Wolves looking for home successes

After 7 games without a win Wolves will be looking for and needing to get their season back on track over the next few days as they face two home games in 4 days. Nottingham Forest are the visitors on Saturday afternoon and then Millwall on Tuesday evening and the Molineux regulars will be expecting at least one and hopefully two wins after a disappointing run of results.

If we want to be positive we can say that Wolves have only lost one of their eight home league games so far this season but having drawn the last three supporters will see a home win as overdue with the last one coming two months ago on September 22nd against Sheffield Wednesday. It was all looking pretty promising at that stage with Wolves in a run of 6 wins in 9 games that made them firm promotion contenders, but the current run of 7 games without a win has seen things take on a very different look as the league position is now 16th and these next couple of games could set the scene for the middle part of the season. 4 or 6 points in these two games could put Wolves well back into the top half of the table. But if that run of winless games were to stretch from 7 to 9 games then it may start to look like a long hard winter ahead and manager Stale Solbakken could come under some pressure to turn things around quickly.

Saturday’s opponents Forest have had quite a few changes over the last few months and there are Wolves connections with former players Guedioura and Halford now there and local man and Wolves supporter Sean O’Driscoll in the managers chair. Other additions have included Lansbury from Arsenal, Cox from Albion and Collins from Stoke plus loan signings of Jenas from Spurs, Billy Sharp from Southampton and Ayala from Norwich. Things have been looking up results wise with only one defeat in the last nine games and they are four points ahead of Wolves in 10th place. Matches between the teams have seen a significant advantage to Wolves in recent years, as they have won the last 3 meetings and lost only one of the last 13.

We are getting well used to the formation of Solbakken’s teams now and with Henry still suspended and Berra having successfully appealed against his ban we can be confident about what most of the team will be. Hennessey’s continued injury woes means Ikeme is now established as first choice keeper and with Stearman now back in favour at right back we can expect him to line up with Johnson, Berra and Ward at the back. Sako and Doumbia will doubtless continue in midfield but there could be a change as far as Henry’s replacement is concerned. David Davis impressed as a substitute at Watford last week and may get the nod to start alongside Doumbia in the middle and that would leave Edwards to compete with Pennant for the place on the right of midfield. Sigurdarson impressed at Watford and will likely continue alongside Doyle up front with Ebanks Blake likely to start on the bench. The better movement of Sigurdarson and Doyle makes them the best suited to the Solbakken formation with the only question mark being whether the team will miss the goal poaching of SEB.

What we dont want to see on Saturday is a third successive first half sending off for a Wolves player, or an eighth game on the trot without a win. The last home game turned out to be entertaining against Brighton and the performance at Watford was also a step in the right direction that would probably have resulted in at least a draw but for Berra’s unlucky sending off. So there have been some signs of encouragement that the corner will soon be turned and a 4th successive win against Forest would see a return of the positive vibes that surrounded Solbakken’s team a couple of months ago.

Category: Team News