Wolves 0, Birmingham City 1: Colin Tattum's post match analysis

Nov 30 2009 From Colin Tattum at Molineux

ALEX McLeish warned Blues to expect Wolves to come at them like a runaway train.

This was such a crucial fixture for Wolves, so battered and bruised were they after maulings by Arsenal and Chelsea.

“Mullered,’’ said Mick McCarthy of the 4-0 Stamford Bridge defeat.

So Blues, the side Wolves fended off to win the Championship title last season, were perceived to be susceptible, more in their remit of the beatable.

Big Eck knew they felt that way too, hence his cautionary words.

But the runaway train must have been rusting in sidings somewhere. It never came.

Wolves started nervously and meekly. Blues were confident, they had a self-assurance, and went on to the front foot instantly and never looked back.

It is hard to remember an away derby match when Blues were last so comfortable.

And what was all the more concerning for Wolves was that Blues didn’t really have to extend themselves to any onerous degree.

In short, Wolves looked shot through by the end. Blues, with the feelgood factor continuing to swirl around the team, the management and the fans which has been fired by a change in ownership and better reward for good performances, are on the up.

Lee Bowyer’s lovely goal, carefully lofted and drifted right-to-left beyond Marcus Hahnemann, was as perfect a start for Blues as it was the worst possible for Wolves.

Blues’ forward play continued to be precise and troubling thereafter. Wolves’ midfield were dominated, with James McFadden’s teasing and trickery coming in off the left in particular a thorn, while Sebastian Larsson’s tenacity and ebullience was of the highest standard.

Then there was Bowyer, who basically does everything well and continues to roll back the years.

McCarthy, due to injuries, opted to use Michael Mancienne at right-back, one of four centre-halves across the rearguard. He was so bewitched that he had to be swopped over with left-back Richard Stearman.

A couple of minutes later and Greg Halford, another defender, was replaced by Michael Kightly, an admission by McCarthy that he shouldn’t have picked him for wide on the right.

The adjustments and Wolves’ obvious fragility helped Blues maintain their superiority. Their passing was certain, the understanding and combinations in the side, plus the sharpness, was far better than Wolves.

On a weekend that was a veritable penalty-fest in the Premier League, it was mystifying to understand how Mark Clattenburg didn’t award a 35th-minute spot-kick for Blues when Scott Dann – hardly a David Ngog – was felled by Matt Jarvis.

In the second half Wolves, minus the substituted Mancienne, would be better, surely? Hardly.

They were ordered to stay higher up the pitch, the defence squeezed forward and the wingers loitered on to the full-backs more, but apart from an early shot by Kevin Doyle that fizzed just wide, Blues remained solid and it wasn’t until the very end, when they got sloppy and invited pressure on themselves, that it got hairy.

Joe Hart stopped blindingly from a close-range Jarvis volley and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake completely mistimed a free header, but that was it.

McFadden almost made it two for Blues after Cameron Jerome led a breakaway from a Wolves corner, but Stephen Ward just got a deflection on the ball with his trailing leg to take it inches wide of the post.

Blues didn’t enjoy the kind of do-as-you-please dominance after the break. The game became bitty, it was stop-start with plenty of free-kicks and offsides. They couldn’t get into the same sort of flow as earlier.

But you sensed that they knew the points were going to be theirs regardless and Wolves and a subdued, grumbling Molineux appeared to be increasingly resigned to their fate, too.

Last season Wolves were bright, enthusiastic, energetic, they had some panache. They were capable of running amok, tinged with a little brittleness. This season they have found that the Premier League is no fun playground; they have too many in-betweeners struggling to make the step up and no true big-hitters.

Blues fielded three players McCarthy wanted to sign in Roger Johnson, Dann and Barry Ferguson, all of whom have become key figures in an outfit that has wily experience and quality dotted about.

McLeish celebrated two years in charge 24 hours before the match. As Blues’ unbeaten run stretches to five matches and he continues to target top-notch additions for January courtesy of Carson Yeung’s Hong Kong bounty, there is real cause for optimism, maybe for the next two years, let alone the here and now.

Wolves, on the other hand, appear to be heading in a different direction. There’s a sense of despair, almost, hovering around the Black Country. It’s eight games without a win and another let-down against a team considered a possible peer as we got under way in August.