A Year Is A Long Time In Football - Particularly At Molineux

Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-2 Leeds United

(Peltier (og) 57, Batth 90+2, Varney 64, McCormack (pen) 78) 

For a change, rather than do a 'match report blog', I'm going for something different. And since today is the anniversary of one of the darkest days in our recent history, I'm instead going to look back at the weekend's match, the repercussions from it, and the past year in general. Enjoy!

A lot can happen in 12 months. Relationships can start and  finish, children can be conceived and born, and a small business can become an empire. But I don't think even the most powerful crystal ball could've forseen the events of the next year at Molineux at 1:30pm on that fateful Sunday afternoon as West Bromwich Albion strolled into town.

Morgan & Moxey made a mess of appointing Mick's replacement

Less than 24 hours after our capitulation, legendary manager Mick McCarthy was sacked. In my opinion, while he did have to go, sacking him at that point was rather pointless. It was far too late for anyone to come in and save us - particularly as there were clear differences between the board and the standout candidate Alan Curbishley and the board appeared clueless as to what to do. Morgan's determination to remain an "honest club who don't go behind managers' backs" was backfiring fast, with the new manager saga becoming more of a soap than Coronation Street! Wolves fans had seen Brian McDermott (now in the Prem with Reading), Gus Poyet (now sitting in 7th in the Championship with Brighton) and Alan Curbishley turn the job down. Then there was the disgraceful treatment of Steve Bruce who, despite agreeing to become manager and a contract being drawn up, was turned down at the last minute because of Morgan caving in to fan pressure from social media sites. Bruce, ironically, now has his Hull side sitting 4th (only missing out on 2nd through goal difference) in the Championship. Fans were getting worried, and the club was a laughing stock - none more so than on the day they appointed Terry Connor to the manager's position, having previously claimed it was "no job for a novice". We will never know if any of those 4 mentioned would've kept us up, but they surely would've done a better job than Connor who drew 4 of his 13 games in charge, losing the other 9 (including 5-0 defeats to both Fulham and Manchester United).

It started well for Solbakken, but ultimately didn't last

After such an embarassing limp out of the Premier League, the mood around Molineux was at rock bottom. Wolves announced Norwegian Stale Solbakken would become the club's first foreign manager that Summer. With Solbakken came an influx of unknown foreign signings - Tongo Doumbia, Bakary Sako, Slawomir Peszko and the highly-rated prospect Bjorn Sigurdarson (reportedly chased by Everton). But, despite a fantastic start with Solbakken's side getting as high as 3rd in the Championship, things deteriorated fast. Despite results picking up in December, it was a disasterous Christmas period - Wolves lost 3-0 at home to Peterborough and 2-0 at home to Mick McCarthy's Ipswich - that tightened the nails in Solbakken's coffin, before an FA Cup Third Round defeat to non-league Luton (despite Wolves playing a strong team) was the final nail. Solbakken was sacked before most Wolves fans had even got home. However, Morgan had clearly been affected by the humiliation of his last mid-season manager change, and within 24 hours Doncaster manager Dean Saunders had been confirmed as the new Wolves boss. He promised to get the players working hard and showing passion - indeed his mantra seems very similar to that of Mick McCarthy.

Whilst 'the new Wolves' had been embarking a long, forward-thinking process with Solbakken, under Saunders the club had gone back to the old way of thinking. The plan appears to be going back to having 'young and hungry' players who would give you everything they've got in effort, even if they're lacking in quality. 5 games in under Saunders and performances have only just begun to improve (Saturday's showing against Leeds was one of the best I've seen in a while), yet results have stayed the same - Wolves' winless run stretching back 9 competitive games to the 21st December when they beat Blackpool away. The same problems still showed themselves, with Wolves unable to hold on to a lead and giving away a stupid penalty thanks to Stephen Ward going AWOL, meaning Sako had to track back instead. We still don't look like scoring at the moment, and we look like conceding at least 2 every game. That's relegation form right there. And while Wolves' performance against Leeds was impressive, they only rescued a point thanks to an embarassing mistake by keeper Paddy Kenny. Had the Irishman been aware that the ball was rolling wide and therefore not put a hand to it, he would've had a goal kick and Wolves wouldn't have had the corner that led to Batth's powerful headed equaliser (seen in the above video). The roar that filled Molineux was one of relief - particularly as Barnsley and Bristol City had pulled off shock wins against Middlesbrough and Nottingham Forest respectively, meaning that Wolves were only outside the bottom 3 of the Championship on just goal difference. Coupled with Peterborough's fantastic home win over Leicester, the bottom 3 have all closed in on Wolves.

A Peterborough fan highlighting just how much Karl Henry's words could inspire our relegation rivals

So, with the 3 teams below us smelling blood and believing they can catch us (and indeed overtake us), the last thing we needed was our captain coming out with the worst thing you could possible say in a relegation battle - that we're too good to go down. As if the teams below us needed anymore inspiration to come after us, we've gifted it to them on a plate. We play Barnsley away next week, and David Flitcroft must be laughing, because our own captain has done his team talk for him. I speak to a lot of Peterborough fans on Twitter, and their reaction was largely the same - if any of the bottom 3 needed a motivation to overtake us in the table, this was it. Thankfully we're saved by the fact that Barnsley and Peterborough don't play this coming weekend, while Bristol travel to League leaders Cardiff as we face a stern test at Derby. So there should be some restbite for another week.

Danny Batth has been a revelation for Wolves

Wolves today announced the signing of Kaspers Gorkss on loan from Reading, which should help tighten the defence, but I hope it's not at the expense of Danny Batth. The young centre-back has grabbed his chance with both hands and is showing the sort of form that I have been saying for months he can show. Why on earth Berra has been picked ahead of him all season is beyond me and the 20,000 others who were in the Molineux stands on Saturday. The problem for Saunders now is, once Johnson returns from suspension after this weekend's game at Derby, who is his centre-back pairing for the 6-pointer at Barnsley? Batth has been brilliant, Gorkss is his own new signing, and Johnson has been one of our players of the season! But that's for another day - right now I think all Wolves fans can rejoice that, after a pathetic showing (or lack thereof) in the January transfer window, the club have finally made a signing that can impact our season. We can all now just hope there's more signings to come!

A lot can happen in 12 months. Relationships can start and finish, children can be conceived and born, and club as grand as Wolves can go from being a Premier League side who "don't have a 'hire and fire' policy" to having their 4th manager in a year and facing the very real prospect of dropping into League One.

This next year can't be any worse... can it?