International preview

It's that time again when the international break comes round and us fans are left wondering what to do for the weekend.

Yes, England maybe playing Brazil but is a meaningless friendly really that important compared to our relegation battle?



Instead, I will be settling down on Saturday to watch Ireland's important play-off first leg with France. It's a game I have been looking forward to since the draw was made. It will be intriguing to see how Super Kev performs against world class opponents like the French.

In my opinion Doyle has been our best player since his switch from Reading and what I have seen of him, he possesses that little bit of extra quality. The likes of Villa, Spurs and Everton rated him enough in the summer to register serious interest so I think he has enough to cause a shaky French defence problems.



Serbia's friendly across the Irish Sea in Northern Ireland couldn't have come at a better time for Nenad Milijas. The Serb has made an impressive comeback to the side but still needs more match practice to get up to full speed. Milijas has so far produced his best stuff for Serbia and I think a strong performance on Saturday will give hm the confidence to secure a regular place in the team.

Wales v Scotland is the game which should interest us Wolves fans the most. Wayne Hennesey, Dave Edwards and Leeds loanee, Sammy Vokes will be featuring for Wales while Christophe Berra will be at the heart of the defence for Scotland.



I am particuarly looking forward to seeing how Vokes performs. I am a big fan of the Welsh youngster and was dissappointed to see keogh given the chance to partner Doyle at the start of the season instead of vokes. I haven't seen much of Vokes at Leeds but Simon Grayson has been singing his praises.

Dave Edwards has a lot to prove against Scotland. I thought he was excellent for us last season but he has yet to convince me in the Premiership. He hasn't been playing in his favoured role in the centre of midfield butI still think he could have done more on the wing. He needs a strong performance against the Scots or Mick could soon drop him.

Hennesey has continued to impress me this season with his assured performances. I thought Hanneman might be worth a shout with his experience but Hennesey looks like a seasoned pro with the way he has been playing. Berra hasn't been as impressive this season but now his 'buddy' Craddock is partnering him in defence, I think he will really kick on starting with a solid display against an ordinary Wales side on Saturday.

The international weekend may be an inconvienance but it will be interesting to see how our players do on international duty with some pushing to get into our team and some trying to stay in the team.

Up the Wolves!

The old dog still has it!

An excellent performance by club captain Jody Craddock on Saturday has not gone unnoticed by Kevin Doyle.

Super Kev believes Craddock could go on until he is 40;"There's no reason why he shouldn't go on another five, six or seven years".

This is a glowing reference for his club captain and what I have seen of the ex-Sunderland stopper so far this season, I would echo Doyle's thoughts.

Craddock has brought an air of calm to our defence with his experience. Many believed it would have been Mancienne and Zubar at the back for us this season but Mancienne hasn't been up to the task. We can't wait for a player to develop into a Premiership centre-half when we're in a relegation battle. Craddock has stood up and been counted.

Zubar has struggled to adapt in England but he looks at home at right back in kevin Foley's absence. Craddock and Berra at the back works for us. The partnership saw us through the last 10 games of The Championship last season when we gained promotion. They are our best partnership and Craddock clearly enjoys his responsibility of being the older man in the partnership. The experience he has enables him to install confidence in Berra.

A man who has often been down the pecking order and sent out on loan under McCarthy has come back time and time again to prove the stubborn Yorkshireman wrong but Mick has no complaints at the moment;"Jody is far to fit to be having any swansongs. He's doing himself no harm, he's playing very well".

It is ironic how Jody turned in a man-of-the-match performance against the team he was on loan at a couple of years ago. I'm glad he is still at Molineux as Mick revealed how Stoke boss, Tony Pulis wanted to keep the experienced centre-half;"Tony liked him and that's not surprising, because he's been brilliant".

I'm pleased that Mick has kept faith with Craddock because he has come into the team and done a sterling job whenever he has been asked and I think the 34-year old is just the experience we need in defence to keep us up.

Attack is the best form of defence

An entertaining local derby at The Britannia yesterday ended 2-2 but it was a case of what if?

We might be pleased but like the last few games it could have been so much more.

A point away to Everton is a great result but we conceded in the 88^th and it felt like a loss. It was always going to be tough at Goodison Park but we should have held on. An Ebanks-Blake penalty salvaged a point at home to a Villa but this was a poor performance. Villa failed to take the game by the scruff of the neck and at home it really was an opportunity missed against an underperforming Villa. The point against Stoke yesterday was the one I most pleased with. I failed to catch the game but what I have read in the papers and seen on Match of the Day, we did well to come back. Super Mick was disappointed that we didn’t push on to claim the three points.

This could ultimately cost us. We need all the points we can get to stay up and if we attacked more then these three draws could have been three wins.

This coming Saturday sees Arsenal head to Molineux and the only way we will get anything out of this game is by attacking. This might sound crazy against the mighty Arsenal but what have we got to lose? We’re at home and we need to intimidate them. They won’t like defending from the very start with 28,000 of us Wolves fans pushing the boys forward. We have tended to take the safe option and work our way into the game for the first 20 minutes. Villa were there for the taking but we didn’t want to take the initiative. This has to happen against The Gunners or we will be ripped apart.

One player who could give us the incentive to go for it on Saturday is Nenad Milijas. He came on against Stoke yesterday and made things happen. He set up both goals with his wand like left foot and from what I heard he created an awful lot more in the second half. How much does he have to do to make Mick realise that he is the real deal? The honest Karl Henry has to be dropped on Saturday. There is no creativity in the heart of midfield with Castillo and Henry both playing. Castillo has looked the more impressive of the two and he also knows Milijas from Red Star Belgrade. Ok, there will be more spaces in midfield for Arsenal to exploit but it is a risk worth taking if we are going to have a chance. The Serb is of international quality and we need players like Milijas if we are going to have a chance against Arsenal.

Watch this space for all the build up to the game against The Arsenal on Saturday.

Up the Wolves!

No show again at St.Andrew’s

I settled down to watch Match of the Day on Saturday night and I noticed how many empty seats there were at St.Andrews.

The Blues were playing Sunderland and the attendance was a mere 21,723. St.Andrew’s can hold a tad over 30,000 so there were over 8,000 empty seats. I must add that Sunderland virtually sold out their end.



Poor attendances were a common thing at The Blues last season. Over the course of 23 home league games they had a combined attendance of 457,767 with an average of 19,909. We had a combined attendance of 555,525 with an average of 24,135.

The Blues lowest attendance was against Derby County where 15,330 attended, whilst our lowest was 21,326, ironically against Derby. Birmingham’s highest attendance was 24,825 when Preston visited St.Andrew’s. This was The Blues last home game and had the chance to clinch promotion, admitingly the game was on Sky but you would expect the game to be virtually sold out. Our biggest attendance was 28,252 against Doncaster on the last day of the season. Yes we were picking up The Championship trophy but a sell-out was still impressive.

The attendance for the derby against Coventry only attracted 17,215 which is a disgrace when St.Andrew’s can hold 30,000. We managed to attract 25,893 to Molineux when we played Coventry.

I cannot believe that less than 20,000 turned up to Birmingham’s home clash with Reading. This was a massive game and ok it might have been on Sky but there should have been many more there. We played Reading on a Tuesday night and over 24,000 turned up.

I remember the time when The Blues came to Molinex for the top of the table clash. They had the cheek to say our support was rubbish. The game was on sky and we still got over 26,000. The Blues fans can’t say much when we took 4,500 for the FA cup tie at St.Andrews and the attendances was still only 22,232. If I remember rightly, Blues season ticket holders were offered free tickets.

I may have a little bit too much time on my hands if I’m prepared to do this much research on attendances but the stats show just how superior our fans are to those down the road in Brum.

I would have thought that now The Blues are back in the Premiership they would be getting larger attendances but I thought wrong. An average of 23,441 fans have turned up to Blues games this season. The lowest gate was 19,922 and that was the first home game of the season against Popmey. This is an absolute disgrace on The Blues part.

An average attendance of 28,401 shows Molineux has virtually been sold out every game this season.

One game you could count on being sold out was Blues v Villa. Surprisingly only 25,196 turned up to the Brum derby and this would have been even worse if Villa didn’t sell out their end. We got over 28,000 on Saturday against Villa and the game was on Sky. Blues attendance against Villa demonstrates how poor their support is.

Carson Yeung believes he will turn The Blues into the best team in the country. He has an uphill struggle if those Brummies carry on staying away from St.Andrew’s. But who could blame them when the real team is down the road in Wolverhampton?





Up the Wolves!

Wolves 1 Villa 1

On the face of it, a point looks a good result against European candidates Villa. But on today’s performance, I’m worried if we will still be in the Premier League come May.

The commitment was there to see from both teams in the local derby but the lack of quality was shocking.

The way we dominated possession in the first 20 minutes was really impressive. I thought we could kick on and go in with a lead at half time. The problem is that we are lacking creativity.

I think Castillo and Henry playing in midfield together is the reason we’re not creating much. Two holding midfielders suit us away but at home it is a different matter. We had plenty of possession against Pompey and lost and it was nearly a case of déjà vu against Villa. Mick needs to put Milijas back in the side because there is no way he will adapt otherwise. Milijas gives us that creativity we’re craving and he works well with his former Red Star Belgrade teammate, Castillo. Mick needs to bite the bullet and sacrifice the reliable Henry. It’s a case of sacrificing reliability for creativity, which is the only way we will kill off teams at home.



Dave Edwards is a cause for concern as he is not the sort of player who can take on a man and beat him so why drop Jarvis who has been doing this on the left all season? Kightly suffered from this changing around in midfield as he found himself on the left. He looked out of sorts as he didn’t have the confidence to take on players. This might be because of the step up in class or lack of fitness but if he was playing on his favoured right wing then he would have had more confidence to try things. A winger’s job is to beat their man and create chances. Who better than Kightly and Jarvis?

On a more positive not, the defence really impressed me today. The news of Kevin Foley’s injury might not be as bad as first feared because we have Ronald Zubar. The ex-Marseille defender was my man-of-the match today. He was solid in defence and had a bit to offer going forward. I wasn’t expecting such an assured performance. It was also good to see Big George silence the doubters with his performance today. No one doubts his strength but he has looked a bit shaky in past weeks whilst in possession but there was none of that against Villa. The Cameroon born left-back looked in complete control and is surely pushing for an international call up.

Michael Mancienne has been the culprit for many of our defensive errors this season, so I was pleased to see Mick sanctioning the return of old stalwart, Jody Craddock. He was in control at all times and I think the bandaging round his head scared the living day lights out of Carew and Agbonglahor because they were nonexistent. The solid partnership of Berra and Craddock at the back end of last season was the reason we went up so why not stick with them if things are working well?



A point was a good result for us today but we must improve dramatically if we’re going to survive this season. We can have all the possession in the world but if we don’t create anything then we’re not going to get very far. Henry and Edwards doesn’t give us that creative freedom.

Up the Wolves!