Wolves 2 v Wigan Athletic 2

There was a moment during the second half when one felt that it was not to be Wolves’ day. As the game entered the 67th minute a good move down the left ended with the ball at Bakary Sako’s feet. Enjoying his best game of the season the Wolves winger fired the ball into the box from where it ricocheted into the six yard area but incredibly away from the advancing duo of Nouha Dicko and David Edwards. Scrambled for a corner Wolves at last made use of a dead ball kick, when Wigan could only clear Scott Golbourne’s cross to Sako, on the edge of the box. Rather than blast it over the bar (as he is wont to do) for once the Mali international displayed a deal of composure by side footing his shot delightfully into the net to restore parity. Enlivened Wolves would continue to press only to be repelled by the Wigan crossbar and some stout defending. As games go it...

Wolves 1 v Huddersfield Town 3

The last time Wolves played host to Huddersfield Town was on the 13th April 2013. On that particular day they lost 3-1 and were in disarray needing a miracle to spare them the trapdoor to third division obscurity. Mercifully those headless chicken days have long since past but as performances go this was one to forget. Outplayed and out-muscled by their Yorkshire opponents, the reality of life in the Championship has suddenly arrived.

Not that you would have thought that during the opening twenty minutes where the now familiar passing game produced a shuddering right post following a fine strike from Sam Ricketts and then an opening for Nouha Dicko which he snatched allowing keeper Alex Smithies to make a comfortable save. Then in almost their first foray into opposition territory Grant Holt out-muscled Richard Stearman in the right channel. Whilst the...

Well, you have to hand it to Mark James. Interviewed on Friday morning just before the opening blows were hit he stuck out his neck. “Europe has too strong a side for the Americans. They will win by four”. Yes they probably had the better team on paper but the Ryder Cup has a knack of bringing the best out of players such that world rankings and how much money is sitting in one’s Cayman Islands bank account means little.

But ever since the contest became one between the USA and Europe it is the unsung European’s who have seemingly been inspired by the event rather than their American counterparts. To a list that might contain the names of Philip Walton, Philip Price and Christie O’Connor Jnr can now be added Jamie Donaldson at 39 playing the golf of his life. For the last three days he has been in inspirational form claiming three points from four outings and hitting one of the great...

Wolverhampton Wanderers 1 v Bolton Wanderers 0

Once upon a time Bolton Wanderers had a chap called John McGinley a name that instills a certain amount of ill feeling amongst the old gold faithful. I never actually disliked the bloke but he clearly did something to attract the opprobrium. Perhaps he celebrated too exuberantly during one of those second division play- off games.

Mention Sam Allardyce and Nicky Hunt however and I get altogether more exercised, graceless and cynical being two words that spring to mind. I accept that football is a hard unforgiving game but there are ways and means of winning and the Allardyce philosophy was one which at times dragged the game into the gutter.

Bolton have moved on since those times, and now have ex Wolves striker Dougie Freedman at the helm. If I’ve got this right twenty months ago he was riding high as manager of a highly successful...

Wolverhampton Wanderers 3 v Blackburn Rovers 1

Though you would prefer not to, cast your mind back for a moment to the Wolves side under the management of Terry Connor. Chaos was a word that springs to mind closely followed by laughing stock. Thinking back to those dark days nobody could have envisaged the transformation that has taken place in the ensuing two and a half years. It’s actually shorter than that because things as we know went from bad to worse until the arrival of one Kenneth Jackett. Yes Wolves at this level are a club with resources others would die for. But as we are witnessing at Manchester United, it doesn’t matter how much money you spend, unless you can articulate a method of play and assemble a group of players who will buy into that method of play you will not get very far. Jackett has achieved both in almost the blink of an eye and for that alone he deserves...

It is less than four weeks since the great and the good of English cricket embarked on one of their periodic bouts of self flagellation. The 95 run defeat to India in the second test at Lords brought forth a volley of criticism with Alistair Cook taking the brunt of the vitriol. Though he had 28 test match centuries to his name a dramatic loss of form made many question whether he was fit to be selected let alone lead the side. Never one to hide his light under a bushel the charge was lead by none other than Geoffrey Boycott who in the Daily Telegraph wrote “Now that Alistair Cook has declined to give up the Captaincy for the benefit of the team, will the England set up have the balls to sack him?” He continued “it is obvious to most ex-players that he cannot cut it. Tactically he has not got it and the team are playing poor cricket”. Another offering their valued opinion was the ever...

You can be blessed with natural talent but if you lack mental strength you will never attain the heights. That, plus the small matter of 10,000 hours of practise. But as Matthew Syed points out in his excellent book “Bounce; The myth of talent and the power of practice”, even that can be scuppered by “the curse of the choke”. No sport is spared from its grip and none more so than in the confines of individual games and particularly those involving prolonged gaps in play allowing time for demons to poison the mind. Snooker, tennis and golf all seem to fit that template and are littered with examples of players whose natural talents were never fully recompensed by silverware. If you are of a certain vintage then the names of Jimmy White, Ilie Nastase and Greg Norman will resonate.

There was a time – not that long ago – when one wondered about the mental strength of young Rory, his...