Off to 1974 now and it’s Wolverhampton Wanderers verses Manchester City in the League Cup Final. Wolves lined up with Pierce, Palmer, Parkin, Bailey (capt), Munro, McAlle, Sunderland, Hibbitt, Richards, Dougan, Wagstaffe leading the line against the Citizens, looking to bring their first league Cup back to the Molineux for the first time for 35 years. This a great video here, it’s really got a sense of history about it, nicely intercut with interviews from Geoff Palmer and Kenny Hibbitt really showing you what it meant to the lads to be out there, playing for their team. I hope this video stays up long enough for some of you to see this, have a bit of a reminisce, or if you’re like me, educate yourself in Wolves’ history. What a day, let’s be hoping for some more like it soon eh?

Right then! Enjoy!

Well that’s enough of an introduction from me, let’s get the video playing.

Oh, and if any joyless jobsworths fancy taking this video down you’ll have to ask http://www.bfi.org.uk/nftva/ who own the rights, not Wolves World. Which makes a pleasant change doesn’t it?

Enjoy!

Right then! For today’s video, not as good as Honved I’m afraid, but few videos are. Today’s video is from Wolves’ 71-72 season, where you’ll get the good – Wolves knocking 5 past Arsenal, and the bad – Wolves losing against Tottenham. Well at least it was in a UEFA Cup final, I’m sure there are many younger fans who are completely unaware that we were in Europe in that decade. Nice bit of footage to see Derek Dougan in full flow against The Gunners.

In sadder news, the death of former Wolves and Villa player Paul Birch has understandably knocked a few of us for six, at just 46 Paul has lost his battle against cancer, the most vile and vindictive of illnesses. As a child I used to idolise the Wolves to the point where me and my dad would watch them train whenever I was on a school holiday, I used to ask players for their signatures on the back of whatever bit of paper I had to hand at the time, usually cereal boxes. They were all gentleman and never turned me down, even when it was raining and they’d rather be going home, those group of players are the reason why my heart jumps whenever we score and my heart sank when I read this news.

In respect of Paul Birch 1962-2009

Right first off this isn’t an article of doom and gloom, I’m not going to harp on about individuals and point fingers, stamping up and down in circles shouting “whar I fink is this” and “whar you fink is wrong” no, that’s not my style, and if anything I’d like you to chip in on the comments with what you think has gone… well…not wrong… but…wonky.

The first area which has been bought up a lot pre match in recent games, is our defence. It’d be naive to say that we haven’t missed Mancienne since his recall, that’s an absolute understatement. He came in last time we had a wobble (loses against Norwich, Reading and Swansea had us pushing the panic button) and turned into a cure all, he slotted into our defence, plugged the gaps and turned us into a water tight outfit, we didn’t look like we were going to concede anymore, and if we did, it usually took something decent. But that’s the thing, before Mancienne was when we as a team were playing our most adventurous football, scoring three or four at a stride, once the little genius wedged himself into our back line, we didn’t really need to anymore, we could get one goal, maybe two, safe in the knowledge we weren’t going to concede that many in reply. Now with Mancienne back sitting on the bench for Chelsea (don’t get me started on my rage towards that predicament, why the hell recall a player to sit looking sullen in a tracksuit WHY?!) we’re still as cautious, not punchy up front.

Sticking with the back end of the team, Wolves have had a pretty unique position this season in so much as that we don’t have a regular number one, Hennessey and Ikeme seem almost interchangeable at times, once one picks up an injury or a drop in form the other comes in their place in a readymade and primed condition. Brilliant. Or is it? Defenders need a consistent voice behind them, Keepers have different techniques, while Henners might call one way, Ikeme might another, we’ve seen a few times each keeper come for a ball and hesitate, are they struggling from not being able to communicate with their defence? Our defence worries were compiled this week with the news that Stephen ward has been ruled out for the time being with a hairline fracture to his shoulder. Ward has been a revelation this season, dropping back from striker to left mid, left mid to left back he’s kept Hill out of the team, that’s the same Hill with 300 + first team appearances at left back in this league. He’s been an unsung hero, and I really do think we’ll miss him, he was useful by his very nature at supporting the attack, something that comes naturally to him, Hill doesn’t seem so happy with venturing forwards, and that leaves whoever’s in front of him a little bit stranded.

So what’s the solution to the defence? With my eye on the calendar it seems obvious to say “use the transfer window” but is that really what we need? New players need time to adapt, and while you’ve got time to adapt upfront, you’ve got far, far less time to adapt in defence, you mess up, you concede, you get booed and vilified for the rest of your career. No, I’d say unless we can get Mancienne back on loan, or someone to equal (hard to find) or better standard, we needn’t go running into the transfer market waving around our money like idiots. What about Shackell? Will he get his chance soon? Experienced at this level, hardly featured thus far, could this be his time to slot into the team? After all, he’s had all season to get into the groove.

Moving further up the field we come to the defence, which has been truly sublime at times this season, and equally, at times, seemed anonymous. I think our main problem is that while when picking our midfield the first three names flow out, Kightly, Jarvis and Henry. But what then? No, not even Mick’s entirely sure on that one. With Henry playing a centre mid, at times defensive midfield role, (a Makelele role if you will) he’s the man tidying up after Jarvis and Kightly’s forays up field, making sure we don’t stretch ourselves too thinly across the pitch. His role is an unspectacular one, but a vital one all the same. Henry is one of those players who the neutral or the hyperbolic fan rarely sees the point too, he seemingly does nothing, rarely passes forwards, never really passing more than a few yards and doesn’t score. But they’re the kind of people who thought Real Madrid’s galacticos were a good idea, and Football proved them wrong. You need a Henry in your team, hell he’s a poor man’s Diarra who in turn in a poor man’s Essien, the poor man’s Makalele, and he might be even further down those ranks, considerably so, yet he’s absolutely vital. We all know that Kightly and Jarvis are deadly in this league, so they’re not the issue here. It’s the final position in midfield, whether that be the form of an attacking midfield or a secondary centre midfielder, Mick can’t quite decide who he wants, Edwards and Jones seem to be the main players auditioning for the role yet neither have been convincing enough to make it their own. Now, this might be a place where we should be looking to strengthen in the remaining time we have left in the transfer window, an attacking midfielder who can create and pass with insight, yet still do the day to day central midfield duties is a hard berth to fill, if he weren’t injured, we’d essentially be looking at a Bodde figure, I believe this is why we were going for Gow, someone who could sit in the hole behind the strikers, creating space and chances. Who’s left in the market? Ben Watson? Who knows? Mick has a history of not usually being second guessed, so it’s like whistling in the wind to try and presuppose his next move, yet I think it might be in this area.

Finally, the reason why things have gone a bit wonky, isn’t even on the pitch. It’s in our heads. I think Wolves fans have just gotten into the habit of winning, because we’ve only lost one game since the 6th of December. Because we started the season in the August sun knocking sides to the gutter, anything less than a win is now greeted with deluded ranting, hyperbole and general misery making, we’ve got a winning mentality. Which is great, except we’ve gone a bit over the top with it all, I wouldn’t be surprised, with the current mindset that if we lose against Middlesbore on Saturday the lads will get booed off the pitch, which is utter madness.

If any Wolves fan had been taken to one side by Mick, one hand rested on your shoulder, as he looked into your eyes and said,

“Toby, by ‘eck I promise to you, we’ll be bloomin’ top of t’league in t’January, and I’ll say what more, we’ll have been top two since September”

You’d have said, “Mick, my name’s not Toby, and what’s with the accent?”

But then you’d have laughed in his face, probably said something about eating a hat, hell freezing over and pigs flying over head with a Dutchman riding aloft, wielding the World Cup.

Every time I look at the league table I can’t believe my luck, further more I can’t believe that I get to write about this brilliant, epic group of players every week, the best players we’ve seen in a Wolves team for a long time, the best I’ve ever personally seen. We all know that we’re not top of the league through a fluke, we’ve worked hard to get here, and we have also got the talent to back it up. Perhaps we’ve become a bit jaded by recent results but we know we’ve got it in us to knock five past a team, we just need to believe that again. Perhaps it’ll take a signing or two, Kyel from West Ham was a good start, perhaps a few may follow, but if they don’t we know we’ve got a team who’ve been top of the league for months without need of tinkering.

So I put to you, the Wolves fan, not to twitchily press refresh on the Sky Sports Transfer Centre looking for transfer news (I’ll do it for you), not to worry if we don’t win on Saturday (It’s just the Eon Cup) , but to get behind the team, not just when it counts on the day, but day to day, in the pub, at the bus stop, in the office, at school when another Wolves “fan” slates the team, calls for Mick’s head, moans and groans and wallows in potential failure, we don’t need you “supporting” our team.

Get out there and wear your heart, your club, and all they stand for on your sleeve, and believe, because you never know what might happen next.

So there we are.

Tarra-a-bit.

From the very first time I saw Matt Murray play (way back in the reserves, when we still played reserve games at home) I was excited by every (well nearly every) aspect of his game. If you disregard his weak distribution, Matt Murray is everything you want from a keeper. At the time, late 2002, we were struggling under Michael Oakes, who for too long had flapped and flailed at crosses and corners. Murray came in and with his gigantic, hulking 6’4 ½“ frame and picked up every single ball that had the audacity to have been put into his box. His reactions were razor sharp too, and I believe he was a massive part of us reaching the play-offs, he was the man who turned losses into draws, and draws into wins. He was an awesome, intimidating figure in the box.

It would be the play off final where, perhaps, he played his greatest game in a Wolves jersey. That day he was simply magnificent. When everybody in the stadium thought Paul Ince had deflected his defensive header into his own net Murray reached out one of his strong shovel like palms and pushed it to safety. Likewise, at the start of the second half, another key moment in the game came when United were gifted a penalty. Murray was presented with Michael Brown staring at him from the penalty spot. What happened next is a Wolves memory I’ll never forget. Having not been able to get tickets me and me da were watching the game round our neighbours’. I remember my dad saying, “why the hell is he standing so far over?” I remember replying “He knows what he’s doing”…secretly hoping he actually did.

As you can see from the video, he does indeed stand to his right of centre of his line. Stops. Raises his huge arms to their limit till they touch the crossbar and then jumps on the spot expectantly. He’s psyching Brown out. He’s telling him to try and shoot into the empty net. As Brown hits the ball, if you pause, Murray has already moved back into the centre of his goal, within a split second he’s dived across the open goal to claw out Brown’s shot, he gets up, and he smothers the follow up. The Millennium Stadium erupts; as does my next door neighbours house. It’s a memory that still gives me shivers.

At that point in time I truly believe along with a fair few people in the footballing world that Matt Murray was England’s finest. It’s a sad fact that I think if it weren’t for his injury problems, Matt would still be pushing for an England call up. However that’s where the problem lies for Matt, his injuries. Speaking from the experience of having torn my cruciate ligament and ripping my cartilage (at the same time) some years ago, coming back from injury is one of the worst experiences you’ll ever go through. I broke down twice in my fight to come back, re doing my cruciate a final time two years ago, that’s it for me. I had my surgery and I’ve given up. But for Matt to keep coming back, it shows immense mental strength, fortitude and pure guts. Because that’s what the hardest part is, the mental side. Until you have a major injury, you think you’re invincible; you’ll chuck yourself into anything. Once you’ve had an operation, been on crutches for a month, you play with fear. It’s hard to get back to what you were.

I can only hope that Murray can get back to the player I saw and idolised nearly five years ago, and that’s genuine. He’s got a chance at Hereford now to get some games under his belt, I’m sure I’m not alone in wishing him the best of luck. The only thing he’s ever lacked from his game is luck, there aren’t many players you could say the same for.

McCarthy entered the fray, promising a “new look wolves”. The brief for this new Wolves was simple – young, home nations, hungry, no more journey men. Rosa began shifting un-easily in his boots I’d imagine reading that in the Express and Star (As I’m sure all Wolves players do, they spend enough time giving them inane interviews). Yes, our at the time 29 year old Hungarian import who was on his sixth club with Wolves didn’t really match much of that brief, and both McCarthy and Rosa knew it. However, consigned to the reserves, I must say having seen him, he was a decent player with an eye for goal. It’s a sad conclusion but I think Rosa has been the victim of McCarthy’s early stance of no player being bigger than the club; it’s about the team. We saw this policy come to a head in the summer offloading of Eastwood. Many fans saw this is as an act out of dictatorship and betrayal, completely out of the blue, however, look at the signs, he’s been chipping away at player power ever since he’s been in charge.

I think to put it plainly, Rosa isn’t what he’s looking for and Rosa unfortunately seems to be quite happy with the reserves. He got his chance to play real football at Cheltenham recently when he went on loan, but I believe the stumbling block were his Molineux wages. He’s obviously fine with turning up every week, playing in the reserves every two weeks and drawing out his massive cheque at the end of the month. That’s why he’s not in the squad, with no squad number and no future at Wolves, there’s just no hunger in the Hungarian.

Despite playing in the old 3rd and 4th divisions, those seasons were my most enjoyable as a Wolves fan. Having just passed my driving test I drove up and down the country watching Wolves home and away as we romped upward through the leagues. Steve Bull scoring over fifty goals in two succesive seasons. Mark was a big part of that, a member of the last team of “normal” blokes to play for Wolves, before superpay and celebrity came along. When he retired from football he worked as a policeman in his native South Wales.

He had a great relationship with the fans, often joking around with us when the ball was at the opposite end of the pitch and sometimes closer to our goal. Close shaves were greeted with a “phew”, a wink and a big smile. I’ll always remember standing in the South Bank at Molineux, joining in with a chorus of “Kendall, Kendall show us your arse, Kendall show us your arse” at which he would often tuck his shirt into his shorts, and without acknowledging us give us a flash! I also remember, after conceding a penalty at Wrexham, a few Wolves fans threw their pies on the pitch, after the penalty was scored Mark picked up a pie and started eating it before taking his place back between the posts. I’m other Wolves fans have many other examples of Mark’s antics as a Wolves player.

However, he wasn’t just a joker. Mark was an excellent and reliable goalkeeper, unfortunate not to play for the senior Wales team, which at the time had the legendary Neville Southall between the posts. My favourite memory of Mark was a game against arch rivals West Brom at the Hawthorns. With the game level and into the last 5 minutes, Mark saved a penalty before Steve Bull scored a winner for us in the final minute to spark one of the most incredible celebrations I’ve ever been involved in as a Wolves fan.

He died of a suspected heart attack after a long walk and collapsed in the kitchen of his home late last night. Paramedics tried in vain to revive him. He is survived by a wife and two children. Rest in peace Mark, you will be sorely missed.