The 18 minutes that we were in the relegation yesterday seemed like an eternity as I was sat praying in the car on the way back from my brother's cup final. Typical, both four o'clock kick offs. I had BBC live Football updates on my phone, refreshing the page every minute even though it automatically updates itself.
I wasn't even sure if I wanted to watch Football First at half eight, because I'd heard how rubbish we were in the first half and how Blackburn just sat back in the second half.
But you know what, I didn't even think we were that bad. We had dominated in periods, looked quite comfortable and then conceded two quite unlucky goals. Sure, we could have defended a bit better but both goals were deflected as far as I could see. Jason Roberts will not score a jammier goal and I'm convinced Hennessey would have saved Emerton's volley had it not skimmed off Elokobi on it's way. Hoillet's goal was very poorly defended all over the place. We shouldn't take too much away from him though, it was a goal of real quality.
In true Wolves style, we battled back. We were allowed to press forward, but Blackburn have a decent set of defenders and a top class goalkeeper. Our two goals were both brilliant.A repeat of the free kick v West brom worked it's magic again, with O'Hara finishing well. Hunt's goal, typically at the right place at the right time, was a goal of the season contender. The first touch was perfect, the finish even more so.
There was no doubting who our standout performers were in the game. Jamie O'Hara has slowly improved after a dip in form, and is looking more comfortable in a four man midfield. We simply have to sign him, because he is the type of player we need to progress up the league. The other player, my man of the match, was a more unsung hero. Stephen Ward shows great backbone every time he plays because he is under the most pressure of them all. He's barracked so often, yet recently has played a huge part in keeping us up.
Hennessey - 7
Foley - 7Craddock - 6
Mancienne - 7
Elokobi - 6
Jarvis - 6
Henry - 6
O'Hara - 8
Hunt - 7
Fletcher - 7
Ward - 8
We can have some time to celebrate for now, but I'm not sure my heart can take another day or even season like that. We really need to push on now, we've got ourselves in a great position to do it.
Well done Wolves.
Actually we were out of the league for 39 minutes in total, not countng tea time between the halves. People accuse me to be to generous with the ratings in this game, but you are even more generous than me. Still. A good run in just like last season and with some good newcomers I believe we´re in for a very good season next.
ReplyDeletethe thing is, you get you get your money's worth with wolves. hanging in the balance right to the end beats mid table mediocrity for me every time. and this season we beat the top three, birmingham, west brom and villa. keep it up mick I say
ReplyDeleteall this romantic twaddle about blackpool just reminds me how lucky we
ReplyDeleteare to have an owner and a manager who realise that only gradual
progress is sustainable outside the top six or seven.
O'Hara will be an altogether different player next season - fitter and stronger. An rollercoaster of a season with many heights and downs. Many players in and out of the team due to injuries - both our two first seasons actually. A bigger and improved squad should guarantee higher concistency.
ReplyDeleteOut of darkness came light. First Hunt with is fantastic goal, then Spurs with the second goal against Birmingham.
Mancienne a 7??? Are you deluded? He was awful yesterday, truly awful
ReplyDeleteThe yardstick I usually like to use to check luck is GD. If your GD position is a lot worse than your points position, you're probably lucky, and vice-versa.Here are the GD positions for teams with a minus GD (league pos. in parentheses):
ReplyDelete-Where GD is equal, position decided on GF.-
9th Newcastle -1 (12th)
10th Stoke -2 (13th)
11th Bolton -4 (14th)
12th A. Villa -11 (9th)
13th Sund'land -11 (10th)
14th Blackburn -13 (15th)
15th W.B.A. -15 (11th)
16th WOLVES -20 (17th)
17th Wigan -21 (16th)
18th Blooze -21 (18th)
19th Blackpool -23 (19th)
20th W. Ham -27 (20th)
So, the only three teams to be in the same position by both points and GD were the relegated teams! No luck involved!!
By my usual yardstick, Wolves were marginally unlucky not to finish 16th. The luckiest team was the Tesco baggies, and other really lucky teams were Villa and Sunderland.
Considering the enormous gap between -4 and -11, it stands out that Newcastle, Stoke and Notlob were very unlucky to finish as low as they did.
There's a 7-goal gap between 14th Blackburn's GD and 16th ours. Blackburn are clearly better than us. West Ham were deservedly bottom and Wolves, Wigan, Blooze and Blackpool deserved to be the teams fighting in the relegation battle to avoid the other two bottom places.
Nippy Lobo
Actually Paddy I think the difference in player ratings is due to whether you are at the game or dependant on TV camera angles which often fail to provide a true reflection. I thought your ratings were spot on.
ReplyDeleteHi paddy, I'm definitely guilty of being generous to the players sometimes witht he markings. However, I did not think we were as bad as people seem to think.
ReplyDeleteHmm, I'm not sure about the anti Mancienne thing that seems to be going on since he's come back into the side.
ReplyDeleteHe has made a couple of noticable errors but I think he's performed well. His pace and reading of the game is excellent. And, if anyone was bullied on sunday by roberts it was craddock.
This year I have often thought, make sure we aren't in the bottom three for goal difference. That wa skey last year, and was pretty much the same this year.
ReplyDeleteWe definitely do not have as bad as team as people think either, or manager for that matter. We have scored more goals this season,which is a result means we have conceded a few more.
I think we need a left back, centre back and centre mid (aswell as O'HAra). Johnson would be my first choice for centre back, not sure about other positions
i agree with bloggerwolf, these are the same deluded people who have gone on about ward (as hard working and committed a footballer as you will see) for the last couple of years and now need a new target for their sad witterings. funny how no one has mentioned that when the half time whistle went he was lying prostrate on the halfway line obviously injured.clearly, the reason he was subbed. Watch the game again. it was, as bloggerwolf says, craddock who kept getting beaten in the air by roberts. bizarrely, i've heard fans blaming mancienne for failing in his desperate attempt to retrieve the situation after o'hara had yet again conceded possession needlessly for the first goal. still, if you say something enough eh? to read a lot of these blogs (not this one thankfully) you'd think mccarthy was unpopular and yet when you're at the ground you never hear any anti mick chants. strange isn't it? the silent majority realise, as o'hara himself is at pains to tell the world today, that ours is a fabulously well run club with a manager respected throughout football (especially by players it seems). A 'proper manager' as Jamie says.
ReplyDelete