Ronald Zubar has won over Molineux

Wolves blogger Tim Spiers can see a new cult hero forming on the terraces as the Premier League season rolls on - 'the lovable Frenchman' Ronald Zubar.

It's been a pretty good this week at Molineux, all told, not something we've been able to say too often this season.

Last Saturday's game at Man City threw up so many positives I came away from the game feeling unusually satisfied with a defeat.

If you put the slightly haphazard defending against the most expensively-assembled squad in history to one side, there really wasn't much to moan about.

We had outplayed City – as in genuinely out passed them, not defended for our lives – for most of the first-half, before Carlos Tevez breathtakingly turned on the style to blow us away after the break.

But our stirring late fight-back had the title contenders on the ropes in their own backyard and twice we came close to snatching a famous point.

Inevitably most of Monday's press focused on City's title credentials or their wobbly defending, but I felt we deserved real credit, not least for being the first side to score three at Eastlands this season.

Then, on Tuesday, we carried on our new-found goalscoring prowess into the FA Cup, unexpectedly smashing five past Doncaster.

Wolves clinically dispatching of a lower league side in the cup is about as rare as a jolly episode of Eastenders, but we got the job done in style.

Usually these nights are drab, miserable affairs when we struggle to create any decent chances and end up either losing in 90 minutes or winning on penalties.

In fact, the last time I can recall us winning one so handsomely would be back in 1998 when Steve Bull scored a hat-trick against Barnet.

The good week continued on Thursday, when the club announced that this year's Early Bird prices have been frozen.

Well, hardly fantastic news as it's still a huge amount of money to pay and a cheeky reduction would have gone down very nicely.

But, with a stadium redevelopment around the corner, the club could easily have increased what they are charging and I, for one, was fearing another price hike.

Finally the week was polished off when Adam Hammill signed from Barnsley to become our first capture of the January window.

Hardly the marquee signing some were craving, but it fits very much in the mould of players who have joined the club in recent seasons in terms of age, stage of development and price.

We have a shortage of out and out wingers in the squad and Hammill should provide good competition for Matt Jarvis.

Ironically he could make his debut against his boyhood club Liverpool on Saturday, a game we go into in the unusual position of being favourites.

I was chatting to a Liverpool-supporting friend of mine - from London, obviously - this week and he concurred that his side were underdogs, although he fancied Fernando Torres to enjoy a prolific afternoon against our "dodgy defence."

In particular he drew attention to one Ronald Zubar, saying our lovable Frenchman - my words, not his - had a 'mare against Liverpool in the Champions League for Marseille a couple of seasons ago, and that Zubar was one of the worst defenders in the division.

Rest assured, I took him to task.

But his name doesn't necessarily come to the fore when talking about our most productive players. Kevin Doyle, Matt Jarvis, Nenad Milijas, Karl Henry and Jody Craddock tend to receive those accolades.

However, Zubar adds something that you can't measure in numbers or statistics - listing his goals, assists, tackles won, pass percentage and so on wouldn't do the man justice. No, he brings a boundless, infectious enthusiasm to the team that is difficult to put a value on.

About 15 months ago such a scenario seemed unlikely, with Zubar initially threatening to become the new Isaac Okoronkwo as he remained sat on the sidelines, seemingly struggling to adapt to life in England.

Then came a surprise debut at Everton and it wasn't long before we saw we had a bit of a character on our hands.

Even before kick-off, Zubar was geeing up the away end, applauding the supporters and pumping his fists, all with a beaming smile on his face.

Then a few minutes into the game he cut in from the right flank and lashed a 40-yard shot miles over the bar with his left foot. Kevin Foley, he wasn't.

But then that's what I love about him, his cavalier attitude and willingness to try something different is a welcome antidote to the safety-first mentality of many of our players. He rampages down that right flank with all the subtlety of a sexually frustrated rhino at the start of the mating season.

Sometimes this mentality leaves us exposed down the left flank, other times it pays off.

Witness the marauding run and pass to Adlene Guedioura for our second goal against Sunderland last season, the dart bomb forward to score against West Ham at Upton Park, or the 35-yard screamer which yielded a corner for the winner against Chelsea a few weeks ago.

When we signed him from Marseille it seemed he was being primed to replace Craddock at centre-half, but Zubar has been so effective at right back that it's difficult to imagine Kevin Foley getting the nod there if both players are fully fit.

Foley is a fantastic footballer is the Denis Irwin mould, very rarely putting a foot wrong but unlikely to provide a game-changing spark.

It would be a searching dilemma for any manager to choose between the pair and Mick McCarthy values both Zubar and Foley so highly that he often finds a place in the side for both of them, usually putting Foley in midfield.

Zubar may have been one of the unsung heroes in our survival campaign last season but, to me, it was evident just how important he is to us when he was injured for the start of this season.

We missed his passion, his drive, his willingness to lump it 40 yards into the stands when needed, or sprint forward into midfield and push everyone up.

Then came a welcome return against Sunderland and, by coincidence or not, we have won five games from the nine games he's featured in since.

You can see how much the game means to him with his melodramatic reactions when a shot goes awry, or when he celebrates wildly with the fans if we've won.

Like Jelle van Damme, it took Zubar a while to settle in England, with a wife and baby left at home in France.

But, worse than van Damme, he didn't know the language but, typical of the man, he got his head down and learned how to cope.

Yes, he's occasionally error-prone and displays all the grace and poise of a production of Swan Lake starring Eamonn Holmes and Rusty Lee.

His positioning is suspect and he often strays from the defensive line, but he more than makes up for this with his whole-hearted commitment.

Personally, I wouldn't want him any other way.