Lions Roar On As Wolves Look Toothless

Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-1 Millwall

(Keogh 79)

And so it goes on. Yet another defeat that left Wolves winless in 6 at home and had Molineux's lowest crowd for 4 years showing their anger at full-time with chants of "What a load of rubbish". This was a game that went according to the form book - Wolves now with the worst form in the league (they had been second-worst before tonight), Millwall with the best. However it could've been so different had we capitalised on our first-half dominance. We were all over Millwall, playing some brilliant football (indeed, I personally feel that first half was one of our best of the season!) but we couldn't take our chances. Countless times Sako, Doyle and Sigurdarson got into brilliant crossing positions on the left, but time after time their balls in found nobody. Herein lies a key problem for Wolves - Doyle and Sigurdarson look good together, but neither looks like a clinical, lethal goalscorer. We were also left cursing our bad luck with officials too as in an incident similar to the Newcastle game at home last season, there was a clear foul on Doyle in the box that both the referee and linesmen deemed to be outside. A penalty would've been such a great chance to get the goal we deserved and, who knows, it could've pushed us on to get more. Certainly at that stage of the game you couldn't tell who was the best form side in the division and who was the worst.

Millwall players celebrate Keogh's winner

We clearly didn't bring our shooting boots. In fact the first time we hit the target was when 82nd minute substitue Sylvan Ebanks-Blake who chested the ball from 3 yards out which was tipped round the post by David Forde. Our second shot on target also came from Ebanks-Blake, when he tamely headed the ball down and into the arms of the Millwall keeper. Indeed bar Ebanks-Blake's chances, our only other efforts of note were a half-chance that Doyle scuffed wide, a shot from Forde that drifted over, a Dave Edwards effort that sailed over the bar, and Ebanks-Blake ballooning over from the edge of the box. It's safe to say that David Forde won't have had many easier 90 minutes in his entire career. It's that failure to make the most of our opportunities that punished us and, as is becoming the norm now, it was a former player who came back to put us to the sword. As like Guedioura on Saturday, it was Andy Keogh - often much maligned around these parts - who finished clincally inside the box to condemn us to a 6th home game in a row without a win. As is also usual, the goal came from a defensive mistake, with Wolves playing themselves into trouble and paying the price. In fact it was Millwall who looked most like scoring, and could've added to their tally at least twice on the counter-attack had their final ball been better.

Pennant & Berra seem to be undroppable

There's a distinct lack of second half urgency in this Wolves side, unless we go to the extreme of it and just keep hitting long balls forward. We don't seem inclined to close people down, which means the opposition have plenty of time to pick their pass. We don't seem to want to push forward and get at teams and end up resorting to long aimless balls into the channels or directly to the opposition centre-halves. Credit for that, though, has to go to Kenny Jackett and Millwall. They set up to press us high up the pitch - even from goal kicks Keogh and Wood marked the two centre-backs to stop us playing out from the back. It seems a lot of teams have cottoned on to how we like to play, and as a result we're seeing more teams squeeze us up the pitch. This again highlights why I feel we need to play faster and more direct than we currently do. When we did in the first half tonight, we looked dangerous going forward and were dominating the game. There were perhaps only 4 players out there that looked like they had any interest in driving us forward in that second half. Davis, Anthony Forde, Sigurdarson and Ebanks-Blake. Pennant (whom Forde replaced) is yet again proving himself to be a disgrace to the shirt by just not giving a damn about something that I and thousands of others would give our right arm for! How Berra, too, manages to keep his place in the side is beyond me. He was an absolute shambles tonight from start to finish. Why doesn't Stale change it?! We have a perfectly good replacement in Danny Batth, but we don't use him! Surely Solbakken cannot feel that this is still his best XI, given our appalling form. We have taken 3 points from a possible 27 - and they came from 3 draws!! I am not saying we'll go down, but the fact is, that is relegation form. In fact, even bottom of the table Peterborough United have taken more points from their last 9 games! It is simply not good enough and as one of Solbakken's biggest fans, even I am beginning to question just what is going on here.

We have all - staff, players and fans - got to dust ourselves down from tonight and look ahead to what is becoming a vital 6-pointer at Ashton Gate on Saturday. A win there, and we can look to kick-start our season as well as get some comfortable distance (points-wise) from the bottom 3. A defeat, and suddenly we find ourselves potentially facing real trouble - especially with games against Birmingham, Peterborough and Ipswich all still to come in December. I'm targeting a minimum of 7 points from those 4 games, especially as all but Bristol are home games. This is fast beginning to feel like last season did and, if you ask me, both January and 2013 in general cannot come soon enough! It's been a horrible year to be a Wolves fan.

My Wolves MOTM: David Davis. Often criticised by myself, he looked bright for 90 minutes tonight. Always offered an option for the man on the ball, and showed good strength and composure when in possession too. Looked to try and push the team on in the absence of Doumbia.

Wolves In A Word: Toothless

In Stale We Trust.