Wolves 1 – 0 Perth Glory – Match Review by Tom Barratt

By: Toby | July 11th, 2009

As I couldn’t be in Australia for this one, offside writer Tom has done me a brilliant write up for the game and even took pictures. Apart from that one to the left of me, I had to throw that one in because it proves pretty much that big George is A) fit again and B) still a monster, see that jump? Can you see that height he’s getting? Jesus. Right…where was I? Ah yes, so without further a do, here’s his write up! Thanks Tom!

Have just had a wonderful evening watching Wolves play in Perth.

The evening started off at the Brisbane hotel for drinks and I met some Wolves fans from Adelaide, Bristol, Manchester and even Wolverhampton.

Upon arriving at the ground, the ‘celebrity’ match was in full swing, and where the ‘celebrities’ did nothing but chop up the pitch a bit, but I saw a few friends of the football fraternity in Perth and it gave us time to realise our seats were bollocks and that the standing area in front of ‘The Shed’ was the place for us.

Wolves lined up like so:
Hennessey
Foley Craddock Berra Elokobi
Jarvis Herny Surman Ward
Iwelumo Ebanks Blake

This changed several times in the 2nd half, the most notable exclusion being Kightly, who didn’t grace MES with his presence.

Wolves scored early on from an Elokobi long throw where there ensued a goalmouth scramble where SEB poked home. Sterjovski (Glory’s star recruit this season) then struck wide from 20 yards out. The game itself was rather pedestrian (it’s pre-season in Australia as well), with Glory only really conjuring up a couple of good chances (mind you, they’re unlikely to come up against fullbacks of the class of Elokobi and Foley this season) but it was a tough game and Glory gave us a physical test as the A League can be a little rough (but not unfair) at times. The game ended 1-0 with Keogh hitting the bar after cutting in from the right byline and almost chipping Velaphi (Glory’s keeper) from a 25 yard volley on the turn, which was tipped behind.

The Glory fans around me loved Andy Keogh, were raving about the ‘poor man’s Alan Smith’ [I know it doesn't really make sense, but I suppose they're both blonde] how he was “tricky, fast, hard working, classy, skilful” to list a few adjectives I heard. Which is interesting given the reception he got at Molineux when I was there last season (v Crystal Palace)

Interestingly, Bobo Balde and Ronald Zubar came on at about the 60th minute to pair each other at centre half, and it was interesting to see that when they came up together for corners (and won a couple of headers between them) they were deep in conversation. Seems to me the theory that he was there to help him settle in to the club. Zubar himself reminded me of Zubar at Marseille (my continental team who I’ve watched via then solvent Setanta), he has good physical attributes but can get caught a little out of position. He will be very good (esp as MM was a centre half and will be able to help him) but I think we need to give him time.

Milijas was quite effective, his dead ball delivery seemed accurate and threatening, and with Halford, Iwelumo (who broke a metatarsal in a fair 50-50 challenge) etc in the box set pieces may become a key avenue to goal for us this season. Halford is imposing physically and Surman was assured with the ball at his feet. Hahneman’s kicking looked a real weakness but he dealt with the one threat through on goal with a good deal of calm. Doyle looked strong on the ball, but I’m sure we’ve all seen enough of him at Reading to know what he is capable of

One negative for me was the presence of 5 or 6 real English larger louts immediately in front of us, and their racist, homophobic and xenophobic jokes and songs etc made me and especially my girlfriend (who comes to most Glory matches with me) feel very uncomfortable. It reminded me of my experience of English fans in Barcelona for the Andorra qualifier. I have no time for this behaviour and was very pleased when they’d drunk their fill and didn’t bother to stay for the last half hour. These men (and a couple of women) apparently weren’t Wolves fans, which provided some solace, but I am glad that this experience isn’t a usual one for me at football matches.