If Friday was a day of change, Saturday was business as usual.
Another home match, another convincing performance, another well-earned three points.
Another cleansheet, another McDonald masterclass, another Dicko goal.
To the uninformed looking inward, Wolves might seem weaker for the loss of those familiar Deadline Day departures.
The reality is they are infinitely better off.
Where once there were only names scribbled together on a sheet of paper, now there is a team.
A defence that can actually defend (fewest goals conceded in the football league), a midfield that can actually pass and a strikeforce that can actually score.
Add to that a manager who actually knows what he’s doing and you’re suddenly talking about a strong, formidable Wolverhampton Wanderers.
It might only be League One, it might only be Bradford City but the football is as good as it’s ever been.
For as long as time can remember, opposing managers have instructed their teams to start strongly and turn the Molineux crowd against the home side.
These days, the opposition are lucky if they get a foot on the ball for the first twenty minutes as Wolves pass, move and repeat with pleasing efficiency.
If Mick McCarthy’s brilliant 2008 team were a shot-gun to the head, Kenny Jackett’s current crop are more death by a thousand cuts.
It’s a smarter approach. More efficient, more technical, and worryingly for their promotion rivals, more sustainable.
Bradford can count themselves unlucky for two fabulous strikes that rebounded off woodwork and for a poor individual misjudgment that saw them reduced to 10 men for a significant portion of the contest.
But you sense that even had the rub of the green been more favourable to the visitors, Wolves would still have found a way to win.
Even Leon Clarke’s profligate debut couldn’t tarnish what was another measured and highly satisfactory home performance.
Nothing less was expected.
Once again Thomas great blog good to see the goals again.
Fantastic win again 4 on the trot now,some day we’re gonna smash some team with the chances we’re creating.
Don’t think the sending off would of made much difference to the win,but it made it more difficult imo.
Glad we’ve kept sako, and with the movement of dicko in the box he creates havoc.
As a whole the team played some great football and with the top 2 dropping points its nice to be back where we belong and long may it last…UTW.GET IN..
Well done Thomas. You don’t go to the match but you still manage a class write-up.
I didn’t volunteer as i thought you would get at least one offer from somebody who actually saw it. Couldn’t have matched that anyway, but surely you should get one day off for your sister’s wedding!
This was hard for me catching the half time score at 5am (NZ time sun) and then FT at 6am. Mrs Twixfix was moaning but soon settled when I told her we had won. Great too to see the highlights.. thanks Thomas.. sounds like previous performances of late and as I said three weeks ago .. have a good run and see where it takes us. Well up to second place as it currently stands .. keep turning the screw lads.
Thanks for your email Scooped .. read it this morning.
I am really jealous that you are in one of my bucket list places.
Hope you have a wonderful time and don’t get caught by too many orcs.
Take lottsa pix and send them to me, Scooped has my e mail address.
All the best….you lucky bastid!!
Cheers for that Clive .. first job this morning was to take the hand kids to school .. just like old times eh! Still trying to get my head around the time difference .. I log onto this blog at our lunch time and not many have posted any comments .. because it’s the middle of the night in UK. What time is it where you are? Saw a bit of Christchurch yesterday .. pretty devastated still following the quake. Just waiting for the next rumble. (Really .. I’m shitting myself if it does come along) .. will send pics in mid March when back.
From all reports we are playing some wonderful, attractive football.
I thought I was going to see Liverpool play the same sort of stuff as they steamrollered the shit this morning, but boy was I disappointed.
How can those shit fans bear to watch such utter drivel week in, week out, with those donkeys Brunt, Ridgewell and Olsen to name but three?
Absolute dire “football”.
Makes me wonder if we really want to be in the Prem.
But then I thought, bollocks, of course we do, coz we are infinitely better than that load of crap from sandwell.
Once again, three wonderful points and a chance to say I told you so coz I predicted Brentford and O would drop points, and so they did!
Ha!
Think yourselves lucky over there, all the hype for 2 weeks here has been the superbore throwball game.
Whoopdie fuckin do.
FOwb
Really like Price and McDonald in midfield. Jacobs is a classy player as well, great signing.
Clarke looked how I remembered him. Think he’ll prove a poor signing but Dicko looks like he’ll get a load of goals by the end of the season.
Poor signing? He’s scored 18 goals for his previous club. How long time ago is it since for instance K. Doyle hit such a goal tally? We paid 700 000 for Clarke, how much did we pay for Doyle? 6 000 000
To me it sounds like a scoop!
Clarke has 15 league goals. Something Doyle has done umpteen times in both leagues above ours.
Getting shot of Doyle is best for both parties.
I fail to see how any of this will make Clarke a good signing.
I’ll wait to be proven wrong bit Dicko is a much, much better player from what I’ve seen so far, 1/3 the price and much much younger.
Excellent write up Thomas, we had a similar conversation in the pub after the match. The consensus there was that Wolves football now is more enjoyable to watch then when we were playing in the championship or premiership under Mcarthy. Death by a thousand cuts sums it up brilliantly. Really do hope this is the start of a new era.
UTW
3 more points a clean sheet and some nice football played, my only gripe is we should have had more goals, we could have done without the showboating the last 15 mins and gone for the jugular.
Another pleasing win but personally I didn’t feel the standard of play was quite as good; perhaps it was the change of formation or the new boy out front but things didn’t quite seem as KJ might want them to be. We certainly didn’t smother Bradford as we have with other teams at at times; they played well considering they were down to 10 men. However there were periods of play when the football was the most attractive we’ve seen for many seasons but there is still much progress that can be made. For example we seem to be able to win corners in ever increasing numbers but the execution lacks precision; there seems to be no plan or ‘set piece’ in mind and many times yesterday the corner taker failed to get the ball past the man on the near post. Perhaps a couple of players were having an off day; Clarke certainly seemed to struggle a little and failed to chase on a couple of occasions, as if waiting for the ball to be put on the end of his boot.
Not quite there yet but huge potential and lots more great days for Wolves supporters to come.
Another class act performance by big Mac, with so many other players on top of thier game – and playing football. Pass and move, on the deck, and its a joy to watch. The system and the team are still in their infancy, so thank you Mr Jackett for laying the foundations for another exciting chapter in the history of our great club.
Considering the week you have had Thomas great effort getting a report out. Maybe it was not quite as smooth as recent performances i still think 4-4-2 should be an option rather than the holy grail. Kenny has already shown though he has more in his tactical locker than MM. Pace down the middle and a play making midfielder…now why didnt Mick think of that.
Great Result but the performance was nowhere near the standard of last week against Bristol or against Preston..
Cant understand for the life of me why Jackett wanted to change the formation back to 442
That formation is dead now Most of the good top teams play a 4231 kind of system or even 433
WE have been playing 4231 for the last 3 matches and scored 8 goals with 1 penalty against.
I’m sorry but I don’t share the belief we seem to showing to Clarke.. I thought he was awful and had 3 or 4 good chances that he didn’t put away..
Still we won and the 3 points is all that mattered. think both teams lost interest after the 2nd goal and couldn’t wait for it to be over.
First game at Molineux for me, and I’m delighted to say that it was a very enjoyable game, and a great win. Two games (this and Oldham), two wins, no goals conceded. I think I should go more often!
Congratulations Erick. First game at the Golden Palace. I’m assuming you live abroad then?
Hi all….
Well anyone that read my previous summing up of points available (Bla Bla Bla) may have now put 3 & 3 together and worked out that mathematically we can now finish in top spot if we don’t cock it up! So the balls in our midfield!
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Nice up see the planning for the future is still ongoing with the new defender…
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Quite pleased with the overall shape of the team, okay Clarke did not score on his debut… but he did keep the defence entertained and if he scores 2 in the next game, he would be level with Dicko but with less games played. (You watch he won’t score for the next 3 games now!).
The next 17 games are our mini marathon (Snickers for the kids). So not too fussed that he did not score this game as the winner in the next (and / or the one after that) will do for me!.
With regard to taking the foot off the pedal for the last 15mins… From an entertaining point of view, I’m not a fan of tarting around.. but I can see the benefit of keeping possession, with 2 goals up and not looking to tear a groin chasing when the all important 3 points are already in the bag. I can understand that every single one of these players wants to be picked next time and they will look to avoid injury if they can. I would take injury free players with 15 mins if fecking around over losing 3 players between now and the end of the season. The end justifies the means.
Consistency is key… Now can anyone remember the last time we played with such composure, confidence and flair over several games? I can’t… The ball in the past has been like a hot potato, but no more.
Maybe we really did need this painful double drop to rebuild from the bottom as we would never have got rid of so many prima donas and instill the hunger! Wolves fans everywhere are enjoying games more the last few weeks, than prob the last 10 years (beating Manu etc apart) knowing that the players want to play for us and not chasing their £40k per week pay packet.
Make me proud lads… Grab us another 3 points!
We are on the march !…bottom Stevenage nxt..must confess I was one who demanded us to invest a few mill to buy us back in the master plan..Perhaps we can do this without acquiring more expensive players..indicative of KJ s foresight and new team building ..who can criticise the man….
Moxey and Co must also be beaming..(obviously not the best scenario) and they are also balancing the wage books …
However ..fantastic feel good for all .we must keep going and not drop points ..we all deserve a crest coming..
Ps..Why is Doyle playing now so well?
Correct…Why is Doyle playing so well (now)?
I watched a lot of that game and he was largely non-existent. Obviously he’s not fully match fit but his lack of movement and energy, compared to watching our new young team, was very evident.
He got in the right place to meet a good delivery from a corner but only confirmed what we already knew…..occasionally he does score from a few yards out.
Really nice guy but i won’t miss him football-wise.
I was initially underwhelmed when Jackett was appointed but it seems he has created a ‘new’ Wolves and long may it last.
Seems that McDonald and Price are a great midfield pairing and that the addition of the Frenchman Dicko has galvinised the classy Sako.
I’m already wondering how these four players will rip WBA apart next season in the championship.
Not utterly convinced by Clarke but in Jackett we trust!
W ith another “feeling” entering my head I decided to get a ticket on Friday
E vening and then changed my plans for Saturday – wife not happy but hey ho!!
A nother three hour journey from North Yorkshire seemed to fly by as I passed a number of
R ather happy looking Bradford supporters en route. Being alone in the car I still felt at
E ase, with the postiive “feeling” still in my head. Doyle gone, Siggy gone, Griff gone.
W ith Dicko in and Clark in I had no reason to believe that we would not totally miss any of
O ur “strikers” as they had not really been prolific to date. Okay Griff had been scoring, but
L osing him has not made me feel anxious. As for Doyle – I did not feel he was adding any
V alue to our team and am not at all sad to see him out on loan. In fact I am happy and am
E njoying my journey back up home after a game now as I am smiling. Passing the Bradford
S upporters and noticing their smiles having disappeared once even better.
A nother solid performance, another clean sheet, and another three points from a quite
Y oung team who are being motivated well by KJ pleases me no end.
W e still have work to do, and I believe KJ recognises that, but already the positive feeling
E ntering my head on match days is a very welcoming feeling indeed.
UTW/FOWB
Grrrrrrrrrrrr – I got that sooooo wrong. Will try again!
W ith another “feeling” entering my head I decided to get a ticket on Friday
E vening and then changed my plans for Saturday !!
A nother three hour journey from North Yorkshire seemed to fly by as I passed some
R ather happy looking Bradford supporters en route. Being alone in the car I still felt at
E ase, with the postiive “feeling” still in my head. Doyle gone, Siggy gone, Griff gone.
W ith Dicko in and Clark in I had no reason to believe that we would not miss any of
O ur “strikers” as they had not really been prolific to date. Griff had been scoring, but
L osing him has not made me feel anxious. As for Doyle – I did not feel he was adding
V alue to our team and am not at all sad to see him out on loan. I am happy and am
E njoying my journey back up home after a game now . Passing the Bradford City
S upporters and noticing their smiles having disappeared was even better.
A nother solid performance, another clean sheet, and another three points from a
Y oung team who are being motivated well by KJ pleases me no end.
W e still have work to do, and I believe KJ recognises that, but the positive feeling
E ntering my head on match days is a very welcoming feeling indeed.
UTW/FOWB
Thomas, please get rid of Griffith’s picture at the opening of the blog, and replace it with someone who cares.
Thank you.
Why don’t you send Thomas a picture of you in yer posh Wolves Scarf?
That’ll do it.
Just my posh Wolves scarf?
This is a family show, you know, Doog.
Sounds like another good performance by Kuddly Ken’s Clan.
I notice that Stearman has made the Daily Telegraph’s Div I Team of the week.
Ridiculously though, there’s no place for Super Mac.
What midfielder can be playing better than him at the moment?
I’m damned if I know.
I’m starting to wish I was back in Wolverhampton in the old flat at the top of Compton Road so I could just stroll across the park to watch the fun.
… But that would mean I was forty years younger and back at the art college.
… And that would mean it would only cost 3s 6d to get into the old Enclosure.
That’s settled then…
… I wonder if The Doog will be playing next week?
Saturdays meant scavenging for empty Pop bottles for the 3 penny deposit. Four bottles equalled the shilling to get in the North Bank. Happy days. I wonder if Roy Swinbourne will be playing next week?
10 shillings pocket money from the headmaster at Brewood Grammar meant I could catch the bus, buy 10 woodbines, get in the match, get back to Brewood before supper time and still have enough money for a bag of chips.
And Major Buckley was still manager!!
The headmaster never gave me 10 shillings …… just a cane!!!
I remember walking from Wednesfield Grammar back to the Scotlands (I used to live in New Road just up from the Pear Tree Inn (now the New Pear Tree I believe), so I could save a few bob. Major Buckley had long gone …. but I was not to know at that time that I would also become a Major when I joined the Army years later!!
Bloody Hell Clive, Major Buckley How old are you? I’m 76 and and he was well before my time. I think your having a giraffe.:)
Great performance on Saturday. Very proud to be a Wolves fan at the moment.
Not sure about the 4-4-2, though. I liked the 4-2-3-1 system, which gives more options in midfield and helps us take control of a match. The way we play the system, there’s no danger of the lone striker being isolated, with players like Sako (or Henry) and Jacobs ready to get into the box in support, and McDonald and Evans just outside.
Too early to pass judgment on Clarke at the moment, but for me the one of our strikers with the most potential is McAlinden. But Leon has the experience and hopefully will come good in the short term. I don’t mean that I prefer McAlinden to Dicko, but as a conventional tall target man, I think he’ll be a fine player one day.
I’m sorry to see young Griffiths go. His picture’s gone from this blog but I don’t think we should forget how much we owe him in the early part of the season for helping us to get where we are now.
Am pinching myself about the complete transformation in personnel and the style of play we’re witnessing.
In a few short months KJ has got rid of all the old guard & consigned MM’s atritional tactics to the dustbin of stone age football tactics and bloody good riddance!
I really can’t remember ever seeing a Wolves side treasure possession so much and while route 1 must always remain a legitimate occasional option, I’m absolutely thrilled to bits that it’s no longer our only one.
To see us working so hard off the ball to create space and lose markers is a revelation and to have players capable of one & two touch passing to exploit that space is an absolute delight.
And although we don’t have blistering pace in the side currently,the pace of our passing makes up for that.
We positively fizz the ball around confident in each other’s ability to control it and look to do something positive with it.
When you consider how little time KJ has had to bring our style into the 21st century and build principles that will rule the ethos at all levels the future looks very bright indeed.
I haven’t felt so optimistic for yonks. Thanks Kenny.
The run of results continues to delight … amazing what happens when players are capable, hungry and motivated. Found myself checking the table quite a few times over the weekend. Looking good!
Can’t help feeling we lost good players in the shuffle which I had hoped would come good for us, but it goes to show you cannot make a player want to play for you, and if he doesn’t, then there really is no contract that can make him do so, so no matter how good he is, it’s best to cash in and let him go. So go Hennessy and Griffo … asta la vista …
Dressing room seems united again now, and team gelling and playing well. New signings energized with all to prove. Onwards and upwards as the rebuild continues.
Go Wolves!!!
Clive , I used to go down the styrups in brewood to play bowls with my grandad . He lived in coneybere gardens .