November 2005 Click on month for reports: 2005-6 ReviewApr06Mar06Feb06Jan06Dec05Nov05Oct05Sep05Aug05preseason

Next Match: December 3rd away to Ipswich

Saturday November 26th Wolves 0 Saints 0 live on Sky. 

And now a frustrating early afternoon at Molineux. At least half the journey home was in daylight thanks to Sky moving the match to a 12:30 kick off.   Before the kick off Molineux led the mourning for George Best. However, instead of the usual minute’s silence we celebrated his life with applause and the singing of “George Best, there’s only one Georgie Best”

Once the game got underway, though, we again were lacking the finishing touch, but it was made worse by pedantic and simply wrong refereeing.  We had an early scare in the second minute when Brett Ormerod squared the ball but missed his player. We were fortunate (also according to my Sainted son) that they had Ormerod as a forward since his finishing was ppor and his awareness equally good. However, we stil lneeded two excellent saves from Stefan Postma, one in each half, to keep us in it.  He has brought us half of our clean sheets this season, and it was good to hear Hoddle praising him (and Gabor too) and Stefan asking for a contract.

Aside from some accomplished goalkeeping from Antti Niemi to deny us, it was a game easily classified as instantly forgettable. Southampton were marginally the more enterprising before the break, Wolves the more productive after the interval. But the two draw specialists of the Championship never possessed the cohesion to break the deadlock.  Mention must be made of the bravery of George Ndah and Saints leftback Danny Higginbotham who also helped to keep us out.  A very bad clash of heads just before half time had both leaving the field and the Saint returning in a massive bandage after havng stitches. The incident actually masked Joleon’s awful shot - clear on the edge of the six yard box he shot at the prone Higginbotham instead of at the goal.  However Jo more than made up for it by the impressive way he handled Saints prodigy Theo Walcott. The 16 year old’s speed was no match for the defesive guile and skill of our top player.

Tom Huddlestone has the potential to mature into one of the Premiership’s most astute passers, but the £2.5m teenager, on loan from Tottenham, failed to assert any influence - having his worst game in Gold and Black while Southampton front runners Brett Ormerod and 16-year-old Theo Walcott were too isolated.

The pedantic officiating of referee, Paul Taylor, only served to cause more frustration in both technical areas and Glenn Hoddle was insistent his team might have had a couple of penalties courtesy of Southampton defender Darren Kenton.  He seemed determined to upset George with an early warning for a missed tackle then booking him for foot up in this tackle as the Saints playercame on to the ball late

Kenton, basically a reserve since his arrival from Norwich, had just been booked for hacking down Anderton struggled with the pace of the game. His mistake allowed Colin Cameron the opportunity to surge into the box and certainly our Scottish international was felled as a recovering Kenton and Niemi converged on him.

There seemed even less dispute when Kenton appeared to chest down a speculative forward pass from Lee Naylor for substitute Leon Clarke. Hoddle insisted contact was made with a hand, Mr Taylor thought otherwise and the Wolves manager would have done better to rue his misfortune at Niemi’s magnificent reflex stop to George Ndah’s header. Or Clarke’s late volley that hit the crossbar. Not only that but the ref also missed Rory Delap holding Gabor Gyepes down at one corner

So we completed November unbeaten, with four consecutive clean sheets and five matches at home without losing. However three points have been forthcoming only once and we really have no striker capable of breaking down defences.  Vio and George will come good as they get really sharp but the news that Kenny was nearly ready to resume training was one of the highlights of this week.   And it looks like London Wolves need to pay for another shirt after our sponsored player Lee Naylor was forced to change his after a blood injury - a nasty knock on the head - but he carried on playing


BEST WOLF Stefan Postma BEST SAINT: Antti Niemi 

Player ratings. Wolves: Postma 7, Edwards 6, Gyepes 6, Lescott 7, Naylor 7, Anderton 5 (Seol 60min, 7) Cameron 7 (Olofinjana 70min, 5), Huddlestone 5, Kennedy 5, Ganea 5 (Clarke 70min, 6), Ndah 7

Southampton: Niemi 8, Delap 6, Powell 6, Kenton 5, Higginbotham 7, Belmadi 6 (Fuller 80min, 5), Oakley 7, Folly 5, Kosowski 7 (McCann 68min, 5) Ormerod 6, Walcott 5

Referee: P Taylor (rating 2) Attendance: 24,628
 

Tuesday 2nd November Wolves 0 Sheffield United 0

A frustrating evening compounded by a poor performance by ref Miller, again, primarily for booking Wolves players for small offences and ignoring serious offences by Sheffield players such as diving, heavy tackles and pushes in the back.  Neil Warnock seemed to be delighted by the result - as he said taking 4 points off us is good for him;  at least we knocked him off the top of the table but are still 17 points behind him and 18 behind Reading and back out of the play-off slots.

George Ndah started at last, Tom Huddlestone, Jody Craddock and Joleon were outstanding.

more.....

Friday 18th November Derby County 0 Wolves 3 Ndah 67, Huddlestone 80, Ganea 86 (Sky)

Yes, they’re back in style - George’s first goal in two and a half years, Vio’s delightful backheel for Tom Huddlestone’s first ever senior goal to cap a man of the match performance, and then his deadly finishing for the third

George lit the game up when he came on for Leon Clarke in the second half - in truth Leon is struggling to have  a real impact on the game.  But we were only still in it up to that point thanks to another great performance by goalkeeper Stefan Postma. Two outstanding saves - one direct from a corner by Inigo Idiakez - had kept us in it.

As usual we had a strong first twenty minutes - Lee Naylor winning a corner in the second minute - with the only decent chances being god long range shots from Sparky, and some uncharacteristic uneasiness from Joleon, but we allowed them to take the game and they should have been two up and game over by half-time. Idiakez’ free kick went just wide and then two corners gave us a lot of angst. Tom had a good strong shot from distance in the 27th minute. But most of the shots were easy meat for Lee Camp. Glenn said that the team had listened to the half time talks and that’s where the improvement came from. But it wasn’t until George replaced Leon in the 55th minute that we really looked dangerous.  He had only been on 5 minutes when we won a corner and he really launched himself at it.  But it was Joleon’s header that went wide. 5 minutes later, another corner was won and Lee’s cross went right into the area. Tudgay was unable to keep pace with George who again launched a brave header at the ball.   It went wide of Camp and was too powerful for Whittingham standing on the line and it was George’s first goal for two and a half years.  In the 79th minute it was his persistence deep in our half to win the ball.  It broke to Tom Huddlestone who fed Vio running diagonally across the penalty area.  His backheel fell perfectly for Tom to slot the goal home under his old friend Lee Camp.   Lee Naylor too was spending most of his time in the Derby half and in the 85th tried a long range shot. The rebound off a Derby player on the edge of the box fell back to him and he passed it to Vio.   Everyone expected the return pass but Vio jinked right then left and gave himself a clear shot at the Derby goal, and it was 3-0 with a really classy finish.  Seol fancied his chances to get on the scoresheet too but his header in the 88th weakly went to Camp. In the end a comfortable win but not without a lot of stress early on.

After the match the excellent news was revealed that Spurs had agreed to extend Tom’s loan to January.

Tom said after the match when he was named as SKY TV's Man of the Match."I knew it would come against Campo, he's a good friend of mine" said Tom, "I think I have earned a few people some money this evening with that goal”. “I'm very happy at this moment, after getting a good win and scoring my first goal. I am enjoying my time here at Wolves and I will continue to give 100 per cent for as long as I am here.”

Derby: Camp, Whittingham, Davies, M. Johnson (capt) (Thome 55), Smith, Bisgaard, R. Jackson, S. Johnson, Tudgay (Peschisolido 74), Idiakez, Blackstock. Unused subs: Poole, Bolder, J. Jackson.Wolves: Postma, Edwards, Naylor, Cameron, Lescott, Craddock, Kennedy (capt), Huddlestone, Ganea, Seol, Clarke (Ndah 55). Unused subs: Oakes, Olofinjana, Anderton, Gyepes.

Referee: A.R. Leake. Attendance: 22,869 (1,327 away fans).

Saturday 5th November Wolves 2 Norwich City 0

Well we made Norwich look poor; after Seol’s cracking 2nd minute goal and home debutant Stefan Postma’s outstanding save in the 8th minute from McVeigh’s 25 yard cracker they never got in to it.  Also, a first team debut for young Lewis Gobern. The England prospect last season - Dean Ashton - was well contained by (mainly) Jody Craddock in spite of Ashton’s persistent niggling and often foul challenges.  Likewise Rob Edwards had Darren Huckerby in his pocket all afternoon.   When Vio calmly turned and lashed Seol’s pass via Nayls in the 38th that was it.  It could have been more - Vio’s strong header looped just over the bar, while in the sceond half Nayls hit the bar from a great 20 yard free kick.

Outstanding performances from Sparky (Kennedy), again Captain who also had a great shot - outside of the left foot - go millimetres wide, and home debutant Tom Huddlestone - it was a battle between the two of them for man of the match, but everyone performed at a high level.  From Sttefan Postma’s Naylor’s great wing back runs and crosses, flashes of the Seol we know is there but has been hiding, Colin Cameron’s outstanding midfield effort Craddock’s and Lescott’s strong defence, especially against Ashton, and Rob Edwards’ management of Darren Huckerby, to Leon Clarke’s running, Vio’s calmly taken goal, and Lewis Gobern on his first team debut almost making it three-nil the whole team performed together. There will undoubtably be pressure on Norwich’s manager, Nigel Worthington after what he called a spineless performance.

Here is Vio in action and his goal

And here is Lee’s free kick which hit the bar

and Sparky’s great left footed shot which went millimetres wide; he was also strong in defence

As well as it being Tom’s and Lewis’ debut, Paul Harrison took the goal-keeping place on the bench.  Paul is on loan from Liverpool. A debut too for Rohan Ricketts’ nephew - who kicked off before the ref blew his whistle (with Vio’s help!).

Wolves: Postma, Edwards, Naylor, Cameron, Lescott, Craddock, Kennedy (capt), Huddlestone, Ganea, Seol, Clarke (Gobern 75). Unused subs: Harrison, Gyepes, Olofinjana, Anderton.
Norwich: Green, Drury, Huckerby, Jarrett, Ashton, Brennan (Jarvis 73), McVeigh (Thorne 63), Henderson, Colin, Davenport, Doherty (capt). Unused subs: Fleming, Ward, Charlton.
Referee: C. Foy.   Attendance: 23,808.

Tue Nov 1st Brighton 1  WW 1 (Cameron)

So injuries and lack of squad catch up with us, plus in the first half blind faith in Olofinjana (described on the commentary as making NO contribution (apart from getting in the way of a Kennedy shot). More injuries brought in Postma for Oakes.

Overall Stefan Postma had a terrific game but let the ball under him for their goal in a big howler.  Wolves dominated much of the first quarter but Brighton grew in confidence and intense pressure in the last 20 minutes of the first half led to us going behind.

At half time Mickey (Colin) Cameron replaced Anderton but it wasn’t until Seol replaced the hapless Olofinjana that we began to get back in the game. But it was a  cross from the hard working Leon Clarke to Vio - who hit the bar and keeper before it bounced back out - but only to Mickey who scored our first goal from midfield in the League this season.

Team: Postma, Edwards  Jody, Joleon Naylor Tom Huddlestone, Olofinjana Kennedy Sicknote Vio, Leon
Bench  Cameron, Ross, Seol, Gobern and MATT MURRAY

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