“JUMPING at several small opportunities may get us there more quickly than waiting for one big one to come along”.

Not a Mick McCarthy witticism, but one attributed to the English academic and musical conductor Hugh Allen, whose football management experience was minimal at best.

But it applies wholeheartedly to Wolverhampton Wanderers and their conundrum of a season.

On the one hand a missed opportunity of huge proportions.

On the other hand a valuable point, a marked improvement in performance and evidence of a battling spirit.

Mr Glass Half Empty: failed to create a single chance against ten men for an hour and still in the bottom two with the club’s future now very much out of their own hands.

Mr Glass Half Full: Beaten just once in five derby games with the club’s future very much in their own hands as they have two home games lying ahead of them and an away trip to crestfallen, injury-hit Sunderland.

“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door,” argued American comedian Milton Berle.

Opportunity knocked so hard for Wolves when a vertically-challenged midfielder in blue tried to win a free-kick and earned himself a walk of shame.

But no doors were constructed, partly because the home side had pinched all the spare wood to manufacture their own barricade.

Not that Wolves sat back, far from it. Once again, just as they had at Stoke City on an evening to forget, they enjoyed the lion’s share of possession. Perhaps they could have stretched the play long before Stephen Hunt entered the fray and began asking questions with some probing runs.

Adam Hammill, introduced as a half-time substitute, had some joy down the right wing. He could have won it with a shot that was blocked by Stephen Carr.

But Hammill didn’t quite do enough. Although it didn’t help that Liam Ridgewell’s father, or uncle, or next door neighbour, was the linesman.

He made some curious calls, alright, not least when Ridgewell had a Devon Loch 1956 Grand National moment in falling over by attempting to jump a fence that just wasn’t there. Hammill nipped in ahead of him and was promptly penalised.

But the linesman wasn’t the reason why Wolves did so little in the opposition box.

Steven Fletcher was sharp and battled manfully against a fine defender in Roger Johnson.