When I said in my Everton report that, when it comes to injuries, if it wasn’t for bad luck, we wouldn’t have not luck at all. I should have kept my mouth shut. Michael Turner’s brave goal-line clearance that ended in a hefty collision with the post hadn’t ended at all. It has now, with serious knee damage for the big fella. This probably means that John Mensah will have his arm glued back on, or possibly that Da Silva would get a run-out.

On the good news front, we’re all getting an extra holiday next year for Billy Windsor’s wedding, which begs the question – when their Harry gets wed, will we get a half day? Think about it.

After a few days’ frantic phone-calls to the Queen’s in Lichfield, which the landlady had told us may well be different hands by the time of the Wolves game; I finally got an answer – from the same landlady. They’re still there, and were expecting us. Champion, no need to seek out another watering hole.

While our last away game had brought the unlikeliest but deserved wins, our last visit to Molineux produced a performance insipid enough to have been masterminded by Howard Wilkinson. This time, surely our forward options, against a side who had conceded early on a regular basis, lost four in a row, and failed to keep a clean sheet to date, would be varied and effective enough to carry us to victory. After a decent fuelling session at the Queen’s, accompanied by Worcester Rugby Club (or something similar) and ending with a couple of pints of Stairway To Heaven – maybe too much of a nod towards Wolverhampton’s most famous singing son – we made our new seats behind the goal in plenty of time.

As expected, it was
Gordon
Onouah Ferdy Mensah McBardsley
Zenden Catts Hendo Rico
Bent Welbeck

To sum it up briefly, how the Hell did we not win that? The first half might have been a bit reserved, with Doyle firing over the top and us building a lot of attacks that did not end in shots on target, but you could see where Wolves were vulnerable and we didn’t take advantage of that. We kept the game wide, as we’d expected the home side to do, and pushed forward, but just couldn’t fashion the crucial chance. They had one disallowed for offside – a correct but very late flag – and when Bent won a free when fouled by Elokobi, we crossed our fingers and willed Rico to do the business. Well, he couldn’t have got any closer without scoring, as his effort from 20 or so beat the keeper and bounced off the post and across the goal. Damn.

The second half was the sort of thing Sky TV must dream of when trying to attract customers. Only five minutes in, and Gordon did well to save with his feet, but there was nobody picking up Foley for the rebound, and he smashed it in. Damn and double damn, but the lead didn’t last long as Bent sprinted down the inside left channel onto Gyan’s flick, and slotted the ball home a quarter of an hour later. Back on our feet, and ten minutes after that Bardsley, always willing to come forward, put in a peach of a cross that Welbeck met perfectly. 2-1. Lovely, and we could see at least another one coming our way, but we decided that we’d plop a couple of terrible defensive lapses on their plate. After long periods of domination in which we’d produced some lovely interplay, we could be forgiven for wondering why we hadn’t scored at least one more. Catts went against type to dance through and go close, and there were a couple of other chances we could have done better with. We’d brought on Steed, Gyan, and Elmo for Mensah, Heno, and Zenden, and they’d brought on Ebanks-Blake and Hunt as we looked to hold on to that slender lead and take the points. With ten to go we were all over the place at the back to allow Hunt to score, then in the last minute we opened up completely to allow Ebanks – Blake the time and space to change feet and fire home what turned out to be the winner. Even the Wolves fans I spoke to after the game were expecting a third or fourth when we went ahead, and even at 2-2 were fully expecting more from us. Score two away from home and you should really bring home at least a point. Benty had looked much more in touch with things than on Monday night, and Zenden was again pulling the strings, while the new-look central defensive partnership of Ferdy and Mensah looked decent. Rico was lively, and unlucky not to score despite his second free-kick, late on, being a bit lame, and Welbeck was at times fantastic.

All in all, a very disappointing day at the office, but if you don’t take your chances, no matter how much of the ball you have, you don’t win games.

Man of the Match? I was going to give it to McBardsley, but then the defence let in three, so there must have been something wrong. I’ll let Rico have this one, as he was lively, and always looking to do the right thing.

Keep the Faith

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