Wolves End of Season Awards

It’s that time of the season, my personal awards:

Match of the Season
Wolves 3-3 Tottenham Hotspur
Despite a number of historic victories against the elite of the Premier League, it is an exciting draw that will live long in the memory of everyone who attended it. Six goals, a should-have-been-red card, a penalty, two Jermain Defoe wonder goals and a late equaliser from a born again Steven Fletcher. And all of this followed an emotive tribute to Dean Richards who served both clubs with such distinction.

Biggest Disappointment
Following the troubles of Stephen Ward and George Elokobi in 2009/10, it was clear to all that a new left back was a priority. Step forward a giant Belgian international with an exciting name, who even scored in his third match. However, he never actually played at left back and only lasted beyond 45 minutes twice. Six appearances and one goal later and Jelle Van Damme was back in Belgium.

The Iwan Roberts Scoring Against The Baggies Award
It does not get much better than scoring your first goal for a new club away at their fiercest rivals. Unless that goal is a left-footed strike into the top corner from outside the area. It took Jamie O’Hara just 123 minutes of his Wolves career to become a hero with the fans, with no fewer than three different chants doing the rounds. O’Hara wasn’t the only one to make a difference against Albion, although it took Steven Fletcher slightly longer to make his mark. After a slow start to his Wolves career, injuries to Kevin Doyle and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake thrust Fletcher into the spotlight. Five goals in his last six games, including a Baggies Brace saw Fletcher become the club’s leading scorer in his debut season.

False Dawn of the Season
After fighting his way past Nenad Milijaš to become an integral part of team last season, David Jones started the season in fine fashion, with a clever free kick, reminiscent of Ernie Hunt against Everton in 1970. However, he would go onto start just another ten league games, and with his contract expiring this summer, he appears to have played his last game for the club.

Knee Surgeon of the Season
Dr Richard Stearman

Miss of the Season
Only one choice here; Miss Danielle Lloyd


The ‘I Wish I Hadn’t Bothered’ Award
Given our away record, the vast majority of games. But, given the distance and the pathetic first half performance it has to the trip to Newcastle. It took the players 50 minutes to realise they were in a match, but by that stage we were 3-0 down and being humiliated. Jonas Gutierrez’s late goal topped off a woeful day, with the prospect of a 238 mile trip home. What a perfect way to spend a beautifully sunny Saturday

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A Gripping End to the Season - Wolves 2-3 Blackburn

Football, bloody hell. I'm not sure I can go through at again. In theory, I'm only 25 but I feel 65 today. My hands and legs are still shaking and my heart is beating nineteen to the dozen.

- I headed to Molineux dreading it. No-one in the press seemed to be considering us for relegation, while our odds of 8-1 seemed far too generous given our history of messing up against the teams around us. I thought we would get a draw, and was just praying that the other teams would not get the wins they needed.


- The team was exactly how I expected it to be, Matt Jarvis reinstated after his cameo at the Stadium of Light last week. Personally, I don't think Jarvis plays well in a 4-4-2 as it means he has to start slightly narrower and he doesn't have the security of the three man midfield behind him.

- No matter how euphoric the management and players feel now, it should not erase the memory of a first half performance that was arguably the most inept and pathetic of the season. Even the successive disintegrations against Newcastle United and Everton were better than this.

- The defence was very poor. Junior Hoilett and Martin Olsson gave Kevin Foley a tough time in the early stages before he started to get to grips with them. On the other side, George Elokobi looked the most secure; probably aided by the fact he was up against Brett Emerton whose primary strength is his size rather than pace.
- The central defenders allowed themselves to be battered by Jason Roberts and Hoilett, and neither played well. While it was Michael Mancienne who was withdrawn at halftime, it could easily have been Jody Craddock who now looks his years. While he adds a degree of calm and leadership to the defence, his creaking body isn't up to the pace of the Premier League. If we are still relying on him next season, I will be extremely worried.

- In the middle of the park, Blackburn's defensive pairing of Steven N'Zonzi and Jermaine Jones dominated Karl Henry and Jamie O'Hara. When we did manage to the get the ball, there was often too much distance between them and so the ball either headed backwards or high balls forward that was food and drink to Phil Jones and Christopher Samba.

- Each and every one of you will have had your own emotions this afternoon, so I'm not going to repeat them. All I will say is that I've never had a range of emotions like them - anticipation, anger, sadness, hope, despair and ultimately joy. Even when I've been waiting on exam results that could decide the path that my life will take in the future, I've felt nothing like I've felt today.

- I barely noticed the play on the pitch in the second half, other than the two well taken goals. O'Hara's was similar to his goal against Albion. Hunt's is a late contender for goal of the season, a swerving, dipping strike that gave Paul Robinson no chance.

- The second half was spent concentrating on the other games. As usual, reception for my phone was rubbish, so it was the old fashioned wireless for me. I ended up updating all the people around me, quashing the rumours that were flooding through the fans. Unless one fan was psychic and predicting goals 10 minutes before they went in, there was a massive amount of disinformation.

- The reaction of the crowd was excellent. From chants of 'United, United' following Manchester United's equaliser against Blackpool, to 'One Goal, We Only Need One Goal' when we realised we were going down on goal difference. I didn't really need the radio; you could almost work out what was going on just by looking at the faces of those around me.

- The atmosphere after the match was excellent. Blackburn's players were deservedly applauded back onto the pitch and joint chanting with their fans was like nothing I've ever seen before. I've particularly been a fan of Blackburn, especially during the Mark Hughes era, but I think that today brought both sets of fans together, united in relief at another Premier League season.

- Finally, a word on those around us. Before the match, if I had to pick a team I wanted to be facing next season, it was Wigan. I have a lot of time for Roberto Martinez, his teams always to try to play football, and to stay in the Premier League for 7 successive seasons is a remarkable achievement, especially if you think that the likes of Leighton Baines, Titus Bramble, Wilson Palacios, Antonio Valencia, Lee Cattermole, Emile Heskey, Jimmy Bullard and Pascal Chimbonda have all departed the club. I like Blackpool as a club, but Ian Holloway has annoyed me more and more over season, and his rant this week that the Premier League wants to see them relegated was laughable.

- Most of all, I'm pleased we've registered our place in the Premier League next season, but if ever Mick McCarthy needed a reminder that this team needs investment, today should have done the job.

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Wolves 3-1 West Brom

I'm sat on the train at Wolverhampton station, surrounded by Albion fans, trying to keep the big smile off my face. Wolves 3, Albion 1. Who would have thought it?

I'm going to start with a few comments on Steven Fletcher. Any of you who have read me on here before know of my deep and undying love for the Irish god that is Kevin Doyle. However, I may have another striker in my sights. Fletcher now has 7 goals in 12 starts. To put it another way, he is averaging a goal every 175 minutes. If you take the age old ratio of a goal every two games as being the target, he is starting to look every inch a £7 million striker.

He didn't stop running today. I thought that very few strikers worked as hard as Doyle, but Fletcher is not far off. In addition, despite being quite wiry, he wins his fair share of headers and has surely overtaken Sylvan Ebanks-Blake in the pecking order. His link up play is the best of any of our strikers, and he appears to be developing a partnership with fan's favourite Stephen Ward. The only complaint is the lack of an original song for him - may I suggest 'Fletcher's gonna getcha' for next week?

When two teams play 4-4-2, and are of similar ability, most often the team that wants it more will be victorious, and so it proved today. I don't think I can fault a single player today. Even Elokobi coped admirably against Somen Tchoi. I think at first he was taken aback to be facing a winger who is bigger than him, but with the help of Stephen Hunt ahead of him, he coped admirably.

And speaking of Hunt, was this his finest performance in a Wolves shirt? If Fletcher was man of the match, Hunt ran him close. When he played earlier in the season, he looked short of fitness and sharpness and many fans were worried he was a long way past his best. However, he made a positive impact last week, and grabbed his chance with both hands today. He loves a scrap, and I can definitely see him becoming a midfield snotter when his pace finally goes. That hasn't happened yet, he gave Gonzalo Jara a tough game and always looked to support the strikers.

While we’re talking about players called Stephen/Steven, a shout for Ward. By my reckoning, he’s now played at left back, left midfield, right midfield, center midfield and upfront this season. He can’t train for every single one of these positions, and that showed a little today; he had a tendency to run offside which has surely come about due to a lack of playing time upfront. Yet, he was excellent. He played well against Birmingham last week, but stepped up his performance this week. Had he kept his head towards the end, he surely would have scored one of the goals of the season.

The most pleasing aspect of today’s game was the return of the fight. That has been the most important characteristic of the season so far, but it had been gone since the Newcastle match. Last night, I was genuinely unsure at to where our next win was going to come from. Not because of a lack of quality in the team, but due to the players not looking like they had the confidence to go on and win games. It’s amazing what going 3-0 up will do. Saying that, when Albion pulled the goal back, you could physically see their heads drop, and we were lucky to get away with only conceding one goal in that spell of pressure. With a bit of luck, the fact we did only concede one will get into the player’s minds.

We have two games left, one win will probably be enough, and four points will almost certainly be enough. Whatever your personal views on Mick McCarthy, or Jez Moxey, or individual players, now is the time to bite your lip and concentrate on getting behind the team. You could see how much this win meant to the players – they want to be playing in the Premier League next season just as much as we want to be watching it. We have put ourselves in a great position to stay up, now is the time for positivity.

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Birmingham 1-1 Wolves

Wolves today drew 1-1 with Birmingham City. Steven Fletcher gave Wolves the lead from the penalty spot following Ben Foster bringing down Steven Ward, before Seb Larsson equalized after a Michael Mancienne mistake. With Birmingham down to ten men following the sending off of Craig Gardner, Wolves pressed for the winner but to no avail.

- I got into St Andrews without knowing the lineups, and first saw them on Sky Sports News on a television inside the ground. Despite knowing who was playing, I had absolutely no idea where half of them would play. Stephen Ward could just have easily been playing left or centre midfield as the striker position he ended up playing. While this indicates the flexibility of the squad, it also suggests we have a number of players without a defined position. Can they train the skills needed for differing positions to the same extent as if they specialised?

- When the players lined up, and I realised we were going with a 4-4-2, I could not understand why we needed both Richard Stearman and Kevin Foley down the right hand side. Had Birmingham had a roving left back I could understand it, but they had Liam Ridgewell, effectively a central defender masquerading as a fullback. In front of him was Lee Bowyer. While he's an effective player, at no point was he going to go past Stearman through pace, so why the need to negate our attacking play by putting a fullback as a winger?

- Despite it being a gloriously sunny day, it was actually a little cold inside the ground in the shade, purely due to the swirling wind. I was initially worried about Wayne Hennessey dealing with crosses, but I should actually have been more concerned with Michael Mancienne. I think he was trying to duck out the way to allow the ball to bounce through the keeper, but the wind maybe just held the ball up a little more than he expected.

- While Mancienne was clearly at fault for the goal, I thought the way he bounced back belied a maturity beyond his years. Both Jody Craddock and George Elokobi instantly went to Mancienne following the mistake to ensure his confidence wasn't completely shot. To make a mistake that early when you're just feeling your way into the team would have eaten up some players, never mind that it was in a relegation battle and a local derby. Maybe it’s because Mancienne doesn't care as much as others - he'll most likely be back at Chelsea next season whatever, but he shook the mistake off and gave a generally gave a very accomplished performance for the remaining 63 minutes.

- Kevin who? Many of you who read this regularly know of my deep and undying love for Kevin Doyle, but Steven Fletcher has been excellent since coming into the starting lineup. While he may look a slightly flimsy player, he wins more than his fair share of headers, and is decent with his back towards to goal. I'm not sure whether Mick McCarthy was just reluctant to trust him, or whether Fletcher has just taken an awful long time to find his feet at Wolves, but it’s a pity he's only just starting to show what he can do.

- Has Mick been taking tips from his American namesake, Green Bay Packers' coach Mike McCarthy, an NFL coach? I lost count of the times that we obstructed Birmingham players with no attempt to go for the ball. I've got used to seeing Christophe Berra do it, but I always thought this was just his style of play. Seeing Matt Jarvis do it though makes me wonder whether it's being coached and the players are being encouraged to block opponents. Birmingham could easily have had a penalty on 34 minutes when Elokobi jumped into Roger Johnson with no consideration for where the ball was at all.

- So, 1-1, Birmingham down to ten men. Surely you'd have thought we'd have had the odd shot? Ben Foster made one save the entire match; a pea roller from Jamie O'Hara that I'm not even sure was on target. We had lots of territorial position, and admittedly Johnson and Martin Jiranek made a number of blocks, but to play for 60 minutes with the opposition one down and hit the target with just one shot is a damning statistic and may go partly to explaining the predicament we are currently in.

- Talking of shots, one player who isn't afraid to have a pop, Adlene Guedioura seemed prepped and ready to come on at one stage in the second half. I assumed it would be for Karl Henry; there was no real need for a defensive midfielder at that stage with both Barry Ferguson and Bowyer happy sitting deep in front of the defense. Instead, Sam Vokes came on for Ward. At this stage, I thought it might have been Elokobi who came off. Seb Larsson wasn't getting forward much down their right flank, and Ward is obviously a better player going forward than Elokobi. I also thought that Elokobi could have been withdrawn when Stephen Hunt was introduced, with Hunt playing at left back, a position he played semi-regularly at Reading when Bobby Convey was also fit.

- After the Tottenham Hotspur match, I wrote that there's not a lot of point the referee getting all the little decisions correct if they make poor calls for the big ones. Today it felt equally infuriating to see Kevin Friend get the big calls correct, but make baffling little ones. It cannot have been an easy game to referee; the first half especially was like a typical old fashioned local derby with neither team giving an inch, and plenty of whole hearted tackling.

- Are these two points dropped or one gained? Yesterday’s results put pressure on today’s result, while the result at the Emirates (1-0 Arsenal as I write) is working in our favour. Birmingham is a difficult to beat at St Andrews and needed to avoid defeat to prevent being dragged back into the relegation battle. The two remaining home games and the trip to Sunderland whose players heads are already clearly on their holidays should be enough for us to get the necessary points for survival. Saying that, 60 minutes against ten men should be long enough to get a winning goal, and those extra two potential points could easily be the difference when it comes to judgment day.

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