Kingy’s Wolves Blog

TOE TO TOE

03-04-2009

Wolves go toe to toe with Blues in their Championship showdown on Monday – but without the injured twinkle toes of Michael Kightly. It could be a decisive moment warns Brendan King.

Six crucial games to go – the next being a local derby of immense significance away to Birmingham City. And, after their last hard fought away win at Nottingham Forest, those Wolves players not on international duty must have welcomed the international break, amounting to around 2 weeks off from the intensity of competitive league football.

With key players carrying knocks and muscle strains, all Wolves fans in my acquaintance, were sighing with relief that those of our senior squad not involved in the internationals, could take it easy and mend their various strains and rest their overworked joints.

So what does our cerebrally endowed manager, Mad Mick (aka Mick McCarthy) and fellow Tyke (assistant manager and fitness coach) Terry Connor decide to arrange less than a week before the massive ‘6 pointer’ at St Andrews? Yes, you’ve guessed it, a full scale competitive ‘friendly’ match with Shrewsbury Town.

Included in this unimportant practice match last Tuesday (the kind designed to keep the reserves and fringe players in match fitness in the absence of Wolves being involved in a reserve league) is new loan arrival Marlon Harewood (understandable).

But also included is Michael Kightly – key attacking midfielder who has continually laid on most of our goals and who scored that vital winning last away goal against Notts Forest. This, despite many relatively (for him) subdued performances recently.

Like a wounded animal, Kites seems to be covertly carrying a muscle strain – most fans have been suggesting – as he’d been out recently with hamstring problems. And with him surprisingly not being included in the U21s, then wrap-up our most important goal supplier in vast layers of cotton wool until the vital Birmingham game, the winning of which would almost certainly guarantee promotion.

No chance – Kites is senselessly thrown into a full-scale match and is injured early on and carried off with that Rooney / Beckham-esque type injury suffered by so many footballers of today who wear pumps instead of boots – the ubiquitous broken metatarsal (toe to us lay observers). So he’s out for the rest of the season and if we don’t perform well in these next six games – we’ll all know on whom to lay the blame and where to pinpoint the cause.

Six crucial games to go – but, nevertheless, if promotion is the end result we’ll soon forget the Shrewsbury practice match shenanigans and will, instead, laud Mick and Terry in their triumph of brilliant planning and execution in guiding our beloved Wolverhampton Wanderers into the top flight.

After several dire seasons, and a post-Christmas prolonged run of poor form, Wolves are fortunately still well placed 5 points clear of the Championship field, with a team of mostly under-25s all desperately striving to become potential Premiership success stories. .

So Wolves’ rivals have had their chances but didn’t take them and now our big wobble is over. We gave several teams in the pursuing pack opportunities to wipe out our team’s fantastic early season start. But Birmingham, Reading and all of the other play-off chasers somehow managed spurn the gifts we seemed to be so generously offering them.

Our team looked tired and disorganised, leaking goals for fun, during the first months of this year, as that anxiety ridden 11-game sequence gave us just one victory. But, football being a ‘funny old game’, every time Wolves stuttered, so did the chasing pack. This sequence became “the Championship nobody wanted to win” – until 5 games ago.

With a mix of reinforced defensive solidity (mainly due the introduction of Jodie Craddock and Christophe Berra) and our never once to be doubted goal-scoring ability (mainly due to Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, now reinforced by returning to form Iwelumo and a priceless last match goal by Michael Kightly) Wolves stopped the rot and 13 points from a possible15 has been their just reward.

It’s form that’s brought renewed confidence spreading amongst every Wolves player and fan and could be seen in the glowing comments of renewed belief as the team and fans left the City Groun in that last 0-1 away win against Forest on the eve of our ‘welcome break’.

Sylvan Ebanks-Blake (SE-B) and Chris Iwelumo both returned early from international duties carrying injuries. SE-B’s being the most serious with a slight hamstring tear for which he’s been in intense rehab for virtually the whole of the break. Chris has only just returned, before Wednesday’s Scottish international with Iceland, with a sore hip or something similar.

Both should be available for the Blues match this coming Monday evening, as should Matt Jarvis who’s had a longer term injury to a troublesome knee. We need this vital trio, although Marlon Harewood could step in for Chris or SE-B.

Jarvo’s specialist wing skills are vital now with Kites out and the all-purpose, but unpredictable, Andy Keogh in line to replace him on the right flank. We have to give them all our fullest support – the time for carping is now over.

Congratulations to SE-B for winning dual awards last week – Championship player of the year and best goal scored all year. Also to Kites in 3rd place best player and Wolves management organisation for being awarded the best family club of the league.

Now we have to achieve the greatest prize of all – the Championship crown and the glory of automatic promotion to the Premiership itself. C’mon you Wolves!

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