Flying Kights...

There have not been many bright spots to this desperate season for Wolves,The short but enjoyable loan of Manny Frimpong,the emergence of David Davies and Anthony Forde from the youth ranks and latterly the superb and humourous support the Wolves fans have shown in the face of relegation doom.

However there's another bright spot; The return of Michael Kightly to the first team and the fact that he looks to be getting back to the form that had the football world sitting up and taking notice of him over three years ago.

Near the end of that last Championship winning season Kights was indeed flying high.He'd been the engine around which the team won the title with eight points to spare,had emerged as a regular with England's Under 21 squad with realistic talk of him getting a call up to the International squad proper.Not bad for a player who'd been playing Non-League football barely twelve months earlier...

All Wolves fans are au fait with Kights's story. On the books of Spurs and latterly Southend as a youngster but never made the grade and ended up playing Non League football at Grays Athletic where he started to attract the scouts of various clubs for his displays as a goalscoring winger/midfielder  Happy on either left or right foot.

It was Wolves who took the plunge,on loan at first and then buying him outright for the princely sum of £25,000.Wolves fans took him too their heart straight away.He was an instant hit and one of the biggest bargains in football.

There were rumours that Manchester United tried to scupper our deal with Kights by offering Grays half a Million for the player and when i met the Grays chairman at a pre-season game Wolves played at their ground he confirmed this.

That coming season in the Championship was--until now---Kightly's best at Wolves,he torn teams apart with his skill,intelligence and speed.One game V Forest particulary stands out where he tore the opposition full back a new arsehole.That player,Perch,is now a regular in Newcastle's first team riding high in the Premiership.

But that season was to end badly for Kights when he picked up a knee injury.We still went up quite easily and it was believed our hero would come back from his injury refreshed to show the premiership what he can do.

                                                     Kights picks up his title medal in full kit despite having a plaster cast on his leg.This small gesture told all Wolves fans the measure of the man.

However nobody knew how bad the injury was and it was to be a further eighteen months till he began playing regulary again.A loan spell at Watford helped to get him match fit and re-gain some confidence.

There was a very real fear that the injury had finished his career.The club had just lost the services of Goalkeeper Matt Murray to a similar injury---I'm not overstating it by saying had Murray stayed fit he could have become one of the worlds great keepers---It seemed Kights would go the same way.

But he has come back and is beginning to look like the player we know he can be.He's even appeared to add a bit more aggression to his game.

I'm sure i'm not alone in hoping he not only stays fit but stays at Wolves for a long time.I have no doubt that he will be THE  one great player in the Championship next season if he does.There's also no doubt he deserves the bigger stage of the Premiership and even the England team.Hell if Downing can still get in the squad then a fit Kights should be a shoe-in.

He's also living proof to many young players that don't make it at first then going to a club out of the league structure need not be the end of a top level career.Providing they put the work in.

Welcome back Kights.We've all missed you...

The crying game...

This coming Sunday my team Wolves are likely to be relegated from the Premiership after three years in the top flight.Even if we beat title chasing Manchester City results elsewhere will have probably sealed our fate...

When the inevitable happens and we're officially down there's one thing i will not be doing and that's crying.
Our game is on Sky's prime time football slot on Sunday afternoon so there will be plenty of scope for their camera's to grab a shot of a heavily tattooed fat bloke in a Wolves shirt blubbing like a little child at his team's demise.This for Sky is essentially the money shot...It gives them the win double to say "Look we're showing the human side of the game" and equally allows the shot to go worldwide where fans of every other club will point and laugh at said bawling fat bloke showing up our football club.

These last few months i have been proud of my fellow Wolves fans.We have reacted to our teams failure with good humour and sterling support.This is the way to do it.Laugh in the face of adversity.Embrace it with humour.Yes it's black humour of course.What else could it be?

I have never  personally known anyone cry at football except when we gained promotion and a few mates cried in happiness---I don't have a problem with happy crying by the way---I would like to think myself and my friends are adult enough to keep our emotions in check.Take our teams failure on the chin and bounce back next season.

Don't get me wrong im not empty inside.I don't have a swinging brick in place of a heart.I have cried in my adult life.Last time was when i was at my Mother's death bed and she took her last breath...There will be times in our lives when bad things happen,horrible things.This is when our tears are justified.Not when the fortunes of our football club take a downward turn.

Obviously there will be a lot of children in tears at the game on Sunday and they're exempt from any criticism
as they're clearly not mature enough to have learned to keep their emotions in check.But there will also be plenty of kids who handle it better than some of their adult counterparts...

So come on fellow Wolves fans let's show the world we can take this in an adult and mature way.That we may be going down but doing so with pride and our heads held high supporting our team.Not crying like a little child who's had their favourite toy taken away...

If you're still in doubt at the validity of my wish that no adult Wolves fan burst into uncontrollable blubbing at the final whistle take a look at this clip and remember the ridicule rightly heaped down on this sorry individual
                                                           

                                 
Now ask yourself this question: Do you really want your crying face plastered all over the World on You Tube by a gloating Baggies fan?  

Or would you rather have fellow Wolves fans post clips showing us fans with our heads held high when the deed is done?

I know which one i'd prefer...

/\_/\  /\_/\        

This season's football Awards...

The Robert Johnson Faustian pact award to Premiership officials for their continuing favourable decisions towards the richest clubs.

The Cameron/Clegg We're all in this together award to Roger Johnson and Mario Balotelli for services to team spirit.

The King Canute futile attempt to stem the tide award to Wayne Hennessey.

The Titanic re-arranging the deckchairs award to Steve Morgan and Jez Moxey.

The Piers Morgan Who ate all the humble pie award to Joey Barton.

The Anne Boylyn Off with his head award to Mick McCarthy and AVB

The Lord Lucan disappeared without trace award to Berbatov and Ray Wilkins.

The Jurassic Park tethered goat award to Terry Conner.

The Baldrick I have a cunning plan award to Ryan Giggs for his super injunction debacle.

The Martin Luther King I have a dream award to Suarez and Dalglish

The Bill Murray Lost in Translation award to Carlos Tevez.

The Oliver Reed Line em' up barman award to Roger Johnson.

The Ken Dodd/Lester Piggott Tax returns award to Rangers and Pompey

Goal of the season Peter Crouch V Man City

Own Goal of the season All of Kenny Dalglish's press conferences.

The Devon Loch And it was all going so well award to Man City.

The Give em' enough rope award to Fabio Capello for allowing the FA to back him into a corner.

The Invertebrates Annonymous award to The FA for their compliance with the so called Big clubs.

The Smoking gun award to Drogba,Lampard and Terry for their part in AVB's sacking

The Tom Daly 6.9 6.9 6.9 award to Carroll,Larsson,Suarez,Etherington and Walcott

The Gerald Ratner you get what you pay for award to Carroll,Torres,Downing and Henderson

Player of the season. Paul Scholes

Wolves player of the season. The fans,most notably the South Bank.

That's the end of the awards and as Roger Johnson would say;Mine's a large one...

Red Nev.The people's pundit...

Gary Neville has long divided opinion among non Manchester United supporters.Many hate him and some really hate him.   But his new career as a Sky pundit is now begining to confuse those haters as they're being forced to admit that he's quickly making a name for himself as the best analyst on the box by a long long way...

When he retired from the game last season there were rumours that he'd been signed by Sky, social media outlets and football websites nearly exploded with the outrage from fans who knew nothing about his opinions on the game---I had already read a fair bit about his thoughts on the game and knew he'd be good---Now many of those same folk are coming out with praise for Red Nev.Albeit grudgingly.

Neville had a remarkable career with Mancheter United at right back.602 games,scoring 7 goals.In that time he won many trophies with his club.He also played 85 times for England,and in truth the national team have yet to find an adequate replacement.He was also a talented Cricketer and could have played for Lancs.

Although many fans hated him i bet nearly every one of them would've loved him to be in their team,not only for his undoubted skill as a defender but as a voice in the dressing room.Once Peter Schmiciel alluded to this when he called Neville a "Busy little c**t" Believe me it was'nt a compliment.But it showed he cared and as Captain he was also the conduit between the players and Fergie.

Red Nev shows his appreciation of the Scouse nation...

He's never been fashionable with his pencil moustache and Amish style haircut,i presume he took some stick from his contemporaries at Man Utd,especially Beckham & Giggs.Indeed amongst my friends he's known as Dot Cotton...

                                           Becks,Butt & Neville caught in a rare informal moment

He looks very uncomfortable in a suit,like a Manc delinquent in court receiving his first ASBO,the flat Manc delivery only highlights the image.However when he talks about the game all that pales into nothing because he talks more sense than any other pundit on the box.

On the Monday night Sky game he has the chance to play with the gadgets and talk us through the weekends goals & major incidents.This is where he comes into his own and often i have learned new things about the game watching his explanations of how incidents came about.He also does a fine line in self deprecation.

However one thought does occure to me.He's making such a good fist of the job that he'll never go into coaching.You don't work for over twenty years with one of the great managers without picking up some expert knowledge of the game.Football's loss i fear...

Many football fans who previously perceived Neville as The Devil incarnate are now revising their opinion of Red Nev the pundit,even some Liverpool fans are coming round to him...

Take a bow Gary...or better still come and manage Wolves...

Wolves down the plughole...Enough watery metaphors already!

...Lost at sea.
...All at sea.
...Becalmed.
...Rudderless

On the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking it seems appropriate to continue with the watery  metaphors when it comes to Wolves this season.

Yesterday was the chance to grab a lifeline--or a liferaft if you will---in their fight against relegation.All the teams above us lost and we were live on ESPN after those results were known.If ever we needed a win it was now...

Stoke away is difficult,they play an in- your- face- high tempo game usually and get good backing from a voracious home crowd.But for the first half hour the home team seemed strangely subdued and the crowd was silent.

For the third game on the trot we took the lead--Michael Kightly scoring with a pass that evaded both Dave Edwards and the Stoke keeper---For the third game on the trot though taking the lead was the start of our problems...

No matter how badly Stoke are playing the one thing everyone knows is not to give away needless free kicks around your own box as they're experts in dead ball situations.Maybe the Wolves players have'nt been watching their games these last three seasons as that's exactly what we did.We payed the price as they got both their goals from these situations...

This was our sixth straight defeat on the bounce,but arguably we should, or could,have got three wins out of the last three games.  The last three opponents were average at best and were there for the taking. However it's obvious our players don't have the  ability to kill a game once taking the lead.

It's also plainly obvious that the current manager,Terry Conner,is way out of his depth.We're basically playing the same moribund football that we were producing under Mick McCarthy but without the added ingredient MM bought which was getting every last ounce out of the players.TC does'nt appear to have that in him...

But in saying that no team can hope to establish themselves as a viable Premiership team by workrate and heart alone.There has to be a modicum of Premiership quality amongst the players too and sadly many of ours are lacking that.

This also leads to a problem for next season in the Championship.Many of the players there---Let's assume we manage to keep hold of them---are excellent at that level and could well do a good job in attempting to get us back in the Premiership at the first go---I know it won't be easy but it's certainly achievable providing they are'nt too mentally scarred by relegation---But they need a good strong manager with new ideas' to show them the way.

If that is achieved we then need to be ruthless and replace many of them with better quality players.No room for sentiment now i'm afraid...

Until that us Wolves fans will have to suffer through relegation and the barbs of our rivals.We're a thick skinned lot though and the Summer months will be spent licking our wounds and looking forward to trips to Brighton,West Ham,Blackpool and er,Millwall...etc

So what's the future going to hold? Do we sink without trace or Sail happily towards a new dawn?

I have no idea frankly but i know one thing...I'll be there with them all the way...

/\_/\   /\_/\

Same as it ever was...

In a very odd week even by Britain's standards,where the Govt encouraged people to panic buy petrol,had heartfelt debates about Cornish Pasties and George Gallaway,the ultimate political show pony,regained his seat in The House of Commons it was up to Wolves to regain some equilibrium...

This of course is what they did by once again losing to not only remain at the foot of the table but also lose ground on the teams above them.
Relegation looks like a foregone conclusion now i'm afraid...

The day began well with a few bottles of Sparkling wine on the train for our birthday game(mine on Monday,Dave's today and Rich's Friday) This is something of a tradition and let's be honest will be the only excuse we'll have for cracking open anything even remotely resembling Champagne this season...

As there was'nt any early afternoon game on TV we decided to pop down to one of my favourite little pubs,The Combermere Arms in Chapel Ash.

A great little place which has much to warrant a visit,not least of which is a tree growing in the men's toilet...

So i suppose i'd better talk about the game...*Sigh*

To be honest for the first hour we were by far the better team and could have been two or three goals up.This was the best we have played since TC took over from Big Mick as manager and deservedly took the lead when a rejuvenated Michael Kightly scored a typical Kights goal,cutting in from the right to smash a beautiful left footer into the bottom corner.

This is the moment when TC should have changed things by bringing on Karl Henry to shore up the midfield and maybe also Doyle to hold the ball up in Bolton's half.But it did'nt happen and our defensive lapses came into play again with the team capitulating again to poor opposition...

Bolton's equaliser was a case in point.Wolverhampton born ex player Mark Davies waltzed into the area and seemed to dive to gain a penalty.Whatever the rights or wrongs of the penalty award there's no denying that the fault lies with Roger Johnson.He dived into a stupid challenge in the area,going to ground  thereby giving Davies the opportunity to make the most of the challenge.

I will also suggest the next two Bolton goals were down to Johnson too...He lost his marker for the second and then barely got near to Kevin Davies for the third.

I have never slated an individual Wolves player on these pages but i'm going to make an exception now.What the hell is it with Roger Johnson? When we bought him all Wolves fans were happy,including me.But he's been a crock of shit all season for us.

He seems to have no positional sense whatsoever.No idea about orginising his defence and an attitude that would make a surly teenager blush with shame.

There was a moment just before half time yesterday when goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey was clearly unhappy with Johnson's inability to pick up his man yet again and had a go at him.We see goalkeepers doing this all the time in games and it's good to have a vocal Goalie.

Johnson---The Captain remember---squared up to Hennessey.I have no idea what was said of course but i have never seen Hennessey so incandescent with rage.By the crowds reaction it's no doubt who's side they were on by loudly singing the keepers name...

Whatever was said,whatever the provocation it's the captain's job to calm the situation down and get everyone in line for one aim,that is to win the game.But Johnson seems to be only interested in his own game,which has been poor all season anyway.

I don't know if it's just coincidence but our fabled team spirit seems to have slowly eroded since Johnson walked into Molineux.As far as i'm concerned the sooner he leaves the club the better...

Ah well could be worse.Could be a Man City fan...Or a Liverpool fan.