Typical of Mick McCarthy. Just as he has his back to the wall once again, he delivers the goods, and how.
Our line-up almost consisted of our bare bones with four youth players on the bench and Kevin Doyle, Michael Mancienne, Steven Mouyokolo and Matt Jarvis absent. We started off the better team from start to finish with a flurry of chances started with Dave Edwards and Stephen Hunt forcing saves out of Ben Foster. Within our first half dominance Birmingham had a decent share of possession without offering any attacking threat or potency. Nicola Zigic waswinning headers to nowhere. On the half-hour mark, lone striker Sylvan Ebanks-Blake started to stomp his authority on the game with two shots on target - one on the turn just outside the box and another from a tight angle - which were dealt with by Foster. And on the stroe of half-time, he got the beating of Scott Dann and crossed from the right wing for Hunt to tap in at the near post to score at a perfect time.
Straight after the interval, Ward again put in another cross and Edwards' feint header was just wide. Hunt was everywhere today, whether he was terrorising defenders or tracking back to retain possession, and he almost contributed towards another goal when his corner found the head of Nenad Milijas, who was again denied by Foster. Birmingham stepped from first gear and brought on Craig Gardner and Jean Beausejour. Cometh the hour, cometh resident bogeyman Kevin Phillips for the last 15 minutes but he summed up the visitors' afternoon when he headed so wide Wayne Hennessey didn't have to move.
This was a much needed win to boost morale ahead of next weeks trip to Sandwell and a chance to get us out of the bottom three.
'Grobs'
A Wolverhampton Wanderers blogsite, in association with Soccer24-7
Monday 13 December 2010
Sunday 12 December 2010
Wolves v Birmingham City
Today sees us take on the least successful of our Premiership local rivals in the shape of Birmingham City and we could do with a change of fortune against them with no league win since 2001.
We will be likely to welcome back David Edwards to the fold after recovering from a thigh injury to bolster the sparse numbers in the midfield, hopefully he will step in for Stephen Ward, who gave it a go in the role last week against Blackburn.
The Bluenoses will have a no major injury problems as they will play with the same backline that served them well as of late as well as last season. We hope that Kevin Phillips doesn't make it anywhere near the bench with his uncanny habit of scoring in local derbies and against us ast St Andrews last season. Or that torch is passed on to giant Serbian striker Nicola Zigic, who scored the winner in the Carling Cup against Aston Villa. Wayne Hennessey needs to be on his toes today getting these high balls.
Form and pretty football is irrelevent today, let's get a win, boys!
'Grobs'
We will be likely to welcome back David Edwards to the fold after recovering from a thigh injury to bolster the sparse numbers in the midfield, hopefully he will step in for Stephen Ward, who gave it a go in the role last week against Blackburn.
The Bluenoses will have a no major injury problems as they will play with the same backline that served them well as of late as well as last season. We hope that Kevin Phillips doesn't make it anywhere near the bench with his uncanny habit of scoring in local derbies and against us ast St Andrews last season. Or that torch is passed on to giant Serbian striker Nicola Zigic, who scored the winner in the Carling Cup against Aston Villa. Wayne Hennessey needs to be on his toes today getting these high balls.
Form and pretty football is irrelevent today, let's get a win, boys!
'Grobs'
Wednesday 8 December 2010
Blackburn Rovers 3 - 0 Wolves
Same old, same old. Attacking line, great. Defence, shocking but here, it was tenfold.
Things started ever so well that we could and should have took the lead early on when Matt Jarvis pulled off a save from Paul Robinson and stand-in midielder Stephen Ward and Ronald Zubar both hit the woodwork within a minute. And we paid the price for not taking the lead shortly after when a Morten Gamst Pedersen corner was aimed towards the far post for Ryan Nelsen to flick back towards goal for David Dunn to head over the line with Wayne Hennessey nowhere to be seen. Rovers doubled their lead later when Steven Mouyokolo lost out in a tussle to Jason Roberts from a long ball and Roberts squared to Brett Emerton who tucked it away with ease. Our defence was once again a laughing stock.
Ten minutes into the second half, Pedersen whipped in another utterly threatening set-piece and it was converted into a third for the hosts and then not long after that, Robinson saved from George Elokobi and substitutes Stephen Hunt and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake made their presences felt with the former being denied by the former England keeper twice. Other than that, chances were few and far between.
You could say that we were unfortunate with the chances we had but that does not excuse the schoolboy defending and another performance in the next two games would be unforgiveable.
'Grobs'
Things started ever so well that we could and should have took the lead early on when Matt Jarvis pulled off a save from Paul Robinson and stand-in midielder Stephen Ward and Ronald Zubar both hit the woodwork within a minute. And we paid the price for not taking the lead shortly after when a Morten Gamst Pedersen corner was aimed towards the far post for Ryan Nelsen to flick back towards goal for David Dunn to head over the line with Wayne Hennessey nowhere to be seen. Rovers doubled their lead later when Steven Mouyokolo lost out in a tussle to Jason Roberts from a long ball and Roberts squared to Brett Emerton who tucked it away with ease. Our defence was once again a laughing stock.
Ten minutes into the second half, Pedersen whipped in another utterly threatening set-piece and it was converted into a third for the hosts and then not long after that, Robinson saved from George Elokobi and substitutes Stephen Hunt and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake made their presences felt with the former being denied by the former England keeper twice. Other than that, chances were few and far between.
You could say that we were unfortunate with the chances we had but that does not excuse the schoolboy defending and another performance in the next two games would be unforgiveable.
'Grobs'
Saturday 4 December 2010
Blackburn Rovers v Wolves
Today we head to Ewood Park, a ground where we haven't had much luck at in the Premiership.
Blackburn could well fancy a few changes to tighten the backline after that drumming at Old Trafford last week with Pascal Chimbonda most likely to be dropped and Morten Gamst Pedersen looks set to recover from a hamstring problem he suffered in the week. As a Sam Allardyce team, Blackburn are very reliant on set pieces and they have a 2:1 (goals-to-goals from dead balls) ratio of goals from that source.
We have more absentees to add to the list with David Jones suffering a foot injury he suffered last week and Jelle van Damme Belgium-bound so this could give forgotten winger Geoffrey Mujangi Bia a seat on the bench, but Christophe Berra will return from suspension. Wayne Hennessey made his first league start of the season and it will be interesting as to how he'll cope on set-pieces. Mick McCarthy's priority is to keep a clean sheet, and this could be achieved if Richard Stearman is dropped.
Let our revival continue after a few false starts, please.
'Grobs'
POSSIBLE LINE-UPS
BLACKBURN: Robinson; Salgado, Samba, Nelsen, Givet; Emerton, Jones, Dunn, Pedersen; El Hadji Diouf, Roberts. Subs: Bunn, Chimbonda, Morris, Emerton, Linganzi, Mama Biram Diouf, Hoilett
WOLVES: Hennessey; Zubar, Stearman, Berra, Elokobi; Hunt, Milijas, Mancienne, Foley, Jarvis; Doyle. Subs: Hahnemann, Mouyokolo, Ward, Davis, Mujangi Bia, Ebanks-Blake, Fletcher
ODDS (with William Hill) (view more odds)
WIN: Blackburn 4/5; Draw 13/5; Wolves 10/3
FIRST GOALSCORER: Blackburn - Roberts 11/2, Benjani 6/1, MB Diouf 7/1, Pedersen 15/2, Dunn 15/2, EH Diouf 9/1, Samba 16/1 Wolves - Doyle 15/2, Fletcher 8/1, Ebanks-Blake 8/1, Jarvis 12/1, Hunt 14/1, Milijas 16/1, Foley 20/1
KEY PLAYER: Morten Gamst Pedersen. His deliveries have been key to Blackburn's main source of goals.
WEAKEST LINK: Michel Salgado. One of the best full-backs in the world yesterdecade, now could well find Matt Jarvis too hot to handle with his aging legs.
NOTABLE MUTUAL ALUMNI: Mark Atkins, Paul Bradshaw, Nathan Blake, Dave Wagstaffe, Tim Flowers
Blackburn could well fancy a few changes to tighten the backline after that drumming at Old Trafford last week with Pascal Chimbonda most likely to be dropped and Morten Gamst Pedersen looks set to recover from a hamstring problem he suffered in the week. As a Sam Allardyce team, Blackburn are very reliant on set pieces and they have a 2:1 (goals-to-goals from dead balls) ratio of goals from that source.
We have more absentees to add to the list with David Jones suffering a foot injury he suffered last week and Jelle van Damme Belgium-bound so this could give forgotten winger Geoffrey Mujangi Bia a seat on the bench, but Christophe Berra will return from suspension. Wayne Hennessey made his first league start of the season and it will be interesting as to how he'll cope on set-pieces. Mick McCarthy's priority is to keep a clean sheet, and this could be achieved if Richard Stearman is dropped.
Let our revival continue after a few false starts, please.
'Grobs'
POSSIBLE LINE-UPS
BLACKBURN: Robinson; Salgado, Samba, Nelsen, Givet; Emerton, Jones, Dunn, Pedersen; El Hadji Diouf, Roberts. Subs: Bunn, Chimbonda, Morris, Emerton, Linganzi, Mama Biram Diouf, Hoilett
WOLVES: Hennessey; Zubar, Stearman, Berra, Elokobi; Hunt, Milijas, Mancienne, Foley, Jarvis; Doyle. Subs: Hahnemann, Mouyokolo, Ward, Davis, Mujangi Bia, Ebanks-Blake, Fletcher
ODDS (with William Hill) (view more odds)
WIN: Blackburn 4/5; Draw 13/5; Wolves 10/3
FIRST GOALSCORER: Blackburn - Roberts 11/2, Benjani 6/1, MB Diouf 7/1, Pedersen 15/2, Dunn 15/2, EH Diouf 9/1, Samba 16/1 Wolves - Doyle 15/2, Fletcher 8/1, Ebanks-Blake 8/1, Jarvis 12/1, Hunt 14/1, Milijas 16/1, Foley 20/1
KEY PLAYER: Morten Gamst Pedersen. His deliveries have been key to Blackburn's main source of goals.
WEAKEST LINK: Michel Salgado. One of the best full-backs in the world yesterdecade, now could well find Matt Jarvis too hot to handle with his aging legs.
NOTABLE MUTUAL ALUMNI: Mark Atkins, Paul Bradshaw, Nathan Blake, Dave Wagstaffe, Tim Flowers
Wednesday 1 December 2010
Jody Craddock Out Until New Year
This is a kick in the gut as we don't know how longer we could perservere with Richard Stearman at the back, we miss him badly. Initially, the injury was to the hip, but has gone down to the thigh and Jody states on Twitter it will take three weeks to recover and I can't Mick McCarthy rushing in a 35-year-old into the festive schedule of the season so he won't be seeing action until the new year.
The sooner he returns, the better.
'Grobs'
 |
| Jody Craddock: Sorely missed. |
The sooner he returns, the better.
'Grobs'
And Now For Something Completely Different... - Part 1
If only the club he supported fell down the table quicker than himself...
Do/did you know that guy? Is he dead or alive today? Maybe brain-damaged. Help us name and shame.
'Grobs'
Do/did you know that guy? Is he dead or alive today? Maybe brain-damaged. Help us name and shame.
'Grobs'
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