April 2008 Archives

Some Ricoh reflections.....

1. Fantastic stadium, fantastic press box, fantastic press facilities in general. But you can't help feeling a tinge of regret that the impressive Ricoh is a sign if ever there was one of how football will never again have its loveable traditions. The hotel complex incorporated in the stadium, the constant announcements during the game about checking your lucky number in the programme, the cheerleaders and dancing girls (though they seemed well received by the press corps!), the immaculateness of everything....it left you pining for the days of rickety old stands and supping a half time bovril.

2. Game of two halves. Wolves were woeful in the first, exciting in the second. Still couldn't do enough to force the win which would have seen them enter D-day in the top six.

3. Game of two keepers. Kasper Schmeichel and Wayne Hennessey were youngsters together at Manchester City. Indeed Hennessey effectively moved on because he didn't think he had a chance bearing in mind Schmeichel's illustrious name! Schmeichel is still at City but on loan at Coventry and both were impressive yesterday making several fine stops during an end-to-end second half. Various Premiership clubs were represented. These two could well have been high on the list.

4. Game of two managers. Chris Coleman and Mick McCarthy were both impressive central defenders in their time but perhaps very different characters as bosses. Coleman all suited and booted, suave and sophisticated. McCarthy tracksuit-clad and down to earth, what you see is what you get. Both have achieved much in the dugout thus far, and now have the task of turning cliched Sleeping Giants into genuine Premiership articles. Coventry should stay up, will Wolves go up?

5. The Wolves fans. Almost 5,500 of them. A sea of gold shirts behind the goal. A tremendous sight. At least the booing on this occasion was only at half time and directed at the whole team rather than individuals. And Neill Collins was applauded as he warmed up during the first half. Partial redemption for his treatment in midweek.

6. What the devil happened at the end of the game? Took an absolute age to get off the car park even though I didn't emerge until 6.15pm! Wolves chief executive Jez Moxey and club secretary Richard Skirrow were also separately stranded in the bottle-neck. Couldn't handle that every week!

7. Wolves owe Scunthorpe and Hull a favour or two after their weekend victories over Watford and Crystal Palace. Andy Keogh revealed he'd phoned old mate Scunny winger Ian Morris on the morning of the game to deliver a pep-talk. Can Blackpool and Burnley help out on Sunday? Come on boys, founder members of the league and all that.

Whatever happens all will be revealed about 3.50pm on Sunday. Wolves MUST beat Plymouth and then hope Watford or Palace slip up. Prepare for one of those agonising afternoons when Chinese Whispers will spread like wildfire. As the late Brian Moore once said on a final day showdown, "it's up for grabs now......

Remember how Southampton's dramatic last gasp equaliser at Wolves in March extended a hoodoo which means Wolves haven't beaten the Saints in some 17 meetings stretching back 28 years?

Well it's a curse that's afflicting the oval ball game as well as the round one.

Rugby League side St Helens - also nicknamed the Saints - take on Warrington Wolves this evening boasting a similarly all-powerful sequence.

Saints have lost only one of their 31 Super League games with Wolves - and that was seven years ago!

ANYONE would have thought it was Joan Collins - and not Neill Collins - coming on at Molineux on Tuesday night such was the nature of the welcome.

After all, Dynasty's Alexis Carrington was always a pretty nasty piece of work.

But what was Wolves defender Collins' heinous crime to receive the bird from his own supporters just two minutes from the end of an otherwise joyous 3-0 win?

Probably like most others who have already fallen victim to the over-demanding Molineux boo-boys this season.

Just to dare suffer a slight dip in form over the course of a challenging and gruelling Championship season.

Collins has made 42 appearances already thus far.

Several of those have also been out of position at right back.

Some of his performances have been excellent, some good, some not so good.

That's football, infact - that's life.

Collins himself would probably not profess to be a Rio Ferdinand or Alan Hansen, effortlessly making crucial interceptions and bringing the ball out of defence before delivering an inch-perfect pass.

In the words of Mick McCarthy, the lively Scot is more of a "does what it says on the tin" defender.

He'll head it, kick it, tackle it, do whatever it takes to try and keep the opposition at bay.

Admittedly this has been something of an up-and-down season for Collins.

Four crucial goals - all of them winners - but he has also conceded four penalties.

Anyway, all that is just scene-setting.

What you are guaranteed from Collins, week-in, week-out, is 100 per cent effort, commitment and honesty.

A player, from fairly humble roots, who both recognises and relishes the career he is pursuing, and rides with the emotions both good and bad.

And certainly not someone who deserved the sort of treatment dished out by sections of a fanbase who are fast becoming Wolves' most troublesome achilles heel.

Collins is not the first, and won't be the last.

Already this season the rumblings have piped up for the likes of Jay Bothroyd, Stephen Elliott, Andy Keogh and Karl Henry, and the now famed Jody Craddock song is a prime example of how the Molineux faithful can sometimes get things spectacularly wrong.

Even within earshot of the press box on Tuesday night, and with Wolves 3-0 to the good and coasting, any misplaced pass or failure to win a header was greeted with the sort of vitriol associated with a team on their way to a good hiding.

Just what has happened to the Wolves support? Where has that refreshing and so influential backing from last season evaporated to? Should increased expectation be an immediate precursor to booing players who are having a rough time?

Of course there are justifications for the odd moan or groan this season.

At times the football hasn't been particularly riveting, and the current league position is probably below where Wolves - including McCarthy and his players - would have imagined themselves to be.

But in what possible way does booing actually improve things on both those scores?

What good does it do to Collins and company? Does it inspire them to greater heights? Help them relax and play their best football? Have they actually not been trying and so those boos just click them back into gear?

Of course not.

Anyone tuning into Radio WM's phone-in after Tuesday's game would have thought Wolves were certainties for relegation rather than just having kept their play-off hopes alive.

From speaking to various supporters situated in all parts of Molineux there is plenty of debate between supporters themselves over the current situation.

Indeed I have heard from several long-term supporters, home and away, who have become fed up of the moaning to such an extent that they are questioning whether following their beloved team is actually worth the aggravation.

And that's not only dangerous, but also very sad.

It all brings back memories of the "Stick" quote from chairman Steve Morgan last time he faced the media.

"It's like getting a bunch of sticks," Wolves' owner/chairman said of the club's support in February.

"Separate them, and individually, you can snap them, it's easy.

"Put them together and it's unbreakable.

"And that's what we want Wolves to be - unbreakable, unbeatable - and if we all pull together, that's what we can be."

If the sort of "stick" dished out to Collins continues to prove the Molineux norm rather than the exception, then the sort of electric support which Wolves fans have the potential to deliver, could actually end up being the club's biggest weakness.

Here we go again then, another Super Tuesday and another potentially defining evening of Wolves' season against Cardiff.

If Ipswich on Saturday was must-win then this is even more so must-win. If that's remotely possible.

But it promises to be yet another nerve-jangler at Molineux when hopefully three points will at least keep Wolves in the mix ahead of the penultimate weekend of the season.

Wolves may still reach the play-offs for the second successive year, we shall see.

Last year of course ended in disappointment, but just to try and lighten the mood there followed a hugely entertaining phone call on talkSPORT between Mick McCarthy and George Galloway.

O-k then, there didn't really. It was all down to the work of excellent talkSPORT presenter Ian Danter, whose
impressions of Midlands footballing personalities are legendary in these parts.

So much so infact that various national newspaper reporters now have a 'Graham Taylor' answerphone message. And Taylor actually phoned one said phone and left a message last week!

Danter, who honed his broadcasting skills in the Midlands with BRMB and Heart FM, can be heard on talkSPORT on Friday evenings from 7pm-10pm and Sundays from noon-5pm. Well worth a listen on 1089/1053AM.

Anyway, flashback to this time last year, and - courtesy of talkSPORT, McCarthy and Galloway........

Click here.

Now that wasn't supposed to happen - but didn't you just fear that it would.

Tommy Miller, with the very last kick of the game in the very last moments of injury time, sticks such a pinpoint free kick right into the corner of the onion bag that Wayne Hennessey didn't even move a muscle.

Ipswich striker Jon Walters had stressed the importance of the first 20 minutes yesterday in keeping Wolves quiet - ultimately it was the last 20 seconds which proved decisive.

Talk about not so much as a kick in the teeth but somehow else right where it hurts.

Wolves didn't particularly play brilliantly yesterday, but in situations such as this that doesn't necessarily matter.

They had, thanks once again to Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, nudged themselves in front and within touching distance of the three points that would have kept their play-off hopes very much alive.

Yet the latest in a now long-running saga of last gasp goals at Wolves matches, both for and against, has thrown a right old spanner in the works and left the Molineux men's top six aspirations hanging by a thread.

How quickly the picture can change.

Barely three weeks ago the injury time drama at the Valley, conceding to Leroy Lita and then Karl Henry's incredible winner, propelled a super-confident Wolves into the play-off zone and suggested they were peaking at just the right time.

Now, in the last seven days, they have been on the end of a dreadful refereeing decision which cost them a possible win at Bristol City, been outplayed where it matters in the local derby with the old enemy, and suffered this latest dose of last gasp misery.

So what was the mood like after the game? From the players, dejected but defiant.

Michael Kightly and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, whose thoughts will be aired in tomorrow's Birmingham Mail, both believe Wolves are capable of winning their final three games of the season which will at least give them a fighting chance.

Mick McCarthy, while downbeat, was also equally hopeful, although struggling to find the words to explain why his team should have suffered such an unfortunate injury time fate.

He also seems for the first time to be wondering if it is going to happen for Wolves, admitting that if they don't make the play-offs it won't be through any lack of effort or endeavour.

It is going to be so difficult now. Personally I felt Wolves needed to win against either Bristol City or Albion - they perhaps would have beaten City if referee Paul Taylor had been on his game - but having not done either three points yesterday were paramount.

Should Wolves somehow respond from this cruel setback and beat Cardiff tomorrow night they will at least remain in the mix heading into the penultimate weekend of the season.

Even then a gap of two points to in-form Crystal Palace, with an inferior goal difference, would prove a chunky gap to overhaul bearing in mind play-off specialist Neil Warnock appears to have got Palace, "doing a Palace" at just the right time.

Hope springs eternal, but a fortnight today, it just might be that yesterday's devastating swing of Miller's right boot is viewed as the moment when Wolves' efforts and endeavours were finally subdued once and for all.

I don't wanna talk,
About the things we've gone through.
Though it's hurting me,
Now it's history.

Any idea?
O-k.....

I've played all my cards,
And that's what you've done too.
Nothing more to say,
No more ace to play.

Still nothing? Well here comes the money line....

The winner takes it all,
The loser standing small.
Beside the victory,
That's her destiny.

Yep, the Winner takes it all from some band or another by the name of ABBA. Wonder if they ever made it?

The chorus pretty much sums up Wolves against Ipswich tomorrow, as both teams head into the final straight of the season desperate for the win which would see them - at the very least - remain on the fringes of the play-offs.

It promises to be another hugely nervy afternoon down Molineux way, and once again it is impossible to predict what is going to happen.

The half-full brigade will point to the fact that Wolves haven't lost at home to Ipswich in 11 meetings stretching back to November, 1991.

The half-empty will say that those sort of runs must always come to an end.

The half-full will chirp back that Ipswich have only won three Championship away games this season.

The half-empty will declare that Wolves have won only two of their last 10 in the league at Molineux - and both of those inside the last ten minutes.

Whatever the pre-match feelings winning is paramount, however it is done.

Sixth placed Crystal Palace may be away at Watford tomorrow, but play-off specialist Neil Warnock has got his team on a right run of form so don't rule out them getting a result.

Wolves will start the day three points adrift of Palace with an inferior goal difference but a game in hand, while Ipswich are just a point adrift of the Londoners on the same games played.

Victory tomorrow will project Wolves right back into the mix, a draw and they'll anxiously be checking out not only the result from Vicarage Road but those of the teams on their coat-tails, defeat and it's probably game over for Mick McCarthy and his team.

They may be young, and some still inexperienced, but their track record on occasions like this isn't bad.

Remember the final day of last season? Needing a victory at Leicester to guarantee a top six berth they went behind early on but didn't panic and came back strongly to win 4-1.

They had also survived any Molineux jitters to defeat QPR in the previous home game.

It's going to be an afternoon for vociferous and heartfelt support from the stands - and calm and cool heads on the pitch.

And for any fans needing an extra little bit of firing up, check out the following quote from Ipswich striker Jon Walters: "I hear the Wolves crowd can get a bit impatient with their team, so hopefully if it's still 0-0 after 15 or 20 minutes the fans will start to get on the players' backs and add to the pressure."

Nothing particularly inflammatory from Walters there - but why not prove him wrong?

If the Molineux faithful can stay with their team from start to finish, however events transpire, there's an infinitely greater chance of getting the necessary result.

The Winner Takes it all, and the loser will be standing small..........

Reflections on the derby.....

1. Albion are still - and comfortably so - the best footballing team in the division. Surely they're home and hosed now? And local rivalries aside, it would probably do Wolves good to see them disappear over the horizon. Just two wins in the last 17 derbies tells its own sorry tale. If Wolves reach the play-offs they won't want to be seeing Albion. If they don't, and have to start all over again next season, likewise it won't do any harm not to have the old enemy hovering on the scene.

2. The final third. Wolves certainly matched Albion for spirit and endeavour. But at the business end of the pitch the Baggies were streets ahead. Dean Kiely only had to make two really serious saves. At the other end Wayne Hennessey was constantly kept on his toes, Albion twice hit the woodwork and once hit Kevin Phillips when Ishmael Miller's shot appeared goal-bound. And that was apart from the goal, when Zoltan Gera was somehow left unmarked just six yards out.

3. Work in progress. It's sometimes easy to forget just how young this Wolves team is. Average age 24, compared to Albion's 28. Eight of Albion's team are aged 27 or over as opposed to just three of Wolves. Tony Mowbray had so much more to work with when he arrived at the Hawthorns compared to what greeted Mick McCarthy at Molineux three months previously. Yes Mowbray has done a terrific job from such a base, but he did enjoy a head start. Former Albion and Wolves stalwart Ally Robertson suggested in Tuesday night's programme that it's usually the third season of a rebuilding job where things really come to fruition. For Wolves under McCarthy, that's next season.

4. Karl Henry. There are those who have criticised the Wolves midfielder this season. And at times he has dipped below his usual standards. But Tuesday night showed just how much the Molineux men miss an in-form Henry when he's not around. There was no one in the engine room able to get a foot in and break up some of Albion's flowing football. It sounds as if Henry could be absent for at least another fortnight with his medial knee ligament injury which may rule him out until the final day of the season. Surely he's not destined to finish another campaign prematurely after scoring the winner in a 3-2 success?

And yet, after all this.....

5. IT'S STILL THERE! Wolves are still in the hunt, even though it's now out of their hands. Three points behind Crystal Palace but with an inferior goal difference, other results need to go Wolves' way. But Palace are away at Watford at the weekend. For Wolves, it's fellow chasers Ipswich. Molineux will once again be a nervy and expectant place come 3.00 on Saturday afternoon. If McCarthy's men can withstand the battle of wills and somehow emerge with three points, the pain of yet another derby defeat will quickly become a distant memory.

Word has come in of an interesting moment on last night's University Challenge between a team of Rocket Scientists and church staff from Salisbury Cathedral.

Apparently the Rocket Scientists were asked which teams play in the Black Country derby, and gave the answer Blackburn and Bolton.

The church staff then couldn't even spare their blushes with their offering of Wolves and Villa.

So there it is then - the Black Country derby. It is Rocket Science after all!!!!

Here it is then, the big day has arrived.

Yes, Happy Birthday Emma Thompson. 49 today. Thought you were great in Love Actually.......

What? Oh sorry. Yes, the Black Country derby. Of course. Wolves and Albion locking horns for the seventh time in 18 months. Probably a game which both sets of players and fans could do without - unless they win of course! So how will it go? What is going to happen? You've got more chance of discovering the Zimbabwe election result than the answers to those questions in advance of tonight's big kick off.

But from a Wolves point of view, what are their best chances of winning the game? And perversely, what do they have most to worry about?

FIVE REASONS WHY WOLVES CAN WIN THE BLACK COUNTRY DERBY
1. Sylvan Ebanks-Blake. At the Hawthorns last November Wolves did a job on Albion, strung five across midfield and finished up - albeit thanks to Wayne Hennessey's late penalty heroics, with a goalless draw. Now though they've got Ebanks-Blake. The powerful striker has brought an added dimension to Mick McCarthy's team since his January arrival, namely an explosive goal threat. If Wolves do win tonight, odds-on that Ebanks-Blake will have played a major role.

2. The fans. This will be the first Molineux Black Country derby under floodlights since March 1990 when a Cook and Bull story (goals from Paul Cook and Steve Bull) earned Wolves a 2-1 win. That promises a special atmosphere and presumably tonight will be a night when any minor grumbles are forgotten and the Wolves' fans try to raise the roof in a bid for a priceless win against the Old Enemy.

3. Law of averages. Wolves have won only two of the last 16 derbies. That can't go on? Can it?!

4. Set pieces. Albion's defending of them. Not the best by all accounts. Jody Craddock and Neill Collins might fancy a bit of that. Expect to see plenty of Kevin Kyle as well, if not from the start then certainly from the bench.

5. Recent form. Eighteen points from the last nine games sends Wolves into tonight's proceedings in good heart. Confidence should be in good supply - can they carry that onto the pitch?

FIVE REASONS WHY WOLVES MIGHT NOT WIN THE BLACK COUNTRY DERBY

1. Kevin Phillips. The guy is a derby specialist. For all the teams he has played for, he has scored against the derby rivals. Wolves bore the brunt last season - Phillips notched four in four. Scary stuff. Even if he's on the bench tonight, when he starts warming up, the nerves will start jangling.

2. And it's not just Phillips. Albion score goals for fun. Ishmael Miller, Roman Bednar, Robert Koren, Zoltan Gera - they all enjoy rattling the net. 103 goals in total thus far - Wayne Hennessey will have to pull out all the stops if he is to enjoy his 18th league clean sheet of the season.

3. Psychology. Mick McCarthy laughed off suggestions Wolves players might suffer as a result of recent results against Albion. But in contrast Albion's players might just feel they've got the beating of this current Wolves squad. We shall see.

4. The fans. Yes Wolves fans can make Molineux into a fortress on midweek nights and generate a truly magnificent atmosphere. But should Albion score first, it will provide a big test for those fans to keep the faith. Their reaction to last season's derby despair was awesome, applauding their team from the pitch after all the defeats. This season they haven't been as united.

5. The carrot. Albion can go top of the table with three points with a win. And it would put them seemingly within touching distance of automatic promotion. That's some motivation.

CONCLUSION
What do I think? Too close to call. It's all the old cliches for a game like this. Who performs on the day, who makes the least mistakes, who produces a piece of magic. More than ever, the first goal could be crucial. And the result? Well I'm going to go and shove Trevor Brooking off his perennial position on the fence and go for a 1-1 draw. Not ideal for both but at the same time it would leave their objectives - automatic promotion and reaching the play-offs - still in their own hands.

A few thoughts from Ashton Gate.....

1. Bristol City remains home to a good old-fashioned football ground. Though whether those Wolves fans who were warned their seats would have no backs on them would agree is another matter. An immense police presence also served as a reminder of perhaps not so good days gone by. Presumably they'd had intelligence amid fears of trouble but the locals had never seen anything like it. Police kitted out in fully-fledged riot gear and almost every Wolves fan being searched could have been deemed slightly provocative. Then again, if it stopped trouble in the ground then perhaps it's a small price to pay.

2. The Press room was the top of a portakabin on the car park. Nice and cosy. A cheery press steward looked after the assembled throng and even managed to smile when the lack of water pressure prompted the end of the cold water supply. "This always happens when they start serving the food," he admitted. Still, compensation arrived in the array of pies and pasties available. Robbie Dennison stuck away two pasties with all the aplomb with which he used to glide past opposition full backs.

3. The game. Wolves played well, oozing confidence and belief. Sadly they couldn't find the finishing touch to their encouraging build-up. Deserved all three points, but only ended up with one. And that was thanks partly to referee Paul Taylor, whose rejection of a cast-iron penalty appeal four minutes from time was bizarre to say the least. Mick McCarthy refused to blame Taylor, insisting the game should already have been in the bag. But how costly could the potential extra points be in three weeks time?

4. Michael McIndoe. McIndoe was cracking value for the press during his six months at Wolves. Approachable, amenable and always ready with a strong opinion he was a pleasure to deal with. However, he left under something of a cloud. Whilst entitled to state his reasons and even to suggest he was going on to bigger and better things with City - however strange that sounded - surely now is the time to let his football do the talking. Yet in yesterday's programme he said: "Unfortunately I just felt the game we (Wolves) were playing didn't suit my style so I decided to move down to the South West." Was this the style of play that allowed McIndoe to post one of the most assists in the division? "I still have two or three friends at Molineux," he added. Two or three? Out of a squad and staff approaching 50?! McIndoe hardly touched the ball yesterday as Bristol went more direct and Wolves tried to build patiently. Still, football is football, it's all about opinions. And McIndoe and Mick McCarthy were spotted sharing a few cordial words after the game.

5. Writer's cramp. Not me, the Wolves players. Waiting to speak to the players by the coach once again hordes of fans had gathered for pictures and to request autographs. Of course it's a small price to pay for the trappings that go with life as a footballer but the squad are all extremely patient and do their duty, even in the wake of some pretty straight-talking members of the public. "Oi Freddy, come over here," being a typical example.

6. The play-offs. Now three points off Crystal Palace - effectively four given the goal difference - and also behind Ipswich after their win today against Norwich. Two games in hand on both mind you, but the pressure is on ahead of Wolves next game. And that next game isn't exactly a quiet one. Eyes down for the next Black Country derby....