Well that was an enjoyable trip to Wolves, first win myself and WH have seen at the Mol for 6 years!!! The game itself wasn't great but Derby were poor and at times made us look like Barcelona. Penk Wolf sorted us with good seats, in the middle of the North bank towards the back and the view was superb, it really allows you to see the game develop and see the spaces and who's not covering them etc. As we walked into the ground, the first thing I noticed was how bad the pitch looked, quite bare on the Billy Wright side. As soon as I saw that Derby were going 4-3-3 and we were playing Saville and Coady in the middle, I said we were going to get hammered. I'm glad they made me eat my words! Just before the teams walked out, the Derby manager walked over to the Derby fans in the Steve Bull lower and applauded them to up the ante, which they did, and once the game kicked off, the only noise was coming from them.
The atmosphere wasn't poisonous as I thought it might be, but it took their defender to slice one out for a corner to wake our fans up, with the South bank singing 'What the fucking hell was that' to get the atmosphere going. Jeremy Helan looked sharp right from the start, taking on and beating his man and with loads of pace to spare. He looks a real talent on that showing, good on the ball, finds space to run down the wing, use his physical strength to hold Debry players back when trying to get around him and also tracks back to get stuck in when required. It was a good debut from him and he really allowed us to stretch Derby, who looked quite narrow at times. On the other wing, Byrne was showing some skills to get around his man, his first touch was quite poor, but he's got the capability to run into space and allow us to get forward, my only gripe with him, is that he holds the ball up too long sometimes, when he should be either cutting it inside or crossing first time. I thought he did well and should have been given way more free kicks as he was getting kicked and pulled a lot, but the ref seemed to let a lot go. Like Helan, he doesn't shirk his defensive responsibilities and tracks back when required.
As we piled forward down both sides, the crowd grew louder and the team grew in confidence, as Coady who look a bit half arsed for the first 15 mins, started to get stuck in and made some good tackles to stop them running through the middle. When the goal came it was a nice little cut inside by Byrne who laid it off to Saville who took a touch and then passed it into the bottom corner, it was a great finish and we all though it was Siggy from where we were, couldn't believe it when it was announced it was Saville! Fair play to the lad, who kept his composure with 2 defenders charging in.
After that it was all Wolves for a spell, Kmac and Coady sweeping things up and releasing the wingers who tried to find Siggy but the service wasn't great, but full marks for endeavour. Baath and EEL had a bombscare each in the first, backing off to allow Derby to get through but Helan, Coady and Saville made crucial tackles to foil them, Saville especially who took one off the foot of a Derby player as he winding up to pull the trigger. There was a shitload of handballs that weren't given, for both teams, and at this point the crowd turned on the ref, and I think he took it personally.
The equaliser was against the run of play, Doherty was coming forward more and getting into some good positions, as the forwards runs of Helan were pulling the Derby defenders towards him, leaving space for Doherty to fill and he had just won us a corner that came to nothing, when Derby broke forward and won a free kick on the edge of the area. Now this is something that we aren't good at, setting up for set pieces. Ikeme didn't really know what he wanted and Coady was leaving a huge gap in the wall, you could see he just din't want to be in the wall at all, and before the ball was even kicked he was almost turning sideways instead of trying to block it. Martin's kick was good but no-one in the wall bothered to jump and Ikeme had his diving boots on again as he was nowhere near it. It was a sweet strike but very frustrating to watch as we spent ages setting up for it, and in the end made it easy for them. Siggy blasted a rocket from the edge of the area just before half time but it just went over, would have been a great goal.
In the second half I thought we would make the fatal error of playing for the draw but we kept attacking, the formation working well, allowing Coady and Saville to fill in the spaces on the edge of their area. Siggy was played through on a glorious chance, with their defenders scrambling to get back, but the ball just wouldn't come under his control, he chested it, got it caught under his legs and then struggled to pull the trigger and they cleared it. A lot has been said on here about it being Siggy's fault, but the pitch was really bad in the area and it was unlucky for Siggy more than a lack of skill.
Derby made 2 changes after 15 mins, and I thought they were going for the win, but again we kept up the pressure, clearing our lines and unleashing the lads on the wings, resulting in Matt Doherty overlapping with Helan and getting through on goal and scoring! It was a tidy finish into the bottom but he was a mile offside. But it highlights how well Helan and Doherty linked up, to allow Doherty to get forward into that position.
Coming into the last 20 mins, there were no subs warming up and Ken sent Mason on cold. No wonder we have so many injuries. The crowd sang 'You dont know what you're doing' briefly, as it was a weird sub. Siggy's chance to score came from an interception in their half, he managed to shrug off Shackell to create some space but it was a bit of a daisy cutter, coming back off the post. The best moment of the game came when the attendance was announced as 19,000. The Derby fans started chanting 'Your support is fucking shit', and at that point Saville popped up with the winner and the whole of Molineux sang the same back to the hapless Derby fans in a nice bit of poetic justice.
So all in all, a good way to return to winning ways, and a well deserved MoM performance from Saville, but special mention to Doherty who did really well going forward, he had a slight bombscare when heading a cross out for a corner inside our 6 yard box, but overall he did really well. Also Coady played well, I was slating him in the first 15 mins but he grew into the game and made some good challenges in defences while running into the space behind Siggy when we attacked. Defensively we didn't look great at times, EEL and Baath doing their job competently but not liking it when players ran at them, but going forward we looked the best we have done in a while.
Was good to see Penk and Darlo again, and also to meet Machin, Parkin and Aikiwolf for the first time.
On the Sunday we did the Wolves museum which was superb, would definitely recommend it to anyone who hasn't gone and it's a fitting way to pay tribute to our footballing legacy.
