Wolves Avoid Home Blues In Derby Win

Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0 Birmingham City

(King (og) 34)

'He Scores Goals Marlon': King slices the ball into his own net

Wolves made it two wins on the bounce and ensured local bragging rights were firmly with the Old Gold tonight as they overcame an expectedly tough Birmingham City side. The win - Wolves' first at home in 7 games - helped lift them up to 16th and just 5 points off the play-offs while it left Birmingham stuck in 19th and kept the pressure mounting on boss Lee Clark. It could've been so different too - Birmingham bossed the first half, and it needed a fantastic Carl Ikeme save to deny Paul Caddis early on. Blues also came close through Roger Johnson heading down into the ground forcing Ikeme to tip the ball over the bar and Rob Hall with a sliced effort from the edge of the box. No matter what Wolves tried, we just couldn't get into the game. Our passing just wasn't connecting and we were panicking at every given opportunity. We played it long constantly and Carl Ikeme in particular demonstrated that kicking is not his strong point! The game swung around the half-hour mark though. Kevin Doyle was correctly flagged offside when he calmly stuck the ball past Butland. However, the Southbank didn't have the best view of it and vented their disagreement. The anger coming from the stands seemed to galvanise Wolves and just a minute after that decision, a long ball over the top down the right channel landed for Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, who shielded the ball brilliantly and won a cheap free-kick off Gary Caldwell. Given its proximity to the edge of the box, Sako sensibly decided not to try and float it across. Instead, he drilled it low and Marlon King couldn't get his feet sorted in time and ended up slicing it into the back of the net. Cue pandemonium in the SouthBank. Despite the lead, though, Wolves still were finding themselves on the back foot as Blues pushed forward in search of an equaliser. We almost got ourselves a second on the counter-attack though as Ebanks-Blake raced away, but he lacked the composure that Doyle had last week and ended up pushing himself wide - although he drew a free-kick out of a rash challenge from Paul Robinson. But going in at half-time 1-0 up, it's safe to say feelings were mixed, especially with Blues chasing the equaliser and our tendancy to sit back in the 2nd half.

Kevin Doyle going close in the second-half

In true Wolves fashion, however, they ironically did the total opposite. Whilst normally we dominate the 1st half and completely fail the 2nd, today we switched that. Blues were all over us in the first 45, but right from kick-off in the 2nd half you felt a real sense of purpose in Stale Solbakken's side. The result of this was something quite magical - given our recent troubles. We defended with quite a high line, we took gambles on the ball and we pressed and hassled the Birmingham midfield and backline. This was greatly aided by Kevin Doyle dropping deeper, shoring up the midfield. His workrate - as always - was impeccable and he put in some fantastic tackles and popped up everywhere from the left-wing to defensive-mid. Sako was a real weapon in the second 45 too, always looking to run at Caddis and he caused numerous problems for Birmingham. In the first 90 seconds of the second-half, Sigurdarson had a golden opportunity to make the points safe when a punt forward was flicked on towards his own goal by Curtis Davies. However, his effort was terrible - straight at Butland before the offside flag spared his blushes. We were, in fact, fantastic in the second-half and had a host of chances through Ebanks-Blake, Sigurdarson and Sako. Johnson also saw an effort just clip the crossbar from a Sako corner, Berra blazed over when he really should have hit the target, and Ward saw a cross/shot palmed away by Butland. As the half wore on though, you just felt that our lack of killer instinct would come back to haunt us. But the onslaught never came and Marlon King spent much of the second period looking an isolated and frustrated figure. The offside flag came to our rescue a few times, however, whilst a stunning last-ditch tackle from Roger Johnson on Peter Lovenkrands stopped the Danish striker from getting into the box and having a shot on goal. But the second half was, at times, reminiscent of the game against Sheffield Wednesday in September. Whilst the threat of a goal was there, it didn't feel like it was actually going to come. This seemed like one of those nights where the second-half could've gone on all night, and you'd have backed Wolves to score more than Birmingham.

Karl Henry: Has added much-needed stability to midfield

Whilst last week was very sleek, fluent football that at times made us look like Arsenal or Swansea (not quite as good as Barca, mind!), this week was more about being solid and building from there. Everyone stuck to their task fantastically well and even when Doumbia went off, Davis came on and did a brilliant job keeping legs in midfield. The back-four had another briliant game - bar a few dodgy moments from Ward - and up front it's clear there's a real energy and togetherness between the front 3. We just need to add to that in January - be it by bringing back Griffiths/Cassidy, or signing someone - because if any of those 3 get injured during December, we're in trouble. In midfield, we look a lot better now Karl Henry is back in the side and Doumbia showed signs that he is back to his best - although there are still huge question marks over his fitness. Sako is beginning to look like, with each game, he's adapting more to what is needed of him. He seems to realise he does need to stay wider at times and stretch teams and he's tracking back a lot more now which is important. Sometimes though, he frustrates because he tries so many tricks he ends up confusing himself! But that's what the enigma that is Bakary Sako is all about. I certainly hope he chooses France and therefore we don't lose him to the ANC in January, cos that'd be a huge blow.

Right now though, things are looking a lot more positive. Suddenly Middlesbrough away next week doesn't look so daunting. They're on a bit of an iffy run and although they beat Peterborough at London Road today, they were apparently very poor. With us on a high after this result, we can perhaps go there and nick a result - Bristol City did, and look what we did to them! One thing that's for sure though, the mood around Wolverhampton will be a buoyant one this week and the pressure has eased considerably on Stale Solbakken. A clean sheet, a win and a commanding second-half performance - that doesn't sound like Wolves, does it?! Maybe Solbakken was right all along, maybe we can be a 'December team' afterall.

My Wolves MOTM: Kevin Doyle. A close call between him and Roger Johnson, but the Irishman gets it for me thanks to some outstanding workrate that saw him cover almost every single blade of grass. Was unlucky to be just offside for his 'goal' but looks a new player after his Bristol brace and this could kickstart his season.

Wolves In A Word: Resurgent

In Stale We Trust.