Results tagged “play-offs” from Birmingham Mail - Wolverhampton Wanderers Blog

...to May 26, 2003. For Wolves fans of the recent generation, the day of all days.
Cardiff. The Millennium Stadium. Glorious sunshine. Sheffield United. And a glorious first half performance which as good as booked Wolves' seat on the Premier League gravy train.
Five years on and the last of the play-off finals also had a Wolves involvement.
Stephen Gleeson.
And although the Irish midfielder was only representing loan club Stockport it was another slice of Molineux success all the same as he helped his team to an exciting 3-2 win.
That also meant all four clubs ascending from League Two carried some form of Wolves influence with the three already promoted - Paul Ince, Darren Ferguson and Graham Turner - all having either player for, or managed, the old gold and black.
While Wolves season has now been over for over three weeks Gleeson was the culmination of a weekend which also carried a sprinkling of Wolverhampton flavour.
First off Hull against Bristol City.
Interest not only in who would actually remain in the Championship as next season's opponents but also whether former winger Michael McIndoe - who continues to make great noises about having made the right move to leave Wolves last summer - would make it up there with City.
They didn't. And so neither did McIndoe. Back to Molineux again next season then.
And yesterday's League One showdown between Doncaster and Leeds also carried plenty of Wolves flavour in the form of Donny manager Sean O'Driscoll.
Because O'Driscoll, although born in Warrington, moved to Wolverhampton at an early age and was raised in the city as a diehard Wolves fan.
Formerly an inhabitant of the North Bank, O'Driscoll then left to forge a playing career with Fulham and Bournemouth and then managerial career also at Bournemouth.
Indeed talking of five years ago, O'Driscoll actually guided Bournemouth to League Two play-off glory on the same weekend as Wolves defeated Sheffield United.
Rumour has it that he actually stayed on in Cardiff and sidestepped Bournemouth's celebrations back home to take in Wolves' long-awaited triumph.
Top man! And one whom, perhaps unlike McIndoe, will be glad to return to bring his team to Molineux next season.
So that's it - the play-offs pretty well signify the end of the English season, not least as with 'thanks' to Steve McClaren the forthcoming Euro's have no home interest.
For Wolves however life goes on, namely the signing and selling of players ahead of the new season.
And already one is in.
The acquisition of 18-year-old Sam Vokes, probably far cheaper than perhaps it should have been bearing in mind Bournemouth's administration status, looks an astute one, particularly as Newcastle and Villa were also rumoured to be having a look.
Having interviewed Vokes on Friday when sealing the deal in front of his delighted family, he appears to possess both a level-headed and ambitious personality.
At 18 it may take a bit of time to settle at Championship level, but not too long.
One question that wasn't asked was whether he has a nickname.
Anyone reckon on...wait for it...Berti?
I'll get me coat...

"I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career, I've lost almost 300 games.

"26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed.

"I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."

The words of basketball legend Michael Jordan.

And a chastening reminder to all of a gold and black persuasion this morning that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

It can only be Wolves who end up missing out on the play-offs on goal difference by just a single goal.

Only Wolves who as events transpired would have been in there with a three goal win but could only do so by one, and that in the 87th minute.

And only Wolves who now face three long months before getting the next chance to do it all again in what will be their 19th attempt at promotion from the Championship in the last 20 years.

A quick glance back over events of recent weeks would have Mick McCarthy and company tearing their hair out for that extra goal or extra point which would have seen them over the finishing line.

That nailed-on penalty not awarded at Bristol City, the injury time equalisers conceded to Ipswich and earlier Southampton, heck, go back to the first day of the season and even a point against Watford - instead of leaking two last gasp goals to lose 2-1 - would have been enough.

But football is not about ifs, buts and maybes, instead it's hard results, and perhaps given their season Wolves have ended up just about where they deserve to be, on the outside looking in.

For that there are mitigating factors, notably injuries.

Whilst all teams suffer injuries, I'm not sure many will have lost their most influential player in the way Wolves lost Michael Kightly for four months.

Not sure that many would have seen pre-season plans disrupted in the way Wolves lost Matt Jarvis when McCarthy was hoping to blaze a trail in the division with the two pacey wingers.

And not sure many would have been able to respond from the fact that having belatedly decided Gary Breen and Jody Craddock were his favoured defensive partnership, McCarthy was only able to field the two together on ten occasions.

But even this morning that's all in the past. In the words of McCarthy Wolves have to "wipe their gobs", move on and face up to another attempt to escape their Championship purgatory.

The manager will of course have numerous critics in certain quarters - he failed to reach the play-offs after all - but it appears he has the backing of chairman Steve Morgan and the board.

In my opinion rightly so.

It hasn't been a season which has met expectations but McCarthy has still developed an exciting squad of much potential.

And only against Plymouth was he finally able to field what is understood to amount to his first choice team.

And that team will now be strengthened.

There is a hugely promising nucleus now in place - if Wolves can hang onto them all - in the likes of Wayne Hennessey, Matt Murray, Kevin Foley, George Elokobi, Kightly, Jarvis, Seyi Olofinjana, Karl Henry, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, Andy Keogh.

What is going to happen to the three out-of-contract experienced personnel in Breen, Craddock and Michael Gray remains to be seen.

But - and it's easier said than done - just say McCarthy is able to bring in a few hard-nosed 27, 28, 29-year-olds this summer to add to that excellent young base then the future may indeed yet be old gold.

Those developing players will also come back bigger, better, stronger in August after the experiences of this long, hard season.

"I've failed over and over and over again in my life," said Jordan. "And that is why I succeed."

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.