Not-so-clueless Exile

Here we go again

There are just 5 days to go to the new season and the pre-season friendlies are now complete after our close and reasonably entertaining encounter with Premiership Reading on Saturday. I feel confident that 2007-2008 has a chance of being another great season of progress at Molineux, and that we can reach our goal of promotion in May if the luck falls our way over the coming months.
However, it is noticeable that the doom-mongers are suddenly out in force. I have seen that Breen is useless, that Darren Ward has the turning circle of the Torrey Canyon, that Eastwood is lazy, that Stephen Ward cannot play left wing, that we have no solution at right back, that Mulgrew isn`t Championship standard, that Keogh doesn`t score goals, that Elliot isn`t a killer finisher, that Bothroyd is definitely leaving after that incident on Saturday, that Murray is injury prone and Hennessey too young to be trusted, and that the takeover process has denied us the opportunity to sign players. All of that in 48 hours after we were the better side against a team that finished 8th in the division above us!

I sincerely hope we aren`t going down the old road of getting on the team`s back again. Last season was a revelation in that, most of the time, we all pulled together behind Mick and the team, and I would despair if that were lost already just because there may be a bit of money floating about and we appear to be amongst the favourites this time round.

Looking briefly look back at the game, we scored a great first goal and dominated the opening 20 minutes. Elliot could have scored a hat-trick but Marcus Hahnemann was in terrific form in the Reading goal. Everything was rosy and then somehow Reading turned around 3-1 to the good. Their first was a defensive howler where the defender and goalkeeper left it to each other and a forward nipped in. The second was a nice interchange of passes and a good finish – Premiership football. Their third was a monumental deflection and a huge slice of fortune.
The second half was by comparison a little less lively, the Bothroyd goal and incident apart, but we more than held our own against top-flight opposition and should have equalised at the death, when the excellent Kightly was clean through. We are also the only opponent to score two against Reading this pre-season, and we should, in all honestly, have doubled that tally. In the Championship, we will do. Our forwards can be lethal in this division.

If Murray is out long term, that will be an issue as we would only have one fit goalkeeper. However, that goalkeeper is the Welsh international choice and is already a special talent who will improve with more appearances. I would like to see a Right Back signed as Little is a young man learning his trade but these are the only tweaks that the first eleven needs at the moment.

Wolves are a good side, with a good manager, and should do well in this division. Let`s get behind them and help them achieve their goal.