Swanny's View:Wolves 1-0 THFC

[Swanny]

Sorry for the delay in posting my report but a serious bout of Man Flu layed me up.

You got it so wrong Arry!

As we arrived at Molineux I saw Chingfordspur in the car park waiting for me to get off the minibus, I thought to myself you look a bit glum mate, maybe because like last Wednesday we had another tedious journey. He was shaking his head at me and only after going for a pre match drink in the hospitality room did I fully take on board his dismay.

BrumSpur and me had hardly got a sip of our hot drink when the team news flashed onto the screen FFS we had to get out there pronto! Disbelief was rife amongst the mighty travelling THFC supporters and rightly as so our fears soon became a reality.

I’m not going to call for Arry’s head that would be foolish and un- warranted, but please Arry tell us WTF you were thinking with this selection? You had like some of the players before you gone public with the stupid media claims of finishing third in the table, and then this.

Defeat is always hard to accept when you play well and come away with nothing to show, but to attempt to play a game of such importance with wholesale unforced personnel changes is beyond reason. We got severly punished tonight for showing a lack of respect for the opposition, we have the players to deal with games like this but for some reason they sat this one out, which leaves the question to be asked is it just the FA Cup that Arry craves?

Five changes from the Villa game only four days ago was surely madness on your part, you had said after the game it was one of our best performances of the season and that you could not bring any subs on because all the players were doing so well, how then can you make all these changes for a must win game?

To bring in Eidur Gudjohnsen who is clearly not match fit, Younes Kaboul into the RB position when you had a ready made replacement in the squad with Kyle Walker,and JJ who is a liability in CM was suicide in the making. After only the first quarter of the game it was an embarrassment to watch for us fans that had made the long journey, the only saving factor for you Arry was it was not being beamed home live, otherwise the public outcry would be far worse.

It really puzzled me to see the tactics being used in this game, when we got possession it was wasted with silly fancy flicks and careless passing that never reached the intended player resulting in our CM being overrun. This was surely a game not for the fainthearted, we needed to boss this game from the first whistle and sadly we raised the white flag instead.

Probably the worst game I have seen from Tom Huddlestone in a long time, very lucky not to get booked with his constant ‘studs up’ tackles, I counted at least three in the first half. Jermaine Jenas beside him playing the holding role was farcical, he just cannot play that role and why Arry persists with him I will never know, not totally responsible for the Wolves goal but once again just like in the Birmingham game he lost posession in CM and just stood and watched as the hole he left was exposed, only really an asset to our team when attacking,unfortunately we need more from our midfielders, more than JJ brings to the fray that's for sure.

I’m convinced that Arry regrets all this now but why did he wait so long to try and rectify his misgivings? Surely with his entourage of support staff someone is brave enough to say to Arry “ look boss wev’e got it wrong today ” is that not the role of Sherwood in the stands, sitting high and observing? Had the management called a halt to this charade and made the neccesary substitutions after twenty minutes it could have been such a different outcome,yes you need to be brave to admit you've got it wrong, but better than being foolish to carry on regardless and do nothing until it was too late. Lets hope for all concerend that it's a lesson learned.

The worrying trend is that this has now happened too many times this season and we are not learning by association, surely the staff realized that Wolves would be desperate for all three points from this game and would be playing for their premiership survival?

Most of the faithful I mix with are sensible with a good knowledge of the game and do not make rash statements, I therefore respect their opinions and to be honest all that I have spoken to are amazed at Arry’s team selection for this game.

He can only have been thinking that this was an easy game for us, why would he have come out before the match saying we can finish third in the Prem if he did not truly believe this to be the case?

It was a clear case of not giving Wolves the respect they deserved and we were duly punished for it.

Hardly anything else to say about the match itself I’m afraid. The only players to come out of this game with any credit are Gareth Bale who dropped at the final whistle from a mixture of exhaustion and disbelief. David Bentley who tried his best along with GB to open up the play and give us much needed width and Heurelho Gomes who was the only one to come over to applaud us travelling fans for the effort we put in. At least the travelling faithful are consistent, more than can be said for our beloved team at times.

It is up to us now how the rest of this season pans out for us, if we learn from this and kick on we can still acheive a top four finish, carry on with silly mistakes and poor team selection and we will be lucky to finish eighth.

[BrumSpur]

A painful read, but a good one, as always! Well done, sir!

[kevfball63]

Wow - I didn't think it could be put how it is , well done Swanny ....!!!

I wish you was going to the Bolton game with us but have a cosy day by the telly instead .

Great post mate

[BatchSpurs]

Describing Wednesday night without losing your temper, not as easy as it might sound, and you succeeded Swanny - well done!!

[ctw01]

Thanks Swanny for that report, you have answered some of the questions I needed to know.
There are still many more questions to be answered which may in time become clear.

[Cannockspur]

Spot on as usual,like you said could`nt believe those five changes after last Saturdays display against boring Villa.

[PunchInTheNutz]

Can't disagree with that. Your absolutely right about Harry not showing respect for the opposition. They may be playing for survival but that's not a reason to field a weakened team. After Wolves beat us at home you'd think we would be out to prove a point but that lineup was ridiculous. I don't care if we have been playing two games a week for ages we need to play our best side and not be resting several players at once.
I used to defend JJ to the hilt. But this season he is just not of premiership caliber. He was at his worst ever against Wolves. He gives away simple short passes throughout and fails to read the game and move into a position where he can receive. He's just not concentrating at all. He's at his best, it seems, when he does his surging runs from midfield but we don't see that too often at all anymore. I wish we had O'Hara for midfield cover. I hope Harry can see now that JJ simply isn't good enough. We need to loan JJ out so he can get some match practice and get his confidence back. We need O'Hara back at the lane.