Wolves 1 v Middlesbrough 3

There are times when you find yourself sitting in a seat looking out onto an area of turf where 22 individuals are running around trying to coax a ball into a rectangle to which is affixed a net and you ask – what the hell am I doing here ? Wednesday’s game against Brentford was such a night. Not only were Wolves dire they found themselves outplayed by a team assembled on the basis of an algorithm. Google’s tentacles impinge of many aspects of our lives but we have reached a sorry state when they start to poke their noses into a game that should be free from the AI world that awaits us (I fear the day when R2D2 occupies the right back slot).

As Saturday the 24th October approached, the New Zealand v South Africa RWC semi final offered a tempting alternative to another afternoon spent in area W4, row J, seat no. 0115. But the umbilical chord that keeps you...

Wolverhampton Wanderers 0 v Brentford 2

Mention the name Mark Warburton and the odds are that you are more likely to associate him with the sliced wholemeal residing in your bread bin than as an innovative football manager. Which is perhaps a shame, because up until the end of May 2015, Warburton was the highly successful manager of Brentford FC.

I wanted to know more so did a brief search of the Brentford FC Wikipedia page which lists past Brentford managers. It cites some interesting, yet unlikely names amongst them Tommy Lawton (1953) Jimmy Sirrel (1967 – 69), Frank McClintock (1984 – 87), David Webb (1993 – 97) Steve Coppell (2001 – 2002) and Terry Butcher (2007). All are better known than Warburton yet he alone amongst post war managers (during the 1930’s Brentford did play a number of seasons in the old First Division) has been the most successful, taking the Bees to within...

Derby County 4 v Wolverhampton Wanderers 2

The last time Wolves ran out onto the turf at Pride Park, or as it is now affectionately called The iPro Stadium, the game ended in 5-0 ignominy. That defeat, close on twelve months ago, presaged a run of four further defeats in which the Wolves defence - previously praised for its parsimony - assumed the traits of an out of control spendthrift. Though not quite the crushing defeat of last season, one hopes that today’s loss doesn’t herald a similar run of poor form. But, bar a ten minute spell following their equalising goal, well despatched by Benik Afobe, Wolves were never really in the game. Distinctly off colour they looked one dimensional and lacking in pace.

One dimensional and lacking pace is not a description one might ascribe to the All Blacks. Last night’s crushing defeat of the French hinted that their world cup campaign is...

Wolves 0 v Brighton & HA 0

As games of football go this one may struggle to clamber into the Hall of Fame for most exciting. Only once during the 48 minutes they were at full strength did Wolves threaten, albeit that Adam Le Frondre’s snap shot on the half hour - which was kicked off the line - arrived from a set piece. Once down to ten men it was backs to the wall but effectively so since, despite their numerical superiority, Brighton failed to really trouble Wolves goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez. His reputation had already been sealed when in the 22nd minute he first saved Tomer Hemed’s weak penalty kick before denying the same player again with a better save from the follow up.

Brighton arrived at the Molineux atop the Championship a circumstance somewhat different to last season when they narrowly escaped relegation. Though his tenure at Norwich ended with a reputation dented...

Following a run of two tame defeats, the latter away at Cardiff, it was vital that Wolves returned to winning ways if confidence were not to be further eroded. Today’s visitors Charlton arrived at Molineux unbeaten in the league and it was clear from the organised manner in which they played the first half that this would be no Bank Holiday stroll in the proverbial park.
Though Wolves dominated possession they failed to create a clear cut opening and went in at the break on level terms.

The home side began the second half brightly but as is so often the case it was the team who had spent most the time on the back foot who took the lead. In minute 54 Charlton moved the ball slickly before finding Icelandic international Johann Berg Gudmundsson on the left hand edge of the eighteen yard box. Moving the ball to his favoured left boot, he fired hard and low, Carl Ikeme allowing it to...

Wolves 2 v Queens Park Rangers 3

For the second time in four days Wolves played host to a post premier league outfit. Though saddled with a mountain of debt and possibly in breach of the fair play rules Queens Park Rangers offered up a much sterner challenge than Hull. Not that this was particularly evident during the opening third of the game when Wolves bossed affairs scoring twice through Benik Afobe and Kevin McDonald the latter with a fine goal.

Then in minute 37 Matt Phillips half beat Dominic Iorfa on the left flank before placing a beautiful swinging cross into the corridor of uncertainty. On hand was Charlie Austin who from six yards out made no mistake with his head. All of a sudden the wind had been taken from Wolves’ sails, never really to return.

On 51 minutes Phillips, now back on his preferred right wing, cut inside Kortney Hause before firing a half struck shot...

Wolves 1 v Hull City 1

Some things don’t change. Steve Bruce is still looking a little too rotund around the midriff for his GP’s comfort. Kevin McDonald is still the primary driving force in Wolves’ midfield. Tom Huddlestone still underachieves. And heads in the Billy Quiet still shake and voices mutter. Furthermore this Wolves side is fundamentally that which finished last season’s campaign albeit with new signing Conor Coady in midfield and, if I’m not mistaken, a Julian Assange lookalike at centre half. And I thought the WikiLeaks founder was still plotting world domination from his Ecuadorian lair.

The last time these two sides met in anger was on an evening in April 2013. Wolves, under Dean Saunders, were inching their way ever closer to the third division trapdoor. But on the evening in question a spirited performance was sealed by Kevin Doyle’s single goal all of which...

Okay – I admit it. In predicting that England would be rolled over by Australia following their 400 plus run defeat at Lords I got it rather spectacularly wrong. My only comfort is knowing that I was not alone, most pundits predicting a similar outcome. Where I was perhaps more wrong than most was in being too quick to admonish the side for its lack of backbone a trait which, in the subsequent tests, has proved to be a tag more applicable to the usually resilient Australians. The manner of their batting collapses at Edgbaston and Trent Bridge were so precipitate that for a short while one almost felt sorry for them. It was, as I say fleeting, for one then thought back to the ignominy endured at the hands of Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Matthew Haden, Steve Waugh and Adam Gilchrist - who never gave us an inch - and a sense of delight was restored. Indeed it was lovely that both Warne (Sky...

Some claim that golf has been played on the land occupied by the Old Course at St Andrews for five hundred years. Not consecutively mind you, for at one stage play was banned so that those in the pay of King James II could practice their archery. To the modern day golfer, armed with the technology and power to overwhelm it, the course is in many ways an anachronism. Yet no one can doubt its ability to provide drama and as a setting in which to celebrate a major triumph it is unrivalled. It is for that alone that all those who play amongst the professional ranks dream of claiming the Open at the” haem of golf”. To a long list of notable victors is now added the name of Zach Johnson.

And what a victory. Five shots off the leaders as he commenced his final round he was something of a sideshow to the main talking points of the morning. Would Jordan Spieth claim the title and with it his...

How does one find the grit, the steel to succeed in top end sport? It seems to elude the English. Just over a week ago England’s cricketers took an improbable lead against Australia a team generally noted for their hard as nails approach to the “gentleman’s” game. The victory, on the back of an invigorating performance in the ODI series against New Zealand, pointed to a much needed new dawn following the disastrous Ashes series down under and inept PR in the wake of the ECB’s dealings with Kevin Pietersen and the sacking of Alistair Cook as one day captain. But a week is a long time in cricket and yesterday England’s boys returned to type by capitulating on day four of the second Ashes test at Lords. Set the best part of a day and a half to survive (for they were never going to reach the target of 508) England lasted a mere 36 overs to record the heaviest defeat against Australia since...