Flying Wolves winger Michael Kightly has been backed to return to his best by boss Mick McCarthy.
Kightly hasn’t played since Boxing Day, having been suspended for the 2-2 draw at Blackpool before the FA Cup tie at Birmingham was postponed.
The 22-year-old wouldn’t have played at St Andrews anyway, as McCarthy revealed he was going to play Matt Jarvis and Stephen Ward as the wide men.
Kightly hasn’t been at his best recently, but McCarthy is convinced the England under-21 international will return in better form.
The manager said: “Maybe the break has done him good – ‘Kites’ has played a lot of football. He’s missed games but he’ll come back refreshed. But I can’t judge that until I see him on Saturday afternoon.
“Kites is one of a number of them who love the game – he was as missed as anyone, but they’re all like that. They all want be involved – they all love Saturday afternoons and they love playing football.”
McCarthy also hinted he may be looking for Kightly and Matt Jarvis to swop wings, after Jarvis performed so well at Blackpool on the right.
The boss said: “Everyone told me Kites was a right winger, but he was brilliant on the left against Birmingham for the last half an hour.”
Apart from Neill Collins’ strikes against Doncaster and Sheffield United, Jarvis has scored Wolves’ only goal from open play in the last three games.
Kightly has gone nine games without a goal, and, while Dave Edwards and Dave Jones have three each, Karl Henry has yet to score this season.
McCarthy is looking for more goals from all areas.
He said: “Kites, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and Chris Iwelumo have all scored goals, Neill has scored recently and Jarvo nicked one recently, but we need to score goals from elsewhere.”
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34 Comments
With Kites and Jarvo on the wings we should be beating Preston really.
Any word on Gow? he had his medical yet E&S?
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for gods sake mm leave them where they know
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I might put a bet on Karl Henry scoring on saturday!
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There are people moaning about the Gow signing. I think this will be a shrewd acquisition. All we need now is a central midfielder and if we offload Darren Ward, a centre half. Bearing in mind now Mancienne has gone, Shackell will have the chance to shine. I know MM loves Collins but he is not a safe bet against quicker forwards.
Does anyone know how long Mark Little is out, as he is our right back cover!
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(3) I’ll cover that bet for ya - no chance
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Both these last 2 articles reflect the fact that up until the Reading game, everyone was flying, we were scoring goals for fun and dominating the opposition.
The second unbeaten run was very different…mostly odd goal wins and lengthy periods when we were second best.
Mick rightly said that we couldn’t keep going at that rate and teams would suss us out but I’m concerned at the extent to which we have lost that early season sparkle.
Yes we have a great cushion but Reading are playing the best of the top 3, Blues are signalling an intent to spend big and the likes of Burnley, Cardiff and Sheff Utd won’t be far behind.
Not all your players will play great all the time, as Mick says, but maybe these articles reflect a concern that they’ve all gone off the boil together and that the champagne football of the first 7 or 8 games has never really been regained.
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get mark davis back in the side, he has been playing very well on loan.WE ARE WOLVES
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We were doing better at the start of the season because we had Jarvis and Kightly both fit and flying. Very few defences can cope with that pace and ability on both flanks. With due respect to Ward (Stephen) he has done great at left back but is no great threat on the wing. That makes it easier for the opposition to put two on Kightly all the time. It isn’t so easy to do that when Jarvis is flying down the other wing!
We haven’t really had the pair of them fit and together for quite some time, hopefully Saturday will see that change.
Can’t wait for Saturday!
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8 - exactly right.
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I see Kris Boyd has got cold feet then and stayed at Rangers. No undersoil heating at St Andrews. Hello ZuluBlue How do you DO ?
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What’s the latest on the Gow saga? He would be a great addtion to the side!
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Molly - mick..6,
How can you say reading are playing the best football. They played well against Blues but they have been very fortunate winners in many games and their manager is talking about ‘ugly’ wins just like Mick. Reading is just like the wolves side of old whereby everyone was saying what a lot of great players we had - but they never performed. having the strongest squad means nothing if they don.t play to their potential.
We have not been as good as the season start but then we played a lot of teams who are poor. Reading were fortunate against us in that we conceded early and got hit by injuries which disrupted our game. Reading deserved to win - they were the better side - but we could not play as we can.
I’m backing us to get a point at Reading at least and I wouldn’t be surprised if Readings luck runs out soon.
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No 8 spot on have a word with 6 will she keeps repeating herself!!!
Got a good feeling about saturday.
Up the Wolves!!!!!!!!!
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Gow is not the answer, we should get rid of the dead wood during January and bring in quality. Must go are Collins, D. Ward, S.Ward, Keogh, Craddock.
I also believe that if MM keeps playing his favourites and moving everybody out of position to fit them in we will fall away!
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I could comment on many of the posts here… but I’ll generalise again. 7 points Clear. Shut up. Support the Team. Be negative in May if we don’t go up. Gow - a snip at the price. Jeeze, anyone would think we’re in the relegation zone. Rant over.
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Preston will be a good test on Saturday-I for one still hope MM will get someone in at the back-Playing two wingers is the way forward and i hope both Matt and Mike can stay injury free–
I do not think we play the best football but we are top-We can not rely on part performances we need to control the game all the 45 of each half–I am keeping the faith–Crazey Dave–”Molly etc are you a Sport - Coach——Only Joking–Crazey Dave
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well said goody
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Kightly seems to have lost his focus/ concentration - especially around the time the media kicked in with the Newcastle interest etc (Big wages blah blah)
Hopefully competition for places will hot up with the arrival of Gow and bring players back down to earth
NB* FFS Give Gow a chance he hasnt even kicked a ball yet and people are slating him!
UP THE WOLVES!
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Goody do you ever go to any of the games, judging by your pathetic comments i guess not, Collins & S Ward have been a different class this season, were you talking about last season
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14. Numpty
Collins and S Ward are two of the most improved players this season.
Go support the Baggies, in fact supporters like you do more to help the Baggies than the Wolves.
Moron.
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WetWolf
Fair point and it will be great to see them both back playing together. My concern remains that this system relies heavily on your central 2 midfielders winning and retaining a lot of ball and I don’t think Henry and co are currently doing enough!
E11 Wolf
Another fair point…and to test it, I compared the records over the last 10 league games. Spookily, they are identical…6 wins, 3 draws and 1 defeat…and both have scored 17 goals in the process.
I accept that this doesn’t make Reading better than us but the comparison in the 2 Birmingham matches was quite marked.
Nickthegreek
Third fair point….and no-one happier than me to shut up if the Preston game sees a return to the football we all enjoyed watching in the first unbeaten run!
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Come on!!! Gow is at wolves
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We should buy back Mancienne when we go up because big phil is bound to use him in the first team so he will have prem exp. He also stated he loves chelsea fc but would prefer to stay at wolves!!!
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(goody) you are stupid 1st collins maybe not the best defender in the world but his a good squad player,2nd d-ward is on loan already,3rd s-ward has been top class at left back this season and finnaly keogh. he is not a bad player and his a diffrent option upfront. so thinck about what you write next time.
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14 - Goody
What was the question ??
And what are you banging on about on favourites ? They took us t the top of the league no ?
Out of position players from the past - Paul Warhurst, Chris Sutton - one played for England, both have Premiership medals.
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No 6 - Reading are going through a very ordinary phase, with a large slice of luck. We don’t underestimate them, but they’re having off-days much like many other sides.
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Steven Ward could rebuild the Steve Bull Stand, invent the refillable pint, and guarantee us european football within 12 months and still people will slag him off on here.
Give the guy a break!!!!!!! (goody)
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To see us through :
Mark Davies back off loan
(to cover the midfield),
Gow
(completed if fit -
sinclair would have been nice but not 1/2 months -
250k for gow is a bargain),
Not sure if a striker is absoltely necessary (boyd would have been nice -
but overpriced at £3m
Full-back with little out - maybe Wallace from sunderland (yes sunderland!!!!) or fox from coventry please.
BUT STILL a centre half is needed uncle Jez!!
I am no fan of collins but as a ‘big-lug’ off the bench he has his uses.
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well said 15 well said comment over 3-0 on sat taking the wife and kids all for £40 well done jez.
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15. Spot on Tarbster!
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15) Tarbster wins “Most Short Sighted Post of the Week” award.
Do you not think successful businesses worldwide scrutinise their infrastructure, product range, customer base and employee records as often as possible to ensure that the profit’s made this month are maintained or improved the following month.
dont have a go at some for having a healthy does of caution.
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One of the main reasons for which I think we’re struggling to get back to our early season form is that if you play with 2 wingers(long may it continue!) then at least 1 of the central midfielders must be able to pick them out with early long passes.I don’t think it is just coincidence that our best spells in McCarthys reign so far have been when Mcendoe & kightley had Potter doing this 2 years ago and Jarvis & Kightley had David Jones doing it earlier in the season.If there aern’t wingers in the side then this type of player would look to be struggling to find someone to pick out and then get caught in possession which I think has cost Jones his place.
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I have to join those thinking we should seriously consider selling kightly this month -the lad has ability but also an ego to match- personally anything above 3mil and I would pack his bags for him
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Well Tarbster, take off those rose tinted glasses and wake up. In fact wake up all the fans who think Mick can ever be a success.
Tactically inept and unable to manage big players.
Blues are getting stronger with this window and we become weaker.
Sort it now or clear out. 2/9 from our last three games is enough. The last few games have been shocking!
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