Stephen Ward admits Wolves fans were let down by performance against Birmingham City

Nov 30 2009 by Bill Howell, Birmingham Mail

STEPHEN Ward says Wolves let the fans and Mick McCarthy down with a poor performance against Blues.

Lee Bowyer condemned them to their ninth match without a win, which leaves them four points from safety.

“We know we let the gaffer and the fans down because we’re the ones who wear the shirts and these are the games we need to win if we’re going to stay in the Premier League,” Ward said.

“We never performed and we weren’t good enough.

“Even against Arsenal and Chelsea, we performed better, like we did at Everton, Stoke and against Villa.

“We should have got more out of those games.”

Ward, on as a half-time substitute for his first appearance in three months after knee surgery, said the players need to take a close look at themselves.

“We need to reflect and talk through what we did right and wrong but then put it to the back of our minds,” he added.

“We all know the performance wasn’t good enough in the first half, and although we improved in the second, overall we weren’t good enough.

“We have to look at ourselves because it’s the 25-30 players in our squad who are going to keep us in this league.

“We gave it a good go in the second half, but it’s always hard when a team has something to hold on to because they can drop deep and you can end up playing in front of them.”

Ward bemoaned missed chances.

“We all felt bad afterwards because getting chances has been a common feature in so many of our games this season,” he said.

“It could have been a different game, but we had to give credit to Birmingham because they got the goal when we were off the pace in the first half.

“And in fairness to them, I thought they defended really well.

“In the second half, we threw everything at them and it was just unfortunate that one of those chances didn’t go in.”

Matt Jarvis came closest to an equaliser.

Ward added: “Joe Hart pulled off a tremendous save. He showed his class.”