Bore draw

Wolverhampton Wanderers 0 v Ipswich Town 0

These are heady days at Molineux. An owner whose interest in affairs on the pitch appears, at best distant, at worst non-existent. A manager who seems to be suffering a severe lack of judgement favouring Bjorn Sigurdarson and Connor Coady ahead of respectively Joe Mason and Kevin MacDonald. A league position from which neither promotion nor relegation is possible and thus the perfect time blood a few youngsters – yet none appear. And for the second time in a row a home game of stultifying torpor.

One might blame the torpor on opposition Manager Mick McCarthy, a man not given to fielding teams that are easy on the eye. But in the first half it was the visitors who looked the more likely, creating more openings one of which, a 17 minute strike by Liam Feeney, struck an upright. That, plus a suicidal piece of defending by Kortney Hause, marked the stand out moments of the half. Period.

The highlight of the second half arrived in minute 73. For twas in minute 73 that Wolves fashioned their first shot on goal, defender Matt Doherty finishing off a fine move with an effort which struck the outstretched limbs of Bartosz Bialkowski. For a brief moment the chants of “boring, boring” were replaced by ironic cheers. And that literally was it.

During the half time interval I read an article on the late Johan Cruyff. It said that when he went to Ajax in 1970 they were merely “a reasonably good semi-professional side in a third-rate football country”. Together with Rinus Michels, the manager at Ajax, Cruyff developed a new way of playing the game which became known as “Total Football”. It was a sort of cerebral orchestra. Each player had to think like a playmaker hitting one touch passes whilst endlessly swapping positions in search of space.

If a semi professional team in a third rate football country can work on it (one touch football) then Wolves, a professional team in the second rate football country, are at least capable of doing the same. Sadly they are light years from getting close.

Wolves: Ikeme 7, Iorfa 6, Batth 6, Hause 5, Doherty 7, Coady 5, Price 6, Saville 5, Helan 6 Sub Mason, Zyro 5 Sub Le Fondre, Sigurdarson 4 Sub Henry 6.

Ipswich Town: Bialkowski 6, Chambers 6, Smith 6, Berra 6, Kundsen 6, Pringle 6 Sub Bru, Skuse 7, Douglas 6, Feeney 7 Sub McGoldrick, Pitman 6 Sub Varney, Sears 6

Attendance: 20,225

Ref: Robert Lewis 8

©Mark Brennand