Wolves 0 Plymouth Argyle 1: Post match analysis
Mar 2 2009 by Lisa Smith, Birmingham Post
WOLVES 0 PLYMOUTH ARGYLE 1
A few weeks ago it was a “blip”, now Wolves’run of poor form is threatening to become something more serious – a festering blister which, if left untreated, could cause some really uncomfortable pain and anxiety.
That Wolves still remain top of the Coca-Cola Championship is now due almost as much to the fact that the clubs around them continue to suffer an attack of vertigo, as the Wanderers’ fantastic form earlier in the season.
The defeat at home to Plymouth Argyle – a team fighting for survival at the foot of the table – leaves Wolves now with only one win in 11 games and that statistic keeps growing.
Of course Mick McCarthy has seen his team recover from blips before – twice Wolves have come back from a defeat to go on and win seven games in a row – and he conceded that was possible again now. But he was also forced to admit he had no clues as to how he could get his players back to winning ways.
The Wolves manager said: “We allowed a team who were fighting for their lives to get a goal up very early on and from then on we were always chasing the game.
“But we are capable of putting a run together again – we have done it twice before.”
McCarthy was also brutally honest about his team’s performance, saying: “We were hopeless.
“I could be talking about penalty decisions and a scramble at the end but we did not deserve anything from the game. The fans were great but I don’t have the answer as to why the players weren’t.”
McCarthy might have seen his side awarded at least one penalty of the three shouts which went up in the second half.
The Wolves fans certainly felt Michael Kightly had been tripped on the edge of the penalty area while there were cries too for a foul on Dave Edwards.
But it was James Mackie’s unexplained shove in the back, sending Kyel Reid flying which sparked the biggest uproar.
Referee Carl Boyeson however waved play-on much to the fury of the fans in the South Bank and Mick McCarthy in the dug out.
The Wolves fans had taken time to get into the game after the hammer blow of that 38-second goal but raised their game in the second half to try and cheer their team back into it – a gesture which was warmly appreciated by McCarthy who applauded them from the dug out.
But those cheers soon turned to jeers as Wolves battled desperately in the closing stages, throwing everything at Argyle keeper Romain Larrieu.
And when Wolves’ top striker Sylvan Ebanks-Blake failed to fire the ball home from close range to secure a goal against his former side it was evident that again it was not going to be Wolves’ day.
There was further misery for Wolves when skipper Karl Henry was shown a yellow card for a foul. That was his tenth booking of the season and means the captain will now miss the next two crucial games.
At the final whistle the Wolves fans’ booed their players off the field – expectation levels run high in this part of the Midlands.
The players looked bereft as if they had just lost a cup final – they are now feeling the anxiety and the jitters and it shows.
Outsiders would wonder why fans would jeer the top side in the Championship – the undisputed league leaders.
But Wolves fans have seen their side blow it before and no-one wants that to happen to this side of all sides – a team who have been in pole position now for more than four months.
Wolves’ form is suspect but the determination and drive of the team for most of the season surely denotes that they at least deserve their stab at the big time.
Scorer: Gallagher (1).
WOLVES (4-4-2): Hennessey; Foley, Craddock, Berra, Ward (Friend, 89); Kightly, Henry, Edwards, Reid (Iwelumo, 58); Ebanks-Blake, Keogh (Vokes, 86). Substitutes: Stearman, Higgs.
PLYMOUTH (4-4-2): Larrieu; Gray, Cathcart, Seip, Barker; Clark, Fletcher, Duguid, Mackie; Gallagher (Judge, 70) Barnes (Fallon,70). Substitutes: Paterson, Noone, Timar.
Referee: Carl Boyeson (East Yorkshire).
Booking: Wolves – Henry (foul).
Attendance: 25,710.
