A run that is do-or-die for Wolves

Wolves blogger Tim Spiers believes the run of games between now and Boxing Day could ultimately decide the Premier League future of his club.

OK then fellow Wulfrunians, this is it.

Six games which will go a very long way to defining our 2010-11 season, perhaps even the tenure of manager Mick McCarthy at Wolverhampton Wanderers, starts tomorrow.

They really are that important – no hyperbole or exaggerations here, we all know that this five-week spell up to and including December 26 is do-or-die for our survival hopes.

With the surface line of a decent pint of ale very much below halfway, I would suggest that lose five of these games and we've absolutely had it.

A tally of between nine and 12 points from 19 matches would leave us deader than the Boxing Day scraps of 'Mr Dead,' the dead turkey who graduated from Death University with a PhD in death.

Out of darkness would come not light, but the dreary, bleak surroundings of freezing cold December trips to Scunthorpe and Bournemouth.

But with a delicious half-glass-full of lager at my disposal, six wins in the next six has us on 27 points from 19 games, comfortably clear of the relegation zone and looking towards a tilt at Europe.

Now this is entirely feasible - maybe I should have stopped drinking after the 14th half pint - but also very unlikely, somewhere in between will do us nicely.

Sunderland, Birmingham and Wigan visit Molineux in this run behemoth and on paper two wins are surely paramount.

Hopefully we will face the side of the Black Cats which succumbed to a 5-1 defeat at Newcastle, rather than the one which annihilated champions Chelsea on their own patch last weekend.

Our recent record against the Blues is atrocious - no wins in nine league games - and Wigan are one of the most unpredictable teams in the division.

On the road we travel to Blackpool and Blackburn, before that long-awaited trip to the Hawthorns - with two wins in 17 against the Baggies.

A win and a draw from those away days would suffice, so I fancy that someone between eight and 10 points before we go to Liverpool is a fair requirement to keep us in touch.

We may have just consecutively faced the best five teams in the country - and as much as it pains me to say it that includes Bolton - according to the league table, but this next sequence won't feel much easier.

As evidenced in the Bolton game, when Mick changed our style to match with theirs, it's fruitless concentrating too much on the opposition.

We need to focus on our own game and play to our strengths, which means 4-5-1, two defensive-minded midfielders, two pacy wingers and a defence-harassing striker.

Mick's switch to 4-4-2 was baffling in its execution, despite our fiery final 20-minute charge which could have yielded a point.

That system has very rarely worked for us in the Premier League, save for perhaps Fulham at home last season and Stoke on the opening day of this campaign off the top of my head.

Against the Trotters there was none of the patient, probing possession football which has served us so well, without deserved reward, against the big boys.

We did still create plenty of chances towards the end though, with Nenad Milijas and Matt Jarvis the most potent assets yet again.

With those two in the team we'll always forge opportunities, but the problem at the moment is adding the final touches in the box.

That's one of four crucial elements which are lacking in our play at the moment.

For me the other three tweaks required are defensive lapses in concentration, a bit of Lady Luck and some fair refereeing performances.

We all know the latter is less likely to happen than Mick McCarthy running naked through the streets of Wolverhampton, clad with just a man-bag on his left shoulder and screaming his love for fruit-based non-alcoholic cocktails.

The defensive lapses are a problem we can control, though, starting on Saturday.

A partnership of Richard Stearman and Steven Mouyokolo doesn't fill me with any kind of confidence, after they were utterly dominated by Kevin Davies and Johan Elmander.

Stearman, after performing so well against Manchester United and City, has started to let those silly errors creep into his game again, while Mouyokolo may turn out to be a player but for now looks too ring-rusty for the standards we need.

And to think at the start of this season many fans thought Jody Craddock and Christophe Berra weren't up to the job again – how much would we give for them both to be fit tomorrow?

If Berra is out we just haven't got the options to slot in, with neither Michael Mancienne nor Jelle van Damme ready for such a big game at centre half.

Another underrated performer who we missed last weekend was David Edwards, with his endless running from midfield and feisty challenges that we badly lacked.

Again, without Adlene Guedioura and Michael Kightly we're a tad short of midfield options, so it's a case of making do with what we've got.

Despite the injury problems I do still firmly believe that we will survive this season and that sooner or later things are going to turn for us.

With the amount of goal-scoring chances we are creating, I wouldn't be surprised to see us smash someone by three or four in the next few weeks.

If Kevin Doyle can find his shooting boots that'd certainly help, because unfortunately our most potent goalscorer, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, just doesn't fit into our most effective formation, 4-5-1.

Steven Fletcher has flattered to deceive but he's another one we could desperately do with finding his true form, because Doyle's lack of goals is becoming a big problem.

A few improvements here and there and we'll start climbing the table, because there's no doubt in my mind that there are three worse teams that us in this division – West Ham, Blackpool and Albion.

We need to start proving it, or we all know the recriminations because there are plenty of examples of Premier League teams 'too good to go down' doing exactly that.

Owner Steve Morgan's stadium expansion announcement is due in January and, while it's unfair to add pressure to the players and staff, it's an almighty elephant in the room to ignore.

If we're still five adrift of safety come New Year, will the owner still give the green light?

Impossible to tell, but for the sake of our beloved club's future let's not give him that dilemma.