Wolves 0, Manchester United 1: Bill Howell's big match verdict
THE great Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea proposed four paradoxes in an effort to challenge the accepted notions of space and time and succeeded in confounding mathematicians for centuries.
Zeno attacked the notion held by many philosophers of his day that space was infinitely divisible, and that motion was therefore continuous.
His paradoxes have puzzled, challenged, influenced, inspired, infuriated, and amused philosophers and physicists for over two millennia.
Space and time you say? Easy.
You try sitting him down in front of a DVD and getting him to explain how a professional footballer can miss a chance from seven yards.
That would have foxed him. That would have had him scratching his pate, rocking back on his chair, shuffling his feet and nibbling the end off his pencil.
There are no mathematical theorems available for solving that puzzle. No calculus for what happened to Sam Vokes in stoppage time.
First there was Ronny Rosenthal. And Chris Iwelumo will need no reminding of his Hampden howler.
One just hopes that in time the young Welsh striker can pick himself off the floor and put his glaring miss to bed.
Mick McCarthy says he does not believe in luck. But his players are throwing sticks in the wind rather than boomerangs because what goes around is not coming back.
Hitting the inside of the post twice at Bolton was bad enough, but this was worse. Much worse.
How could Stephen Ward head straight at Edwin Van der Sar when either side would have been a certain goal?
How could the aforementioned Vokes sky his shot when it looked for the world as if he would etch his name in history?
First Kenny Miller, now Vokes.
It didn’t take Zeno to realise he had both space and time. Ward had space and time.
Time stood still... but if you were looking for reasons why Wolves are struggling, you’d not be perplexed for too long. Just 21 goals in 28 games tells you why.
It was so close to being a magical point. So close to being potentially a season-changing point.
The five-man midfield might be maligned by some, but neither Liverpool nor Tottenham could breach it and likewise United, until the latter stages, were thwarted.
And yet you’d be wrong to jump to the conclusion that Wolves were simply out to stifle United. True, they had to fight like lions, they had to track runners, they had to stay alert.
