Analysis - Entertainment in short supply at Wolves

Ah 1899, what a time to be alive, writes Wolves correspondent Tim Spiers.

Ernest Hemingway is born, the paperclip is invented, a young Winston Churchill goes off to fight in the Second Boer War in South Africa.

And, to really prove how long ago it was, Villa win the league title.

The year is also notable for it being the last occasion that Wolves contrived to draw three successive home games 0-0.

It may be reassuring to know our Victorian ancestors were just as bored as we have been in recent weeks, although only around 5,000 used to turn up at Molineux in those days.

Whether Jack Addenbrooke's team were booed off by a disgruntled, chain-smoking and heavily-moustached home crowd is unknown.

And we can only hope for their sakes that they didn't have to wait until the 77th minute for a shot on target, as was the case against Blackburn.

That was three minutes later than in last Saturday's stalemate, versus Ipswich.

Yes, these non-events of football matches will live long in the memory only for the statistical anomalies they have thrown up.

For example, Wolves have now drawn six games 0-0 at home for the first time in their history.

That makes seven goalless draws this season (including another away at Reading) – one short of the club record of eight, achieved, or should that be 'achieved', in 1923/24 and 2007/08.

What with six nil-nils, and only six home wins all year from 21 matches, plus the inconvenience of nine matches having their kick-off times/dates changed for Sky Sports, you'd have to be an extremely canny salesman to get away with dubbing a 2015/16 season ticket as being good value for money.

And yet, quietly, Wolves have actually now gone six games unbeaten, their longest run without defeat all season.

They've also eradicated the defensive blunders that characterised the first half of the campaign, conceding just three goals in six games.

The problem is now at the other end.

In Wolves' first half of the season they scored 29 and conceded 32 in 23 matches.

In 19 games since, their goals-per-game record has shrunk, scoring 19, but they've also conceded fewer, shipping 20.

If they could merge the two facets together, there's a decent team in there somewhere.

At that halfway point, their top three scorers were Benik Afobe (nine), James Henry (five) and David Edwards (four).

Through injuries and Afobe's departure, only two goals from Henry have changed those figures.

Their current striking woes were typified by Bjorn Sigurdarson, 954 days without a Wolves goal, failing to recognise that Henry's perfect ball across goal was begging for a striker, i.e. him, to simply tap it past the goalkeeper.

Sigurdarson stood and watched. The fans groaned. We all went home goalless. And bored.

That's 29 Wolves appearance without finding the net for the confidence-stricken Icelandic forward.

Adam Le Fondre is now up to 15 goalless appearances. Joe Mason is up to 10.

But you could count on one hand the amount of 'sitters' the trio have missed in their respective barren runs, for it is the striking lack of service that is the bigger factor in Wolves' goal drought.

As so often this season, Henry was their creator-in-chief, and sent a couple of devilishly good crosses into the box.

Otherwise, the imagination on show was next to non-existent.

All of which led to Paul Lambert calling this one of the worst football matches he'd ever seen - and to Wolves equalling that 117-year 'milestone'.

For drab draws against Newcastle, Liverpool and The Wednesday (later Sheffield Wednesday) in 1899, read soulless and goalless stalemates versus Birmingham, Ipswich and Blackburn in 2016.

If you're looking for an omen, the 19th century Wolves ended that run with a 3-2 win over Stoke.

Can the 2016 vintage do the same? Don't hold your breath.

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