Express & Star

Wolves blog: We wanted passion, we got surrender

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We travelled to Brighton in hope, not expectation, that Wolves might yet survive, writes Wolves blogger Tim Spiers.

moreIt was a myth which was shattered within five minutes of kick off as our sorry side succumbed to the home team's first attack.

This was a bleary-eyed army of 2,000 fans who had parted with precious pounds and embraced a 5am wake-up call to follow our beloved club to the bitter end.

We came in fancy dress and fine voice in support of players who have done little to earn such dedication.

A defiant display of passion and pride would have done.

Just give us a gutsy, determined performance, lads – a bit of fight and self-respect.

What we got instead was a limp surrender of our Championship status, a meek display which sadly characterised the 2012/13 season.

The mood before the game was fairly jovial, with the last-day tradition of fancy dress creating a sea of colour.

But any hopes that a football miracle was about to take place at the Amex were extinguished as Brighton took a fifth-minute lead.

We didn't even get a sunny day out by the seaside – biting cold temperatures and driving rain greeted us.

To see our day of destiny descend into a game which had the feel of a meaningless pre-season friendly was just too much for long-suffering fans to stomach.

The players gave so little that even the Brighton supporters turned on them. 'You're not fit to wear their shirt' was the chant from the home end in an unprecedented turn of events.

All four sides of the ground could see these players were letting their club down. In the away end Roger Johnson bore the brunt of the supporters' frustrations.

But there was gallows humour too, with 'que sera sera, whatever will be will be, we're going to Shrewsbury' doing the rounds.

As full time approached it was 'we're going down in a minute' and the Brighton fans sympathetically applauded, feeling our pain.

Clowns, leprechauns and bananas – dressed for fun but with frowns on their faces – created a surreal image on what was a surreal day.

Fans could be divided between the delirious diehards who defiantly sang their way through the pain and the sombre, despairing masses who stood stoney-faced and stunned as realisation of our hopeless predicament slowly sunk in.

But all 2,000 were united in anger, disbelief and shock as one of our own turned on us with the processional game drawing to a close.

Jamie O'Hara's actions were disgraceful – mocking us in applause after it was dared to suggest that he might not be doing enough to justify earning more in a week that many in the away end make in two years.

Turning on those who give up their hard-earned cash week in week out to follow the club they love could easily have caused a riot, such was the anger felt by supporters who booed his every touch thereafter.

But tragically the distasteful events typified the broken bond between supporters and players at this club, which has endured two unimaginably tumultuous years and is quite simply on its knees.

Some of them care, of course they do. Stephen Hunt and George Elokobi give 100 per cent maximum effort every time they cross that white line and would draw blood for this club, of that I have no doubt.

Elokobi, holding back tears, spent a good deal of time with the fans at the end, giving one his shirt, and they responded in kind.

It showed how a little effort goes a long way. O'Hara merely huffed straight down the tunnel when the final whistle blew. When they sang 'we only want nine men' it was obvious what they meant.

But Elokobi and Hunt are in the minority and for the past two years we've seen such a lack of passion, desire and effort that supporters too have grown apathetic - if the players don't care then why should we bother?

This is about more than the players though. As we try to come to terms with life as a club outside the top two tiers for just the sixth season in our rich, long, varied and illustrious history, we must use this as an opportunity to change the whole mentality of the club.

Steve Morgan has an awful lot to answer for and if he is as committed as he says about this club then he must prove it with actions, not words.

The carefully-worded statement released under his name shortly after the final whistle said all the right things, but felt like empty rhetoric.

He talks a very good game, but his decisions in the past year have baffled and amazed supporters in equal measure.

He's done an awful lot of good for this club too, but those bad decisions, the most recent of which being to appoint a manager who has not only been unable to drag us out of this mess, but actually drag us further into it, have cost us our Championship status.

As a club we now find ourselves at our lowest ebb for 30 years - in League One, with a deeply unpopular chairman, unhappy players and disaffected and apathetic fans who have to even suffer the indignity of a model WAG telling them how to support their club, after everything they've been through.

At full time on Saturday there was little anger. A few tears, sure, but mostly just resigned acceptance at what's happened.

For a club like Wolves, with such a proud heritage, that is the saddest fact of all.

Next year will be humbling, but for now it just feels humiliating.

What Wolves must make sure first and foremost is that the humiliation is now complete.