan Graham off after an hour was as frustrating for both its predictably and lack of sense.

Kenny is beginning to resemble a manager bereft of ideas and, given the considerable amount of good he has done over his tenure, we can only hope that changes sooner rather than later.

There’s still plenty of time for our team of fledglings to put an end to this malaise but this result certainly raises doubts about their ability to do so.

Anything other than victory at Rotherham next week should not – and most likely will not – be tolerated.

Wolves 0 Brighton & Hove Albion 0

Blog, Brighton

Goalless draws are seldom met with applause.

But this result, coming off the back of the hugely dispiriting trip to Bolton, felt like a turning point of sorts for Kenny Jackett’s team of fledglings.

Brighton’s excellent start to the season indicated a challenge lay ahead and the visitors made a lively start.

Sheyi Ojo offered little defensive support to Scott Golbourne and our left back struggled as a result, tripping Jamie Murphy to concede our third penalty in just seven Championship fixtures.

Thankfully, Emi Martinez’s horror show against QPR is beginning to look like a one off occurrence. The man on loan from Arsenal began a man-of-the-match display by saving both Tomer Hemed’s spot kick and the subsequent follow-up.

The decision to axe Carl Ikeme is one that has been discussed plenty enough but the performance of his successor today suggested that their may be some method to Kenny’s perceived madness.

From that point on we more than matched Chris Hughton’s table toppers and looked more likely to break the deadlock prior to the halftime whistle.

Dominic Iorfa enjoyed his restoration to the team and was arguably our biggest threat, regularly jinxing past the brilliantly named Gaetan Bong.

Up front, Adam Le Fondre’s neat build-up play offered plenty and took focus away from the unusually subdued performance of Benik Afobe.

Dreams of an opening goal were soon quashed by Connor Coady’s red card, brought about by an arguably reckless lunge on Elvis Manu.

My initial reaction was that Jerry Simpson’s call had been harsh but, having considered the matter in a calmer environment, now feel that he was within his rights to give the Liverpudlian his marching orders.

Going in with your studs showing always invites trouble and Coady should have known better.

The sending off lay a huge gauntlet but was responded to in emphatic style. Every man put in a gargantuan shift and gave a timely reminder to all in attendance that there is plenty of spirit in this team, something that will no doubt delight our manager.

Kortney Hause gave his most assured performance to date and has probably done enough to be given the chance to strike up a partnership with Danny Batth once the skipper makes his eagerly anticipated return to the starting eleven.

None of this is to say that the fears brought about by our stuttering start to the season are now invalid. Our midfield is bypassed far too often and is running the risk of edging Afobe towards the exit door by failing to create regular chances for him.

Resolving the contractual impasse with Kevin McDonald is a matter of real urgency because he remains our most creative outlet. The continued omission of Rajiv van La Parra is also beginning to look questionable, given the underwhelming form of our other wide men.

This spirited display against a very capable Brighton team offers plenty of encouragement but doesn’t quite go as far to suggest that a surge up the league table is imminent.

Hope remains that Kenny will use the loan market to good effect but the mooted signing of Shola Ameobi suggests that future arrivals at Molineux may be of a more modest nature than most would like.

Still, as Johnny Mercer one said, you’ve got to Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the Positive.