As I get older and balder (by the day it seems) I find myself reminiscing about days gone by and the achievements Wolves have made whilst I’ve been following them for the last two decades.
My dad was never a fan of the beautiful game, so I was probably what you would call a late developer in terms of a Wolves fan. Not helped by my family leaving the Black Country for Milton Keynes in 1985, I didn’t actually witness my first Molineux game until aged 18 and in 1991 for the visit of Ipswich.
I chose my University to study the year after, purely on the basis that Molineux was next door and I’ve lived back in Wolverhampton ever since.
In my 20 years of following the gold ‘n’ black I’ve probably witnessed a few more lows than highs and some Wolves fans should remember those wilderness years when they moan about our current league plight.
We have a well run club, that is financially sound and we have a brand spanking new stadium to look forward to. I’ve had my run-ins with Mick McCarthy, who may make the odd cock-up, but these are far outweighed by the good things he has done, especially rebuilding the team after the dull years with Hoddle at the helm.
Anyway, over the last twenty years I have built up a memory bank of victories against nearly all of the big teams (with the exception of Arsenal), a play-off celebration, a championship title, fight backs, drubbings and a whole of host of lackluster games where I wish I was somewhere else.
But apart from one spectacular FA Cup run in 1998 where we were beaten by Arsenal in the semis, cup memories have been in short supply. For that defeat, Wolves manager Mark McGhee ridiculously placed both Steve Bull and Robbie Keane on the bench, preferring the donkey that is Steve Claridge up front.
Since then we have been starved of cup success and I can say without a shadow of a doubt that my worst Molineux memory of all time would be watching 5,000 Baggies fans boinging their hearts out in the South Bank as the stripy lot gave us a 3-0 pasting.
And this year we progressed all the way to the fourth round only for Stoke to snatch a 1-0 victory in front of a paltry 12,000 fans at Molineux.
So, if we are talking about the magic of the cup, or the romance, or some other well oiled cliché, then its obvious that the majority of Wolves supporters put Premiership survival above all of those – which really is a shame.
It’s a shame because as well as witnessing some great achievements from my team in the last 20 years, I would dearly love to see another decent cup run.
You would think Gérard Houllier would understand the FA Cups importance in this country having spent six years at the helm at Anfield, famously winning a treble of cups in 2000. And, especially for a team like Villa, who just are not used to being at the wrong end of the Premiership, a cup run is surely all the more important for those fans.
So Villa aficionados were baffled and rightly hacked off when they travelled up to Eastlands in the fifth round to witness Gérard resting key players such as Downing, Young and Albrighton and playing several of his troops out of position, including Delph, a central midfielder by trade at left back and Chris Hurd at right-back.
After Villa had been predictably turned over 3-0 by Man City, Houllier argued afterwards that the relegation battle was his priority and tried to point out the team he picked was still filled with internationals, albeit under-21s from formidable footballing giants such as Australia and Bulgaria.
Try telling the thousands of Villa fans who travelled up the M6, midweek, only to see their team littered with reserves and that the FA Cup wasn’t a priority. Any confidence that Houllier was finally beginning to build with those fans probably diminished on March 11 when he handed the game to City with a coward’s teamsheet.
I’m of that opinion that confidence breeds confidence. If you can pick up a victory in the cup then that spurs on the players to continue that good form in the league. All this cobblers about the cup being a distraction and that it tires out the players is complete drivel. Boo-hoo if a player finds himself playing twice in seven days for a few grand a week, my heart bleeds, it honestly does.
I know the English game has a speed and intensity that isn’t matched by any other league in the world, but wrapping players in cotton wool as Houllier did at Eastlands is pathetic.
If you would have asked Birmingham City fans at the beginning of the season if they would have preferred guaranteed survival in the Premiership or a piece of silverware, I’m hoping the majority of them would have plumped for the unexpected League Cup that came their way, I know I would.
Blues fans have had little to cheer over their history; the League Cup victory being only their 2nd piece of significant silverware.
And that’ll be a memory that their fans can share with their kids and grandkids. Imagine sitting little Johnny on your knee and proudly explaining how your team starved off Premiership survival for three years in a row with a series of finishes just outside the bottom three – doesn’t quite have the same ring to it does it?
Saying that, of course being a Wolves fan, I would to see top-flight survival this season and although its going to be tight, I think we’ll just get there.
It seems almost incomprehensible that in a season where we have beaten Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool and Man City, that our inability to see off the teams around us have seen us continually in the bottom three of the table.
As fantastic as it would be, it’s unlikely that all four of the West Midlands clubs will survive in the top flight come the end of May.
I’m not going to predict who out of Villa, Albion, Blues or Wolves will drop out of the Prem. As long as it isn’t Wolves then I’ll be happy and little Johnny will have more stories about the Wolves to contend with.
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