Wolves surrendered Championship top-spot for the first time since August 30 as they suffered a second successive defeat against Swansea.
Wolves, who were without eight players through injury while keeper Wayne Hennessey was dropped, fell behind after just 26 seconds to Jordi Gomez’s opener.
Although Andy Keogh equalised to cap a wonderful move involving Dave Jones and Dave Edwards, goals either side of half-time from Jason Scotland gave Wolves a mountain to climb.
Scotland beat the off-side trap to make it 2-1 with a deflected flick over keeper Carl Ikeme four minutes before the break, before giving the Swans a two-goal cushion with a powerful angled drive from 20 yards .
In fairness to the home side, they were good value for their lead, as Scotland had a shot parried before Kevin Foley cleared off the lin,e while Mark Gower had a curling effort disallowed for a marginal off-side.
Scotland also headed against the bar from close range.
Much-changed Wolves, who played a 4-5-1 formation for the first 52 minutes, had little chance to shine infront of goal.
McCarthy still sprang a surprise by making Hennessey pay the ultimate price for his own-goal clanger against Reading in mid-week.
And a thoroughly miserable afternoon was completed as Birmingham went top with a 1-0 win over QPR.
69 Comments
Honeymoon over? Let’s not rush too any conclusions, Iwelumo and SEB at least should be back for the Coventry game and we’re still 2nd in the league. I’m sure there will be whinges but let’s try and keep positive. I’m not denying we could do with some luck for once let’s just hope it comes soon.
Wolves till I die.
Its a marathon not a sprint! We are in a fantastic position from which to resurrect our winning ways after the international break with SEB and Big Chris leading the line and Kites and Edwards blazing down the wings! We were a different side today in more ways than just the personel on the park! It’s a one off with bucket loads of bad luck! We’re still bang on track….keep the faith people!
its plain to see we havent got the strength in depth as some of the players today were not good enough
Man the lifeboats women and children first, The good ship Mc Carthy is sinking fast, excuses please , Injuries, Crap forwards (Keogh stepforwards)poor defending, We are now being shown up for what we are, Sorry to be negative but today we were crap!!
Testing times ahead for us now. Still, its been a fantastic start to the season for us. After 10 games last season we struggled our way to 15 points. We’re on 22 now after the first ten, with a good GD to show.
With EIGHT players missing it was always going to be a hard ask, no matter what rubbish any Albion fans will say. The international break gives us a chance to re group, so lets see how things go for us in the coming games.
KEEP THE FAITH. Our season isnt over after two bad results.
AND SO THE SLIDE BEGINS.. TOP 6 WILL BE ACHIEVABLE FOR US COME MAY BUT AUTOMATIC.. NO CHANCE.
WE HAVEN’T GOT STRENGTH OR TALENT IN DEPTH UNFORTUNATELY..AND THEIR THE COMPONENTS THAT GET TEAMS PROMOTED.
SOME OF THE STRONGER TEAMS IN THIS DIVISION ARE STARTING TO WAKE UP NOW, AND IT’S GOING TO GET TOUGHER AS THE REST SETTLE DOWN AND ESTABLISH THEMSELVES.
BAD LUCK, INJURIES, POOR TEAM SELECTION ETC ETC USE WHICH EVER EXCUSE PLEASES YOU BEST..BUT BOTTOM LINE IS WE’RE STILL NOT GOOD ENOUGH UNFORTUNATELY.
Before any of the moaners and negative people get on here to criticise and whinge that the season is over…. We now have a 2 week break, in which to get injured players fit, lift team spirit, reflect on the start of the season and pick their heads up and kick on to Christmas. We’re only off top spot by 1 point, have a far superior goal difference and are in the automatic positions by several points. (Note, no mention of the P word). We are Wolves… and we will be back! Wesport Wolf - Howling in the west of Ireland.
looks like the bubble has burst
I’m so depressed.
1 point off top spot, a 2 week break to get our first team fit and our top scorer back in the team.
It really is soooo depressing!
1 nil down after 31 seconds is just unprofesional what were we dong tieing our boots up or scratching our bums i just feel a bad bad run coming (i hope i am wrong)i didnt see any fight or grit knightly said 2 weeks ago the big test will come when we lose 1 well wolves have failed the test michael i wonder the name of the next sunderland player we are going to sign on loan
Season Over.
Nothings changes since last year, only the idiots thought this was our year.
Micks being making bizzare team selections all season but somehow we’ve been pulling off good result, that end in the week and no we’re in for our normal bad patch.
Expect Jezza and all the PR machine to be back out next week spouting the same old young and hungry rubbish.
The bubble has well and truly burst, thank god there’s a two week break before the next defeat!!!!!!!
Illwelumo has to take some blame for the last two defeats with his red card stupidity
8 players out through injury. I think we have already proved with an almost fit squad we are the best team in this division, but our squad is not! 8 injuries to key players this early is very harsh, i dont know another club with this problem. But, Iwelumo, kites and ebanks blake back for the next one and maybe murray? Keep the faith. 2 week break still being in the automatic places 1 point off top. It only takes blues to lose mc fadden or larsson and reading have transfer requests handed in like bus tickets. Chins up boys, we will do it, only down to bad luck these injuries.
Its ok. I still believe we will be ok and once we get a few players back we will be back on track. We need to remember that we are missing blake, kightly, jarvis, elokobi, iwelumo who is back next game against coventry so we will be ok! Keep up good work MM and co lets stay positive!
I dont want to hear any excuses! Even with so many players out, we should get a result at Swansea if we are thinking about the Prem!
4-5-1? ridiculous. stick to what we have been playing and winning with, and go away and attack teams.
even without jarvis and kightly we should stick playing the system we know, stop messing about, Mick.
Lets get these games behind us, no team could suffer the loss of so many of the attack and do well.
Onwards and Upwards
Time for McCarthy to earn his money. These last two results are not good enough. I get the feeling the fans could turn on him now!
What a mess.
Now Ebanks Blake has medial ligament damage.
The season just gets better and better!
McCarthay goes from hero to villain? or is it a case of one injury too far. Either way the weaknesses of this team were exposed again today and we may be in for a long season
Someone call the AA the wheels are comng off!!!!
McCarthy made some bad decisions today, the whole world can see them. Thankfully, when I make bad decisions at work nobody else can see them (if I’m quick enough!).
Evberybody who haunts these boards knows the fact that I had no time for McCarthy last season, and I was violently demanding that he should be sacked.
However, he has changed, some good things have happened this season, that Mad Mick of last season would not have done. I think that if he stops his love affair with Keogh and gets the rest of the team involved, then we still have a chance of turning the disasters around.
I think we should back-off for a few more games and see if McCarthy is really managing like a serious football manager, or if he is just making it up as he goes along, which is what everybody was alleging last season!
Hey! 2nd in the Championship, still feels good to me, and I think that we can take Reading apart in the next encounter. Our kids learned from playing against seasoned Premiership veterans, and we will do better next time. Especially if Mick cultivates a second strategy!
OK, whilst most of you were not there I will explain…as I was.
No doubt about it Swansea deserved to win, if not by more goals. Football-wise McCarthy regardless of how much he gets paid had decisions to make about the team he had to put out and most of them were dificult decisions. Ikeme kept the score-line down, make no mistake about that. Swans chanelled most their stuff down our right(opposite to what Reading did) and still found success (must be their strength then the right). Foley, our best player against Reading struggled today. We definately missed our main men, however only one blunder by McCarthy. Friend should have played left back instead of Collins. Perhaps this may have made the defensive difference, it was an area we were weak in today (Central Defence). We could not cope with the Swans advance on our goal and fair play to them, on the flip side of the coin I would have been dissapointed with just a 3-1 win if I were them.
Lets not start blaming anybody, we were unjustifyably under strength today and it showed. Football has an uncanny way way of evening things out and we have had our fair fair share of misfortune with injuries this season already which must surely even itself out, especially with the International break due yet we’re still in the top 2. Blues are scraping their 1-0’s and Reading will undoubtedly be in the top 2 barring serious injury problems (not that I’m hinting they’ll get any like us).
Swansea fans were great to us today, I had loadsa drinks with em after the game and whereas we appreciated there performance they also appreciatwed we were well under strength….and so it went on. Thank heavens(on this occasion) for the International break.
SEB I feel was removed from the Wolves team today and the England set-up by MM because because he was struggling with injury hence dropped (surely to withdraw him from the England 21’s for Wolves’ cause). Did McCarthy feel that a kick up the back side was necessary (as outlined by his previous artciles) hence the 2 defeats in a row and the dropping of Wales’ No.1 in his homeland?
And has he chosen a timely moment to regroup his battered troups before another onslaught on the top two places.
Anyway, we were undone in midfield. Henry had a good Captians game. When looking to go forward he seemed ok, when this was not an option then we had no back-up plan. Carlos Edwards played more like an inside-left/right (depending on which half of the interval you were looking at) than a winger , is it him or is it management tactics? This stayed for two halves so I guess the management/coaches had something to do with this, he was hardly used to any effect today but did try somewhat.
So, I suspect we are gonna get some grief from the stripy lot, not just for this but for their 3rd 1-0 win in the Greedy League too.
Lets move onto Keogh, great goal took it well good finish like a true international. But for some reason this is all he did today. Where was his usual running around chasing everyone down? On a day like today I would have given he did the other and caused them some grief and let someone else chip in with a goal. It could have caused the necessary distraction needed to get something outta this game. Still it’s all over so we move on and making sure the irreputeable Freddie Eastwood does not haunt us. Please everyone, I was a Freddie fan but as much as I wish him luck in his new job I do not want it to be at our expense
PS: I’ve had eight pints when I wrote this
Manager has done well but why not just make minimum changes when key men are out? Against Swansea: why disturb defence, why not put a proper target striker up front, why not give a reserve winger a chance, why try to use Keogh as a Jack of All Trades - unfair on him and he will never develop his best position, etc? Reserves deserve their chance. Constant changes of players and their positions will rarely get results - must have cost us quite a few points last season.
what a joke mick drops Wayne Hennessey for a couple of mistakes.even though collins is playing well at the moment why was he not droped this and last season when he cost us a number of goals
it would be fair to say that Swansea were all over us from the first whistle, neat passing play down the wings with crisp passing through the middle.
we never were in the game.
the swirling wind definatley played a massive part in the game.
The referee made the game difficult for himself by flashing his card at nothing tackles, this gave him a difficult decision in the second half, when after allready booking a Swansea player in the first half that same player blatently chopped down Carlos Edwards on the edge of the penalty area, and in anyones book it was a definate yellow, this was when the score was only 2 . 1 and could have made a significant difference.
after watching the opening games of the season the last two have been difficult to watch, but i believe strongly in the squad and know that we will be back stronger and better.
good luck to all the players and a speedy recovery to the injured ones.
Can’t understand why Shackell didn’t start. He looked good at the end of the Reading game and he has experience. Tough game in which to give Friend his debut.
Totally illogical to drop Hennessey. That will do his confidence a power of good! The Reading error was probably only the second major mistake he’s made (after the one that bounced over him last year).
Why hasn’t Vokes been given a start in the last two games? He’s got more goals than you know who, who keeps getting preferred.
the road is long and you have just been shown another lesson about football ,there is just 2-4 players at any one time that are any good-the rest are passengers and you have seen how it is to really play football.
I knew that your midfield would be over run and that is where you lost it -no strength in depth at all,where is the investment of morgan the bloke makes you empty promises and you end up buying champ reject players bar a few and it shows 2-3 players out and you score1 and concede6 –you need a whole new team atleast 12-14 players……many happy returns to MIDTABLE as it is where you will be in 2 weeks.
boing boing
ok lads we’ve get a weekend off for international games,lets put it all together again,we can pull through this blues qpr etc there nowhere near as good as us,it’s reading who look the part,so get training and mold as a team see ya at the wolves v coventry game good luck lads,put reading swansea out with the rubbish it’s history,still up the wolves.
Mad Mick, Why play 4-5-1 surely they could smell the fear and slaughtered us as a result. Stick to what we do best Attack-Attack-Attack.
Keep the faith the future is still gold’n'black.
More shambollock defending. Muppet Mick needed to buy quality defenders in the summer and he just signed his ‘Friend(s)’!! And they are hopeless against decent mobile strikers!!
The start to the season has hidden the fact that he hasn’t got a clue when the big games are on
He should be sacked this week and a quality manager found!!!!!!!!
we were alful
me, my partner and the other 2thousan six hundred odd who travelled desereve a better performance than that
Come on you Wolves, lets stick together, we haven’t become a bad team overnight, we have the players, we have demolished and outplayed some of the better teams in the division so far, albeit early in the season as now, true, but lets get behind the lads, stick with our manager, keep the faith, we are definetly capable of winning this division, Reading, Birmingham are useful teams, but we can certainly prove a match for them, Gold and black forever.
ANY team would struggle if the whole of their front line was out injured.Having said that some of MM’s selections were rather strange.
A good time for the international break.
This is not the end of the world. Pre-season you would have bitten anyone’s arm off to be where we are right now.
We’re plagued with injuries and this break will be a good chance to re-group, recover and come back mentally stronger off the back of a couple of defeats.
There’s not doubt we have the quality up there we just need to believe.
This is our season. Keep the faith.
Do we have a Plan B??? MM predicted this in his recent media announcements BUT if we only play with wingers - why are we not prepared with an alternative Plan B - instead of 4-5-1 What about using say Mark Little/ Carlos Edwards and Dan Jones as wing backs with Shackell Stearman and N Collins/ Foley as 3 centre half’s in a 3 - 5 - 2 formation?
Yes we have alot of injuries, but the games wont be cancelled due to the injuries and Kites wont be back for around 5 to 6 weeks, and Jarvis around 10 weeks?
Without creating attacking outlets/ options and/ or a decent Plan B, we are going to struggle again as we dont seem to be able to create anything
If we want to play with wingers and have no other Plan B - the answer is to go loan a left sided wide man - playing 2 upfront SEB /Vokes and the avialable again Big Chris - dont change the balance of the side too much - BUT for goodness sake DONT try using players who cant play on the wing/ wide midfield again - see last season for results
Lets get it sorted and quick - use the 2 week break to bring in a couple more loanees!
COVENTRY UP NEXT - lets not roll over before the game even starts - 6 goals conceeded in 2 games - the time to sort it is NOW!
UP THE WOLVES!!!
1-0 down after 30seconds, sorry that aint good enough. Reading will win this league by a country mile.
I have been banging on about a Plan B from last season. Granted having a complete frontline unavailable was a freak of nature but we should have enough in the squad to beat the likes of swansea. Playing 1 man up front is not the Mick Way and hasnt been all season so why did he change it? We should have went 4-4-2 and let swansea fear us. The 1st goal looked like the team didnt know what they were doing. I felt sorry for Carl Ikeme, not at fault with any of the goals. Only Foley and Stearman from what I can gather from my mates who went to the ghame came out with some credit. Collins postioning was woeful, Carlos not match fit, Friend will have better days but we should have played Vokes alongside AK from the start of the match.
Anyway 2 defeats from the start of the season. I would have taken that if offered to us.
Big Chris will be back barring any injuries to him over the international break. We however are lacking quality from the flanks so who will supply the crosses?
2nd in the table and 22 points are fantastic statistics but remember at this stage last season Watford had 23 !
Saturday was a shambles. Was 25 really there ?, Collins was not at left back, Friend started there and was soon switched with Ward after making the most awful debut since Shane Westley.
Can someone please explain just what goes on in MM’s head please. 4 players out was enough but to drop Hennessey after one mistake following 50 odd faultless displays was mad. As was bringing in Friend on such a foul day having sent the natural replacement out on loan the previous day.Then to leave Vokes on the bench once you are short of SEB along with Shackell who might just have had a bit more experience to cope with the day, what a difference he made once he came on.
The reality is that we are woefully short of experience, lacking balance between youth and maturity, something we need to correct if we are to cope with trips to the Swansea’s, Norwich’s and Warford’s of this division. The loan market calls but hopefully with fit recruits unlike the out of sorts Carlos Edwards who will need to put in some hard shifts at Compton if he is to be an asset.
Longest post I have ever seen Dudsie and if you can do all that after 8 pints I am well impressed.
Keep the faith.
were you now jon told you u the season is over mick outtttttttttttttttttt before he wrecks it for us agen he hasnt got a clue disgrace same old wolves get every ones hopes up then dash em
Cheerio MM, collect your £1m compensation from Moxey, have a week in the sun then take a £250,000 contract from the BBC and appear on Football focus to criticise top premiership managers. When your contract finishes take up a 4 year post at a championship club and look forward to your next compensation cheque.
Why oh why do that lot down the road have a genius in charge and we have this idiot?
Some of you need to get a grip.
Two games is all Wolves have lost and despite the otherwise excellent start to the season, listen to you. I see there are posts from some who fans (and I use the term sparingly) have had nothing to say for the first 6 weeks of the season whilst Wolves were blowing all opposition off the pitch and standing top of the table. Now all of a sudden they’re back because Wolves have lost 2 games. How strange. Just proves who the real fans are and who are the ones that clearly can’t get behind the team. Quick enough to criticize but praise, when its due, non existant. Very sad.
Due to leaving Wolves with my job I didn’t renew my season ticket and as much as I would love to have been at the games this season I’m glad I didn’t cuz you boo boys who will definitly be back soon would have just spoiled it.
Interesting to go on to the Watford 606 site today and saw that their fans saying Darren Ward played a blinder !!
Our 4 best payers out and all front men - what was anyone expecting?!
You got to feel sorry for McCarthy just when he gets the team playing well he gets kicked in the nuts with these injuries far more than any other team in this division.I think hes done well this season and we should support him.
I think Mick made the right decision with Hennesey at Swansea he had a shocker against Reading being responsible for all 3 goals in my opinion .Ikeme played out of his skin against Bristol and then gets dropped for Reading I thought if you were playing well you kept the shirt
here we go again MM out maybe it`s not the manager it`s you lot !!! why don`t you get behind the manager like we do , no44 has it right mowbray is a genius but we would back him no matter what !!! boing boing your all so fickle
As a Swansea City supporter who was present at the game on Saturday, I am amazed at all the negative responses to the Wolves defeat. After all you were affected greatly by injuries and suspensions.
It could also be due to Wolves underestimating the strength an quality of the Swansea team. You might not be the only Champianship team surprised before the end of the season.
Hello,
I thought you might appreciate things from a opposition fans perspective.
I think in playing 4-5-1 MM made a big mistake. We had an early goal which seemed to open the game up for half an hour and to your credit you played some really good attacking football. You got the equaliser and you were pushing forward at every opportunity. By scoring just before half time it seemed to knock the stuffing out of you.
Second half it was all Swansea in my opinion. You had your little moments but we outplayed you for periods. I was suprised at some of your players who appeared to give up. For Jason Scotlands 2nd goal he turned your midfielder who just saw thay he’d got passed him and gave up (Scotland is about 13 stone and certainly not the quickest). I saw a few instances in the last 20 mins when some of your players would lazylee give the ball out for a throw in etc. andthe game was decided.
Having said that you have obvious talent in your side and i think you will be there or there abouts in may. I just felt if MM had been a little more adventurous and gone for 4-4-2 the scoreline would have been a little different.
Anyway i hope you enjoyed your trip to the Liberty (despite the weather and alot of smashed up seats thanks to Cardiff City fans) and we look forward to the away fixture come the end of the month.
Regards
SwanseaFab
To all Swansea City Fans,
To get things in perspective you played a Wolves side without its current 4 front players of Kightly,Jarvis,Illwellumo and Ebanks Blake also without club Captain Jody Craddock and George Elokobi if these players had been fit or availible they would have been playing,so its no small suprise you beat us,try playing with six of your first team members out and see if you can beat any teams in this division
Not having a pop Wolfound - was just giving you my opinion which was if MM had started with a more attacking formation then i believe things could have been different. We actually had 3 first team regulars out on Saturday too.
Thanks for your fair and balanced report, SwanseaFan.
As one of the anti-Mick brigade, I’m not going to slag him off mercilessly. To lose arguably your four best players in terms of ability and/or form would be hard for any manager to cope with. Look at the fuss about one player injured - Skrtel- this morning and Liverpool have a ready and class replacement in Agger.
In 2 weeks, hopefully the team will be very different and normal 2008/09 service should be resumed!
What is worrying is the continued preference for players who Mick rates above and beyond what is reasonable. When I heard that Wayne had been dropped, I expected Ward to be in goal because Mick had to play him somewhere and because he was less than fit, he wouldn’t have to do so much running!
Shackell is surely worth a try instead of Collins and if that happens against Coventry, then shipping 6 goals in 2 games will have led to at least one positive!
Having said that, 7 days ago the whole world was wonderful and even those of us who don’t believe in Mick were questioning whether we had been hasty. Two bad results don’t change things but once again when the wheels start to come off, we can’t say with any great confidence that our manager rises to the challenge!
To Swansea Fans
Not having a Pop at your team either you did well last season and have started well this ,I genuinely hope you do well and stay up.To MM knockers give him a chance we have 22 points from 10 games and are on course for an average of 2 points per game which ensure automatic promotion
25. You had obviously had more than 8 when you wrote your message. Foley was our best player, again, on Saturday and Collins did not play at left back.
50 Like you did with Bryan Robson?
Not a surprising result with Mickey Mouse in charge. Weak team for obvious reasons, so picks the back up goalie? Can we expect anything else from this clown? win a couple of battles, lose the war! Maybe Morgan picked the team?
ilkeston wolf…yes I was really there, I was sitting with Banner Wolf…Collins was LB for most of 2nd half. The rest of your assesment is about right though. Like I said some difficult decisions to make by MM and thy proved fruitless, we will be back with avengeance though after the International break
58 id rather have muppet mick than ronk robbo!!
now theres a manger without a clue!!
I read these posts every day and my oh my don’t we have a fair idiots on here… especially the likes of laughingwolf and gornalwolves.. you idiots were no doubt one of the first to scream MM praises when we’re winning.. lose a couple of games and he’s a waste of space and we’re doomed… idiots the pair of ya, and anyone else on here who thinks we’re doomed after a couple of losses….
there’s another 36 games to play…thats another 108 points to play for… yes we’re gonna lose a few more, but we’ll win a lot more, so keep the faith..
Hey Quality is back. Quality moans, quality rubbish, quality negative thoughts, everything quality except being a quality supporter. See you in 6 matches when we lose again.
I cor beleive that after two defeats there are some of us who want to hang MM, espescially with all the injuries. C’mon chaps get it together, we’ve had a great start and we’ll sort it out. We’re a loffin stock as supporters! no wonder them lot down the road take the mick so much.
Quality counts finally speaks after 7 weeks of the season. I rest my case about the negative, boo boy fans suddenly showing up again.
So predictable
Quality counts… Good thing he can spell his name right!
For goodness sake get a grip and support your team.Criticise and have your say by all means but keep positive there is an a long way to go.
WOLVES FOREVER.
ah but you see the team have done very well to start the season the way they have. Nothing to add really, a good job done and isn’t this what we expect?
My point, which obviously your pea brains missed was simply it was a shame MM played a back up goalie when common sense would have dictated having the best.
The last line of defense can be quite vital. If it isn’t on the money then one could easily see three goals in our net! oh, what was the score again?
68 have to agree with QC regarding the keeper point - one further point tho - Ikeme kept a clean sheet and then was dropped; Hennessy was brought back and then dropped - What effect will this have on these 2 keepers confidence?