Preview: Bristol City away

Wolves travel to Ashton Gate to face what has been described in some quarters as a relegation 6-pointer against Bristol City this Saturday. Following their latest 2 defeats, Stale Solbakken's side find themselves languishing in 18th (ahead of Birmingham's game with Middlesbrough tonight), just 7 points above the drop zone where Bristol are - 22nd in the table on 15 points.

Nicky Maynard scores the late equaliser at Ashton Gate

Wolves' record at Ashton Gate has always been quite decent. Although we've lost there 11 times in our history (we've played there 27 times), we've also won 11, scoring plenty of goals in the process. In our last 5 visits there, we've scored 14 goals - including a 6-1 win and a 5-1 win. What we'd all give for similar results tomorrow! Our last visit to Bristol was during our title-winning season and was in similar conditions to what we'll most likely face tomorrow. It was a mid-January evening kick-off (thanks to Sky) and on a wind and rain swept night, Wolves went 2-0 up through Jarvis and Neill Collins before Dele Adebola grabbed one back for The Robins. Wolves looked to be holding out, but three minutes from time, Nicky Maynard popped up to grab an equaliser. That was one of the early games in Wolves' run of 1 win in 11 that almost derailed our promotion hopes. Ironically, we find ourselves travelling to the South-West in another run of bad form. Following Tuesday's 1-0 defeat at home to Millwall, we're currently without a win in 9 games. Indeed, right now Wolves have the 3rd worst league form in the country, only behind QPR and Hartlepool. Bristol have suffered similar woes however. They've only had 1 win in their last 13 games - an impressive 3-1 success away at Middlesbrough last Saturday.

Steve Davies: City's top scorer and a real handful

Despite that poor run of form, Bristol haven't found goalscoring a problem for them. They've just struggled to keep them out the other end too. Overall they've averaged 1.47 goals a game whilst conceding 1.94. But it's at Ashton Gate where their goalscoring exploits are up there with the best in the division. They're scored 19 goals at home (only 6 teams have bettered that total), however they've also conceded 21. Averaging 2.11 goals-per-game and conceding 2.33 goals-per-game. They are very much the entertainers at home. They are really struggling with injuries too though! Key players Louis Carey, Stephen McManus, Lewin Nyatanga, Jon Stead and Cole Skuse are all sidelined. However top scorer Steven Davies is set to start - possibly alongside West Ham loanee Sam Baldock. They like to get the ball forward and won't give us a minute to settle on the ball. In Steven Davies they have someone who will bully the two centre-backs and never give them a minute's peace! The creative presence of Martyn Woolford and on-loan midfielder Neil Danns will look to use our zonal marking and the time this creates to pick a pass and set up Bristol attacks. At the back, Bristol have made a fantastic signing by bringing in Scottish centre-back Danny Wilson on loan from Liverpool. Liam Fontaine has been a virtual ever-present in The Robins' back-line this season and looks set to start tomorrow, aiming to help Bristol keep their first competitive clean sheet of the season. Thankfully for Wolves fans, there are no former players at Bristol City who can come back to haunt us this weekend.

Karl Henry: Crucially back to add bite to midfield

 As for Wolves, well we have serious injury problems of our own, with no fewer than 6 first-team players out of action through injury. That includes midfield-powerhouse Tongo Doumbia who has returned to France for 5 days "to be rested". This is an issue that has split opinion with Wolves fans, with some (including myself) feeling the break will be good for him and will avoid a repeat of the Jelle Van Damme issue of 2 years ago. On the other hand, some Wolves fans think that for the money Doumbia earns, he should be able to play and train each week. However, on the upside we do have Karl Henry back from suspension tomorrow which is crucial to keeping that midfield solid and means there's just a little less space for teams to exploit in front of our back-four. Of course, this week has been dominated by various issues off the pitch. There's been talk of dressing room unrest, with rumours of players going to the board and complaining about Solbakken and his style of football, and then rumours of a team meeting post-Millwall ending up in players criticising Stale's methods and him riding roughshod over them. Then, of course, there was the disgusting incident involding Solbakken's car being covered in paint outside his home on Wednesday night. So all in all, it's been a truly horrible week for Wolves fans that has frustrated us, split us and then united us again - truly a rollercoaster few days! Now we're hearing rumours that if Stale doesn't win tomorrow, then he'll be sacked and replaced by Gordon Strachan or Alex McLeish. Now, I can't speak for other Wolves fans, but I can speak for myself and I will make it very clear that if either of those two are appointed, Steve Morgan won't be getting another penny of my money.

2012 has been such a year of turmoil for Wolves fans, and we've become a laughing stock on several occasions this year. The sooner it's over, the better. Hopefully tomorrow will be the start of the 'recovery' for the club, the team and the long-suffering fans. I'm going for a draw to at least slightly pick morale up.

Prediction: Bristol City 2-2 Wolves

In Stale We Trust.