Muppets to Puppets* A Typical London Wolves day out...

*Thanks to Andrew for title suggestion.

Turning up at Euston to get the train up to Wolverhampton on matchday is always the same process.Clock in with the travel orginiser,find out which carriage & seats we're booked on,shake our collective heads at our stupidity at doing this at an ungodly hour then pop outside to top up our nicotene intake for the journey.

As we get relatively cheap tickets for the journey Virgin trains only allow us to travel on one ticket, like a school trip only with beer.Ok,just like a school trip then.This can be annoying as we have to line up at the ticket barrier like naughty kids outside the Headmaster's office.However it does save any of us from drunkenly losing our ticket later in the day.

Luckily we have a sprightly young lad in our own little sub group within LW who does'nt mind doing a Usain Bolt to get us decent table seats---It's a dog eat dog jungle in the hunt for good seats,no esprit de corps on this one---Once ensconced it takes about five seconds for the heat to hit.I'm sure Virgin trains crank up the heaters in an attempt to get more folk to buy their crappy version of Cola.As we bring our own beer this unsubtle tactic is lost on us...

We usually get into Wolverhampton a good three hours before the game kicks off.Plenty of time to take in the culture of this fine City.As the culture of Wolverhampton seems to be based on drinking it's only natural to visit a pub or two,or three.Last saturday we visited four.Mainly because the first one smelt like a toilet,and the second was running out of beer...We ended up in the pub by the ground called The Wanderer.

Never seen a dartboard like this before...

Is there any point in discussing the game?

Probably a little bit; This was a game versus Blackburn that we had to win,or at least not lose.But once again we were never at the races.Was this worse than last week's 5-0 defeat to Fulham? Probably.Fulham are a decent team whilst Blackburn are not.But they outplayed us in every department.The only bright spark for Wolves was the debut of local boy,David Davis in midfield.

I have no doubt the players are giving it their all but frankly they're not good enough as a squad---You can only make a silk purse out of a sow's ear for a limited time before it's recognised as a sow's ear---We don't know if the owners have put such a restraint on finances that Championship players are all we can afford or if the managerial side thought these players would be good enough to keep us up.Perhaps we'll never know...

However the feeling is that we're just not good enough at the moment and are on our way to relegation.Either way i feel we'll need a large turn around in playing staff next season.

For us in LW our train back is now at a later time than before which affords us some decent time in the pub after the game before heading off.This can be a doubled edged sword.If we have a good win---Like last season's defeat of Man Utd---The town's rocking and the temptation is to stay all night,If we have a poor day like saturday we can get out of there pronto...

Whilst in the pub after the game one of our group read a Tweet from Wolves midfielder Jamie O'Hara saying he'd been abused by a small minority of Wolves fans while with his wife and holding his young son.We all shook our heads sadly and in disbelief.This is disgusting behaviour and can't be condoned.

One or two Wolves fans on Twitter yesterday tried to defend what happened but to my mind a player should not be abused whilst with his family,this is unacceptable on any front.

Whilst on that subject.Apart from how abhorrent i find such behaviour it's the height of stupidity on a purely pragmatic front.Players talk to each other around the country and i'm sure this incident is known throughout the football community already.How are we to persuade good players to come to our club with these sorts of things going on?

Anyhoo onwards and upwards...

The train journey back is usually a happy drunken affair with music provided by myself via the trusty old mp3 and a couple of small speakers.It's not that we don't care about the result but it helps to get it out of the system before the reality of home & work takes hold.We had one opposition fan a few weeks ago saying "If this is what you're like after losing,what the hell are you like after a win?" At the moment i wish i could remember...We also take a bit of the Black Country with us via a massive bag of local Scratchings courtesy of my elder brother(by far the most popular member of my family among LW!)

Sometimes we get bizarre and very funny interactions with other train users.Last season we came back with some Man City fans after we'd beaten them and i have to say they were a great crack to travel back with.Hopefully they'll be as magnaminous when we beat them again later in the season...

On saturday two middle aged women got on and sat behind us and from nowhere produced a couple of horse puppets and did a turn.for us.Very bizarre and very very funny...

We always have a good day out coming up from London for games.Indeed our mantra over the years has been "A great day despite the football" Many of us have been doing this for many years and hopefully will continue to do so for many years to come...

Next week? Champions Man Utd at home for our customary three points against them...an 8-15am train out of Euston.

Will i be there?

Hell yea!