Wolves 1 – 2 Coventry – Birthday (Sky) Blues for Mick

By: Toby | February 8th, 2009

Well it was Mick McCarthy’s 50th yesterday, and the lads thought they’d club together and get him a present. Obviously, the defence once again got the wrong end of the stick and gifted Coventry two goals instead. We could have salvaged a draw were it not for Ebanks having a penalty saved late on, but to put it simply, one win in eight isn’t promotion form, it’s middle of the table, relegation form, Wolves have seemingly hit the self destruct button ever since December and it doesn’t look like we’re near the end of our slump.

Quite what’s gone wrong seems obvious, we can’t defend leads, or defend in general at the moment. Berra is the solution to this problem, but he needs time to gel with the squad, I’m sure that process hasn’t been helped by the fact that it’s snowed all week in Wolverhampton, so we’ve been extremely limited to the amount players can train on real grass with one another. When that understanding is built up I’m sure he’ll be a fine player, big, strong, good in the air with an eye for getting forward on set pieces. I’m sure he’ll fit in given time, but unfortunately, that’s one thing we’re running out of.

Another thing we’re running out of is breathing space at the top, luckily, once again we’ve slipped up and neither Reading nor Birmingham have taken advantage and won, both drawing their games yesterday, so our lead is further cut by a point on each side, though it could have been much worse. This means, with a game in hand and if both teams win their game in hand, then Reading could be one point behind us, and Birmingham three. There’s still the faint glimmer of reassurance that each have got to play each other….but that’s getting less and less comforting.

A couple of things to take away from the game

-We seem to be unable to defend right after scoring a goal, we literally need to slap every player across the face after scoring, remind them that it’s not a golden goal scenario, and that they’ve got to defend.

-Iwelumo can’t be within 40 yards of the ball without the referee deciding he’s fouling the entire opposition team, because he’s tall.

-Vokes is a great impact player

-Perhaps Reid should be getting closer to half an hour, replacing Kightly or Jarvis, whichever is slacking off, this would have a dual effect, that of fresh legs of Reid and it might also bring up Jarvos and Kites game if they’re looking over their shoulder.

So there we go. Another three points lost and the nerves are certainly starting to jangle. At least mine are, I was in a foul mood all evening, luckily I work in the cellars so I can throw stuff around and use the keg crash mats as punching bags, for those of you without such materials, I suggest green tea. Next up is a trip to Burnley on the Saturday, which is going to be a hard game, no question about it.

So for now, let’s hold on to the fact that we’re still top…just, we haven’t been out of the top two since September, we’re still together as a team and that we’re still in the best place to be promoted, and let’s hope Mick gets those boys doing defensive drills this week…I think they could do with it.

Till next time, I’ll get highlights up when they drop!

Tarra-a-bit!