Wolves blogger Nathan Lloyd mulls over the Palace win, the merits of Neill Collins and the low attendance issue ahead of the trip to Preston.
It was certainly an ugly win on Tuesday against Palace, following up from our fantastic performance away at Charlton.
After another smart finish from SEB, the first half was a drab affair and reminiscent of many of last season’s lifeless encounters at Molineux.
We had four players out injured who would probably have started the game in Elokobi, Craddock, Jarvis and Iwelumo.
Dave Jones hobbled off after 30 minutes to take the casualty numbers to 5. His replacement, Dave Edwards, changed the game for me with his surging runs from the centre of midfield. He was probably the pick of the gold and black contingent.
McCarthy obviously put a rocket up the team at the break and it was a much improved second half performance. If Kightly had worn his own boots and not those of Frankowski, it could have been a much more comfortable score line.
Stearman and Foley were excellent at the back. Stearman made some fantastic crunching tackles. He is improving and growing in confidence by the game.
It was also a more than decent home debut for Sam Vokes. He has strength, pace and a very decent touch, followingup his brace at the weekend with a fine display.
It is indisputable that the team’s shape really suffered without Iwelumo and Jarvis. Warnock must have identified that Wolves’ weak spot was down the left flank, where we had two strikers playing left back and on the left wing.
You could see the majority of Palace’s attacking threat came down this side of the pitch.
Keogh really struggled to find a decent touch all game but the goal will have boosted his flagging confidence and he reacted well to the rebound.
I’ll never be convinced that Keogh can really influence a game the way he should. But with Jarvis out, who else in the current Wolves squad would be any kop as a replacement in that left wing slot?
After such a hard earned win on Tuesday, after the game I could hear a lot of the fans berating Neill Collins for his cock-up. You may suspect that I’ve never been a fan of Neill and I still think the four year deal he received was ridiculous.
However to give credit to the lad, he has been solid this season and on Tuesday night he unfortunately made just one crucial mistake, but it led to the Palace goal.
Last season, I think Collins made too many mistakes and the supporter’s patience wore thin. I’ve no doubt that Jason Shackell won’t be warming the bench for long. He will be in Mick’s long term plans to partner Craddock or Stearman at the heart of the defence.
You would hope though that Mick doesn’t wait for Collins to make another mistake and instead picks Shackell, simply because he is simply the better option.
Unbeaten after six games, the best start to a league season in a trillion years and yet I still find something to moan about. That’s the beauty of being a Wolves fan!
It is a shame there wasn’t more of a Molineux roar on Tuesday night, especially in the lacklustre first half.
You could sense the nervousness and apprehensive in the home crowd that the bubble was about to burst when the team wasn’t playing the flowing football we had seen in the previous four games.
The low attendance of 22,000 or so also wasn’t helped by the pathetic numbers brought from Palace.
I’ve been to pre-season friendlies in Holland where we have taken more fans than Palace brought with them on Tuesday night. With money tighter than ever and with the game being played on a school night, you can perhaps understand the low turn out.
Anyway, you would have thought with the amount of goals we have banged in lately and the fact we sit proudly on top of the Championship that the place would be jumping.
As it was, the 200 or so Palace fans could be heard sushing the home crowd which was horrible to observe.
Should the club be doing more to get Molineux rocking before the game, or is it simply down to the fans to raise the atmosphere and pile the pressure on the opposition, even when the team is not doing the business on the pitch?
We travel to Preston on Saturday and let’s not roll out the old cliché that we would be happy with a point. We should be confident of going there and grabbing all three.
I’ve no doubt a certain Stephen Elliott will be itching for a start to show us all just what we missed. I always thought that Elliott was a passenger at Molineux, but let’s hope he doesn’t play a blinder and have the final say on Saturday. I can’t see it happening myself.
Enjoy your weekend and sing your heart out for the lads. Up the Wolves!
78 Comments
I think we’ll beat Preston because we play better away from home. The younger players we have don’t preform as well at Molineux. If we do lose tomorrow i hope the doom and gloom merchants stay away, we ain’t going to go through the season without losing a game!
are those empty seats i see behind him,aye boing boing donk
we will defo win on sat 2-0 seb to score both we play so much better away from home. 1. we might go threw the season with out loosing you never know
lol
SSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH AYE BOING BOING DONK
Left wing problem ?
Gray was awesome last season.
Agree with most of the above!
Hope we go straight for the throat at Preston on Saturday - I think with Jarvis back we will be a much more balanced team.
Hate to say it as well but after talking with my dad after the match - why are we still playing a striker at left back when we have two on the bench?
I think the better teams will exploit this.
Its not a dig at Ward I think its just kinda obvious
5,
Could you define awesome for me plz??
i heard the trolly pusher at asda was mekin more noise,aye boing boing donk sshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Collins and Ward should not really be playing when we have signed players on deadline day for these positions, however, it would be grossly unfair to change a winning team. Ward in particular, is learning at left back, but what a terrific cross at Charlton.
If you want atmosphere at the Molineux, bring back the Liquidator, for starters. Moxey forget what the police have to say. Other teams do what they can to try and make their grounds as intimidating as possible, so why shouldn’t we?
On to Preston, let’s try our hardest for a win but a draw would not be a bad result.
Let’s smash the Tesco’s goals scored from last season!
Morning Terry
Yeah they are empty, its the away end, I think we were playing your lot when that picture was taken.
1-2 wolves win .lets go up this season.
4) Terence, 26,000 in the Premiership. Not very good, considering West Ham sold their tickets.
As for quiet, you know all about that. Your backing at your tin shack ground last season was awful!
2. terry_baggie
didn’t you have empty seats against West Ham - 26,200 at home. Hammers must have brought a few thousand -still your ground is smaller I suppose
11,rummiebob,your bloggs words not mine,i take it you was at our tin shack last season then,aye boing boing donk sshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
7,grease,i will define awsome for you,WEST BROMWICH ALBION aye boing boing donk
7
Gray was one of our better players last year, he was the hardest working player, he never stopped running,
OMG hes here again ay he terry bogggie boggie from donk land ! Im sure i saw you outside sandwell postoffice cashing ur giro this morning then dashing off to make sure your the 1st one to comment on the wolves pages, you sad sad sad little man aye Boing Boing Tw*t
I love the fact that terry is always 1 of the first ppl 2 comment on a topic on our page. Guess who doesn’t have a life!!
Think it’s going 2b a tuff game but I rekon we can get a win. It’s no harder going 2 deepdale, as it is The Valley and Portman Road! Wud like to see 1 of the left backs and shackell get a start on saturday!
Disagree with the Collins statement. One mistake? He made 5 or 6. His positioning at times needs to be looked at. Although, I do think he gets it in the neck more than any other player. He’s been solid up until Tuesday. Nobody seems to get onto Kightly’s back when he has a bad game. He was AWFUL tuesday night. Absolutely AWFUL.
Collins was awesome against Charlton, he has made 1 mistake all season. I cant berrate the lad. Keogh for me will never be a striker but again when he was moved to the wind against Charlton he was very lively. Maybe he is a good bench player and offers something different when Jarvis has a quiet game like at Charlton.
I find it increadible that with the ‘credit crunc’ going on, you question the attendance!!!! at 30 quid for a ticket, im AMAZED that 22 thousand were there! The tickket prices have been a disgrace for a long time, and have kept away many many people who would like to go to the game, but cant afford it.
However I do agree that collins should be dropped, I had a look at the goal we conceded against forest- collins. thats two goals conceded that he has been involved with. And thats while we have been playing the best we have for years!
No one to replace jarvis, and gobern (possibly the only other winger who can beat a man) is going to go out on loan.
9,grease, you mean when we had the southbank,you must av bin fetchin ya free pie n pint aye boing boing donk sshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Maybe to jazz the place up we could have a pre match spice girls tribute, Happy Baggie would be ideal as posh spice (he’s as sour faced as posh), Terry could be scary spice, (I’ve heard he trawls the internet in a leopardskin thong?), worcester baggie as baby spice (his blogs make as much sense as a toddlers). Ok now I’m stuck but I’m sure two more boggie fans could make up the numbers!
Well written blog nathan, agree re Ward at left back and Keogh at left wing. MM should play players in their natural positions.
But a big huzzah on a fantastic start to the season. Let’s hope we keep it up this season and pass the stripeys on their way back down.
21,sleve,shud of brought early bird season tickets,im afraid id people want to jump on the bandwagon they have to pay same as albion,aye boing boing donk sshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
14) Yes I was Terry. As Wolves always sell out at your place, I have had to over the years resort to sitting or standing in every side of your ground. That is what loyal fans do!
I have a feeling the Vile will turn you over and you will then be back near the dreaded zone.
17,wilfsweaint,sorry mate it wornt me i was on here,aye boing boing donk sshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
terryONEWINbaggie,
you walked the league last season
you scored goals for fun
yet…..
to ensure you had full attendence at the end of season you had to make it kids for quid and adults for £10
proof here http://www.expressandstar.com/2008/04/07/kids-for-a-quid-in-bid-to-pack-hawthorns/
you
Neill Collins has been fantastic this season and at times even the best defenders in the world make mistakes, a certain Mr Pearce against San Marino springs to mind. Neill has been playing full of confidence and I think a string of fine performances have more than justified his inclusion in the starting XI. If we keep winning games then MM can play who he likes where he likes for my money. We are winning boys and girls so lets not tinker with that winning forumla!!
I also agree with Wolvesmod (19)to some extent about Kightly. I too thought he had a poor night at the office by his own high standards. He looked like a jumped up little primadonna who had turned up on the night to do us a favour. I sincerely hope he doesn’t allow his reputation to overtake his actual ability. In fairness to him and particularly once Jones had left the field there was a great deal of expectation on him as the sole play maker especially with Jarvis also absent.
With the balance restored down the left wing on Saturday I am sure we will return to the side brimming with confidence that we have now got used to and Kites can worry about just one side of the pitch rather than running the show!
Up the Wolves!!!!
Dear Mr. Blogger,
The pre-season friendly that you refer to was in Antwerp, Belgium - not Holland! ;-).
Stop getting Wolves wrong!!!!
terryBaggie - does us all a favour and wind ya neck in, go play on your own pages, i’m sure you can spell WE’VE LOST AGAIN. IF NOT JUST COPY AND PASTE…
blogg are you sure it was the palace fans saying sshhhhhhhhhh and not the southbank blowing on there free pies,aye boing boing donk sshhhhhhhhh
23,jodie craddock cud be old spice,aye boing boing donk sshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
28,gerrywilf, thats proberly why he daint goo, aye boing boing donk sshhhhhhhhhhhhh and you call me thick,
Dear Mr German Wolf (27)
The pre-season friendly I was referring to was in fact the game at ADO Den Haag (Holland) during the Hoddle era (July 2005).
Just been and had a look on the tesco’s pages 2 see if TerryEASYWINAGAINSTboggies talks as much tripe on there as he does on here, and Guess what?? He Does!!! And it seems the baggies fans have something in common with us, they think he’s a C0ck as well!!
It’ll be a Tuff game against preston but we said that against Ipswich and Charlton!
21 Totally agree £30 for the championship is way to much
34,nafen, well why daint yow say that,ay aye boing boing donk sshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
I dont think 22,000 was a bad crowd, maybe some were put off by the absence of jarvis and Iwelumo and it will be in peoples minds to pick and choose matches where i suppose the full squad will be available, Also the credit crunch as to be taken in to account.
23,pre match entertainment,how about showing all albions goals agenst ya and a free pie n pint aye boing boing donk sshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
18,chav,you love me do ya,well you cud be ginger(beer slang) spice.aye boing boing donk sshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
With the contempt that Jez and Mad Mick give the fans is it suprising that many stay away.
And Keogh is a disgrace and should never wear the shirt again.
Terry, you’ve been going on all week about our attendance on Tuesday night. These estimates of 200 Palace being there are slightly genorous I think. Anyway, before you go on about it even more, how about reminding us about your attendances last season, especially the beginning. And once you have, shut up about it for good. Thanks.
we are going up this season, maw mom sez so, this is the best team we have had fer years
Stop having a moan at Terry plz everyone. He makes me chuckle. It’s all in good heart ! !
34,yow got out of that one daint ya blogg aye boing boing donk sshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
terryEASYWINbaggie
Yawn!!! Yawn!!! Yawn!!! Yawn!!! lol
When I am at work and feeling down, I see you on here and my life don’t seem so bad when I think I could be like you.
There is always someone worse off….I am sorry for you.
All this whipping up the crowd before the game is unproductive.
The atmosphere used to be better when we werent blasted out by loud speakers - how can you get a chant going when you cant hear youself think.
On night games, could also have lower lighting over the stands, to enhance the excitement.
Terry my old mate, how are you ? I see you haven’t lost that certain way with words !! You’ll have to give me the address of the shop where you get your bait from !!
Fair blog today Mr Lloyd. I think however that you are still a little harsh on Mr Collins. Yes he has made mistakes that have cost us, but on Tuesday even though ge made the mistake that led to the Palace goal, the ref made the first mistake by not blowing up for a blatant hand ball in the move that led up to the goal. In fact the ref missed many things on Tuesday. Palace, for all their work were pretty good in the shirt pulling dept.
I said weeks ago that if we could play footbal (a la Forest game) and also learn how to scrap to win a game (a la Palace) we wouldn’t be far off automatic promotion. As far as I can see we haven’t done that bad at all - unbeaten in 6, scoring for fun - what more could we ask for ? Saturday at Preston will be our first big test. If we can come away from there still unbeaten I think that will set us right for the match against Bristol City for the following week. Those of us that were there for last seaons encounter will remember that we should have been 5 up by half time and ended up sharing the points !! Hopefully with our free scoring at the moment we will make up for last season, but believe me they will both be very hard games.
fanks wolfie2468,its nice to have a friend cuz im so lonely, xxxxx
Terrybaggie your only lonely cause your from sandwell, and yow ay got no fan’s, i don’t matter how long you hide, The Wolves are coming for ya. Boing boing my a##e.
The only way to settle this recurring attendance debate is with cold hard statistics.
Yes, 22,200 was a tad disappointing and surprising, but when you look at Sandwell Town’s last foray into the Premiership, they managed only 944 fans more for their game against Fulham - an attendance of 23,144 for a 3pm Saturday Premiership game. Embarassing or what?
Just for the record, that season Sandwell also recorded a season high of just 27,623 to add to the low I’ve just mentioned, and had a miserly average of 25,403. Our brief spell in the same division resulted in a high of 29,396, a low of 27,327 and an average of 28,873. So not only was our lowest only 296 less than Sandwells highest, it was also over 1100 better than what they managed to get in against West Ham on Saturday.
I know all these complicated figures might seem a bit daunting for the Sandwell contingent but, put simply, Wolves are a better supported club, end of. Live with it people.
Theres 4 problems with our atmosphere
1, The stewards in the southbank are constantly demanding we all sit down
2, People like little children and old men are now sittin in the southbank purely because its the southbank. And that doesnt help at all.
3, The southbank is the only stand that even trys to sing.
4, With the stands so far away from the pitch.. and the massive gaps in each corner.. 5500 people in the southbank will never generate an amazin atmosphere the Acoustics arnt great.
29) No it was not it was in Den Haag, as I was there!
28) Collins is doing much better than last season but there is no way he or Ward at left back can stay in the team for the season. Collins is very slow and can be clumsy but I would still persevere with them, as mentioned earlier.
This is our strongest team :-
Hennessy, Foley, Stearman, Shackell, Friend, Kightly, Henry, Jones, Jarvis, Ebanks-Blake, Iwelumo.
Murray and Elokobi would be back in when fit!
Im sorry if evry1 thinks um an idiut on this page! its not the first time ive been tld this. Its jst I havent got 2many friends, and this is jst my wierd way of gettin yow dingles 2b friends wit me. im sorry aye boing boing donk ssshhhhh
And… Weve sold 2800 of our 3000 alloction at deepdale? How can u even question wolves loyalties.
If we are to win the league we will need to beat the following teams :- Birmingham,Preston,QPR and Reading,both home and away.The reason I say this is because they will get roughly the same number of points as we will from the other teams in the league,therefore if we beat them, and I see no reason why we should not, we will almost certainly win the league.This is the way the really successful teams do the job.It would also prove that we are ready for the Premiership, if we are not to end-up like we did 5 years ago,ie straight back down.I feel this is far worse than not being promoted in the first place,from the fans point of view, if not from the clubs.Just think back to how that seasons really felt.
We should,we can and we will succeed.
27 Last season dingles were constantly criticizing our attendances and bragging if you were in our position you would be packing them in !So were are they?With a far bigger catchment area than us you would expect it wouldn’t you?By the way we all love our Tez puts a smile on our face and admire his keep-net!
This week’s factual inaccuracy (just the one this week, so we’re getting there) - Sam Vokes made his home debut against Accrington in the League Cup.
terryEASYWINbaggie — Refuse disposal team still on holiday I see, bet you’ll be glad to get back to work,give yourself something to do !!
Why cant someone stop this terryeasywinbaggie idiot from posting. Clearly he has nothing of value to add.
must say i probably agree with what you have written nathan.
i.e collins and keogh etc. collins has improved but he has to cut out these costly errors or lose his place in the team. keogh again not a wolves no9 but works hard does make some chances but his shooting is abysmal again not sure where he fits into our current formation but good sub.
the defence as a whole are lot tighter, midfield more fight and creativity and we have forwards now who can hit the back of the net regularly what more can we want.
re the low crowd surely this must be down to cost, yes i know many fans were so disheartened after last season and couldn’t stand watching the same dross this season but our football has been outstanding which has suprised myself and most wolves fans. but i feel tickets should be better priced get the ground full make it easier for families to come along. many games i can only afford to go myself and cannot take my son/daughter to all the games i go to, this is purely down to cost admittedley i live in scotland and this is only about 2-3 games a month but after the petrol, grub and then the cost of another ticket etc means i have to say no.. if i lived local maybe different but ticket price dictates if when people can afford to go to games. and as i cannot be at all home games due to work and cost season ticket not worthwhile.
any way come on the wolves beat preston can’t be at game but will be listening on t’internet
Tuesday demonstrated our cupboard is bereft of quality replacement parts.
Collins was back to his old tricks and Ward was roasted alive by Djilali.
The Mick admitted he changed his tactics to accommodate the opposition. We were fortunate to get the win.
Lets hope the returning injured do so with their early season form intact and those two problem positions are attended to for the game at Deepdale, or we will find ourselves holding on to 3rd. place on goal difference at 5 pm.
Brum are grinding out results in adversity, Preston are unbeaten, pre-season bookies favourites QPR have lost only once and are on a winning run.
And the hot breath of a rampant Reading can be felt on the back of our necks.
I said on this board before the Palace game I was very nervous about it. I am even more nervous of the next month starting on Saturday.
I am having nightmares about the goals drying up. The goals flying in to our net and the Mick reverting to last season’s 10 man defence.
I hope I am wrong. I really do not want to bring out the old knife sharpener on Sunday.
I think you have failed to take acoount of the fact that we have prices above Prem Teams-Working Day-Palace are a team in decline if Warnock was not on the Staff it would fall apart-Owners wants out –
On subject of Collin are you for against ?- are you now saying he is steady and worthy of a place or should we replace him with our new players–Nathan make your mind up-He has been steady made one mistake Tuesday night-He headed the ball well at the back ran about and made himself useful and one pass across the field was subline-We should have him in the squad he is much improved in my book anyway—
Or can you take him to your office and show him your IT and he can press the button that prevents this persistant infiltration by Terryeasywinback-The we can all be praising of him–Crazey Dave
Anytime Terry me old chum. Ppl take things so seriously but u do brighten up my day
63..Grumpy, my friend you must be one of the pint half empty brigade. What do you expect - perfection every time ? You say B’ham are grinding out results…so are we when necessary - Palace being the latest time. Last season the Palace game would have been one that we would have thrown away two points, but we ground out the win which is what matters. What’s more important than 3 points ? Yes this weekend will be a stiff test but so will most of our other games this season. Please stop being a pessimist and enjoy the ride - ups and downs. This is the best start to a season in close on 50 years. Enjoy it my friend. I really cannot agree with your statement about not having quality replacements. We had 3 key players out at the start and lost Jones after 5 mins. The players that stepped in to their shoes ground out the win - job done, move on to Preston. We cannot play every game like we did against Forest - we need to win any way we can.
63…..forgot to add, how the hell can you talk about bringing out the knife sharpener after we stand unbeaten in 6 ?!!! Are you a Baggies fan in disguise trying to stir things or what ?
58) Your attendances are always poor.
On Tuesday we gave Palace the bottom of the Steve Bull and they brought 200 -250. On that basis, we are 4,000 down on capacity in the rest of the ground. Our tickets are more expensive than yours, but that is not an excuse.
Irrespective of where we finish we will comfortably exceed your crowds of last season!
68,rummiebob,if its not an excuse why did you mention it,aye boing boing donk sshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Filtonwolf…..I have been an old misery all my life…….even the midwife complained to my mom when I popped out………but at least I am never disappointed!
And no. I am not a fan of the handbaggies, they are just a bunch of powder-puff wanabees.
My future brother in law took me to see my first ever Wolves match. It was at Wembley; Us 3 Blackburn 0. I have been watching ever since.
I stand by by everything I said in my post, including that I would be bringing out the knife SHARPENER; I made no mention of bringing out knives as well!
The win was brilliant. How often do we win a mid - week match - or one that’s on the tele…. Very Very rarely so the win was very welcome. Collins was unfortunate but if we can put in a better player we must do so.
Preston will be the biggest challenge but they have not had much in the way of good teams to play yet so maybe they are in a false position. We’re not. We deserve to be top.
Funny how Birmingham are grubbing out wins - just like they did two years ago. They never played with any flair but kept on winning vital games - even with ten men.
We should all be optimistic but we have to lose sometime and if/when we do lets not go over the top shall we…. We are going to be competitive this season and we’re all going to see lots of good soccer. magic mick will lead us to the promised land
64.Billywiseman
Perhaps this week’s blog does look like I am sitting on the fence when it comes to the Neill Collins debate.
My view is that he (Collins) isn’t good enough and has limited abilities. I’d have him as back up, but he should be fourth choice CB behind Craddock, Stearman and Shackell. He makes too many fundamental errors to be in the starting 11 and he almost has a stroke when up against geniune pace.
68 BY 3 0R 4 OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH WERES THE 40000?
wind us up as much as you like but average attendance last year for the shed of a stadium you call the poorthorns:
20000 mark and that was only bumped by the final 4 weeks when you were gloryhunting
52 POOFWOLF
I see you really enjoy your facts and figures and you have proved Wolves are better supported than WBA, weel done.
Well, here’s a few more FACTS.
lEAGUE
WBA won 52 WWFC won 51 DRAW 41
FA Cup
WBA won 10 WWFC won 1
ALBION are Better than Wolves FACT, deal with it.
They should let the kids in for cheap. A lot of families can’t afford to pay ticket prices these days but if they let the kids in for cheap, and more parents can take them, you are generating a bigger crowd already. If you charge 5 quid for a kid is that not better than an empty seat?
Our place can be a very intimidating place to come when it is full.
Terry sorry for calling you an idiot, i must say you do liven up this site.
brilliant win at preston comin from liverpool i ad to sit in the preston end quietly it was sound hearin many preston fans sayin wolves great best team seen for years etc an wolves fans were comin over so loud from shankly stand