Wolverhampton Wanderers 2 v Newcastle United 1

This has been an odd start to the season. In their opening three games and particularly the home matches against Spurs and Manchester United, Wolves looked reborn, fast paced and dominant performances ending in frustrating defeat. The tide appeared to turn with the away win at Watford since when Wolves have been outplayed by Brentford, were fortunate at Southampton and were far from convincing today. Yet nine points is probably a satisfactory return for the performances so far. The concern is that they made hard work of today’s win. The upside is Hwang Hee-chan. It is still early days but the Korean forward looks like the finished article. Possessed of pace, a football brain and crucially composure in front of goal he could be a more than adequate replacement for Diogo Jota whose absence was so evident during last season’s indifferent...

Southampton 0 v Wolverhampton Wanderers 1

Well, it wasn’t pretty but after a succession of games in which lady luck had conspired against Wolves their fortunes at last changed to record a vital away win against fellow strugglers Southampton. The victory doubles their season points tally and lifts them two places into a far more comfortable 14th position.

It did not always appear possible. After an early squandered chance by Nelson Semedo - not the first time this season that he has failed to convert - Wolves spent most of the first half on the back foot. It was their good fortune however that the home side were as inept in the final third as the visitor’s, poor final delivery and weak attempts on goal ensuring that the sides went in to the half time break all square.

The first half momentum continued with Southampton during the early stages of the second half and in minute 55 Jose...

Wolverhampton Wanderers 0 v Manchester United 1

With the benefit of twenty-four hours to view the game does one see it in a different light to that which dominates in the immediate aftermath. Not much. The only thing that has changed is that the sense of disappointment has lessened. But it still hurts.

It didn’t help that the manner of the defeat mirrored that of the previous game v Spurs a week ago as once again Wolves dominated large portions of the game only to fail to make that dominance pay. How Machado Trincoa in the fifth minute and Romain Saiss in the 68th had both their efforts cleared off the line will forever remain unknowns that no amount of reasoning will explain. The second miss seemed to knock the wind out of Wolves’ sails and there was a sense of inevitability that having failed to score, United would eventually punish them. This they did with just over ten minutes of...

Wolverhampton Wanderers 0 v Tottenham Hotspur 1

I am not a betting man but if I were what odds on the opening home game of the season being an encounter between the very manager, who just four months previously had been occupying the home team’s dugout, and his Portuguese replacement. Coincidence, eventuality …. call it what you will but that is what occurred today at the Molineux.

Furthermore, Nuno Espirito Santo returned to WV1 on the back of yet another defeat over Pep Guardiola. Last week’s 1-0 win for his new charges Spurs, was his third in the Premier League over the Spaniard. By contrast Wolves opened their account with a defeat away at Leicester by a similar margin. The one bright note for home support was that Harry Kane’s future appears Manchester bound and thus he was kept from the fray until twenty minutes from the end.

By then Wolves should have been home and hosed but...

On Saturday 14th August at good old 3pm Wolves play Leicester City in their 2021-22 Premier League season opener. The start of any new season is always a significant moment, made all the more so this year in that it will mark the first premier league game since 7th March 2020 that Wolves will perform in front of a live audience. On that last occasion, a dreary 0-0 draw at home to Brighton & Hove Albion, few knew as they left the Molineux that football in front of live crowds would be put on hold for the next eighteen months. Or that by the end of those eighteen months Wolves would no longer be led by their talismanic manager, Nuno Espirito Santo - the man who, more than any other over the last fifty years, had transformed their fortunes. It’s almost as if the club contracted Covid, required ventilation, recovered but is now suffering the effects of Long Covid.

Which probably explains...

Italy 1 v England 1 (Italy won 3-2 on penalties)

So the long wait continues. Fifty-five years and counting since England last won a major International trophy as once again the nation must take solace in assuming the role of gallant loser. By any measure it’s a bum rap, made all the more punishing by losing to the agony of penalties in front of a home crowd desperate for its moment in the sun. The footballing gods have not always been kind. But when the dust finally settles, on an ever growing list of nearly tournaments, what conclusions can one draw from the Euro 2020 campaign?

The Credit Column;

• Gareth Southgate – in his management of player and media relations he is first class. His modest approach, setting stall by results rather than words, instilled in his squad a collective spirit where everybody worked for everyone else. This spirit also built resilience and a degree of...

One minute you are riding the crest of a wave gliding effortlessly through to the fourth round of the Wimbledon Championships and the next you have come up against a battle hardened Aussie of Croatian heritage and your world is suddenly falling apart. As the dust settles on Emma Raducanu’s Wimbledon adventure will Monday 5th July 2021 be a springboard to greater glory or the splendid yet all too brief emergence of a mayfly?

Allow me to back track twenty three years, to the 19th July 1998. A young Englishman named Justin Rose has nearly pulled off the impossible by claiming the claret jug as an amateur at the Open Golf Championship played that year at Birkdale. Famously chipping in from fifty yards at the 18th hole for a birdie, he finished tied fourth, two shots shy of the eventual winner Mark O’Meara. The following day he turned Pro and thus embarked on an infamous run, missing the...

England 2 v Germany 0

The last time England beat Germany in the knock-out stages of a major tournament I was 6 years of age. I am now edging towards 62. Just reading those words again makes the enormity of what England achieved this evening, all the more remarkable. And not merely because the national side finally removed an incredibly heavy monkey from its back but also because of the manner of its execution which smacked of Italy in their hard to beat pomp. England don’t play like this.

In the wake of England’s group qualification the general consensus was that if the side was to progress any further in the tournament they had to embrace a far more enterprising persona. One of the two holding midfielders had to be replaced with a far more creative force of which England possess an abundance. Yet when the team was announced my heart sank. Rather than stick with the side that had...

There was a moment during the second half of England’s group qualifier against Scotland which rekindled memories of the last time England played in the finals of the European Championships – 27th June 2016 and the infamous encounter with Iceland. As the game progressed, disaster growing ever more certain, England’s beleaguered Manager, Roy Hodgson, exuded unalloyed panic. Fast forward to Friday 18th June 2021 and with lowly Scotland outplaying their more richly resourced neighbours, Gareth Southgate’s touchline demeanour assumed a similarly troubled hue. Then, just at the point where a positive move was required, he replaced Phil Foden - England’s most naturally gifted footballer - with Jack Grealish. That the ponderous Declan Rice and Kalvin Phillips should remain on the pitch, when it was Foden and Grealish who should have been working in tandem, smacked of panic. All sense of intent...

Wolverhampton Wanderers 1 v Manchester United 2

My life being one lived in the proverbial fast lane it’s rare to find myself trawling through the BBC’s sports website on a Friday night seeking information. I was in fact watching the second round of the US PGA Championship and wondering why Sam Horsfield - who had shot a first round 69 - was no longer featuring on the leaderboard, when there on the home page was the headline “Nuno Espirito Santo – ‘an unquestioned success’ - but what next for club & the Portuguese manager?”. Nuno Espirito Santo: ‘An unquestioned success’ - but what next for club & the Portuguese manager? - BBC Sport

Reading Simon Stone’s piece made it seem like an age since the comical Walter Zenga and dour Paul Lambert had joined a never ending line of managers deficient in the task of meeting the job spec; “Bring success to Wolverhampton Wanderers”. So underwhelming...