The seven deadly sins of the derby

Wolves blogger Tim Spiers reveals the seven deadly sins of the Black Country derby ahead of Sunday's high-noon clash with West Brom at the Hawthorns.

Some so-called academics would have you believe that the seven deadly sins were invented by Christians as a template for life's wrongdoings.

Well, if you ask me, they were designed to highlight the best and worst features of the greatest derby in the world, the Black Country derby.

Why on earth would that be Tim, I hear you not ask? Well for a start you have got pride, as in pride of the Black Country. Which would, of course, be Wolves.

Then there's sloth, displayed in abundance by the lazy Black Country lads and lasses who struggle to roll out of bed on a Sunday morning for the now traditional - and as annoying as ever - noon kick off time.

Next up you have got the greed of Iwan Roberts, who showed merciless hunger when he smashed that fourth goal past every Wolves fan's favourite West Brom goalkeeper, Paul Crichton, at the Smethwick End in 1996.

Or there's the gluttony of our stripy foes, when they had to go and beat us four times in one season back in 2006-07.

For wrath, look no further than George Ndah, who recovered from that lovely man Matt Carbon breaking his leg to stick two past goalkeeper Russell Hoult in the return fixture at Molineux later that season in a 3-1 win.

Lust goes to our very own 'Fat Controller' Jeff Moxley, otherwise known as Jez Moxey, for lining his pockets when letting the Baggies take over the South Bank for that ghastly FA Cup game.

Finally there's envy. As in the envy all those Baggies fans have for the one and only Wolverhampton Wanderers.

We all know they would just love to have a team, a history and a stadium like ours. Now now, I jest of course, before all you Baggies fans start furiously bashing out anonymous comments of hate-filled rage.

The banter has been flowing all week in the lead up to what most Wolves and West Brom fans would say is the first fixture they look for when the list is unveiled in June.

For me, it's always the one game guaranteed to get the butterflies flapping around in my stomach.

And much like passing kidney stones, enduring childbirth or sitting through two hours of X Factor so your better half will let you watch Match of the Day, you have to tolerate the pain to get the pleasure.

Only if Wolves win, mind. Winning is not something we've done too often in recent seasons at the Hawthorns, where it's been 15 long years since Roberts' toothless grin was the lasting memory of a spectacular 4-2 thrashing.

It's often remarked that derby matches are impossible to predict, with the cliche that form goes out the window rolled out every time. That's not been strictly true for Albion versus Wolves clashes of late though.

In 2006-07, the form book went to plan when we only managed one victory against a team which was vastly superior in quality than ours.

A season later there were two tight games but Albion still had the edge over us and came away with four points.

Last year, although the Baggies finished six places above Wolves in the table, we played them at two fortunate points in the season and deservedly earned four points which could easily have been six.

I say fortunate as we avoided West Brom's two purple patches of September to October and March to April.

In Roy Hodgson's first game at the Hawthorns, it was very much a cliched game of two halves but we were unlucky not to win.

At home Albion's safety had been secured and, although it was by no means easy, we ran out convincing winners. So what are the prospects for this Sunday?

Unfortunately, playing well after an international break is hardly our forte.

In fact, during the past two seasons we've lost five and drawn one of six such matches, a run that's included utterly abject defeats to Blackpool and Newcastle away.

Still, it's the same situation for West Brom and, on the plus side, our foes from across the Black Country divide haven't had a great time of it either this season.

I've only seen them play once, against Manchester United when they were unlucky to lose but, by all accounts, Roy Hodgson's side have struggled to recapture the form which propelled them to an impressive 11th-place finish at the end of last season.

Much like ourselves, it seems the old 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 conundrum has reared its ugly head at the Hawthorns, with Shane Long and Peter Odemwingie trying to forge a potent strike partnership.

Also, like us, I think they're probably better off playing 4-5-1 as midfield is their main strength.

But, as we have found with Kevin Doyle and Steven Fletcher, when you've got two excellent strikers in your artillery it's extremely difficult to leave one out, when the temptation must be to hope they hit it off.

After four straight defeats, I would happily take a draw right now but it's certainly not an unwinnable fixture for us.

Wolves boss Mick McCarthy rightly states that we've haven't played badly in three of those four games but you can't hide that, defensively, we've been shocking. Going forward we've scored just two goals – both by Fletcher.

For me it's a stick or twist question. Should we go back to basics yet again- this has happened in the past two seasons at around this time of year - and revert to a defensive formation in order to play for a clean sheet first and foremost?

Or should McCarthy utilise the obvious attacking strengths in his squad and play on what for me is West Brom's weakness, their defence?

Watching the way we took the game to Newcastle, albeit in a different situation at 2-0 down, with Adlene Guedioura and Adam Hammill leading the charge with some exciting play, makes me lean towards the latter.

But I would fancy McCarthy will go for the former. Loyalty is all well and good but if you don't change a team when it's just four on the bounce, when do you? Especially with several players champing at the bit to impress.

As Roger Johnson said this week five straight defeats would leave us in dire straits, so making the right call could have a huge bearing on our season.