Blog: And now Wolves, the end is near . . . so just win

So this is it then, the must-wins of all must-wins, writes Wolves blogger Tim Spiers.

Or as Dean Saunders so insightfully put it this week: "I think we need at least a point".

I mean honestly, I'm willing to give this guy a chance seen as he couldn't have inherited a bigger mess if he'd followed Laurel and Hardy running the Bank of England, but he sure does push you to the limit at times.

His post-match comments have ranged from the bizarre to the downright insulting to the thousands of paying supporters who often seem to watch an entirely different game to him.

I understand him wanting to protect and/or boost the confidence of the players, but a little honesty goes a long way sometimes.

Bully suggested this week that our beleaguered manager should stay on next season regardless of whether we're relegated or not.

Well that's very much up for debate.

While I can appreciate the enormity of the job he took on, he certainly hasn't endeared himself with some of the rather baffling decisions he's made.

Randomly switching formation – either to a 4-5-1 system that has proved ineffective all season, or even the 5-4-1 disaster in the first half against Cardiff – has sometimes cost us valuable momentum.

Selection decisions too have left many of us scratching our heads.

Dropping the in-form Danny Batth was odd, as is the continuous snubbing of Slawomir Peszko, who in my mind has barely put a foot wrong on the pitch all season and exudes effort and commitment.

Bjorn Sigurdarson has been moved from pillar to post while Adam Hammill has been given shorter shrift than Kerry Katona at a Mensa meeting.

And in the last couple of games Stephen Hunt – who was making the left wing slot his own – has been shifted out to the right or behind the striker, rendering him half as effective, with the anonymous Stephen Ward taking his former position.

On the flip side and to give him his dues, Saunders did drop Karl Henry when he needed to and has stuck admirably with the two young full-backs Matt Doherty and Jack Robinson who continue to grow in maturity.

He also helped the badly-missed Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and Kevin Doyle rediscover a semblance of their former selves with their best form coming in the past two months.

Tactically he has been neither here nor there for much of the time, trying to generate a winning formula.

When he unleashed some attacking gusto against Middlesbrough and Birmingham things were finally starting to click, but a beating at Bolton saw Saunders retreat – a move which could be our undoing in the final reckoning, with those limp defeats to Huddersfield and Charlton looking so costly.

There's more talk of battening down the hatches against Burnley in what is, in all seriousness, a game we just have to win.

The players have got to set the tone in the first five minutes, show the supporters they're up for it and raise the tempo, because that's what they do best.

No way can we go to Brighton needing three points to stay up – with the form they're in we can't realistically hope for more than a point.

If we do go down I can't imagine there'll be too many supporters desperate for Saunders to stay.

Conversely many will suggest that he only took over a few months ago and has simply been unable to half the slide – but that he was manager of a top League One side in January so has shown he knows how to manage in that division.

However, I fear many simply won't care enough to voice an opinion one way or the other.

Apathy – the worst of all emotions for a football fan – is rife at Molineux. At the end of that god-awful Huddersfield defeat earlier this month there were no excessively loud boos, barely any negative chants – just acceptance of where we are.

It's tragic to see the club in its current state and the fact no one has taken responsibility for what has turned into a two-year nightmare makes things so much worse.

Whatever happens both this weekend and the following one at Brighton, I just can't wait for this wretched season to be over and done with.

Because the summer offers us – whatever division we're in and whoever is in charge – a chance to start afresh and start revitalising this demoralised club.