Just as my fellow blogger, John Bray, was reacquainting himself with his yellow chair, mine was unused at Molineux on Sunday, hopefully for the first and last time this season, writes Wolves blogger Nathan Lloyd.
As mentioned in my last blog, I was gutted when I had to travel up to Harrogate, North Yorkshire for a conference and exhibition on the day of the Fulham game.
I then had to cobble together my match report from the intermittent online coverage with Middle Eastern commentary and the few minutes of highlights the BBC granted us that evening.
Perhaps selfishly, but when I missed the game I was kind of hoping it wasn’t going to be high on entertainment but that we would still scrape the three points.
I was really glad my hopes were dashed when Wolves produced an energetic and hungry display against a Fulham side who are failing to match their performances from last season and who have always been worse travellers than Mr T.
The midfield against Fulham looked far more effective than in previous games with the pace of Edwards introduced on the right and the steal of Castillo added to the middle.
We simply can’t afford passengers in the Wolves side, certainly not that this level and I think Mick realised this by taking Nenad Milijas’s out of the firing line against Fulham.
For all the Serbian’s obvious quality, the pace of the English game may not suit him. He may be a gamble that doesn’t work out, but it is probably too early to pass complete judgement, so fingers crossed that he may just need time to adjust like many imports before him.
Greg Halford was much more effective at right back and wasn’t exposed so heavily for his lack of pace as when he is deployed on the right wing.
It was a vital victory and one that has got us firmly back on track and the Wanderer everybody seemed to be talking about after the game was Christophe Berra who by all accounts was an absolute rock at the back.
Christophe built on that good performance with another man of the match display on Wednesday night against Man Utd.
I was travelling back from my conference on Wednesday and could have easily dropped in at Old Trafford to catch the game.
But given the ridiculous ticket price, which I don’t think we need to revisit and the fact that a couple of blogs ago I labelled the Carling Cup as ‘Mickey Mouse’, I decided to get home and watch the game on the box.
Even if we did think that Man Utd put out a ‘B’ team, self-confessed Wolves fan Sir Alex, could still field a starting 11 that boasted eight international players.
And United’s quality was even more apparent when it was barely noticeable that they were reduced to ten men on the half hour mark.
But Wolves acquitted themselves extremely well and it was great to see the return of three of our best players in Foley, Ebanks-Blake and Kightly.
Sylvan obviously looked a tad rusty but held the ball up well and nearly scored with a cracking turn and shot. It was also cracking to see the returning Kightly running himself into the ground obviously relishing in playing in one of the best grounds in Europe.
Elokobi was 2nd best to the dazzling feet of Nani for most of the game until George decided that the obvious solution was to give the Portuguese twinkled toed Ronaldo wannabe a kick and he soon ran away to hide on the opposite flank.
The Hoff was lively and a nuisance to the United defence all night, but still looks a little off the pace of the English style of play.
Biggest surprise of the night was perhaps David Jones, who looked sharper than last season and I thought he was a contender to be our best player of the night.
Overall, a useful run out for a few of the lads coming back from injury, a decent performance and to lose by the odd goal at Old Trafford is certainly nothing to be ashamed of, and with a little more belief and luck we could well be in the draw for the next round.
Back to the important stuff and Sunderland in the league on Sunday.
Realistically, this is a game that we could grab at least a point and maybe all three. Mick will no doubt get a rousing reception for what he achieved in the North East with the equivalent of a £5 book token.
Buts that where the sentimentally will hopefully end and Mick will set the hardworking Wolves pack to get at Sunderland from the off.
Mick has already said that the likes of Kightly and Ebanks-Blake will have to wait their turn to get back in the starting 11 having only just come back from injury.
But what a bench we will have sitting down in the North East with those two probably being joined by the Hoff, Kevin Foley and hopefully David Jones who did more than enough on Wednesday to warrant his place ahead of Milijas.
Confidence in the camp is obviously high at the moment and I doubt the result at Old Trafford would have done anything to puncture that.
I think Steve Bruce may just be surprised at the energy and determination of this current Wolves side and we may just edge it on Sunday.
Good luck to Daniel Jones on his loan and possible full time move to Notts County, the oldest Professional football club in the world.
Let’s just hope he is happy with the set-up there and doesn’t do a Sol Campbell and run away from Nottingham because the water is too wet or because the pitch is the wrong shade of green.
Enjoy your weekend.
@Wolvesblogger 