Marcus Hahnemann pleased with league debut for Wolves despite defeat

Nov 30 2009 by Bill Howell, Birmingham Mail

MARCUS Hahnemann was pleased with his league debut for Wolves, but admitted the outcome was hardly ideal.

The 37-year-old American’s last appearance in the top flight was for Reading in a 4-0 win at Derby in May 2008, which could not save the Royals from relegation.

His last league start had come against Burnley in the play-offs in May but he was brought in against Blues to replace Wayne Hennessey, who dropped to the bench.

“It’s nice to be playing again after a lot of time on the bench and it was good to get out there making a few saves,” he said.

“It’s never nice to get booed off by your own fans but that’s the way it goes. In the first half everyone was frustrated because we just weren’t at it and in such a huge game as this we needed to be.

“We just couldn’t get close enough to them but at half-time we regrouped and looked a lot better.”

Hahnemann pulled off a super save to deny Lee Bowyer a second goal after a big deflection off Michael Kightly.

“Every time the ball changes direction it can be really difficult for keepers but I managed to make maybe four or five decent saves,” he said.

Hahnemann said he could do nothing about Bowyer’s early winner: “It was a wonder goal right in the top corner – give the guy 100 balls and he wouldn’t hit one better than that.

“It just didn’t quite happen for us today and now we’ve got another tough one against Bolton.

“We’ll be back in working hard and hoping to try and put things right.”