Rob Edwards today warned Wolves they can’t afford any more slip-ups after the Molineux men slumped to their first defeat in four games.
Wolves blew a chance to enter the top six as Watford served up revenge for their FA Cup mauling a fortnight ago – and Edwards admits they can’t expect too many more chances as the season reaches its climax.
The defender’s performance was one of the few bright spots on an otherwise depressing evening for Wolves.
But he was taking little pleasure from his personal display as the Molineux men remained rooted in eleventh in the Championship.
“We’re still only two points off the play-offs but we could have been in there if we’d have won on Saturday so it was a real opportunity missed.
“It’s points dropped that we can’t really afford to drop now,” he said.
“We can’t afford to lose many more games like this. Perhaps if we’d got a goal back in the first half we could have got something out of the game and even a draw isn’t too bad when you’re coming somewhere like Watford.
“To come and lose 3-0 and play like we did in the second half is not good enough for a team with the expectations and standards that we’ve got. We will have to improve on that.”
Edwards is now looking for Wolves to go on another run to keep their promotion hopes alive.
“When you go on a run you want to keep going. We went to Watford last weekend and put in a good performance, but we didn’t match that on Saturday,” he said.
“Now we just have to accept the run is over – we’ve got to try and look forward to Saturday and get on with it now.”
Meanwhile, defensive colleague Kevin Foley admitted that Steve Kabba’s early goal ruined their gameplan.
Kabba headed home Leigh Bromby’s long raking throw-in in the first minute and forced Wolves to attack their high-flying opponents in the first half.
And after dominating proceedings for the first 45 minutes they found themselves sucker punched in the second half when Tommy Smith scored a quickfire double to extinguish any hopes of a Wolves revival.
It was a disappointing return to Vicarage Road for Foley and company and he admitted that the early strike had been crucial.
“With them scoring after a minute the gameplan went out of the window and we had to really go for it. Then we were caught on the break a couple of times,” he said.
“That early goal calmed their nerves and gave them confidence but we should have dealt with the long throw.
“As the game wore on we were committing ourselves more and more to getting men forward and got caught on the break.
“We have to look forward now and Stoke are on a good run of form,” he said. “We’ve been getting results at Molineux lately so hopefully we can get the points there.”
28 Comments
“With them scoring after a minute the gameplan went out of the window and we had to really go for it.
I’d love to know what the gameplan was then if it wasn’t to go out all guns blazing!
I for one would expect changes for our next game Vs Stoke.
Elokobi, Breen, Olofinjana, Daniel Jones & Eastwood & if fit,Kightly, should all be in with a shout of playing next weekend.
If only Paul Ince/Alex Rae were 10 years younger.
Lets face it, they didn’t know how to “bottle it”!
4 names, Ince, Rae Butler,Irwin, this is what wolves are lacking, genuine onfield leaders, players who make other play when the going gets tough, i cant think of a single player in the whole of wolves squad who stands out as a leader
The most depressing aspect of the Watford match was how quickly thoughts turned to bringing on the new impact player and hoofing the ball miles into the sky in his direction. Half an hour to go and nothing more was seen of Jarvis or midfielder Edwards as the ball sailed past or over them. Very sad. Forget seeing Eastwood. We’re in the press saying he’s injured but he’s been selected for Wales this week and I bet he’ll play for them. 11th place in the league means there’s at least six teams above us who we’ve got to get past and stay past to get in the play-offs. Which six are they I wonder? Poor teams obviously. This season became unsuccessful during the two months Jarvis sat on the subs bench watching Stephen Ward churn up and down the line producing nothing but sweat. Very sad.
Kent Wolf
Not a personal attack on you, as quite often think you talk sense. But i’m sure I read a comment from you a while back, saying that part of our striker problem was MM switching them round so much. Yet after 1 defeat, following a little run of form you want to make wholsale changes?
4-Birdy, Jarvis wasn’t just sitting on the bench. He was sensibly being brought back from injury, and this has worked as we are now seeing in his performances compared with when he first came into the team. On Saturday he had a great first half, and then in the second half was double-teamed. they wouldn’t have been able to do that had Kights been fit as well. (Elliott has done okay on the wing, but he is not a Michael Kightly.)
As for the ball sailing over the midfield, they were being pegged back anyway to try and combat the hoofball that Watford employed with the introduction of Henderson. The ball could not be passed through midfield as in the first half, as the midfield were dealing more with defensive areas. The introduction of Kyle was to try and put the ball forward, and hold it up there more. It didn’t work, but he will be far more useful as an alternative target when Kights and Jarvis are able to force teams back, and cross from the byeline for him to attack the ball aerially. He won ball in the air, to be fair, but there was no-one able to get on to the flicks.
Eastwood has to be surely the least deserving symbol of hero-worship I have ever seen. If he does play for Wales this week, see how many telling runs he makes into the box, or how many times he even gets into the box. He is a lazy, idle, overated player, who likes to stand around off the area, and shoot from twenty plus yards. Better defenders will suss that out very quickly. I would not put him ahead of Ebanks-Blake or Keogh. (Or even Elliott to be honest, as he at least gets into the box.)
5 RealistWolves:
As you may/may not know all the comments carrying my name are not necessarily made by me.
However if you re-read the comment, it says if the players were fit & available “should all be in with a shout of playing next weekend”.
Considering how the “Lads” under-performed in the 2nd half of Saturday’s game, the options ARE there if MM chose to take them.Wether he will or not remains to be seen.We know how he feels about Rosa & Eastwood, to name but 2.
MM never has & probably never will wilt under Fans pressure.
6
You once again sum up my thoughts.
Butler ? Have you gone mad ?
Ince Rae Cameron, and GOOD OL MUSCAT at the backl! Now we are talking an awesome foursome!
Cant help but think we have missed an ideal opportunity to get a new manager, and start building a team for 2008/2009
Dont see this squad mounting any serious challenge.
Hennessey, Eastwood, Kightly, Jarvis, DE and EB are class, the rest are filler .
From giving good service in the first half, you would have thought that they would have given Jarvis the same amount of ball in the second, but no, not until we were 3-0 down.
In the second half we did nothing and it was just like watching the wolves of a month or so ago.
NO FIGHT, WE COULD NOT PASS & NO URGENCY.
Maybe you could even bring back Stevie Bull and the Doog too
6. I have to say i agree with you totally. I’ve never been a fan of Eastwood and it amazes me that people chant his name. I will admit tho that his interview 2 weeks ago did make me feel as if he has had it hard at Wolves but he has to set an impression. As for Kyle, i can’t actually remember him missing a header. Everytime the ball went up he always got on it. I think its easy to name and shame people all the time but i think it was just a typically poor performance all round. I don’t think this result will make or break our season but we do need to get our act together quick. We can do it, we just need to believe we can. UP THE WOLVES
Waht i can’t understand is why Henry never passes the ball in a forward direction when he has the oppportunity. I like the guy don’t get me wrong, but he doesn’t seem to be playing with the team if you know what I mean and they all use him during any build up then it all stagnates. Don’t know the answer to that one unless he is replaced
d ward is not good enough
Oh, for a ‘ barrel-chest ‘ Bailey as skipper.
Now there was a captain! You did your job and you did it well or you got a public rollicking, on the pitch. If you still didn’t perform you were out next match.
The manager did not have a say in the matter.
Eastwood has not been given enough of a run in the team and should be to my way of thinking. He is a good player and needs to build his confidence that’s all.
Kyle appeared to me to be a bit of a carthorse. He got on the end of the ball sometimes but did buggar all with it! I think the light at the end of the tunnel has gone out for this season. I would love them to prove me wrong, but on the evidence tink it unlikely.
Where is the spine that all teams need? Ours changes from one week to the next and we seem to be overplaying everything!
Why don’t you lot suggest that MM gets a pair of boots on the Bill Wright statue and have him in centre defence? God, you really are desperado if you levitate to heathens dressed as footballers going by the name of Mu-scat.
New tune for the team to run out to next home match (reflecting the mood of your fans):
Crying - Roy Orbison
no.11 your just a sick prat,not a real football fan thick plank,but dear mr edwards your dead right we can’t afford to keep slipping up like we do,yet if dopey mick keeps cocking the system up what chance do we have,i’ll tell ya NO CHANCE,still up the wolves.
levitate ? bloody ell, im not david blane you thick plank baggie
“We’ve been getting results at Molineux lately so hopefully we can get the points there.”
Who does Rob Edwards think that he is kidding?
Scrambled a lucky win against mighty Cambridge, were absolutely hammered by Crystal Palace and then scrambled another lucky win against bottom four team Sheff Wednesday! Heaven help us - muppett out now!!!
you really must win against stoke saturday,not for yourselfs but just to be nice to your bestest neighbours ,,now that would be nice..try your hardest,,cos we all love the baggies…
GOING UP IN STYLE THE MOWBURY WAY…OH YES
Our problems begin at the back. Mick exclaimed he had brought a class defender to the club at the start of the season when Darren Ward came in. But the man is a liability along with Neil Collins who should be transferred to work on Blackpool beach! Although stats show we have one of the best defences in the league in reality we have one of the poorest. One of the reasons we haven’t scored many goals this season is that the midfield is playing too deep to protect our poor centre backs. Foley is an excellent acquisition and Gray’s work ethic can’t be faulted yet when a good winger comes up against him his age catches up with him and he is left wanting. I believe Dave Edwards could be the man to add purpose to the midfield and Olifinjana should join him this weekend at the expense of Henry. Ebanks-Blake shows flashes of brilliance but he needs to get fitter and shed at least a stone! But I think we will improve as a team and get at least a play off spot this season!
If we can stop Fuller from scoring this Saturday I think we can beat Stoke as they are an ugly side who still rely on the long ball. We need to out battle them though as they are where they are because of their intense comittment. But what a massive game this will be, the old Staffordshire derbies are always intense affairs.
How people can’t say Eastwood hasn’t had a chnace I dont know. Around October November he had 4 or 5 starts and made plenty of sub appearances with enough time to make an impact.
The fact is he is over-rated and a move to a big club hasn’t suited him if he can’t fit to our style of play in 6months while others like Ebanks-Blake can after 3 games then he doesn’t deserve to play
On Saturday’s disappointing performance, where we gave a sucker-punch goal away in the first minute, and then Watford soaked up all our attacking ideas in the first half. Watford obviously decided at half time that they could abandon those tactics and started pressurising our defence, the long ball over the top caused us loads of trouble. Ellington was allowed a free run across our defence where he flicked the ball on for Smith to guide it in while we looked on leaden and static. Henderson also caused us huge problems when he came on. This was a disappointing display and some of our defending was quite poor. On Saturday we have Stoke who use similar tactics to Watford, so let’s hope we would have learned a lesson of how to cope with this kind of approach, which although effective in the Championship, will be as useless as a chocolate teapot in the Premiership. Perhaps Watford will stand us in good stead for what we can expect next week-end! Come on you Wolves, you know you are capable of much better.
lee 9:
Eastwood is class??
Very stubborn comment. Because obviously lee, Freddy has really convinced us. Thats why he is first name on the sheet. he aint cos he doesnt work for it. End of!
this is a downright cheek.
for the goal that sheffield weds scored against us and two of watford’s three edwards was a complete joke, totally at fault, he set up marcus tudgay in the week, watched the ball bounce from the bromby throw and gave darius henderson a written invitiation to win the “50-50″ flick on to set up tommy smith. . . another lost cause for me
“With them scoring after a minute the gameplan went out of the window and we had to really go for it. Then we were caught on the break a couple of times.”
This is just nonsense. When did we “really go for it” or get “caught on the break”? From where I was standing (near the corner flag), it looked like we needlessly gifted Watford a goal (and I would question Hennessey in that), then controlled much of the first half, but without threatening, before falling apart in the second. The second half was just a mess with players repeatedly passing the ball back to Hennessey for him to pump long balls to two small strikers who were never going to win anything in the air. If we are going to play like this then we may as well have someone like Kyle on (he at least won a couple of flick ons) but is this really how we want to play? I hope not! Let’s start playing to feet shall we lads? Because that’s the only way Keogh, SEB, Elliott or Eastwood are ever going to get anything.
I’ve seen games where we’ve gone behind, thrown caution to the wind and got caught on the break. This wasn’t one of them. This was just poor and only Jarvis (first half) looked like creating anything. Onwards and upwards though. Keep the faith.