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Wolves 2 Preston 3 26/12/2001 |
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| Report by Bizket Wolf
First the good news, congratulations Fat Stat on the birth of your young wolfie. You know there is only one way to bring up a child and that's the old gold and black way. Indoctrination at an early age, theres too many Man U shirts about, commercialisation is a curse on all that is bad about football. Make sure she visits the Golden Temple from an early age!! [Cheers Bizket, she should be a Wolves' member soon (even though her mum's a Arsenal fan) - Fat Stat] And now the bad news. What was all that about, were all the Wolves players suffering from post turkey blues? (or white and black as the case may be?). I was sickened by that performance, not only the manner in which we played but the way we sat down and died, this was a poor Preston team on the back of two defeats and two draws from their last four and apparently had lost their shooting boots. Five points from the last eighteen is not promotion material - more akin to relegation. Why is there no fight? this was a diabolical performance in front of a large hopeful home crowd. Is it because of the television cameras, or just that we don't like Christmas (thats four boxing day defeats on the trot) - humbug that's what I say! The game started better for Preston who had the earlier chances - a sign of things to come! particularly Macken's hoof well over the bar when almost clean through. First blood came to Wolves, a quickly taken Rae free kick on 19 mins saw Sturridge race through, showing pace and ability before unleashing a delightful left foot lob over the advancing keeper. A tremendous goal, must be seen if you haven't yet, which should have given us something to build on. Oakes made a super low save just after the goal, but really the rest of the half belonged to Wolves even though I can only remember one more goal attempt, as Blake's fierce header was well saved by their keeper. The goal seemed to take the stuffing out of Preston who looked exceptionally dodgy - the game for the taking?. Half Time 1.0. Newton was replaced by Robinson, due to an ankle injury, but the second half was only two minutes old when disaster struck. I had literally turned around and said that I felt uncomfortable about this game, when one of their lot picked up an innocuous cross and fired in a thunderbolt from the edge of the area. Panic set in amongst the Wolves players who again lost all self confidence, whilst Preston realised that the game was for the taking. It took only another 9 minutes for them to assert their authority, another one of them - who had earlier shown what he could do, even if it was well wide - picked up the ball wide on the Wolves right, dance past Muscat and place with power the ball high into the corner of the net. Three really excellent goals - three of the best I have seen all season. He had done this to us last boxing day when they beat us - history repeating itself? 1.2. This should have been the kick up the butt that was needed, but still Wolves showed no evidence of the will to win. However on 64 mins, a fluke goal gave Wolves the equaliser. A back pass to their keeper saw him hesitate slightly, Blake charged in - in the good old Bully style - and the keepers clearance bounced off Blake to end up in the net, much to the bemusement of all at the game - players and fans. 2.2 and game on. This should have been the impetus for Wolves to take all three points, but more disaster on 73 mins the ball somehow found it's way into Wolves net from a corner. Another fluky deflected goal, but they all count. This was the first time in 32 matches that a team had put more than 2 goals past us. Preston then decided to defend their lead, which they did admirably. Wolves only had a tame Paul Butler shot on target. The result was our fifth home defeat this season - not good enough and we can really do much better than this. The meanest defence in the Nationwide took a real battering, this was the first time that the Wolves defence looked inept. Naylor looking particularly jaded, that's why camara took his place on 80 minutes, what's the betting that Naylor doesn't start the tough game at home to Sheffield united, who are unbeaten in 8 games. Dave Jones later said that he wants bravery from the players - that's something that everyone at Molineux have been saying for months. Have we just assembled yet another bunch of ex-premiership players only here for the beer - or Sir Jacks gravy train? Only time will tell, but something from somewhere is needed very quickly. Nuff said (for the moment)
Attendance: 24,024
Goals: Wolves:Sturridge (19 mins), Blake (65 mins)Preston:Healy (47 mins), Anderson(56 mins), Gregan (73 mins)
Best Player : Rae (5 votes) Sturridge (1 vote)
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| Average player ratings are taken from a number of newspapers, magazines and web-sites ...more.... |
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