Wolves 2, Bolton 1: Bill Howell's big match verdict
Dec 7 2009 by Bill Howell, Birmingham Mail
HOPE University, hope hospital, hope education...hope floats, hope springs, hope sandoval, hopelessly devoted to you lyrics.
It is easier to google hope than to engineer it.
“A belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one’s life.”
Suddenly out of darkness cometh light.
No longer the whipping boys destined for the drop.
A combination of a dozey linesman and the greatest Serb since Constantine XI – The last Emperor of Constantinople – have breathed fresh life into a season that was previously heaping misery upon misery. The last 20 minutes might have been as gripping as anything Alfred Hitchcock might have captured on film.
But this time Janet Leigh survived the knife in the shower.
If ever there was a ‘must-win’ game, this was it. And there will be a spring in steps around Compton this week.
Can they upset Spurs or Manchester United? The first hour suggests that with a bit of luck they just might.
A second clean sheet was scuppered by poor set-piece defending but much more of the opening hour when Wolves were far superior then folk might even stop questioning Jez Moxey about Mick McCarthy’s future.
There is life without Michael Kightly after all.
The gap on fourth-bottom West Ham is down to a single point.
Nenad Milijas had disappeared somewhat after a fine debut against West Ham in August. But he scored the sort of goal that comes around only once a season.
Milijas shone like a brightly-coloured beacon from start to finish. His 30-yard exocet flew past Jussi Jaaskelainen but was merely the icing on a glorious bun of an afternoon.
His set-pieces were landing on a sixpence.
Bolton boss Gary Megson, previously unbeaten in four games as a manager against McCarthy, saw his side lay siege to the Wolves goal in latter stages but they had given themselves too big a mountain to climb despite Johan Elmander’s scrappy finish.
