Molineux appreciates a Scottish striker.
From Miller to Fletcher with a hulking dose of Iwelumo sandwiched in between, all have been loved and cherished.
But have any of these past heroes endeared themselves more than the current incumbent of the number 9 shirt?
As of 9.49pm last night, I’d have to say no.
Demanding the ball, he marched towards the penalty spot and proceeded to whip the South Bank into a state of frenzy.
Pumping his chest and waving his arms, he stood before the nervous masses huddled behind the goal and instructed them to turn up the volume.
He didn’t want to cope with the pressure, he wanted to thrive on it.
Seconds the later, the net was bulging and the already familiar knee slide was in full flight.
Leigh Griffiths wasn’t to be denied, the ball seemingly passing through the goalkeeper by sheer confidence alone.
And it’s fitting that confidence won the game, because that very word shaped the contest from the start.
Wolves began with it, threatening a repeat of the previous home performance as they swarmed all over Crawley.
Bjorn Sigurdarson justified his surprise inclusion with a well angled header from Kevin Doyle’s intelligent run and cross.
Zeli Ismail too had swagger in his step, rolling a foot over the ball and beating his man for fun.
All was as it should be.
Unlike Gillingham a fortnight previous though, the visitors settled when they could have wilted and slowly stole the confidence away.
Their well taken equaliser, an hour in the making, should have given them the point their performance warranted.
But Kevin McDonald wasn’t to be denied, swapping passes and driving forward to force a result Wolves scarcely deserved.
The rest was down to Leigh Griffiths. And confidence.
* Full video highlights available here.
I for one am happy to win in the way we did last night because to win this league there will be a lot worse performances than that, which will also require winning. Winning teams win ugly, late and undeservedly but the main thing is they win those games. I am not taking last nights game as a negative but rather as a positive. Onwards and upwards
Well my 5-0 prediction was a little OTT, We started brightly enough Kevin Doyle showed his class with an excellent ball into Sigurdarson who finished brilliantly. I expected the flood gates to open but Crawley showed why they only finished 6 points shy of the play-offs last season, They played some excellent football and were unfortunate to not be on level terms at half time.
The equaliser had been coming and it when it came It didn’t really come as a surprise, I expected us to be taking a point and the typical ”Let’s get KJ out” boo boys to start coming out of the cracks, As it happens though we carried on playing and the sense of anticipation when we were awarded the penalty is something I haven’t seen down the Mol in a number of years.
Leigh Griffiths is an endearing chap, He calmly dispatched the penalty and sent the south bank into delirium, 10 points from the opening 4 games of the season is more than we could have hoped for at this stage. Defensively we still look a little frail but with wins comes confidence and I’m sure we’ll go to Port Vale next week confident of taking this seasons tally to 13 points.
I could feel the nerves thousands of miles away at roughly 6:30am here in Melbourne.
But a win is a win.
Was very impressed with Zeli his runs were superb he just seemed a bit dazed when Crawley put two on him in the second half.
Engine room of Davis and Evans were equally impressive but was very frustrating towards the end when Davis would boot it to the other end rather than find a team mate!
But anyways will enjoy the victory and being top of the league…for now
Quality moment when Griffiths scored ;).
Aye Aye Aye Aye
Ikeme is better than Yashin
Griffiths is better than Eusebio
And Port Vale are in for a thrashin’!!!
For all you bloggers under 50, ask your dads what this is all about.
This needs no explanation:-
“We are top of the League, I-say we are top of the League!”
Great steadycam work there Thomas.
Ha, not my video Doog, just one I happened across on YouTube. There were loads posted online last night. You can probably watch that penalty from about 100 different view points inside Molineux. Very cool.
We won on a bad day – we were very lucky to grab all 3 points.
The players performances varied from great to poor. Our defence was weak in the first half while it improved considerably in the second half. I expect Jackett to make some fine tuning ahead of our next match :=). Playing the ball to Doyle in the pocket was a fairly efficient strategy. I also liked how Ismail and Sako moved diagonally and caused confusion with their runs. Kevin McDonald saved the day and I really liked the way he affected our attacking play. At one occasion he got hold of the ball and passed a beautiful ball to Griffiths, in an attempt to counterattack, but Griffiths stumbled on the ball. Evans impressed once again with precise passes behind the oppositions defence. The question remain who’s Jacketts first choice, of the two, next game.
Sensible comments indeed..no doubt when we go back into the championship then we need to buy players again according to the level of play and have a strategy like west ham did to get back into the premier ..meanwhile these strange matches cannot be taken for granted and this against Crawley (the shame of the fixture!) was an example of being embarrassed again..plse don’t put us all through this again Wolves…
Credit to Crawley who arrived with a team of journeymen (most of whom I’d never heard of) and who played a delightul, composed, passing game which, I suspect, will be beyond the abilities of the majority of teams in this division. A match that could easily have finished 3-3 or 4-4 and, in all honesty, they didn’t deserve to lose.
Positives – we stuck at it and remained (mostly) composed despite a lack of possession in the 2nd half. Central defence looked fairly solid. We looked like we had a (vague) idea of how to play on the counter-attack. MacDonald looked quality in his cameo performance.
Negatives – once the CT back 4 squeezed up, Evans and Davis lacked the time and space to control the midfield as they had early on. This wasn’t helped by the CT attackers pressing our back 4, so the passes Davis and Evans were receiving were not of the highest quality. Defensively, we have a tendency to be ‘lazy’ around the fringes of the box – crosses coming in too easily, too many free shots from +/- 25 yards – something to be worked on by the full-backs and defensive midfielders. Sig is NOT a target man.
All in all, still a work in progress. But if we can win matches like this (and still improve some) then there are plenty of grounds for optimism.
Think Sig’s strength is his pace when the ball is played behind the defence – a bit like Griffiths. Evans and McDonald are capable of doing this and it’s a useful tactic when you under a bit of pressure and the opposition are pressing high up the pitch. As Karlir mentioned earlier, I wonder which of Evans and McD he will play – don’t think you can do both with the present system unless you are prepared to sacrifice Doyle which is unlikely.
Great result and fantastic start to the season but worried we will come up against better sides that Crawley. We still look a bit “short” at times and I can’t help thinking we could really do with another 2 or 3 players, despite us being top. The money must be there . . . . . . . .
I agree Sig’s strength is his pace, not his first touch. But if Jackett is planning on playing a passing game out from the back, there wont be too many 50 yard passes for him to chase. If Sako leaves, I envisage Zeli on the left and Sig wide right. But then we need cover for them…Would expect K.Mac to start next time out.
Balls behind the defence don’t have to be 50 yards. I hope we don’t see many of those either.
Great win…full credit to Crawley who impressed me with their passing game…they did not roll over and die…full credit to them. Wolves have to tighten up at the back because next time we will be punished. Crawley missed easy opportunities to score , next time we might not be so lucky. Luck favours the brave…we deserve some of it anyway
Have to agree with this – was surprised with how good Crawley was, and I won’t be surprised to see them in the play-offs!
whatever anybody says to “we were lucky” – we are top AND we won ! I don’t care if we struggle all the way to the end of the season although I don’t think we will …. winning breeds confidence and ill say it again – We ARE Top !!
We won by the skin of our teeth.
There is certainly room for improvement with the younger players.
Ismail reminded me, for a while, of Walcott when he was younger, but then he seemed to forget he could be tackled…
I wondered, from the way he played, whether Sako’s commitment was 100%.
Baath could be another Lescott, he was excellent but I didn’t think Ikeme was very commanding in his area.
Griffiths is quite a performer and likes to be a star….Sheer speed beat the goalie.
An exciting finish, but we still lack confidence.
After the first goal we let them come at us and defended too deeply.
Still, a win, is a win, is a win, to paraphrase Gertrude Stein.
Nevertheless, while watching the game, it hit me hard that this was real 3rd division standard football….
Gertrude Stein.
Wasn’t she manager of the first British team to win the European Cup?
Not the most attractive of women but a tactical genius!
Nah – wife of a seafood chef in Cornwall.
I always had her down as an American lesbian, living in Paris, married to Alice B Toklias and the first Patron of surrealism…
Didn’t know she like soccer too!
If she was a patron of Surrealism she would certainly have enjoyed the goings on at the Mol for the past couple of seasons.
Wolves , lucky and we were , in the same sentence. not often we have heard that over the last few years but long may it continue . come next May its points that will matter though hopefully a bit of style along the way.
It’s going to be a big week up to the transfer deadline I hope doyle and sako can be kept as most of our good moments come from these two. It would be a major problem also if we ran out of time to get replacements if have to leave. Kenny Jacket seems a proper manager so lets hope there is a plan either way.
All this garbage that we were lucky, what a load of cobblers! Crawley got what they deserved – nowt! after the first goal we sat back and let them play and if you let any team play they will, even a team picked off the street.
When that first goal went in I for one sat back and expected us to run riot – problem is has I have already said so did the team, it is reported that their player Walsh missed a sitter from six yards – what it didn’t say was that the lino had his flag up for offside (you wouldn’t see that on TV?) mind you it would have been interesting to see what the ref would have done had it gone in.
All in all we can play a lot better, but we need to stop making these lowly teams like Crawley look like Real Madrid! and get at them for ninty minutes.
The pen – nailed on! the only thing was that the ref didn’t book their entire team for surrounding him – I thought this was supposed to be stamped out! mind you he certainly wasn’t an homer regardless of the pen.
Top of the league – sounds great doe it.
We are Wolves Onwards and upwards.
I think I predicted 2-1, mainly because you cannot expect to win all matches 4-0 with our current team, it’s still a work in progress. I would prefer Griffiths and Cassidy to start because for all their running and link play Doyle and Ziggy will always be wasteful: G & C (Ok, so he missed a sitter v Bristol) both have great scoring ratios, and I would take Ismail & Sako to provide the ammunition. Poor finishing was to blame – we should have been 2 up in the first 25 minutes AT LEAST.
Macdonald will become the new hero of molineux. He is the quality creative midfielder that we havent had for years. I think we saw jacketts first major tactical mistake. We were on top for 1st 20 mins and then their manager put 3 in centre midfield. We then became over run, and lost control of the game. Jackett should have reacted quicker because if crawley could have finished, we would have lost the game. All in all, top of the league and a new hero
Went to the game last night,and what support the lads got, even though it was on the box,
17 + crowd that’s great support.
The game,GREAT 15 mins then we just seemed to switch off and for me a bit of a worry.
Siggy started well got his goal then faded,don’t no why kj didn’t play Griffiths from the start because we seemed to keep knocking the high ball up and we didn’t win a great deal imo we seemed to play to their strengths instead of our own,i thought we played it better when we played it on the floor.Our midfield got over run and that’s why we came under great amounts of pressure and deservedly got the equaliser.Davis and Evens ran out of steam and idea’s then resorted in hoofing the ball anywhere,kj saw what was happening and changed it with McDonald who for me will make the difference the more games he plays.Zeli was great MOM for me he can only get better.as said work in progress and i’m sure KJ will get it a lot tighter in the future with perhaps a couple of experienced signings.Danny Murphy could be the one old head in midfield we need to do a job imo.UTW
Forgot to mention,Great peno from our NUMBER 9 Griffiths saved the day.UTW.
I agree with wolves 4ever, playing 2 men in midield rarely works when the opposition play 3 in their and our wingers don`t tuck in and track back the opposition midfield runners.
I hope the manager and players learn from this and keep taking the 3 points.
Both sides played some great pass and move football, a super game to watch on sky, Happy days.
Great result.
We must be doing OK. Loads of Alb!*n fans are giving me “attention”.
I’m not even saying anything to them…. Very strange breed.
It’s a win. Brilliant.
Firstly, for the third tier of English football this was a decent game.
The way we started I thought I had gone to a ground in Spain! Both sides looked to pass the ball rather than hoof it long.
Secondly, you take the points and move on. How many times have we seen Man Utd, Chelsea et al win undeservedly but go on to win the title.
Finally, I hope we can hang on to Doyle and Sako. We need that bit of experience and quality to go with the youth. We are playing the right way but we need a couple of cooler and wiser heads to steady the ship sometimes.
There is real promise in this team if we can keep it together beyond the transfer window.
Please KJ or whoever has ordained this in the first two games.
Wolves kick towards the Southbank in the first half and the North in the second.
Always have done as long as anyone can remember
Ferndown Wolf? Is that my mate, or is there another one where i used to live?
Anyway 2 games, 6 goals and 6 points, i think they’re kicking the right way myself.
As has been said not playing well and winning is the hallmark of a team difficult to beat and bodes well for a promotion push. The defence looks ok to me and afterall we have only conceded 2 goals in 4 league games.
We won. We didn’t lose, or even draw. We won.
And for winning, you normally get 3 points. For winning ugly, you get 3 points. And for playing superb footy when you win, playing better than the Brazilians, you still get…….3 points.
You can play superbly and lose. Guess what…you still get 0 points.
Who cares how we played, whether we rode our luck, or whether we should have been caught out. How many times have we started okay, and then thrown a lead away?
Some games this season, we will lose. We may play brilliantly and still lose. Some games we will draw, by conceding late on. And some games we will rescue a point late on.
Either way, we won. Let us enjoy it. And enjoy it for what it is, a win.
Couldn’t have put it better myself mate!
Correct me if i am wrong but i think what we are saying here is a win is a win is a win is a win ?
I didn’t just tell you guys it’d be 2-1, I told the bloke at ladbrokes too.
I have been a very happy wolf today.
More weekends like the last few please Mr Jackett. Ta mate
I wasn’t surprised when a number of supporters left after the Crawley equaliser, we have seen this scenario so many times before, but last night was different. Unlike last season’s squad, heads did not go down, we continued to attack and, for once, it was Wolves who scored in the last minute of the game.
However good the last three weekends have been it is important not to forget that there are teams doing even better than Wolves and we will need to be more convincing if we intend to match the likes of Orient and Posh in future weeks.
Noted another long acknowledgement of the fans by Sako at the end, as if saying goodbye which I guess is what he is hoping for by next weekend. He is a frustrating player to watch at times with noticeable lethargy interspersed with moments of brilliance; some suggest that he doesn’t give his all because he wants to move on but I’m not sure, I think perhaps he’s always played in this manner and possibly always will.
Will be interesting to see the impact of MacDonald when he’s given a full 90 minutes.
A 2-1 win keeps the momentum going,and the confidence high.It may not have been pretty but it was a win ,that`s what counts.
COME ON YOU WOLVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great drama & a win above all else but it was not comfortable!
Griffiths was’nt playing from the start because of his court case in Scotland, I assume, as KJ said he had’nt trained, so in the next game with him in from the start, the chances have more chance of going in.
I’d like to see McDonald for a whole game, I think we’ll need him to continue on this good run. He has that extra bit of quality & presence the team badly need. He as much as Griffiths secured the win, his run and cross were brilliant, I think last season we’d have just punted it & hoped. But McDonald thinks differrently. He has to start next game.
Its gonna be a tough season as Leyton Orient & Peterborough are immense at the moment. But have they been playing the weaker teams?
Orient have started well but over a season Russell Slades sides usually go through some sticky spells. Could be a head to head with Peterborough.
Ferndown Wolf not me Martin,but with dorsetwolf also commenting here beginning to think we have quite a collective in this part of the country. As for 10 points from 4 games, so far so good and don’t think KJ is the complacent type so hope he has all bases covered regarding possible loss of Sako or Doyle and doesn’t let JM interfere. He should be finding a resolution to the Ohara and Johnson situation.
Anyone see Deano on Goals on Sunday this morning, he as much as said ” I can’t say too much because it will stop me getting paid”….so he has a confidentiality clause, no doubt Stale did too…”but when I went there I didn’t bring anyone in, apart from a couple of loans, and the club had a losing mentality which needed changing quickly, and you need new players to do that, I also thought it would be nice to go to a club and spend money….but as I say, I didn’t bring anyone in”…so he wanted to bring players in, no doubt that was mentioned in his interview, but he want allowed to….so as much as this season has started well, we should still be in the Championship, but relegation for me is down to the two M’s as most suspected…too tight, and now they reap what they sow….he was also asked if the chairman sacked him to which he replied “I still haven’t heard from him so perhaps I am not sacked???”….this sums up what sort of person Mogan is in my eyes, happy to take the credit when employing the new man but not got enough balls to look him in the eye when sacking them….not the nicest bloke to have at the helm.
Anyway, as for the Crawley game, a win is a win, I will take that every game of the season thanks very much, not the most comfortable game but exciting all the same, I would still like to see another centre half next to DB, RS is too unpredictable.
As ever, UTW!
We reap what they have sown. It is almost like they wanted it to happen. As if they engineered it as part of some bigger plan…. I can’t believe they are as stupid as they look. “Let it go Jim, let it go!”
Interesting about Deano but when you think he brought in Borks (32yrs big wages) and dropped Batth, if he wanted to do more of that sort of thing i dont think he could have lasted much longer anyway.
Feels great to win again and to get another precious 3 pts. Don’t really care about whether we got lucky or not, or whether we didn’t play well all the way through so long as we won. All that matter are results, and we got one! 🙂
Having said that, going forward, I do worry about whether we could keep up these wins if we lose Doyle and Sako. I think they are currently clearly adding class and experience and I really hope we get to keep them. Moreover, I really hope we get to add one or two more “old foxes” to the team before the transfer window closes. I still worry about Stearman in D. That guy is capable of shock horror at any moment. Would love to see a “Jody Craddock” type to partner with Baath for peace of mind.
In any case, I’ll raise a glass to another result next weekend!
GW.
“old foxes” for the Wolves not sure about that one. Available old foxes are usually nearly finished and there use at this level would surely cast doubt on the abilities of the head coach.
Thomas, I remember a certain commentary from the 1980 League Cup Final which went along these lines:
“A long ball from Peter Daniel, its dropping over the top of Needham, Shiltons come, missed it, and Andy Gray scores for Wolves.”
A Scottish striker you perhaps forgot about?
Surely your elders showed you the DVD?
Anyway, Friday’s result. Brilliant, just fuckin’ brilliant.
Last year and the year before we would have bottled it with the pricks on display, and found ways to lose.
Now we are finding ways to win.
I have said this many times on this blog, I don’t care how we win, as long as we win.
Do y’all realize if we win every game 2 – 1 for the next four seasons, we will be champions of England, Europe, FA Cup and league Cup repeat winners.
Probably wont happen, but 2 – 1 every week is fine by me.
And, let us not forget, most of the rest of the division are looking up at us already, and will be nervous about playing against us.
Winning, and finding ways to win even when not on top form, breeds a fortress mentality, “Thou shalt not pass”
Early doors yet, but a much better feeling than the last 2 years.
And the shit haven’t even managed a goal yet, let alone a win!
Happy Days indeed!!
I think McDonald has to start games now, him and Evans has the potential to be a well-balanaced central midfield that we’ve craved.
Griffiths, Sigurdarson and Doyle all looked lively which will be a selection dilemma, unless KJ puts Siggy on the right; something I’m quite fond of but its clear he likes to play up the middle. And I also think Ismail will only get better with more game time playing on the right. I liked how him and Sako kept swapping wings, although Sako looks unhappy on the right.
As for Friday, yes we might have wanted something more capable. But like people have alluded to on here, if we’re going to go up, we’re going to be one of/the best team in this division, so sometimes you have to stumble to victory, play badly and win, win games with a slice of luck (late penalties) etc. etc. Its a cliché, but you really do make your own luck.
Also, Crawley looked very comfortable. They came and played their football without being intimidated by the size and grandeur of Molineux and with a tiny away following. They certainly won’t be in for a bad season and we need to be ready for teams to come here and really look to go out and stick it to us.
Fair play to Crawley, probably deserved more for their efforts…but Cometh The Hour, Cometh The Griffiths.
UTW
Interesting comments in the Birmingham Mail today by Joe Gallen saying Wolves need to become more direct. Comments that will cheer some fans but may be less welcome to others.
We are desperate for a creative midfielder. Is Mcdonald this player ? Difficult to judge him with the little time he had but he made a good impression on me. As for the game. We started out well but fair play to Crawley for disrupting our rhythm. Lucky in the end but 3 points, no matter how you get them is what counts. Maybe we have lady luck on our side for a change.
🙂
Love & peace to all
I thought Crawley played out of their skin we were a tad lucky but this is football, 3 points and i went home happy, bloody hell I did enjoy my Horlicks:)
O nly took me 3 hrs to get to Molineux for the match, so I was happy.
U tterly chuffed to bits about the end result, especially as I only went because of the
T hought I had in my head that got me to phone the ticket office that morning!
O ften, we have seen Wolves crumble when an equalizer is scored but this time we did not
F ail. We carried on until the final whistle blew.
D on’t get me wrong, there is still a lot of room for improvement, but at least I am seeing
A desire that I have not seen for quite some time. I was quite impressed with the way we
R allied as a team, playing the ball out from the back and running into space. Not bad for
K ids who are still learning their trade. Ok, they are supported by a few experienced and
N ot playing on their own, but they are certainly settling well. I hope that this continues and
E ven those fans who have nothing better to do than moan, must agree that we are not only
S howing that we are willing to commit, and playing some pleasing football, but that we
S hould find ourselves doing very well this season if we continue to improve. Good result.