“If you can’t win it, don’t lose it Wolves” implored the bloke stood two rows behind me on 85 mins.
Sensible words, and we at least managed that.
It’s hard to state much of interest after a game as abysmal as today’s, though given the numerous obvious negatives surrounding our club currently I will endeavour to emphasise the positives.
Two centre backs who looked far more solid and in control after a few days training together than Roger and Christophe have managed after a season and a half.
Although the memory of Batth throwing himself in front of a shot towards the end of the game and hurting himself in the process stands out, it’s unfair to dwell on that because last ditch interventions generally weren’t required today as all of our back four for once ironed out stupid mistakes.
O’Hara’s workrate was a pleasant surprise, but the number of seemingly aimless long balls shelled forward was a less pleasant one.
Doyle struggled to get into the game in the way he did last weekend, leading to a number of (in my opinion) harsh cheers from away fans as he left the pitch for the equally ineffective SEB.
A disappointment was the failure to craft any clear chances after a first half in which we looked the most likely to score, with O’Hara forcing a decent save from distance.
We retreated in the second half and an edge of the box injury time free kick seemed destined for the net in front of us but thankfully Ikeme got behind it.
An almost reassuringly organised performance, a point I would have taken beforehand, a headache for whoever has to put a highlights reel together from that 90 minutes.
Nice write up super Kev , another draw a point is a point. Great to see the team sheet today, have me a lift to see some changes at the back. I think deano gets it. Now to clear out the rest of the lazy entitled undroppables. Would like to see doumbia in and Henry out with Sako in the hole in a 451 style.
A pretty good point, although of course it does not seem that way in the midst of a relegation fight. If we’d been in mid-table we’d perhaps be praising ourselves a bit more. Not everybody will go to Derby and get something out of the game. The teamsheet looked a bit more adventurous too, although we obviously need goals from somewhere.
Hopefully a first win for DS is just around the corner. Tuesday night would be perfect.
At least we are improving. Hopefully Deano doesn’t do a Connor
The positives: 1) Deano is the first of four managers to spot that the defence needs sorting out and actually do something about it 2) He’s picking a more positive midfield 3) A free-kick conceded in the 5th minute of 4 minutes injury time didn’t end up in the back of our net. The negatives: 1) The ineffectual Karl Henry continues to be an ever-present waste of a shirt, 2) Kev’Nil’ Doyle.
Of course we need to start winning but at least it was a battling performance and Gorkss maybe a better aquisition than i thought. The next piece in the jigsaw probably a big lump of centre forward.
Should have said thanks for a very good report. I feel sorry for Doyle why didnt we get a target man in the window ?
wonder how he would fit into attacking midfield role..
Ahh yes attacking midfielders i do remember those Goldy ! Wasnt Kenny Hibbit one ?
if only we could get him to pass a medical and put his boots on .. brilliant player
Doyle waste of a shirt so is Henry.imo.
DOYLE Waste of the shirt so is HENRY.
theres an echo in the blog …….:) got to stop smiley facing..heck no
I wondered if Matt Smith from Oldham could be a good shout. For next season, obviously. Young (still only 23), 6′ 6″ and scoring goals for fun in the FA Cup against Premiership opponents and he’s from Birmingham so may be up for a move home?
if this was the begginning of the season i would be pleased with a draw and i am ….kind of. it really doesnt matter to me right now how well we played or any other positive. i said it before and ill repeat myself for the hard of hearing .. no goals= no wins. its all that matters 4 places off basecamp right now. well done centrebacks! that makes me happy though 🙂
This would be a decent point if we were mid-table definitely and to be fair it’s a decent point now as well (especially given Wolves are only the second team Derby failed to score against at home) but whilst I’m pleased we shut them out we DESPERATELY need a win – the next game is really important for us now! Lose this and we’re in the relegation zone!
Que Sera Sera and all that… 🙂
I listened to the commentary on the radio. Besides the late free kick, the Wolves defense seemed solid. The tragedy was Kevin Doyle’s performance. His touch was woeful, his contribution was non-existent and i do believe the commentator said he doesn’t even look like a footballer. Perhaps in hindsight a move to Celtic may have been a good option for both parties.
Good point away from home – I’d have settled for that at KO. Gorkks and Baath a big positive defensively and they both appear to WANT to play. It’s just about avoiding successive relegations now.
At least it sounds better than the 0-0 dross we achieved up here at sheffield wednesday. Encouraging to hear O’Hara belting the ball goalwards. Pleased to see Siggy get 90 minutes too although his contribution did seem to be null by the looks of it 🙁 . Gorkss and Batth seem to be getting some praise so that’s a positive.
C’mon Deano, that’s one step in the right direction. Big, clinical target man could be a good acquisition now.
Going to try and head over to barnsley on tuesday night should they have tickets on the gate. Looking like £23 + train fare + burger and a pint though. Championship footy ain’t cheap for a student!
To be fair to Siggy , I thought he ran his socks off . My man of the match . Gorkss and Batth were very impressive – solid – no panic buttons pushed . Siggy won most of his share in the air , Doyle was poor at anticipating the various knock downs and subtle flicks .
I really hope that Saunders ,as a former striker , saw all that . And what a refreshing starting line-up ! Made the stagger to the ground filled with more optimism than usual .
I can’t make Barnsley – given where I live – so , give a shout for me Morph , and if I meet up with you one day then I’ll get that beer for you !!
UTW
That’s great to hear about sigurdarson. Always looked like a great talent when he came off the bench. Hopefully dean keeps him on and he starts scoring for us.
Overall I think it does show that deano’s willing to switch it up if its not working which is something mick not solbakken seemed to want to do.
If I do make it to Barnsley ill make sure to report back on the blog.
Ill have a root in my piggy bank for the train fare to oakwell 😉
Goal scoring is certainly a must if we are to get a win; we’d all better give up those 2, 3 or even 4 goal predictions (for our team) until we get a new striker in. Wish they’d give Cassidy another run out – it was daft to insist on Doyle and Blake staying. And what happened to Sako this week – he didn’t seem to get much of the ball ?
Solbakken got 9 points in his last six games. Saunders has got 3 in his first six.
Much as I’ve joked about it, and bet on it at 40-1 , I’m just realising that this team actually is going to get relegated. It’s feels like an absolute certainty.
They can’t score when they defend and they can’t defend when they score. They are,as a group and as individuals, incapable of playing football at anywhere near this level.
Gorkss will be saying – I’m a footballer get me out of here.
Interesting point about SS. I seems pretty obvious he got the sack because he wanted to strengthen the team and that would have cost money. Jezz had already paved the way by stating that the present bunch could do much better – thus putting the blame on SS for not motivating them. Manipulation behind the scenes as usual.
I recently came across this – no doubt most of you have already seen it. The comments from fans are particularly enlightening as is Staales comment about bringing new players in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xyr-6Ao5-eM
Quite honestly Jez isn’t fit to empty his piss pot.
Just seen that for the first time. The bloke was a gentleman and I believe he had vision. I still feel aggrieved at the shortness of his tenure. His crime was not becoming the puppet the muppets craved. UTW-FM+M
Steppenwolfe – the really interesting part of the Stale interview is him saying Wanderers will be all right provided they have a good transfer window. How prescient.
The reason you bring in a manager mid-season (unless you are Notts Forest), is to give a fillip to the squad and get some quick results. So far under Saunders leadership they’ve managed four points from six games. Extrapolate that to a season of 46 games and you’ve got just under 31 points – relegation certainties in any season.
Whilst Saunders recently said that he can ‘ turn round this leaking ship’ – the evidence to date suggests he doesn’t know in which direction ’round’ is. Unless we start to get a string of good results in the next few games they’ll be greasing the hinges on the trapdoor. Whilst not surprised I’ll be deeply saddened – the loyal fans deserve a whole lot better than League 1 football.
Good video link Steppenwolf.
Staale comes over as a very dignified man.
0-0 was better than my prediction of defeat.
Shows how low we have sunk.
Hope we win Tuesday.
Shame Doyle’s footballing abilities, don’t match Super Kev’s match reporting abilities!
Solid enough performance and I’m sure in different circumstances we’d be pretty pleased. The next three games make for frightening reading. If we’re outside the bottom three after that, I’ll be amazed. But perhaps we showed yesterday that we’re not going to go down without a fight.
Even if we were in a play off position we would probably have been satisfied with a point at Derby, so I am not going to moan at the result.
However, we need to start picking up three points per match, not one.
Central defence is 100% better, midfield is 10% better, up front we are still rubbish.
Until we give Cassidy a prolonged run out, or invest in a big centre forward, we are simply not going to score enough goals.
It’s clear what we need to do – I just hope Deån has enough clout with the Dark Duo to get it done.
Sorry, forgot to thank Super Kev Doyle for the match report.
Nice one!
You’re most welcome, glad you enjoyed it. Now that the haze induced by several early afternoon pints (derby is a good away day for anyone who enjoys a proper pint, several good pubs near the station for an ale) has cleared, the only thing I’d add is that it’s a shame doumbia wasn’t available for selection. The game was crying out for someone to take charge in the middle, and had he come on with 15 to go rather than Davis he might have been able to put us back on the front foot. I suppose Davis’s introduction indicated that Dean wanted to be sure of a point rather than gamble on 3
The guy, Cassidy has been sat on the bench for weeks, he was scoring goals in a team that by the look of it is going to replace us in the champship. He’s been on the bench that long it will take a couple of games to get his fitness and sharpness back, should have played him straight away when he was on a run, him and Siggi up front. A point is good, but with 14 games left even if we draw all 14 thats not going to keep us up drawing all 46 wouldn’t keep us up so sooner or later, hopefully sooner Saunders has got put out an attacking formation, ie in my option 2 up front Cassidy and Siggi because otherwise we are down 14 draws, 14 points. We need to win a least 7, 21 points and a couple of draws to stop up the figures don’t lie.
By the way for all those Wandering, no pun intended I did not go to Derby had planned to with our kid but could not get time off I work for the emergency services 6 on 4 off so could not go.
Get to as many games as work will allow home and away going to Forest. I have done my apprentership supporting wolves 33 years been all round fourth, third division was at all the Chorley games home and away nearly killed in Chester scouters down for the weekend thought they’d have a knock, so anyone out there questioning my pedigree can go and b….cks
Or right to Blogg
Thats scoucers Everton and Liverpool not playing due to Internationals. So they thought they would come down to Chester and give us a warm welcome returned in kind
alright alright ..carm doown carm down terry ..:)
Very good witty, comeidan are we ?
no i am you are mr angry 🙂
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
🙂 well have to get you in the dressing room to shout at the players!!
Saunders has not kept Cassidy at Wolves to play him.
Its to help with Doncaster’s promotion push..
He was scoring too many goals at Tranmere..
A point is a point. Doyle is and has always been a guy who feeds of knock downs, without a target man wo can get some ball in the air we might as well drop him. Please lets have someone in the middle who can pose a threat.
I don’t think Kevin Doyle is a strike at all – his ratio of goals to appearances for us is 19%. That makes him Steve Kindon level. Ken Hibbitt was 19 % too but he was a midfield player at a time when the strikers Richards had a ratio of 37% and dougan at 36%.
To be called a striker you must score every 3 games at least – not 1 in 5!
Agree entirely.
And when you’ve got three players like that in the same side scoring at that rate you won’t be doing too badly!
Doyle has been a hard worker – a lot of his reputation was based on it. In the infamous defeat by Albion last season he seemed to be all over the place, but sadly so were the team! He really has blotted his copybook in my opinion by his comments, begrudgingly accepting he would still be a Wolves player. It leaves a sour taste, and Henry putting the boot into Sako was a similarly grotty thing do. It does seem to be a case of McCarthyite old’ns versus Solbakkenite new’ns in the squad, and division is not good.
What we’d do for a Ken Hibbitt now! If we had a player at Wolves with half his versatility, skill and shooting ability (and also loyalty) we’d do OK. Sako’s good but will he still be at Molineux if we’re playing at the likes of Brunton Park on a cold December evening next season?
looks very much like we are disintigrating from the inside outwards!
I dont disagree with a word being said. I guess we all see it a bit different, frankly i would have dropped dumped Doyle ages ago, and SEB. Just commenting that i have always seen Doyle as what i call a sniffer, bigs up the scrap. Trouble is there aint any and what there are he misses. If we got to paly Ward and it seems for some strange reason we do have to play him then stick him up front he scores sometimes. I want to see cassidy and Siggy given a chance.
Every glorius goal Kenny hibbit scored for us was to me a bonus. If he never scored he was worth his weight in Gold. I guess us oldies can still visualize him driving forward.
My God I can not abide seeing our crab like midfield these days, Mike bailley would have duffed Henry long ago. I dont think square balls and knocking the ball back was even in bailey vocabluary. UTW pleeeese guys
If I was Cassidy I’d ask to go back on loan to Tranmere, what’s the point of having him on the bench week in week out it must be so frustrating for the guy. First chance he gets if i was him id be out of here he’ll be another youngster full of potential realised elsewhere.
I should imagine he will ask for a transfer in the summer.
Tranmere will buy him.
He will be in the championship scoring goals with them.
We will be in League One with Henry telling us how good Doyle is.
It sounded like the defense was working better, but it really wasn’t exciting was it? I think the highlights in the League Show were no more than 30 seconds, and they were dull. A point is a point, but I still can’t get over just how realistic the possibility of relegation is. Still, Barnsley on Tuesday, surely we can get our first 3 points under DS then.
I posted my blog yesterday,as said we need a big striker or give the lad cassidy another go,at least we could say well he’s had a go.Doyle n blake arn’t doing it.
lets all hope for that much prized win at Barnsley or we are in deep shite.UTW.
Jack Robinson on loan is the rumour – what better way to win Wolves fans over than by signing a left-back? 🙂
was amazed to see doyle starting again it just shows a lack of urgency to gain a win we need to score and score quickly ,the next two games aint gonna be easy either ,hope deano leaves the back four as it is unless we get a proper left back from somewhere,if wards got to play then so be it could do worse than play him upfront instead of doyle he couldn,t do worse could he
Didn’t we get rid of a big target man centre Forward when we let Nouble go ?
Never given a chance in the team.
yeah nigey baby seems crazy doesnt it at a time we are scoring less goals than candles on a one year old s birthday cake! over the last few years we have let so many decent players go for no reason at all. could this club be run any wose than this?
Dont think all our goal scoring woes can be put at Kevin Doyles door-sure play Cassidy instead but Mccarthy’s 4-4-2 has become a straight jacket where pace and versatility from deep positions has all but been eliminated. Quiz question which of our midfielders has scored this season ?
Focus on the task in hand, to stay in the CH. If that means keeping our noses in front from one game to the next, so be it. I’m amazed that some of my fellow contributers actually expect us to play well and win from time to time. We are one point above the relegation area. We are a disaster from one game to the next and if we can score and salvage a point clap your hands with glee don’t harp on and on and on and on about the same old same old same old same old players who you think blah, blah, blah……………………………………………………………
Seek out some positives ignore the overwhelming mountain of negatives which have happened over the past 2 years. Our time will come regardless, the day of reckoning is fast approaching. As ever UTW !!!!!
Roll on Tues against Barnsley, we’ll be 4 points ahead of them after the game or maybe we’ll still be 1 point ahead. There’s no way we’re going to be 2 points behind them is there ????
I seeked out the positives and here they are:
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and, the season ends in May.
where do we sign ?
Linked with a left back Clive, maybe all is not lost after all.
Seriously, feel like this clown is taking us down though.
Don’t Barnsley and Peterborough have games in hand? Even more reason to pull a win out of the hat.
Yep…the Barnsley game is more like a nine pointer as opposed to a six pointer!
I think we are now heading in the right direction under Saunders but Im worried that it is happening all too slowly! Gorkss should’ve been signed a month earlier…and a striker with a bit of form at the same time…
Ironic that we desperately need a left back when two of our ‘bought for the future’ left backs – Mulgrew and Friend are getting rave reviews elsewhere…
Saunders states we have “more or less signed” this lad from Liverpool.
So does that mean he will more or less play, as in sit on the bench and watch Ward show him how not to play left back?
Another one for the future…..in the Third Division???
If he does not go straight into the team then Saunders will prove himself to be the greasel puppet we all suspect he is.
I really cannot get excited about a relegation match away to Barnsley. They will be on a high following their cup triumph, we will still be on our slow downward spiral to the nether reaches of the football underworld.