Time to map out a plan for Villa's future
- Says blogger Matthew Turvey
Blog: It’s great being a Wolves fan
Friday 5th December 2008, 11:18AM GMT.
In my last blog I perhaps foolishly spoke about Wolves exposing Birmingham as an average team, writes Natham Lloyd.
If I was honest I didn’t really believe that before the game and I certainly didn’t think that Blues were an average side at the final whistle.
Perhaps this season’s form has gone to my head a little, but I did enjoy winding up a few Birmingham fans in the last blog by talking about the lack of attendance at St Andrews and the evil ewok they have playing up front. Perhaps it was a bit juvenile, but am I bothered though?
A cracking game that hopefully showed some of the watching TV public that there is more to English football than just the Premiership.
Stephen Ward continues to look more at home every game he plays at left back and I thought he was exceptional on Saturday. But for me the real star of the show was Richard Stearman who put in an immense performance despite his error which led to the goal.
For the Blues I thought McFadden’s creativity, passing and crossing was superb and you can see why he has commanded big transfer fees. And if Phillips hadn’t of gone off with a dodgy case of the ‘umpa lumpas’, which I think is Latin for dodgy stomach, then who knows if Jerome would have come on and scored?
Working in Coventry , I’m not surrounded by many Wolves fans, apart from a chap called Russell who sits a couple of rows back, both at work and in the Steve Bull stand. So those other football fans I work with who know my footballing allegiance are all saying the same thing to me that Wolves are nailed on for promotion.
There, I’ve said it, it’s out there. The majority of Wolves fan are still acting all coy and pessimistic and harking back to 2002 when we blew that massive lead in the league to the stripy lot down the road and finished 3rd. The class of 2002 had star pupils such as Rae, Lescott and Cameron and were a decent side but I think they lacked some of the energy, pace and attacking capabilities of today’s Wolves side.
I also think we have better strength in depth in perhaps every department. Would you swap Kennedy and Newton for Kites and Jarvis? How about Blake and Sturridge for Iwelumo and SEB? Nor me.
We should all be excited about the prospect of promotion. Ok, it’s December and there are five months of league games to go, but should we be as cautious and as pessimistic as the majority of us are, just because that’s the norm in football?
When my Coventry colleagues ask me about promotion, I might as well just have a recorded message ready to play them; “There is still 5 months to go and we could still pick up injuries to key players and one team always makes a sprint for the line and we have been here before and it all went belly up, etc etc.”
I might actually start saying, “Yes, promotion is a good possibility, because you know what, we are a really good side who play attractive football and score bags of goals. Our defence is starting to look really solid and the team looks fitter and stronger than I have ever seen a Wolves team before.”
Try saying it yourself when anybody mentions the ‘p’ word. Don’t be afraid.
Congrats to Mick for a fully deserved manager of the month award and I would put money on Iwelumo to also grab the player of the month for November.
And so on to tomorrow when we take on the might of the richest football club in the world, QPR.
They don’t seem to have got it quite right down at Lofus Road , but Paulo Sousa’s men have a good record at home and will be a tough side to beat. It’s rumoured that we have been chasing Dexter Blackstock for a long time, so it will be interesting to see what sort of game he has against his potential employers.
I won’t make any wild or over zealous predictions this week. We know we could go down there and pick up another 3 points, but I think a point is the most likely result.
Anybody out there still think we should swap MM for Ince? I’m on about the Eighteenth slice of my humble pie after calling for Mick’s head last season. That’s why I write a free blog for a local newspaper and Mick manages the greatest football team in the world.
Have a bostin’ weekend. C’mon on me babbies!
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Nice right up and spot on. I think the majority of fans were right last season to call for Mick’s head. The team were playing dull football, we were not picking up results often enough and Mick continued to pick his favourites reagardless of their performances. So based on last seasons finish and the fact we had seemed to had gone backwards regarding the season prior to this then most managers would have faced the chop. But fair play to morgan, he has stuck with Mick and he’s done everything right (so far) which he didn’t do last year. Let hope for another good result tomorrow :)
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Nice positive blog. Good call about promotion, why should we play it down?
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nice blog nathan but i just can get this thought out of the back of my mind that wolves are renound fopr the end of season jitters . but i think we will have won it befre the birmingham game at st andrews. nothing to do with the blog but we are also rumoured with berra again and john jo otoole which i think would be great pick ups in january exspeshily if micheal manciene goes back to chelsea :( . were also in for matty fryatt but i dont think its time to be looking for another striker . 3-0 tomorrow kightly double and seb pen .
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We’re only a couple of dodgy metatarsals away from being an average side again so as difficult as it is perhaps we should put the P word in a box and maybe get it out again around Easter!
Still take issue with the general consensus that Stearman put in a magnificent performance last weekend. Fortunately the only opinion that really matters seems to agree with me and hopefully things will be somewhat “duller” at the back tomorrow Evening.
Wolves to win.
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3.wolvesfc
You worry too much mate. Berra, O’toole and Fryatt are not needed at Wolves and I’m sure Mancienne is here for the season.
Chill out and enjoy the ride :)
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kevin doyle has already won player of the month to right though im on clould 9 13 more wins should do it happy days
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yes we usually mess it up, but this is a different Wolves team. I will eat my own leg if we don’t finish in the top 2.
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The facts are win half our games and there is nothing the gobby Kilgallon and Jerome can do about the very real possibility of automatic promotion.
If we get 10 points from the next 4 games, we will be looking even better when the dirty Sheff Utd come to the Palace.
Bear in mind Blues or Reading will have to lose points as they are playing on the 20th!
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I only remember 1 season where we have end of season jitters, most seasons we are coming from off the pace with bag fulls of wins.
Good blog Nath, I am sure Southbank and his fellow chums are loving there humble pie too, just hope MM sticks around now if Sunderland do come knocking back on his door.
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The Mick McCarthy we have this year is totally different from last seasons!
Mick accepted that he deserved the stick he got last season, so let’s all call that one over and done.
But anybody who thinks that Paul Ince is finished, like the bookies and Nathan seem to think, obviously does not know the man. The Guv’nor will just come back harder.
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Well I for one will not be jumping the gun and claiming we are going to get promoted any time yet – if we are still 10 points clear of 3rd place by the end of February then I will allow myself to believe that we have a brilliant chance to do it. I have been stung far too many times to get carried away, especially when we have 5 months left and are only in the first week of December.
Your optimism is to be admired Nathan, but I’m sure you can see that this Championship is not over yet, not by a long chalk…
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Did anyone else read the garbage in the Mail on Sunday last week? Suggestions that Blues and Reading were far more obvious candidates for automatic promotion… I get really narked by the pansy Southener papers who have probably never been to a Wolves game! Said it now, got it off my chest, and I feel much better for having said it! Up the Wolves!!!
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Hartlebury Wolf Man
I saw that article and I think idiots look at the price of squads and jump to these sort of opinions. We will storm this league and win it at a canter, whatever one of those is.
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Nathan I love reading your blogs,but I have to snigger,,you cant bring yourself to say we are going to stuff them,,most weeks you go with the draw,,you know in your mind, the way the two teams have been playing,,there should be only one result tomorrow,,but being a wolves fan for any lenth of time the confidence has been taken from you…My two young sons say every week,three points Dad,,up untill now I have been telling them how good the opposition MIGHT be,,no more,,let the others say Coventry and Birmingham played us off the park,,we were lucky against Sheffield 3-1 lucky….We are the team,,bring em on,,three points on Saturday…….just leave Keogh in Wolverhampton…regards Pedro.
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Pedro, are you sponsored by the comma and full stop? And its all in the wrong places.
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Nathan, don’t QPR have Shittu and Doudou playing for them?
Lets hope they aren’t wearing numbers 9 and 1. That really would be TOO cruel!
And if one of them is wearing 19, I hope he passed the multi-tasking test.
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Its a long time since Pedro was at school Adam I forgot where to put them I left them out of this one so you can put them in the right places sorry
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Shouldnt it be, they are in the wrong places.
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Well said Pedro!
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GOM 16
Surely they sould both be playing number 2?????
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Oh God a typo im my last post.
Please Adam – forgive me, PLEASE!
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Ruined by the finally word of the article.
*Cringe*
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Nathan – “But for me the real star of the show was Richard Stearman who put in an immense performance despite his error which led to the goal”. MM didn’t think so and neither do I: Wardy was MOM.
Agree about McFadden’s though Phillips hadwas “knackered” – Blues overdid the energy in first half and just purely ran out of steam! (We will thrash them in the cup!)
As far as promotion is, you are only as good as your next game? – though I did buy my first ST (still can’t get to many games) and had my first bet since 1976 on Wolves auto at 13 to 1 £100 eachy way!
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I thought it was a cracking game last weekend, too. You are clearly in the driving seat for promotion, and I hope both Blues and Wolves get promoted (and the Baggies stay up), but Reading need to be put in their place.
Enjoy the promotion push. See you at St Andrews for the cup match.
Keep right on.
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Nath
Does that make you a ‘happy clapper’????
like the rest of us that try & be positive on here.
Lets clap away, wehey……..
Keep the faith
Wolves forever
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Quality blog again bro.
we have been here before, I remember singing “we are top of the league” whilst walking away from another win away at Burnley many moons ago. I think that season we were 10 points ahead at one point, and ended 3rd after a wobble and a great run by Barnsley (where the f are they now?). But like you said our team is better now that then, we have quality through and through. Losing Mancienne might hurt but we should have enough in the squad + the jan window to keep things going.
I would go for a 2-1 win tomorrow.
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quality blog again bro.
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quality blog again bro
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Last season we had rumours of Mick being offered jobs with Ireland and South Korea, there were all sorts of rumours and the truth has not yet been told about what happened then. Following that the season fell apart and it was as though Mick wasn’t with it any more.
I don’t want to go over old ground again, we all had enough of last season. We are all loving this season and backing Mick and the team.
But I have to ask the question whether the speculation of Mick going back to his first love, Sunderland, will affect his performance here again this season?
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Good blog Nathan. Like our Mick – I would never underestimate the opposition.
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Quite correct, Prawn. Typing error whilst laughing at my toilet humour.
But seriously, though. The mind boggles at the potential for the wits in the crowd.
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22.WolvesTom
If you actually go to the games, you’ll hear a lot of fans shout this during a game. Shame for a whole article to be ruined by a single verb. What would you use instead?
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I reply to 2, I can think of a good few reasons. Firstly, hasn’t our recent history taught you anything? How about Watford last season, too?
Secondly, don’t you think our oppos are already fired up when we play them, just coz we’re top? Why give them even greater incentive to perform? That’s madness.
Thirdly, if it’s such a good idea to crow about something we haven’t even yet achieved, WHY do the Manager, players and club as a whole refuse to discuss promotion? That’s because it just invites extra pressure upon themselves.
Leave the big-talk to our rivals. While they’re bigging themselves up, we can (hopefully) get on with the job of winning matches.
Besides, as Mick says, whoever won ANYTHING after less than half a season? Let’s keep our feet on the ground, shall we? It’s served us well so far, so why change things? Let’s celebrate when there’s actually something concrete to celebrate, and not before. Unless you fancy egg on your face?
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Good Blog again bro
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Good blog again bro (lol)
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see Nathan; you went and uttered the p word.
And we got well and truly done. Could have been very embarrassing if it hadn’t been for Wayne, and only Matty Jarvis got us away from the “hit and hope”
Chippy outside the ground was good though.
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Wasn’t great getting up at 3am to watch that gutless twoddle last night!
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JIWAL
I’ve read your nonsense in ALOB, you really are the most morose, miserable bloke I’ve ever had the misfortune to come across. Why don’t do everybody a favour and shut up?
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