axeman Posted January 28, 2006 Author Share Posted January 28, 2006 If you thought taking a vacation in Iceland was a good idea, forget it. I should know, I was forced to live on the bloomin' iceberg for most of my youth. A pint of beer wasn't allowed to be sold anywhere until 1989, when the price of the said pint would be nailed shut at £5 or more. A 5 minute ride in a taxi would set you back around £10, a full trolley of food would cost around £150 and the prices of clothing would be even more extortionate. The people were nice enough, when they could be arsed to look out of their wallets. I was 37 years old when the story began and I wasn't expecting to experience the things that were about to happen. I had been working with disabled people for almost 2 years when, I decided that I needed a change in my life, so I decided to flog my CV all over the place. I sent out so many copies that I couldn't keep track of where I'd sent them. I remembered that I'd sent out applications to all sorts of jobs. Football coaching in at least 6 countries, despite having no qualifications other than having played football management simulation games for ages; airline piloting, with a similar lack of qualifications; police work and many other odd jobs. I even applied to become a bouncer at Buckingham Palace, I remembered, though I didn't harbour any real expectations of getting that one. Especially when I found out that it certainly wasn't a pub. I was merrily dreaming of a rather wet encounter with Jenna Jameson, where I was that stud with all those extra inches, when I heard a weird noise from what I thought was the alarm clock. I grabbed that godforsaken thing and threw it against the wall, but that annoying noise kept on pounding my eardrums. I rose up to my elbow and tried to figure out where that strange sound was coming from. When most of the slumber had gone off me, I noticed that my mobile phone was bouncing around on my desk. What was the great idea there? Usually people wouldn't bother calling me until after supper, when I was finally awake. But this was horrible, waking up first thing in the afternoon to a horribly insistent mobile phone was not the nicest thing I'd experienced in my life. I picked up the phone and answered. â€Grumble, what's the grand idea of waking me up so early in the afternoon?†â€Pardon me sir, but are you Tómas Þráinsson?â€, a hesitant voice asked on the other end of the line. â€That's entirely possible, depends on a few thingsâ€, I said rudely. â€My name is David Cooper and I represent Derry's in the Midlands. I understand that you applied for middle management work at one of our stores.†Middle management work?? Could I have been that dumb? After all, most of the people, doing that sort of work, were totally out of touch with real jobs. When the fog of sleep started to move away though, I started thinking back on what I'd applied for. â€Mr. Þráinsson, are you still there?â€, the voice asked worriedly. â€Sorry about that, I was just trying to remember if I did indeed applyâ€, I said and sighed. â€I must admit that I have no recollection of it, but then again I have applied for a lot of jobs in the last 3 months.†â€Pardon my asking sir, but why have you been applying so frantically for work?†â€I just need a change of scenery and the one I'm in now looks very bad.†â€I hope you're not in trouble with the law sir!†â€I was talking about the state of my flat and my current job. That's why I need a change of scenery. Maybe I could mess up in a different city, town or part of town. As long as I don't have to be hereâ€, I replied in a rather annoyed tone. â€In that case, you might be in luck sir. Do you fancy coming here for a serious job interview?†“Is Guinness Irish? Of course I fancy that. It will take me a couple of days to make my travelling arrangements thoughâ€, I said and almost expected the guy on the other end to slam down the phone. To my great surprise that didn't happen. â€You don't need any such things sir, we took the liberty of setting up the travel plan from your house to our offices for tomorrow. You could be here by teatime tomorrow, if you catch the 6 o'clock taxi outside your flat tomorrow morning.†â€Are you f*****g serious?? Do you expect me to delay my bedtime that much? What am I thinking, of course you do. I'll be ready, but I might not be totally sober by the time the taxi comes in. I have some serious fridge emptying to do and, as we speak, I have 36 bottles of Carlsberg in my fridge. I don't intend to let any of it go badâ€, I replied and started to look forward to the trip. â€As long as you're brain is in working order when you come to our office, we won't be too bothered with what you do tonight. After all, you're not yet working for us.†â€Thank you Mr. Cooper, I'll be in peak condition once I come to the offices. I can sleep on the taxi, the plane to Heathrow and whatever transportation awaits to bring me between the airport and your officesâ€, I said pretty relieved. â€Excellent. I'll be there to receive you once you come to our offices. Just make sure you get here on time.†What the hell did this guy think he was? When I say I'll be in peak form, then I certainly will. Well mostly peaking that is. â€No worries, I have plenty of ideas about how to keep myself occupied so I won't miss my rideâ€, I said and on that note we said our goodbyes. That was a strange turnaround of fortunes. Though I certainly hoped that I wouldn't be in charge of their restaurant potwash, that would be totally mind blowing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
axeman Posted January 28, 2006 Share Posted January 28, 2006 If you thought taking a vacation in Iceland was a good idea, forget it. I should know, I was forced to live on the bloomin' iceberg for most of my youth. A pint of beer wasn't allowed to be sold anywhere until 1989, when the price of the said pint would be nailed shut at £5 or more. A 5 minute ride in a taxi would set you back around £10, a full trolley of food would cost around £150 and the prices of clothing would be even more extortionate. The people were nice enough, when they could be arsed to look out of their wallets. I was 37 years old when the story began and I wasn't expecting to experience the things that were about to happen. I had been working with disabled people for almost 2 years when, I decided that I needed a change in my life, so I decided to flog my CV all over the place. I sent out so many copies that I couldn't keep track of where I'd sent them. I remembered that I'd sent out applications to all sorts of jobs. Football coaching in at least 6 countries, despite having no qualifications other than having played football management simulation games for ages; airline piloting, with a similar lack of qualifications; police work and many other odd jobs. I even applied to become a bouncer at Buckingham Palace, I remembered, though I didn't harbour any real expectations of getting that one. Especially when I found out that it certainly wasn't a pub. I was merrily dreaming of a rather wet encounter with Jenna Jameson, where I was that stud with all those extra inches, when I heard a weird noise from what I thought was the alarm clock. I grabbed that godforsaken thing and threw it against the wall, but that annoying noise kept on pounding my eardrums. I rose up to my elbow and tried to figure out where that strange sound was coming from. When most of the slumber had gone off me, I noticed that my mobile phone was bouncing around on my desk. What was the great idea there? Usually people wouldn't bother calling me until after supper, when I was finally awake. But this was horrible, waking up first thing in the afternoon to a horribly insistent mobile phone was not the nicest thing I'd experienced in my life. I picked up the phone and answered. â€Grumble, what's the grand idea of waking me up so early in the afternoon?†â€Pardon me sir, but are you Tómas Þráinsson?â€, a hesitant voice asked on the other end of the line. â€That's entirely possible, depends on a few thingsâ€, I said rudely. â€My name is David Cooper and I represent Derry's in the Midlands. I understand that you applied for middle management work at one of our stores.†Middle management work?? Could I have been that dumb? After all, most of the people, doing that sort of work, were totally out of touch with real jobs. When the fog of sleep started to move away though, I started thinking back on what I'd applied for. â€Mr. Þráinsson, are you still there?â€, the voice asked worriedly. â€Sorry about that, I was just trying to remember if I did indeed applyâ€, I said and sighed. â€I must admit that I have no recollection of it, but then again I have applied for a lot of jobs in the last 3 months.†â€Pardon my asking sir, but why have you been applying so frantically for work?†â€I just need a change of scenery and the one I'm in now looks very bad.†â€I hope you're not in trouble with the law sir!†â€I was talking about the state of my flat and my current job. That's why I need a change of scenery. Maybe I could mess up in a different city, town or part of town. As long as I don't have to be hereâ€, I replied in a rather annoyed tone. â€In that case, you might be in luck sir. Do you fancy coming here for a serious job interview?†“Is Guinness Irish? Of course I fancy that. It will take me a couple of days to make my travelling arrangements thoughâ€, I said and almost expected the guy on the other end to slam down the phone. To my great surprise that didn't happen. â€You don't need any such things sir, we took the liberty of setting up the travel plan from your house to our offices for tomorrow. You could be here by teatime tomorrow, if you catch the 6 o'clock taxi outside your flat tomorrow morning.†â€Are you f*****g serious?? Do you expect me to delay my bedtime that much? What am I thinking, of course you do. I'll be ready, but I might not be totally sober by the time the taxi comes in. I have some serious fridge emptying to do and, as we speak, I have 36 bottles of Carlsberg in my fridge. I don't intend to let any of it go badâ€, I replied and started to look forward to the trip. â€As long as you're brain is in working order when you come to our office, we won't be too bothered with what you do tonight. After all, you're not yet working for us.†â€Thank you Mr. Cooper, I'll be in peak condition once I come to the offices. I can sleep on the taxi, the plane to Heathrow and whatever transportation awaits to bring me between the airport and your officesâ€, I said pretty relieved. â€Excellent. I'll be there to receive you once you come to our offices. Just make sure you get here on time.†What the hell did this guy think he was? When I say I'll be in peak form, then I certainly will. Well mostly peaking that is. â€No worries, I have plenty of ideas about how to keep myself occupied so I won't miss my rideâ€, I said and on that note we said our goodbyes. That was a strange turnaround of fortunes. Though I certainly hoped that I wouldn't be in charge of their restaurant potwash, that would be totally mind blowing. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
axeman Posted January 30, 2006 Author Share Posted January 30, 2006 The trip I stumbled drunkenly into the taxi in Reykjavik and had only my shaving kit and a few pairs of undershorts as my luggage. The driver was surprised, but decided not to make a hassle out of it. I asked him to check me in at the Airport, since my drunken slur might not go down well at the desk. He was getting paid by my prospective employers anyway and he was getting paid for both mileage and time, so he wasn't in too much of a hurry. I had another reason why I didn't want to check in myself, namely being drunk makes a man omit a lot of alcoholic vapours when breathing and I wasn't about to cause the ladies at the desk any indignities at that early hour. I also told the driver that I'd probably try to sleep all the way to Keflavik airport, since I had finished off 36 bottles of Carlsberg and I wouldn't be in any shape to hold a conversation long enough. An hour later we were at the airport and I was pretty damn sure that the driver had taken the long route, which he admitted, but only because I didn't have to pay for the trip myself. He knew my reputation it seems, for giving people hell when they've tried to screw me over. After the successful check-in, I stumbled to the departure lounge and asked the ladies at the bar to give me a pint of the strongest coffee they could brew. I wanted to keep my head clear so I wouldn't miss my flight out. I asked one of them to make sure I'd wake up, if I fell asleep, when my flight was called. Fortunately she was willing to do that, because I needed that push to catch the flight. In fact I needed a glass of ice cold water poured over my head to wake up and catch the flight. When I got on the plane I asked one of the stewardesses to loan me something to dry my head with, because I had needed the extreme edition of waking up in the departure lounge. She smiled and handed me a towel that apparently is complimental in the business class seats. I thanked her and told her that I'd probably be sleeping throughout the trip. I'd be happy enough to wake up when the plane stopped in front of the terminal building. With that I crashed to sleep and sure enough, the same stewardess woke me up as requested. I was very sleepy and half stumbled through customs, past customs officers who were very amused to see me pass through. They didn't even bother checking my meagre luggage, not that I was bringing anything that might be considered contraband. Fortunately somebody was waiting for me when I exited the arrivals area and held up a sign with my name on it. It turned out that he had quite a nice car waiting for me outside. A very great looking Aston Martin DB9 and I was flabbergasted. Those guys really do mean business. As it turned out, I couldn't sleep much in the car, especially since the driver didn't exactly feel like driving slowly. We cruised along at around 120mph and it felt like 60 for some reason. Good driving attributes for that car. Maybe I'll win the lottery to get one like that. I'd need that for a car that costs over £130,000. Finally we came to the office and I was let out of the car. It's not made for passengers though, especially not with my bulky frame. 6'3" and weigh around 300 lbs in the nude. More muscular than flabby and wide shoulders, which is the result of my 10 years of training to be a competitive swimmer in my youth. I had also taken a couple of badges in football coaching, but never actually went into coaching. I guess I was too much of a club fascist, since I would only coach at my favourite club and none other. Unfortunately for me, they didn't have an opening, so that's how it went. I started training for other sports, basketball, weight lifting and ended up in golf, where I became infamous at my golf club for demanding a rebate off my yearly billing, due to the fact that I never used the fairways when playing. Unfortunately they didn't see things my way and rejected the idea, even if they thought it was amusing. So here I was, waiting to see people who wanted to interview me for a job that I didn't know if I had the skills for or not. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
funkybradley Posted February 2, 2006 Share Posted February 2, 2006 Nice start Axeman, any story that mentions Jenna Jameson has got to be worth reading, although i think you should of uploaded a movie clip. Big fan of her work and I'm sure she's a nice person. Keep it up fella. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
united_forever Posted February 2, 2006 Share Posted February 2, 2006 very nice axeman. Looking forward to reading the rest of the story when you post it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
axeman Posted February 5, 2006 Author Share Posted February 5, 2006 Thanks guys, I appreciate the heads up This story will be played at a much slower pace than my other story though, because I want this one to be good on the storyline and deep in content. ************************************************ The Interview I was shown to the elevator and the operator put a special key into a near hidden slot on the control panel. The elevator started off and we went up beyond the count of floors. Seemed like this building was hiding a few things from public knowledge. It stopped and a voice from the elevator's internal speaker told me to move out and have a seat in the waiting room. I did as asked and moved over there. Why all the grand secrecy and all about some crummy middle management job? I decided to play things by ear and not get overexcited by anything. This was certainly very unusual, but then again, nothing in my life turned out in the usual and publicly accepted ways. â€Please step into the office Mr. Þráinssonâ€, a seductive female voice said through a hidden speaker above my head, sounding eerily like the voice of my favourite pr0n actress, Jenna Jameson. I looked around, probably looking a bit overawed by the whole episode. But I decided to comply and stepped into a very spacious office. Looking across to the desk, I saw a middle aged man sitting and looking my way. He was on the phone and obviously was finishing a call, because he waved me over and then put the phone away. â€I hope I didn't shock you too muchâ€, he said with this strange female voice. He then put a small gadget away and continued in a normal baritone voice. â€I love to see the face of people who hear me speaking like that. It's absolutely hilarious at times, but you look like you've seen a few weird things in your life, so that obviously didn't phase you much.†â€It's a pretty neat trickâ€, I said and grinned. â€I'm sure that many guys, who come here, believe that there's a hot and willing female waiting behind the door and are all flustered when they realise you've played a trick on them.†â€Indeed they are and I've had a lot of laughs at their expense throughout the last few monthsâ€, he replied with a satisfied smile on his face. â€But you're the first one to think nothing of it and not to show any disappointment about this small charade. Would you care to tell me why?†â€Sure, I've just had so many strange things happening to me in my life, that nothing really gets to me anymore. I was more surprised with the elevator trick than the voice gagâ€, I replied and smiled. â€I never expected that to happen when going to a job interview for a middle management job at a department store. Unless something is going on that has nothing to do with that sort of work.†â€You've got a very keen nose, my dear fellowâ€, he said and smiled. â€Indeed this interview has nothing to do with Derrys or anything like that. Even if I have an office in their office building. No, I want to offer you the chance to get into football management. How does that sound to you?â€, he asked enthusiastically and smiled. â€Football management??â€, I replied and must have looked like a mouse, when the cat has finally caught it. â€I'm not sure if I'm qualified for the job, though I've had my coaching badges for a few years now. I just haven't had the chance to utilise them for a long time.†â€Well, I'm offering you a fresh start with lots of experienced people assisting you, but the application you sent to us convinced me that you might be the man to help us back into the big time.†I remembered now that I had sent out a few applications for football related jobs. All the big clubs in the Midlands, quite a few on the south coast and the odd coaching jobs in various other countries. Of course I'd applied for loads of other jobs, totally non-football related, so this was a turn for the better. Or was it? â€So which club are you representing Mr. ....?â€, I asked and waited for him to finish my sentence. â€Rick Hayward, chairman of the board at Wolverhampton Wanderers, at your serviceâ€, he said smiling. â€That's a step higher than I'd have imagined, Mr. Haywardâ€, I said, slightly off my guard. â€The Championship is much further up than I'd have imagined possible for me to reach with my current qualifications.†â€Are you saying that you don't fancy the job? After all it's a job you applied forâ€, he continued and looked me in the eye. “The ideas you put forth in your application rung a bell with me and I'd love to see you take the club as far forward as possible. We'll start you off on a one year contract, worth £4100 per week. I believe that's more than you've been earning recentlyâ€, he finished, still looking at me. â€Actually it's more than I've earned in 2 months before nowâ€, I responded half-shocked. “I'm willing to give it a try, for at least one season. If things don't work out, at least we can say we gave it our best shot and then part company without any hard feelings.†He produced a wad of papers from a drawer in his desk and pushed a button on his phone. A man approached from a side door. â€Mr Hayward?â€, he said in a heavy Scottish accent and barely looked my way. â€Ah Jez, this is Tómas Þráinsson from Iceland. He's to become our next manager. I trust that you'll take care of him once the formality of him signing the contract has been fulfilled.†Then to me he said: â€Tómas, this is Jez Moxey, our managing director. He'll be your immediate supervisor on the financial side. I'm not a very hands on chairman, but I will be having a look at your progress once you've signed the contract. Now if you'd please put down your name here on those two sheets of paper and we'll be off and running.†I shook hands with Mr Moxey and then had a look at the contract. It was a standard contract it seemed, no small print that I could see, despite looking it over thoroughly. On that note I decided to sign, since the pay was good and I could finally try to settle in. â€Now the two of you can leave my office and head off to the Molineux. I'm sure you'll want to look things over in your future office and of course find out what you've got to work withâ€, he finished and turned to his computer. Mr. Moxey pointed me towards the side door and I followed him. In the elevator he turned to me and said: “Ok, Mr. Þráinsson. I don't know yet how we'll get along, but there are a few things we'll need to chat about on our way to the stadium. I guess you'll want to know what sort of financial restraints you'll be facing and what sort of players you have waiting for you.†So in his car we spoke about various things, how the money was, how the training facilities were and other such things. We got quite personal at some point and found out that we had some mutual interests, especially musically. “Ok Tomas, you've got £1.2 million to work with in the transfer market and of course all the extra you can raise by selling off players. The wage budget is £120,000 and we're already £6,000 below that pointâ€, he said smiling. â€That's handy, so I reckon I should try to look for bargains in the market, in order to improve the squad properly. I also think that I need to have a look at which players are surplus to requirements. We need to create some leverage if we find players that improve the squadâ€, I said, thinking out loud. He let me out at the stadium, where a beautiful young lady was waiting for me. â€This is your secretary Tómas. She's very good at her job and she'll be able to help you with just about anything you need to figure out about the place. I'll be in there again later, to introduce you to the rest of the staff. The players and staff are on holiday and Stephanie here is the only one back.†With that he drove off, leaving me in the company of the stunning Stephanie. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
axeman Posted February 6, 2006 Author Share Posted February 6, 2006 The Stadium Stephanie took me on a tour of the Molineux stadium. I must say that I was quite impressed with it. It takes 29,396 spectators and is an all-seater. It has under-soil heating, so not many matches will be postponed due to bad weather. Then she lead me to my office, which was quite luxurious, to say the least. She had her own desk outside the main door to my office, with lots of nice gadgets and a computer sitting on it, not to forget the irreplaceable telephone. She showed me through the door to my office, showing me that I had quite the nice surroundings to work in, when I would be in office. Mahogany furniture, leather upholstery and no sign of wood panelling. Of course a computer, telephone, video/dvd player and a 50†wide screen TV. A lot of other nice gadgets, but I noticed that one thing was missing. “Stephanie, not that I want to sound presumptuous or trying to come on to you, but why isn't there a sofa or an easy chair in here? It might help make players feel more welcome in the office, when I want to have a chat with them about various things. Could you see to it that I get something nice and comfortable for the office as well. Please have this huge table with the extra chairs removed at the same time. Things need to be set to make people feel at ease in hereâ€, I said and smiled. “Just out of curiosity though, are you spoken for?â€, I asked and winked. â€No offence taken Tómasâ€, she said and winked back, “unfortunately for you though, I'm indeed spoken for and I seriously doubt that my fiancée would appreciate me walking into your arms, without at least giving him his due notice. I'll see to the furniture changes and they should be completed before the end of next week.†I smiled back at her. “No worries my dear, after all my job here is to lead the Wolves into the Premiership again, not hit you up during office hours.†She laughed and went back outside, leaving me in the office. There were a lot of files on the desk. Mostly to do with the personnel here and potential loan signings, as well as current ones. I decided to pop off to a hotel and have a look at the papers the next day. I was too tired to actually do anything worth mentioning anyway, so I went back out of the office and told Stephanie that I was off to find a place to stay, as I wasn't aware of any arrangements having been made in that regard. She told me that there was a car waiting for me outside and that it would take me to a flat that belonged to the club. I could have it until I've found something for myself or decided to leave town. She winked at me on that last comment, because I think she knows I'm no quitter. I'm also going to be on the lookout for this loverly lass, because if she's ever going to split up with her current fiancée, then I'll be ready to give her a shoulder to cry on. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
axeman Posted February 7, 2006 Author Share Posted February 7, 2006 Pre-Season The next morning I came back to the office and decided to have a look at what I'd have to play with. The team looked relatively well balanced, with the odd strengthening needed here and there. But the players I had at the start of season were as follows. Goalkeepers Stefan Postma (on loan from Aston Villa) Paul Jones Michael Oakes Matt Murray Defenders Jackie McNamara D/M RC Lee Naylor D/WB L Joleon Lescott D C Jody Craddock D C Gábor Gyepes D RC (on loan from Ferencváros) Mark Clyde D RC Conor Rafferty D LC Rob Edwards D RC Midfielders Seyi Olofinjana DM Paul Ince DM Darren Anderton AM RC Colin Cameron AM RC Mark Davies M C Mark Kennedy AM LC Rohan Ricketts AM LC Seol Ki-Hyeon AM RLC, F C Attackers Carl Cort ST Kenny Miller ST Leon Clarke ST Ioan Viorel Ganea ST Very early on I saw the need to patch up the midfield, since many players were injured and I had to do the same for the heart of my defence, due to injuries as well. So I decided to make loan offers for the following players (all of which eventually got accepted): Teddy Bjarnason M C (18 years old from Celtic) Calum Davenport D C (22 years old from Tottenham) Christian Kabeya AM RC (18 years old from Aston Villa, wouldn't arrive until 25th of August) I offloaded a few players as well. The first to go was Lewis Gobern, who was bough by Billericay for £16,000 plus some extra amenities. Next up was Kevin O'Connor, who was snapped up by Hinckley for a grand, plus 40% of any future sale. Then it was George Ndah's turn to leave, with Swindon offering 60 grand, plus some extras, which I accepted. In the meantime, we played a few friendly matches to get ourselves fit for the season. First to invite us for a visit were non-league outfit Kingstonian, who we beat 1-0 in a scrappy affair. Next we visited Doncaster Rovers and beat them 4-2, despite playing rather poorly throughout the match. But I couldn't really fault the lads due to their heavy training schedule at that time. Another away game was scheduled for us, this time against Newport County. We didn't have much trouble against them and eventually came away 3-0 winners. Then we had a great break, when AS Roma came in for a visit to the Molineux. I just wish we'd been at our best, so we could have given them a sniff of our potential. As it turned out, we were no match for them and were lucky not to lose by a greater margin than 3-0. We did have a few nice chances, but the opposition goalkeepers were too good for our strikers and a certain Mr Cassano terrorised our defenders, throughout the match, on his way to earn a brace. It was a good run though and the lads will have benefited from it a lot. I didn't have much chance to make any advances on Stephanie, since I was busy trying to get players in for the season. But it looked like a tough proposition, with the lack of finances at my disposal, but I plodded on nonetheless, since I didn't really have a choice. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
axeman Posted February 7, 2006 Author Share Posted February 7, 2006 I'm sorry but I totally forgot to mention the final friendly game of our Pre-Season. To build our lads' confidence after the lesson they'd been taught by Roma, we went up to Stockport and soundly beat them 3-0. The lads were buzzing with excitement after the match, because it seemed obvious that some of the lads had picked up a trick or two from the Italian side and, fortunately, it wasn't the theatrical aspect of their play. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
axeman Posted February 7, 2006 Author Share Posted February 7, 2006 It seems that I also managed to forget about the purchase of Ryan Garry from Arsenal. He's a D LC, only 21 years old and deceptively quick. He was obtained for the paltry sum of £375,000 and is bound to become a massive player for us. At this point, he was the only player to come in on a permanent basis. *************************************** I really ought to drink more coffee before starting to add to my stories. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
axeman Posted February 24, 2006 Author Share Posted February 24, 2006 The Championship August 2005 We finally got to play proper competitive football, when Stoke City came in for a visit to Molineux. I was a bit nervous before the game, because I didn't know how the lads had adapted to the way we planned to play. But my worries turned out to be unfounded as we ran out comfortable 3-0 winners with the goals coming courtesy of Carl Cort, Leon Clarke and Ioan Viorel Ganea. We'd had more of the ball, more shots on goal and our goalkeeper, Paul Jones had been very safe when called upon. Next up we had to travel up to Crewe. We fell behind in the 18th minute thanks to Kenny Wright's pacey running on the counter attack. In the second half we got back into it though, with Carl Cort levelling things on 52 minutes and then we won it thanks to Leon Clarke's awareness, when the goalkeeper came off his line and got chipped for his troubles. The next match was at home against recently relegated Southampton and it was to be one of the most boring encounters I've witnessed in football. Neither team created much and as a result, the 0-0 score was thoroughly deserved by both teams. A week later we had to travel to Plymouth in Devon and meet the home side at their aptly named stadium, Home Park. Both teams played it tight at the back and even if both teams showed some neat interplay out on the pitch, neither had enough nous about themselves when coming into the final third of the pitch. Therefore the final score of 0-0 gave a good impression of the proceedings. Hasney Aljofree got injured for the Pilgrims early in the second half and, despite that, we couldn't capitalise and when Rohan Ricketts got himself sent off for his second yellow card in 10 minutes, we decided to play it tight at the back and avoid any misadventures for the rest of the match. Next up we had to visit Peterborough in the English League Cup. The League Two outfit never stood a chance, as the visitors ran rampant all over the pitch. Final score was 0-4 to the Wolves, with the goals coming from Lee Naylor, Carl Cort, Gábor Gyepes and Seyi Olofinjana. The following weekend we would finally have a home game and the visitors were reckoned to be the more likely to snatch a win. Leeds United were not in a very good form though, having won only one match in the Championship so far, drawn one and lost two. On the other hand they were coming off a win against Stockport in the League Cup. We took the lead from a Rohan Ricketts penalty, after Rui Marques had been called for a foul against Gyepes. It was back and forth stuff from then on and both managers were running out of fingernails, when Eddie Lewis scored the equaliser in the 78th minute from a masterful freekick on the edge of the box. I was becoming as agitated as a beast in a cage, as the final whistle grew closer and then, in the 88th minute, Kenny Miller snatched the winner for us, when he cheekily chipped Neil Sullivan from the edge of the area. The only blemish for us in this match was Gyepes having to withdraw injured after only 25 minutes. I praised the lads for their battling qualities at the end of this 2-1 victory and told them that if they kept fighting until the end, like in this game, there was a real possibility of returning to the top flight at the end of season. For the final match of August, we had to head to the Madejski Stadium to play Reading. And sure enough, we started off on the wrong foot in that game. We fell behind in the 24th minute, when Glen Little slammed home the rebound after Dave Kitson's header hit the post. We managed to level things out at the death of the first half, when Carl Cort out-jumped Hahneman in the [/b]Reading[/b] goal. In the second half, we managed to get into the lead in the 71st minute, when Leon Clarke got on the end of a Ganea cross. That joy didn't last long, because Dave Kitson finally managed to make good on threatening to score for so long in the game. He was on the end of Glen Little's cross and made no mistakes from 6 yards. We did manage to steal all three points though, when Olofinjana scored a right cracker from 25 yards out. The rest of the match was nailbiting stuff and we managed to hold on. So a 3-2 victory was thoroughly deserved we thought, but Steve Coppell wasn't exactly in agreement with me. Summary All matches Championship, unless otherwise stated Wolves – Stoke 3-0 (Cort, Clarke, Ganea) Crewe – Wolves 1-2 (Wright – Cort, Clarke) Wolves – Southampton 0-0 Plymouth – Wolves 0-0 Peterborough – Wolves 0-4 (Naylor, Cort, Gyepes, Olofinjana) League Cup 1st round Wolves – Leeds 2-1 (Ricketts, Miller – Lewis) Reading – Wolves 2-3 (Little, Kitson – Cort, Clarke, Olofinjana) During this month, I was trying to figure out if Stephanie was unhappy in her relationship, but I couldn't see any signs of that, so I decided to let things rest for a bit. She was meticulous in her work and everything was absolutely perfect. I think she was the best assistant I'd ever had, but then again this club is the biggest I've ever been at. Of course I'd only been coaching at junior level back home, so this was hardly surprising either. Jody Craddock came to me with an outrageous wage demand, wanting to jump from £1,500 per week to £11,000, which to me was absolutely unacceptable. So when he refused my offer of £4500 p/week, then I transfer listed him and told him that he wouldn't playing for us again. He then accepted a contract with Southampton, which paid him all of £4,300 p/week. Talk about being a jack-ass. On the incoming side, Paul Wotton arrived from Plymouth on the last day of the transfer window for £750,000. Though if we sell him on, then the Pilgrims will receive 25% of that transfer fee. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 24, 2006 Share Posted February 24, 2006 You and girls. keep it up man! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
axeman Posted February 24, 2006 Author Share Posted February 24, 2006 What can I say Tanel, I'm a randy old bugger Thanks for the heads up Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
axeman Posted February 26, 2006 Author Share Posted February 26, 2006 September 2005 At the start of the month, we suffered a rather nasty setback. Our goalkeepers, Matt Murray and Michael Oakes were both injured and would be out for a minimum of 3 weeks each. And to make matters worse, both had broken a finger in training. I had to call back an 18 year old player, Wayne Hennessey, from his loan deal at Rotherham. I was forced to do that, due to having no goalkeepers left to be backup to Paul Jones. Fortunately Paul Ince and Mark Kennedy returned to full training, but I wonder if we're jinxed when it comes to injuries. The first match in September wouldn't be played until the 10th, due to international fixtures taking place in the preceeding week. The first match would be played at Kenilworth Road against Luton, who were struggling at the foot of the table. We pressured them all through the first half without success and I was stalking around the box, in front of our dugout, for the entire half. No matter what we tried, the ball just couldn't take that short trip over the line. At halftime I told the lads that I was positive they could win it, all they needed was a tiny break. On 55 minutes, Olofinjana finally broke the ice, when he enthusiastically thumped the ball into the net from 12 yards. Luton came out of their shell after that and we finally punished them for it in the 75th minute, when Kenny Miller scored a nice goal, after being put through following a fast interplay that involved Olofinjana, Kennedy and Clarke. 0-2 and we couldn't be happier. We were sitting in 2nd place in the Championship, 1 goal behind Sheffield United. Following the match, the top six looked something like this: <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | | Sheff Utd | | 7 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 12 | 3 | +9 | 17 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Wolves | | 7 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 12 | 4 | +8 | 17 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Crystal Palace | | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 14 | 8 | +6 | 13 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Southampton | | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 13 | 7 | +6 | 13 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Norwich | | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 6 | +3 | 13 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Leicester | | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 11 | 7 | +4 | 12 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre> Following the match though, more injury problems. Jackie McNamara twisted his ankle in training and would be out for anything from 2 weeks and a month. Worse still, Paul Jones suffered from a hip problem and the only way of treating that was to send him to see a specialist. That's what I decided to do, keeping him out for between 2 and 5 months. That left us with an 18 year old goalkeeper as our main stopper. Not a very bright outlook for us. Our next match saw Ipswich Town come in for a visit and prior to the game, we were the bookkeepers' favourites to win. Unfortunately the lads were in a complacent mood and didn't really do themselves justice. We took the lead in the 17th minute, when Kenny Miller found enough space to drill the ball home. Dean Bowditch managed to equalise in injury time of the first half, much to my anger. In the second half, Olofinjana thundered home a delightful 25 yard drive. But all came to nought when the lads dallied up the pitch and Richard Naylor managed to pull the Tractor Boys level again. I really tore into the lads after the match, berating them for this crappy performance. This was something I didn't want to see again. I also made a point of criticising young Ryan Garry for his poor performance. Following the match, one of the journos asked me what I thought of Paul Wotton's debut. I told them that I thought he'd done well and that when he got used to the way we played, they'd start to see the best of his game. That comment seemed to have gone down well with Paul, because the effort he was putting in in training was something else. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
axeman Posted March 5, 2006 Author Share Posted March 5, 2006 Our next match was to be against Leicester and coming into the match, we were 6-4 favourites to win the match. But in the first half we looked anything but favourites. The players were fast asleep and it came as no surprise when Leicester took the lead through Dion Dublin's 39th minute header. I totally lost my temper with the team at halftime, as Rob Edwards revealed to the press after the match, and gave them the full verbal treatment. I also substituted Carl Cort out of the match, for his poor display, replacing him with Leon Clarke. That would prove to be an inspired substitution, because Leon went on to score a hattrick and really show how much he wanted to secure a starting place on the team. Ryan Garry and Paul Ince came on for Calum Davenport and Rohan Ricketts, respectively, and Garry thanked me by scoring a great goal with a powerful header from a corner. The 4-1 scoreline didn't flatter our second half display in the least, because Leicester basically broke down once we got into the goals. After the match I really went ballistic with the praise, because the lads had shown such tremendous fighting skills, by coming back from this first half lethargy. In a post match interview Paul Wotton thanked me for waking them up at halftime, because he hadn't been at his best in the first half, any more than the rest of the lads. The bombardment had been necessary and the lads really wanted to avoid another such display after the match. When I got to the office on the Sunday, I received a phonecall from Rick Hayward. â€Hi Tomas. What a match yesterday. What the hell did you tell the lads at halftime? They seemed more scared of you than of injuries, looking at their performance in the second half.†â€I told them that I'd come to their houses and scr€w their wives and girlfriends, if their performance wouldn't be better in the second halfâ€, I replied and fully expected a guffaw or some other strange exclamation from Rick. â€Please tell me that you're joking Tomasâ€, was the prompt reply from Rick. â€Yes, though it might be incredibly funny to see the looks on their faces, if I used that one. I just told them that if they didn't perform better in the second half, I'd leave them out of the team for the next match and that's something that professional footballers don't want. Then of course I told them to go out there and play for the fans. Never mind me and my sorry reputation, it's the fans they need to please, because they're the lifeblood of the club.†â€It never amazes me how well the fan bit works for you managers. But you're right. If the fans don't like players for their lack of effort, they'll let them know everywhere they meet them. And meeting up with mad fans is not something a footballer wants.†â€You got that right Rick, though this is the first time I've used this bit and I'd rather not have to repeat it, because they'll stop paying it any heed.†Following this we just chatted about the club and how things were progressing and he claimed that he was very happy with our work so far. He claimed that the way we beat Leicester made him proud to be a fan and it reminded him of why he became a fan in the first place. I also found a report on my desk, when I'd finished the conversation with Rick. Gary Anderson, our head physio, reported that Gábor Gyepes had injured himself in training. Apparently he had a damaged knee cap and he recommended terminating the loan deal, so he could seek professional assistance at his home club. I decided to have him treated by a specialist here in England, because we'd need him when he returned to full training in a month. The following Tuesday we had a visit from Portsmouth in the League Cup. I started stirring things up pre-match, by telling them that they must be dreaming if they thought for one second that they'd get away with anything from the match. Then the match got underway and we took a 2-0 lead through Leon Clarke and Rohan Ricketts. Vukic got one back for the visitors near the end of the second half, but that was as close as they'd get. The press went on about how lucky we were to win the match, but I retorted quite harshly to them and told them that they had obviously not been watching the same match as us, because we controlled the match until the final 5 minutes. Granted our young goalkeeper, Wayne Hennessey, made some important saves in the match, but Sander Westerveld had to do the same at the other end and eventually we showed our class by beating them. Then I followed that up by asking the press to send some knowledgeable pundits to our matches, because the current crop had about as much knowledge about the game as the cats outside the stadium, no disrespect to the cats. For the next round of the League Cup, we'd be facing League One outfit Scunthorpe United. We should pass them by without too much trouble, but we had better not disrespect them, because that would ensure our exit from the competition. Come weekend and we faced Sheffield United at Bramall Lane. I didn't really know what to expect before the match, though the bookies had us as the 6-4 favourites to win. But in the 4th minute Leon Clarke scored the opening goal, after a dreadful mistake by Murphy in his own penalty box, and then Kevin Miller managed to go on a mazy run and add another goal in the 15th minute. 2-0 at halftime and it looked like The Blades were on their way to a horrible flogging at home. 6 minutes into the second half and Colin Cameron scored his first goal of the season, to put us 3-0 up. I made a triple substitution in the 55th minute, calling Cameron, Ricketts and Clarke off, for Kabeya, Mark Kennedy and Carl Cort. Unfortunately Kennedy got injured after only 6 minutes on the pitch, with a pulled hamstring. That could keep him out for a month, so that injury jinx is still wreaking havoc on our players. Steven Kabba pulled one back for the home team, but it was too little and too late and the final score of 3-1 to us didn't flatter us in the least. After the match I told the lads that after their good performance and the fact that we had a hard match in a couple of days, I gave them the Monday off from training. I also sent out Kevin Lowe on loan to Macclesfield, where he'd hopefully get some first team experience for that 3 month spell. On the day of our next match, I finally received some positive news from our physioroom staff. Seol Ki-Hyeon returned to full training on the day and would add depth to our squad, especially since the left side of midfield was pretty thin with Kennedy out injured. Preston North End were our next opponents at Molineux and the bookies had us as the 5-4 favourites to win. Now such low odds usually freak me out, because people have too high expectations of us at times. Sure enough, we came out really badly and the lads never got going and in the first half we were lucky not to trail by a considerable marging, but thanks to Wayne Hennessey we stayed at 0-0 at halftime. In the second half we kept on playing like a right bunch of twonks and the game ended goalless, which got me to yell at the lads for almost an hour. When I finally let them out, there were a lot of pale players leaving the stadium. Summary All matches Championship, unless otherwise stated Luton – Wolves 0-2 (Olofinjana, Miller) Wolves – Ipswich 2-2 (Miller, Olofinjana – Bowditch, Naylor) Wolves – Leicester 4-1 (Clarke 3, Garry – Dublin) Wolves – Portsmouth 2-1 (Clarke, Ricketts – Vukic) League Cup 2nd round Sheffield United – Wolves 1-3 (Kabba – Clarke, Miller, Cameron) Wolves – Preston 0-0 English Championship: top 6 at the end of September: <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | | Crystal Palace | | 11 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 30 | 12 | +18 | 26 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Wolves | | 11 | 7 | 4 | 0 | 21 | 8 | +13 | 25 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Southampton | | 11 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 19 | 9 | +10 | 20 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Sheff Utd | | 11 | 6 | 2 | 3 | 15 | 11 | +4 | 20 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Derby | | 11 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 15 | 9 | +6 | 19 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Cardiff | | 11 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 21 | 14 | +7 | 18 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre> Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
axeman Posted March 11, 2006 Author Share Posted March 11, 2006 October 2005 The first task of the month was to go visit Burnley at Turf Moor. We knew in advance that it would be a tough task and, sure enough, Burnley came into the match full of spirit and were 2-0 up after 16 minutes, courtesy of Gifton Noel Williams and a brilliantly taken freekick from Garreth O'Connor. It didn't seem to matter what we tried, nothing came off and no matter how loud I yelled at halftime, our lads just couldn't get back into it. At the end of the match I told them that this had been an embarrassing result, because we shouldn't have conceded two such soft goals so early. I also told Leon Clarke that he'd not be starting our next match, because his application in this one had not been of the required standard. He'd have to prove me wrong in training and the next few matches. Following the match we had two weeks off, due to call-ups to international teams. My main hope was that all the players would come back unscathed, especially Wayne Hennessey, who was called up to the Welsh U-21 squad. If he got injured, then we'd be left with no fit goalkeepers at the club, not even youth players. To try to bolster our club with quality players, I offered Demetrio Albertini to come to us on a 3 week trial, which he could use to get in some sort of shape and with an eye on a possible contract with us. He didn't seem too sold on the idea, but at least he'd think it over. When he got back to us, it was to inform us that he'd not be interested in leaving Italy, so that idea fell over itself. Yet it had been worth a try. Then I got the news that I dreaded the most. Wayne broke his finger when he mistimed an attempt to catch a ball during training and could be out for a month or two. What to do now?? Our only hope would be for either Matt Murray or Michael Oakes to return from their respective injuries ahead of time. But what were the chances of that happening? In order to find a way to bolster our goalkeeping woes, I decided to cut the loan deal short for Gábor Gyepes. He was still seeing a specialist about his injury and wouldn't be available for selection again for almost 2 months, so it was better to let him recover at home, rather than let him rot in a hotel room in Wolverhampton. Darren Anderton returned from injury, so that meant we'd have some cover on the right wing. I put in a loan bid for Lenny Pilkington, who's performing reserve team duties at Chelsea, though I didn't think I had much of a chance of securing his services. But it had to be done and quickly. Unfortunately they didn't want us to have the player on loan, bloody Moaninho Tuesday October 11th 2005 Fortunately some of the players were now returning from the physio's care, most notably Rob Edwards, who'd go straight into the starting lineup against Q.P.R., at right back, since McNamara wouldn't be ready in time. Matt Murray looked like he'd be in a playable state in that match, so I decided to put him into the starting lineup as well. Hey, it's better to have half a goalie between the sticks than none at all. Michael Oakes also returned to some light training on the following Friday, which ensured that I'd have a backup goalkeeper on the bench, in case things went pearshaped in our next match. Jackie McNamara also returned to full training, which was a good thing, because we were getting quite thin on the ground. The R's came in at high speed when the match got underway and we had to endure long stretches of their dominance on the pitch. Fortunately Murray was in fine form and, despite his lack of recent training, he saved our bacon more than once in the match. It was somewhat against the flow of play when we took the lead through Paul Wotton's thunderous freekick in the 30th minute, from 35 yards. 7 minutes later Rohan Ricketts got injured in a challenge with Gallen. That meant I had to put Anderton on as a substitute, even if he wasn't in any shape to play for a long time. I'd planned to send him on with about 20 minutes left, but this got turned on it's head right there. QPR attacked us like men possessed for the rest of the match and our inability to string two passes together caused us great trouble at the back. Murray decided to ignore his lack of match fitness and saved everything thrown his way, including a injury time penalty, that Lescott gave away, when he handled the ball in the box. 10 seconds later, Naylor saw his second yellow of the day and a subsequent red card, following a wreckless tackle on the byline, just outside our area. Fortunately, nothing came of it and we celebrated a hard fought victory, which we didn't really deserve, if truth be told. After the match I warned the lads against complacancy and told them that nothing was gained yet. 33 matches left of the season and we'd have to ensure that we performed well throughout. In the post-match interview Ian Holloway tipped us for promotion, seeing as we'd ground out a result, despite not being at our best in the match. We've got a good relationship going, because we can both see that we respect the work that the other is doing and are on good communication terms through that. Naylor received a one match suspension following his expulsion from the game and I gave him an official warning for his conduct. He ought to know better than going in hard on someone who's moving away from our penalty area. He accepted that he deserved the warning and promised to try his best to avoid a repeat. The Times came out with a strange article about us in their Sunday edition. They started off nicely enough, stating the obvious that we'd set off by basing our success on a mean defence. Nothing that we didn't know about previously of course. Especially since we've only conceded 11 goals in 15 matches so far, including the League Cup matches. Surprisingly enough, we were top of the Championship after the weekend, since Crystal Palace suffered a goalless draw against Burnley. The article concluded though, that I had a developed a dislike for David O'Leary, because I had supposedly let go some derogatory remarks about him. The thing was, I never said anything against him, which hadn't been instigated by himself through the press. Daft and lazy journos at their best obviously. Ricketts would be out for 2 weeks, after his injury, so our Korean lad would get a chance to shine. Mark Kennedy would be back soon as well, so competition for the left wing spot would increase again. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
axeman Posted March 11, 2006 Author Share Posted March 11, 2006 Tuesday 18th October 2005 We didn't get much rest after the win against QPR. Tuesday saw us on the road to sunny Hull to face The Tigers at The Circle. Both teams started at pace and it came as no surprise when Carl Cort managed to outmanoeuvre the home defenders and score a nice goal. 4 minutes later Olofinjana was fouled just inside the corner of the homeside's penalty area and Paul Wotton made no mistakes from the spot. 2 minutes after that, the result was all but sealed, when Damien Delaney got himself sent off for a professional foul on Colin Cameron. We subjected them to an attacking onslaught for the rest of the match, which should have yielded at least 3 more goals, but somehow Wotton, Clarke and Seol Ki-Hyeon all managed to shoot wide, when it was much easier to hit the goal. We had one scary moment in the match, when Carl Cort's backpass missed all our defenders, but fortunately Murray was equal to Nick Barmby's tame shot. Rick Hayward called me on my mobile phone, while we were on our way back from Hull, congratulating us on this victory. His greeting was met with a rapturous cheer from the lads, who had every reason to be happy about their performance. I could almost hear his smile from the other end of the line when the lads cheered. I presume the man was very happy about the way we won this match. More injuries hit us as the week carried on, next to head for the physioroom was striker Kenny Miller. He managed to strain knee ligaments during training and would be out for 2 months. Lucky for us, we have some cover, though none with his pace. Michael Oakes returned to full training on the same day, so that put a dampener on the shock somewhat. At least we had two fit goalkeepers on the roster in our next match. The weekend saw us on the road again, this time at Selhurst Park against Crystal Palace. We should have scored in the first half, but poor finishing left us frustrated at the half, though I did my best to encourage the lads to bigger and better things. Unfortunately Marco Reich got a chance to show his freekick ability, when he scored a wondergoal from one such in the 52nd minute. I responded by changing things around and go to a more attacking mindset, and it seemed to be working nicely, when Darren Ward got sent off for his second bookable offence. Instead of taking the match by the scruff of the neck, we conceded another wondergoal, when Andrew Johnson won the ball 30 yards from our goal and then blasted an unstoppable piledriver into the top corner. After the match I took the lads on and told them a few home truths. All the hard work we'd done in the first half had been undone by some idiotic mistakes, that cost us the aforementioned goals. I was absolutely fuming on the bus and told the lads to totally leave me alone on the drive back, because I couldn't promise them that I'd contain my fists. They were extremely shocked at this exclamation and some of them actually must have believed that I'd be off my old rocker. Who knows, they might be right. When we got back to Wolverhampton, I found out that Paul Wotton would be out for the next 2 months, since his twisted ankle wouldn't be on the mend until the physio had done his magic on him. Wednesday 21st October 2005 A League Cup night at Molineux and one match I told the lads we'd have to win comfortably, if only to rebuild our confidence after the weekend's disaster. Though the match against Scunthorpe turned out to be anything but comfortable. Granted we won 1-0, but the solitary goal came in the last seconds of injury time and Ganea really deserved to score after coming on as a substitute. After the match I had a bit of praise for Ganea, Ince and Naylor, but the rest of them got a serious tongue lashing, because they had played like they couldn't care about how things went on. And they call themselves professionals. I wish..... The following Saturday, just before our league game against Derby, we were drawn out of a hat for the fourth round of the League Cup. Fate would dictate that we'd end up playing against our neighbours Aston Villa, away. Now that would be one massive match for us and one that I hoped the lads would be well up for. The match against Derby proved to be a mix of good football and howling errors that wouldn't even be seen in the Sunday leagues around the country. Leon Clarke and Colin Cameron had given us a two goal lead in the first half, but our inability to kill off the game came back to haunt us in the second half, even if we won it in the end. Of all people, Jackie McNamara decided to gift the visitors a goal in the second half, when he was too careless in keeping possession under pressure. Tommy Smith was quick to punish him for that and scored an easy goal. Lucky enough, Michael Oakes, who'd come on at halftime for Murray due to a minor injury, was equal to the rest of Derby's attempts at scoring. I wasn't very complimentary to the lads after the match. I specifically warned them against complacancy, again, and gave McNamara a severe dressing own for the unforced error. As experienced player as him shouldn't have made such a horrible error of judgement. I told him that I'd give him another chance of proving his merits and if he failed, then I'd demote him from the starting lineup. After the match, I finally received some good news. After the failure in securing a loan deal for a goalkeeper, I ended up putting in an offer to Liverpool to loan Darren Potter for the next 3 months. They agreed to our offer, as well as to an offer from Port Vale, but Potter decided that he'd rather come to us. So here he was, ready to rumble on with us, for the duration of the loan deal. He also let it slip that he'd be willing to secure a permanent deal, should his desire to stay at Anfield not be fulfilled. I decided to give it a long hard thought and I'd most certainly try to extend his loan spell towards the end of season, should the opportunity arise. Thus endeth our difficult, but strangely productive, month of October. Summary All matches Championship, unless otherwise stated Burnley – Wolves 2-0 (Noel-Williams, O'Connor) Wolves – Q.P.R. 1-0 (Wotton) Hull – Wolves 0-2 (Cort, Wotton (pen)) Crystal Palace – Wolves 2-0 (Reich, Johnson) Wolves – Scunthorpe 1-0 (Ganea) League Cup 3rd round Wolves – Derby 2-1 (Clarke, Cameron - Smith) Top six at the end of October: <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | | Wolves | | 16 | 10 | 4 | 2 | 26 | 13 | +13 | 34 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Crystal Palace | | 16 | 10 | 3 | 3 | 34 | 17 | +17 | 33 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Southampton | | 16 | 10 | 2 | 4 | 27 | 11 | +16 | 32 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Norwich | | 16 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 20 | 14 | +6 | 29 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Sheff Utd | | 16 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 20 | 14 | +6 | 29 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Preston | | 16 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 23 | 19 | +4 | 27 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre> Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suma Posted March 11, 2006 Share Posted March 11, 2006 Nice start pal. So far so good. Keep it up! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
axeman Posted March 12, 2006 Author Share Posted March 12, 2006 Thanks Suma I'll be trying to write more later today, though I can't guarantee anything. I also have to figure out a way to get into my assistant's panties So far my brain has come up empty, but I'm sure the old nut will wake up once again and get something going. The main problem that I'm facing is the amount of injuries in training. I can't really understand how high the rate of injuries to key players is, but I guess that's where team rotation comes in. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
axeman Posted March 13, 2006 Author Share Posted March 13, 2006 November 2005 Our first assignment of November was visiting Coventry City at The Ricoh Arena, which is a stadium name that I don't particularly like. I liked the old name better, as it had links to the club's past. They caught us by surprise early in the match, when Claus Jörgensen arrived unmarked at the backpost and swept the ball easily into the net. That seemed to wake us up and in a two minute spell we took the lead, through Leon Clarke and Rohan Ricketts. 4 minutes from halftime Carl Cort added our third and we were coasting now. We did have some shaky moments at the back, due to the pace of the Coventry attacking line, but fortunately they seemed to have lost their shooting boots. Carl Cort then suffered a broken arm in the 44th minute and would likely be out for the next 2 months or so. Leon Clarke added his second and our fourth in the 69th minute, following a great unselfish play by Ganea. I gave Darren Potter his debut appearance with 35 minutes to go, when I had to give Mark Kennedy a rest. I also had to relieve Naylor at left back, because he couldn't cope with the fast winger on his side, so Ryan Garry stepped in and put him to sleep. A thoroughly deserved win and one we'd have taken in a heartbeat before the match. Rick was ecstatic with the win and said that the sort of attacking football we were playing, was the reason he came back to games, time and again. He hadn't enjoyed his football watching so much for a long time and wanted to be there for us when we secured Premiership football. I only hope he hasn't jinxed us with his enthusiasm. Next day I got the news that Olofinjana would be out for a few weeks with a pulled hamstring. I just hoped that he'd only miss the one match against Cardiff, but usually things tended to go a bit pear shaped for us when it came to injuries lasting too long. The match at Ninian Park turned out to be highly entertaining for the neutrals, but nerve wrecking for supporters. We conceded a goal from a stupid, stupid mistake by Jackie McNamara. The second match where he costs us a goal and this time it cost us the match. Ince lost the ball in midfield, but immediately won it back, with a tough tackle that bounced the ball to McNamara. He didn't even try to pass the ball, mainly dallied on it for no good reason and got punished when Cooper stole the ball from him. As Davenport challenged the winger, he slipped the ball past him to Jerome, who then crossed it to Boyd when Lescott tried to close him down. Boyd had no trouble tucking away the chance, as he was all alone in the box, since the defence had been pulled out of position and nobody was left to pick up the slack. I immediately substituted McNamara and that settled the right side of the team for us. We couldn't string two passes together in the second half and when we got some half chances, Alexander was equal to them. His best save was made in the first half though, when he managed to get to a 25 yard thunderbolt from Ince, though everybody thought it would end up in the net. I kept the team in the dressing room after the match, really giving them a piece of my mind. I was so furious at their inability to do anything in this match and I also knew that they should have been able to win this game without too much trouble. McNamara revealed this to the press in his post-match interview. He looked rather pale in the interview, due to the extra dressing down he got. He'll play second fiddle to Edwards from now on, as his decision making on the pitch is highly suspect and I need a no-nonsense man on the pitch instead. When we got back the Wolverhampton, I was greeted with the bad news that Mark Clyde had injured himself during a weight training session. He should know better than to be training on his own in there, silly git. This would leave him out of contention for at least 2 weeks. When I had decided upon placing Edwards into the first team, I got the news that he'd broken down in training and would need to see a specialist to recover. As well as leaving him out for 3 months, it would force McNamara's lack of concentration upon the team. Damn this team is jinxed. Other and better news came from the physio, when he told me that Paul Jones was now coming back from his injury and it could take him up to 3 weeks to be back in contention for the starting spot in goal. A good thing that we have such depth there. And with that we entered another international break. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
axeman Posted March 13, 2006 Author Share Posted March 13, 2006 Post international break When the international matches had been played, we found out that Seol Ki-Hyeon would be out 2 months with strained knee ligaments, following a sharp twist to his knee in training with the South-Korean national team. That's bad news for us, as we're not exactly rich in cover up front and neither on the wings. Hopefully nothing else would go wrong, because we simply couldn't afford that. Our on-loan Teddy Bjarnason, who came in from Celtic, got seriously injured in training, when he ruptured his achilles tendon. Since he only had one month left of his loan, it was better to cut the loan deal short, so he could seek specialist help through his own club. In other news, Paul Jones and Wayne Hennessey both returned to full training, after their respective injuries, so we now had four goalkeepers battling it out for a place between the sticks. Our next match was at home against Millwall. For the most part, we played badly. No creativity, no enthusiasm and, more or less, no drive to do anything. Brian Deane gave Millwall the lead in the 52nd minute and from that moment on, we didn't have a chance. Our cause wasn't helped when Leon Clarke limped off with a severely bruised thigh, something that would keep him out of the squad for anything between 5 days and 2 weeks. So a tactical reshuffle was needed, unless someone else returned from injury. I berated the team after the match and told them that they'd been an embarrassment to the club and they'd broken the fans' hearts and that was inexcusable. Then I stormed out of the dressing room, slamming the door behind me. The next day Ryan Garry suffered a damaged heel, when he jumped for an aerial challenge in training. I decided to have the physios administer painkiller injections, in case we needed him in our next couple of matches. I knew that it might backfire, but we were just running out of options. Fortunately Paul Wotton returned to training that same week, so our options in midfield and at the back were opening up again. Our next match was against Watford, who were expected to give us a hard game and I expected as much. Though the first half didn't give any indications that they'd be that difficult to handle. Darren Anderton opened the scoring for us in the 15th minute, his first for the club, with Ganea adding to the tally in the 45th. I encouraged the lads to keep it up in the second half, but for some reason they fell asleep and it cost us 2 goals in 4 minutes. First Henderson managed to rise above both McNamara and Murray to head the ball home and then Naylor stupidly tripped Henderson, though it looked to be a rather harsh decision from the dugout. After the match the replay indicated that the referee had made the correct call. Marlon King scored from the ensuing penalty and suddenly our whole game was way open. I responded by making three substitutions. Potter came on for Ince, who'd gotten a knock in the first half, Kabeya came on for Anderton and Garry replaced Davenport in defence. That made us tighter again, since the lads were all tiring at that point. Mark Kennedy then scored our third goal, from a 20 yard freekick, in the 69th minute and then he was on hand to blast the rebound home, following Foster's parry of Ganea's shot, in the 87th minute. We had dominated the match, with the exception of the first 10 minutes of the second half, so this was a win we felt we deserved. At this point in the season we were 3rd, on goal difference behind Crystal Palace, with Southampton leading the division. The lost games were now looking like they could cost us an automatic promotion spot, due to the heavy competitiveness of the top group of clubs. Only 5 points separated the clubs in 1st and 6th place, so that's an indication of the fierce battle that was going on at this stage. Our final match of November was the League Cup match against our neighbours, Aston Villa. I didn't expect the lads to need any special pre-match talk, since it would have been a great performance to get a good result at Villa Park. Unfortunately nobody was at the races and when Villa finally scored their opening goal, they realistically should have been 4-0 up already. Thankfully it wasn't until the 38th minute when Luke Moore scored the first goal of the match, following a rather unfortunate bit of bad judgement from Mark Kennedy. He had gotten the ball in midfield and was looking upfield to see if Ganea was there, but he had stupidly cruised too far back on the pitch and that cost us a stolen ball, through ball and a goal. In the second half we just couldn't string two passes together and that was to cost us dearly, when first Andy Webster and then Milan Baros added goals. We had a few opportunities to rectify things in the match, but our players either took too long to go for the shots, or tried to take shots that were way out of their range. Either way, 3-0 was the deserved home win and we were eliminated from the League Cup. Our cause wasn't helped either by a card happy referee, who was more than happy to card our players for the smallest infractions of the rules, while the home team nearly got away with murder, until the match was safe that is. Then he issued a yellow card to Mellberg, but it was never going to get any further than that from that stupid tart of a referee. After the match I told the lads that I'd never seen a more sorry bunch of sad and underperfoming weaklings on a football pitch. There was no reason to respect our more illustrious neighbours so much, especially not in a cup competition. So with this little fit of mine, I told them to get their sorry @rses back to the bus, without a chance to shower. That served them right for their horribly poor performance. Summary All matches Championship, unless otherwise stated Coventry – Wolves 1-4 (Jörgensen – Clarke (2), Ricketts, Cort) Cardiff – Wolves 1-0 (Boyd) Wolves – Millwall 0-1 (Deane) Wolves – Watford 4-2 (Anderton, Ganea, Kennedy (2) – Henderson, King) Aston Villa – Wolves 3-0 (Moore, Webster, Baros) League Cup 4th round Top six at the end of November: <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | | Crystal Palace | | 20 | 13 | 4 | 3 | 42 | 20 | +22 | 43 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Southampton | | 20 | 13 | 2 | 5 | 32 | 14 | +18 | 41 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Wolves | | 20 | 12 | 4 | 4 | 34 | 18 | +16 | 40 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Sheff Utd | | 20 | 11 | 5 | 4 | 26 | 18 | +8 | 38 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Preston | | 20 | 10 | 6 | 4 | 36 | 22 | +14 | 36 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Norwich | | 20 | 10 | 6 | 4 | 27 | 18 | +9 | 36 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre> Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
axeman Posted March 15, 2006 Author Share Posted March 15, 2006 December 2005 There's something wrong in Paradise I came to the office as usual around 8am, on Thursday the 1st, and sent the lads quite soon to practice, with Stuart Grey as overseer of the session. I needed to look into a lot of reports and of course see how long our players would need to recover from the odd knocks and bruises they'd managed to accumulate over time. About 30 minutes into my study of the physio reports, Stephanie came into my office with reddish eyes and it was obvious that she'd been crying. â€Hey Steph, what's with the long face and crying? What's wrong?â€, I asked cautiously. â€I caught him cheating on me and I've left himâ€, was the unexpected answer. â€Caught who? Mike??â€, I asked. Author's note: Mike is the now former fiancée of Stephanie. â€Yes, the cheating bastard was sleeping with my sister, of all peopleâ€, she said and started crying again. I stood up and walked over to her and put my arms around her. â€Here kid, put your head on my shoulder and let it flow. No need to bury your sorrows inside yourself. Just let it all out and take your time doing it. I'll be there for you if you need anythingâ€, I said and decided that getting into her head wouldn't be the best tactical move at this point in time. Little by little the tear flow started to subside and she suddenly pressed into me. What the hell was that all about? Could it be that she'd want more than just a pat on the back and a shoulder to cry on? My head was more or less spinning, because I had no idea how to deal with this situation. Stephanie turned her head and kissed my cheek and then turned around to leave the office. I went back to my desk, but as soon as I'd sat down, she returned with a tray holding a pot of tea and two cups. â€Two cups? Is there someone coming in for morning tea?â€, I asked, a bit sheepishly. â€No you silly git, it's for the two of us. I can't bear the thought of being alone in the reception at the momentâ€, she replied and looked at me. â€I want to thank you for being there for me and not try to take advantage of my predicament. Not many guys are like thatâ€, she continued and looked at me. â€I only did what a friend should do, no matter the situationâ€, I said and looked her in the eye. â€And you certainly looked like you needed a shoulder to cry on, not someone to throw you on your back for a quick shag. You are a very attractive woman Steph, but even the fact, that I'm attracted to you, won't change the fact that you're going to need some time to get your thoughts together.†She blushed a bit at that and thought about what I'd said. She had a few sips of her tea and then put it away. “Thank you for the kind words, Tomas. You seem a bit old for my taste, but who knows. Maybe that's just what I need to avoid a situation like that in the future.†My heart sank to the floor when I heard those words, but I was still determined to make sure that she'd come around and see things my way. â€I know I'm a fair bit older than you Steph, but who knows. Maybe we'll find a mutual meeting point in the future. I know that trying to force you into a change of mind is futile at best, so consider me a friend for starters, someone you can come to when you have problems and need support. If that leads us any further we'll deal with it at the time. For now I'll help you get over this and even help you find someplace to stay until you find something.†â€Thank you Tomas, I do need somewhere to stay the night and going to a hotel isn't particularly appealingâ€, she said and looked a bit worried. â€If you don't find anything, you can stay at my place. I'll vacate the bed and sleep on the living room couch. Don't worry about the sheets, I changed them this morning because I was sweating like a pig last night. Dreaming about playing football and scoring 5 goals does that to a manâ€, I said and grinned. â€Thank you, I'll take you up on that if nothing comes out of my search. And try to dream about something easier in the future. Like watching footballâ€, she said and sported a big grin. Then she stood up, kissed me again on the cheek and went back to her own desk. Holy hand grenade! Now this was a turn of events that I couldn't have foreseen. I decided to dive into the reports and put this situation on the backburner for now. What a start to the morning. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
chesterfan2 Posted March 15, 2006 Share Posted March 15, 2006 Good work here, Axeman. Besides, anyone who can use the phrase Holy Hand Grenade in polite converstaion deserves all the plaudits in the world. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
axeman Posted March 15, 2006 Author Share Posted March 15, 2006 Thanks chesterfan2. Being a major fan of all sorts of comedy, especially Red Dwarf and Monty Python, helps me to kick in with the odd quote that I might, for some odd reason, find fitting the scenes. Just wait until I start throwing in all my favourite Red Dwarf quotes Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
axeman Posted March 15, 2006 Author Share Posted March 15, 2006 Back to football matters Saturday came around and we had to visit The Canaries at Carrow Road in Norwich. We came out really determined and gained the upper hand on 35 minutes, when Bobby Zamora, our new loan signing, scored a good header from a Kabeya cross. All the good work came to nothing in the second half, when two moments of total communication cockups gave the home team two goals and the victory, Dean Ashton and Andy Hughes getting the goals. I bashed the lads after the match and according to Lee Naylor, everybody was fearful for their lives, even Paul Ince, who's used to all sorts of temper tantrums in his long career. Paul Wotton, Leon Clarke and Calum Davenport managed to injure themselves in training after the match, but fortunately they wouldn't be out for long. I decided to risk giving Wotton and Clarke painkilling injections before the next match, but eventually didn't need to risk them on the pitch. The angry lecture after the horrible performance against The Canaries ensured that the lads came out all guns blazing against The Owls. Bobby Zamora, the loanee from West Ham, was especially fired up and he hammered in a hattrick in the first half, along with Ganea's solitary goal, the first of which was a shot so powerful, that the ball bounced into the goal despite the goalkeeper supposedly having every chance of catching the ball. Heroics from Matt Murray in the first half ensured that we ran away without conceding a goal in this match. After the match I learned that Kenny Miller would be returning to normal training and the rest of the injury victims were mostly returning as well. Carl Cort would also be returning shortly, so things were looking up. I've been trying to secure Ganea to a new contract recently, but unfortunately the poor lad, despite his desire to sign, has been rejected a continued work permit. I have to try later in the season though, because he's already played 44 international matches for Romania, where he's scored 19 goals. And still the obnoxious pencil pushers reject our application for him. And what's worse, I can't even appeal against this decision. Something has to give there, because this player is too good to be treated like this. Next up was a visit to Brighton on the South Coast and with the performance that we put in there, we deserved exactly what we got from the match, a big fat NOTHING. Stupid decisions on the pitch, non-existent awareness and, too early in the match, a penalty against Naylor, which was easily converted into a goal. I gave the players a real dressing down after the match and asked them if they were trying to avoid promotion. Nobody responded to that, though some guilty looks were cast between the players. Before our next game, Lescott injured himself in training and I couldn't expect him back for the next 2-4 weeks. That meant I had to call up a half fit Wotton, since he was the only defender not in the intensive care unit. Davenport and Wotton returned to full training in the afternoon of the Saturday before our match against rivals Stoke City. The Sunday match was bound to be a rough affair, especially after hearing the declarations of Boskamp before the match. Both teams came out with murder in their minds and it was an ugly encounter with many hard fouls. Why the referee only carded a handful of players will remain a mystery for the Twilight Zone I suppose. Ganea opened the scoring for us in the 17th minute and Russell got one back for the home team, after a dreadful defensive display from us. Fortunately we had Kenny Miller on the bench and his pace created a goal for him, when he ran onto a through ball from Kabeya and cheekily chipped Simonsen in The Potters' goal. We hung on for the win, but it got a bit hairy at the end. Fortunately Murray managed to keep everything out and that turned out to be the difference between the teams on the day. I was a much happier person in the post-match teamtalk and told them that it was a good win. I'd seen a totally different attitude out there and that's what counted at the end of the day. More of the same I said and the players were much happier on the team bus back to Wolverhampton. Change of fortunes? Knowing about how lonely Christmas could be after a broken up relationship, I decided to ask Stephanie out on Christmas Day. She had found shelter at her brother's house in Birmingham, so she could still show up at work at normal times, though she needed to get going before 6:30 to make it into her parking space before 8am. She accepted my invitation, which made me very glad, because I wanted to show her that I'd be there for her when she needed company. We spent the day walking around Wolverhampton town centre, where I was asked for a lot of autographs by parents who wanted to surprise their children. I must admit that I was absolutely flabbergasted by the demand that my signature was in and I was only too happy to give them, to ensure that I had a good relationship with the fanbase. Stephanie was surprised by how calm I was about all this, but I told her that to keep the respect and support of the fans, the last thing I could afford would be to show them disrespect. We had a wonderful time at the posh restaurant where I'd booked our dinner and she was very pleasant during our stay there. 4 hours later, when we'd emptied our heads of anything to talk about in that place, I offered to take her home. I didn't know if she wanted to take a taxi or get the ride. She asked me if she could stay at my place, since there was a match the following day and she wanted to be there for the match. When we got to my place, I offered her something to drink and she hesitantly accepted a glass of white wine. I decided to have one as well and we then sat down in the only proper sitting furniture in my living room, the two-seat sofa. We spent a long time talking and the drinks were hardly touched. Eventually she leaned into me and I decided to take my chance and planted a light kiss on her lips. For a change, my decision to take a chance on a woman didn't backfire and she kissed me back. In the end we stumbled to my bed, where I'll cut the story short. I leave it up to your imagination what happened there. Boxing Day and football We were visited by Crewe Alexandra for the first match of the Christmas period and it turned out to be quite a thrilling match. The final score of 1-0 to us failed to adequately show the sort of attacking football on display by both sides. Olofinjana scored the only goal of the match, when he won a near post aerial duel after Kennedy's corner kick. The rest of the match was a nailbiting affair and in the end we held on for the win. Stephanie met me outside the players lounge when I'd finished congratulating the lads and we decided to go in there and sit down over a cup of tea. I asked her if she'd consider going out with me again following the night before and to my great delight she said she would. So that's where we decided to give it a chance. We also decided that if things wouldn't work out, we'd continue to be friends and work colleagues and I was glad that we would try to keep things on that level. Whether it would work like that in practice, was something I hoped we'd never have to have tested. The next day Wigan came in with a rather insulting offer for Mark Kennedy. They wanted one of our key players for a paltry £775,000, which is about a million below what I'd accept for a player with his experience and dressing room presence, not speaking of his footballing ability. I told them flat out that the player wasn't for sale and as a key player in our squad, they could look elsewhere for a bargain. Apparently Crystal Palace are also interested, but they'll have to look elsewhere too. On the 28th of December we had to travel to the South Coast again. This time to play at St. Mary's Stadium against Southampton. We knew that they'd be extremely difficult to play against, especially with the two sprinters up front. Sure enough, they took the lead in the 40th minute, when our players failed to be on the lookout for their pacy strikers and Quincy Owusu Abeyie scored a fairly easy goal. It took us all of the second half to nick a point and that came through a rather strange channel. In the 88th minute Marian Pahars, who'd replaced Ebanks-Blake due to the latter's injury, tried a long lofted backpass. He seriously misjudged the distance and with Antti Niemi charging out of his area, Carl Cort jumped for the ball and headed it into the empty net from 25 yards. We had a few hairy moments in the final moments of the match, but fortunately we managed to keep them out. A good result and I was quite happy to tell the lads so at the end. The only downside to the match was the yellow card shown to Paul Wotton, which meant he'd be out of our next match suspended. Summary All matches Championship, unless otherwise stated Norwich – Wolves 2-1 (Ashton, Hughes – Zamora) Wolves – Sheff Wed 4-0 (Ganea, Zamora (3)) Brighton – Wolves 1-0 (Knight (pen)) Stoke – Wolves 1-2 (Russell – Ganea, Miller) Wolves – Crewe 1-0 (Olofinjana) Southampton – Wolves 1-1 (Abeyie – Cort) The top six at the end of December: <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | | Southampton | | 26 | 18 | 3 | 5 | 47 | 17 | +30 | 57 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Crystal Palace | | 26 | 16 | 6 | 4 | 54 | 28 | +26 | 54 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Wolves | | 26 | 15 | 5 | 6 | 43 | 23 | +20 | 50 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Norwich | | 26 | 14 | 7 | 5 | 39 | 20 | +19 | 49 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Preston | | 26 | 12 | 7 | 7 | 45 | 32 | +13 | 43 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Sheff Utd | | 26 | 12 | 7 | 7 | 29 | 25 | +4 | 43 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre> The Premiership at the end of December: <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | | Chelsea | | 18 | 15 | 3 | 0 | 34 | 6 | +28 | 48 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Man Utd | | 18 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 35 | 12 | +23 | 36 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Arsenal | | 18 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 33 | 13 | +20 | 33 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Newcastle | | 19 | 10 | 3 | 6 | 32 | 20 | +12 | 33 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Aston Villa | | 19 | 10 | 3 | 6 | 22 | 14 | +8 | 33 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Blackburn | | 19 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 25 | 17 | +8 | 32 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | | Everton | | 19 | 10 | 2 | 7 | 27 | 29 | -2 | 32 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | Liverpool | | 18 | 9 | 4 | 5 | 23 | 15 | +8 | 31 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Tottenham | | 19 | 7 | 9 | 3 | 24 | 22 | +2 | 30 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Middlesbrough | | 19 | 8 | 2 | 9 | 32 | 34 | -2 | 26 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 11th | | Bolton | | 18 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 31 | 26 | +5 | 25 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12th | | Man City | | 19 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 18 | 17 | +1 | 23 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 13th | | Charlton | | 19 | 6 | 3 | 10 | 27 | 31 | -4 | 21 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 14th | | Fulham | | 19 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 11 | 17 | -6 | 21 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 15th | | West Brom | | 19 | 5 | 5 | 9 | 16 | 25 | -9 | 20 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 16th | | West Ham | | 19 | 5 | 5 | 9 | 19 | 33 | -14 | 20 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 17th | | Portsmouth | | 19 | 5 | 4 | 10 | 19 | 34 | -15 | 19 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 18th | | Birmingham | | 19 | 4 | 3 | 12 | 15 | 27 | -12 | 15 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 19th | | Sunderland | | 19 | 2 | 7 | 10 | 17 | 34 | -17 | 13 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 20th | | Wigan | | 18 | 1 | 2 | 15 | 8 | 42 | -34 | 5 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre> Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
axeman Posted April 14, 2006 Author Share Posted April 14, 2006 New Years Eve After the afternoon training session, I gave the lads the rest of the day off and told them to go and enjoy being with their families. They were happy to have the late session off, because that's when I tended to have the weights and long distance running for them. None of them were too keen on going for that on that night. I went and picked up Stephanie at her place and we went to a quiet restaurant where we could talk without being drowned by too much noise and be overcrowded by some overenthusiastic waiters or waitresses. We stayed there for almost 4 hours, nibbling at our food and drinking little. There was an electric feeling in the air and neither one of us could miss it. When we left the place we decided to go to her place, which was definitely going to be much classier than my rat hole of a flat. Especially considering that I've never been the most effective cleaners out there. When we got to her flat however, we were in for a shock. A note was sitting on the front door and on it there was a rather nasty looking message: “Don't believe you're off the hook just yet†was the message and I saw that it sent shivers down Stephanie's back. â€Is that from your bastard of an ex-boyfriend?â€, I asked in a concerned voice. â€Yes, this is from Mike. He can be a nasty sort if he gets angryâ€, she replied and looked scared. She opened the door to her flat and then she gasped in terror. I looked in and saw that the place was a horrible mess. It was obvious that Mike had gone all out to punish Stephanie for doing the right thing. Pictures were strewn all over the floor, clothes and papers and all sorts of kitchen utensils were in the mix and her furniture was more or less firewood by now. â€Take whatever you think you need and is whole around here Steph, we'll go to my dump and talk this over. This is so wrong and you never deserved thisâ€. â€I'm not touching anything just yet, I'm going to call the police right nowâ€, she said and had a very determined look on her face. â€The bastard is not going to get away with thisâ€. â€Do you know how sexy you are when you're angry?â€, I asked and planted a kiss on the back of her neck. It sent shivers down her spine and she smiled a little. It took the police about 30 minutes to get there and in the meantime we sat outside the flat and talked about this. Stephanie was absolutely furious and if I hadn't been there, she'd no doubt have gone after Mike with some of the spilled kitchen knives. In the back of my mind I decided to go and pay him a visit that he wouldn't forget in a hurry. I was careful not to tell her about it, because that could mean that she could take offence. The police asked her a few standard questions and then went into the flat to have a look. Pretty soon the forensics department showed up and started dusting for fingerprints and looking for something, that might give them an idea of who was responsible. We stayed out there until the police was done and then we went in and had a look at the infernal mess. Absolutely everything was either broken, defiled or otherwise maltreated. We went back out and locked the place up. Tonight wasn't the night that we wanted to face this head on. So we went back to my place, ugly as it may be, and got absolutely rat-arsed. In the back of my mind I was so angry that Mike would be in for a bad surprise at the start of the new year. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
axeman Posted April 15, 2006 Author Share Posted April 15, 2006 The Visit The following morning I asked Seyi Olofinjana to come with me to settle a score with Stephanie's ex. Since he'd been chosen to represent Nigeria in the African Cup Of Nations, there was little chance of him getting into much trouble over this. I wanted him along as an overseer, more than someone who'd be in on the action. I told him that I didn't want him to get into trouble, so he stay back unless things would get really ugly. He was only too happy to accompany me to Mike's house, because he, like the rest of the lads, really liked Steph for the cheery manner she always greeted everybody in. And of course I reckon all of them fancied a roll in the hay with her, but alas, I was there first I decided to be courteous at first, because I knew that jumping on the guy wouldn't give me any answers. With that in mind I showed up just before lunchtime, when I knew that he'd be home, and rang the doorbell. Mike's face lit up in horror when he saw me at the door and he tried to slam the door in my face. I was quicker though and slammed the door right back and moved into the flat. I asked Seyi to stay outside, but leave the door unlocked while I was in there, because I might want him to come in to stop me killing the guy, should the danger arise. â€So Mike, what was your motive for trashing Steph's flat on New Year's Eve?â€, I asked and must have looked very menacing, because he was blabbering in fright. â€It wasn't me, it wasn't me I tell youâ€, he yelped and turned near white as the blood rushed from his head. â€Then who was it, you cheating b@stard? Her neighbours saw you coming out of her flat around the time the place got demolished. So I'd say you're in serious trouble for it. So spill the beans buster.†â€Ok, it was me. But I never thought it up by myself, it was Andrea, her sister, who wanted her punished for leaving meâ€, he was near crying at this point. â€If you think this is going to relieve you of pain, you're dead wrong Mike. You need to be punished, if only to show you that taking orders from vindictive sisters is for pathetic idiots. Come to think of it, you are oneâ€, I said and crashed my fist into his jaw. He fell to the floor and was out cold. What a weak weasel he was. I decided to leave the flat right away and Seyi looked concerned when he saw Mike lying on the floor. â€Did you kill him Tomas?â€, he asked. â€No, I just hit the loser once and he was out cold like I'd shot him. But he's breathing and should wake up in about an hour or so. I hope he'll have a massive headache though. I reckon you should go back home now and get some well deserved rest for the match tomorrow against Leeds. I have one more place to go and I won't be needing backup there.†Without a word he left and I wondered what he would think of me. I decided to pay Andrea a visit too, since she wasn't working at this point in time and would be home alone. When I got there, I decided to use Steph's key to enter their parents' house, as that's where Andrea lived. There was nobody downstairs and I knew that both her parents would be out working until late, so there were only two places left to go: The bathroom and her bedroom. I decided to put my ear up against the bathroom door and sure enough, the shower was running. I decided to test the handle and found that the door wasn't locked. I looked in the mirror and saw that she was busy washing herself, so I decided to be her greeting party when she left the shower. 5 minutes later she opened the shower booth and gasped in surprise when she saw me there. She made no attempt to hide her private parts though, which I found rather odd, but then again it would be too little, too late, as I'd already seen what there was to see. â€Tomas? What are you doing here?â€, she asked in a surprised tone, but I could see a bit of fear in her eyes as well. â€We need to talk a bit Andrea; about you, Mike and Steph's trashed flatâ€, I replied coldly. â€How do you know about that?â€, she asked and there was real fear in her eyes now. â€I paid Mike a short visit and he gave you away before he went to sleepâ€, I said, â€he spilled the beans about how you thought up the scheme to punish Steph for breaking up with him.†â€What do you mean he went to sleep? And why shouldn't I have punished her, it was me who seduced Mike, not the other way around. It was the perfect ruse for me to get laid without having to invite anyone here. Now that's dead and buried, thanks to herâ€, there was anger and hatred in her voice. Quite obviously this young lady wasn't quite firing on all cylinders. â€To answer your first question, I put him to sleep with one nudge of my right fist. And to the latter question, you're quite demented to think that Steph deserved any of your misguided anger. Why didn't you try to land Mike for yourself, since he was available now?â€, I was starting to get a bit angry. â€That loser was nothing but a toy and now he's too scared to even look at me, let alone go to bed with me. So he's off my back and I'm glad. Maybe you'd be willing to step into the picture with me?â€, she said seductively. â€Forget it Andrea, I'm not going to fall for your little trick. But it looks like you need some punishment. I'm going to take you home and have you face your sister, like you're dressed nowâ€, I said mercilessly. She was too surprised to answer, when I grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the house and into my car. I drove her over to my place and dragged her into the flat, only to find Steph sitting in the kitchen having her afternoon tea early. â€What's the idea behind my sister coming here totally naked Tomas?â€, she asked absolutely stunned. â€She has a little something to tell you Steph. Don't you Andrea?â€, I said and pushed her into the kitchen. Andrea trembled but didn't say anything. I could see tears starting to well up in her eyes, as she knew I was going to spill the beans anyway. â€She was the mastermind behind trashing your flat Steph, coaxing Mike into doing her dirty work because he was a powerless toy in her handsâ€, I said and looked at them. â€How did you find out Tomas?â€, Stephanie asked in a concerned tone. â€I paid Mike a visit and he came clean, though I didn't have to do much to persuade him. He was too scared to try to lie about itâ€, I answered truthfully. â€Did you hurt him much?â€, she asked and looked at me. â€I want the truth Tomas!†â€I knocked him out after he talked, mainly because I couldn't contain myself. I had no intention of taking it further, because I wanted to get the confirmation from your sisterâ€, I replied. â€It took less than 3 minutes to get the confession from your sister and I didn't even have to try to persuade her to talk. She did so of her own free will. I even have a form of punishment for her, if you're willing to hear my ideaâ€, I continued and looked at Steph. â€Punishment?? You've got to be joking! Steph, what's this going to be? Spankorama or something worse?â€, Andrea exclaimed and there was fury in her eyes. â€Shut the hell up Andrea and hear the man out. If he's going where I think he is, you won't have to worry about painâ€, Steph said and winked at me. I'm damn sure she can read my mind sometimes. â€The best form of punishment is to let her clean up the place from top to bottom. And leave it immaculate at the end. Then we'll call it even with her. Mike, on the other hand, might need a different kind of punishment, but I'll leave the invention up to you Stephâ€, I said and looked at Stephanie's smiling face. â€Don't worry, I have the perfect punishment for him. I'm going to let him sort out my back garden before summer. It's a mess and I don't have gardener's fingers. I know he'll get the fright of a lifetime when he finds out.†Steph let out a little chuckle at this, which meant that Mike must have hated working in the garden. I decided to take Andrea back to her home, but this time she got one of Steph's overcoats to cover her modesty. She was fuming at having to clean up the mess she had orchestrated, but there was no way out of it, or we'd bring the police into it and her parents would go ballistic on her. When I got back to my flat, holding the overcoat, Steph was quite surprised. I told her that I'd let her sister in and then taken the coat, so she wouldn't have had to go about outside in the nude. It was a little bit too cold there to stay outside for long. She chuckled at that and told me that she'd called Mike about his part in this. His use of profanities could have filled a dictionary, but Steph told him, in no uncertain terms, that she'd be sending me to pick him up when the work needed to be started. He let go of all fight then and told her that he'd be ready when the time came. About time things started to look right. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
axeman Posted April 15, 2006 Author Share Posted April 15, 2006 Back to footballing matters On January 2nd we had to travel to Elland Road to meet Leeds United. To say that we performed badly would be a gross understatement, as we were practically keelhauled there. Onloan Steven Davis scored twice for Leeds, while David Healy and Richard Cresswell added the other two goals. For us Ioan Viorel Ganea and Carl Cort scored the consolation goals. To say I was unhappy would be another understatement of note, because I really tore into the lads in the dressing room. So much so that Darren Potter decided to add that in his post match interview with the press. I decided to let it be, because the players needed to get things off their chest too. Next up was a match against Plymouth Argyle at Molineux. In a very tightly contested affair, we came away 2-0 winners, courtesy of Bobby Zamora and Kenny Miller. I was much more complimentary of the lads after this match, because this was a real dogfight against a team that was fighting against relegation. The FA Cup was next for us and we were up against Hull City at The Circle. This was a fierce match, both teams tackling hard for all they were worth and that resulted in Damien Delaney getting sent off in the 43rd minute for a professional foul. We couldn't break the ice though and the match ended in a 0-0 draw, much to my anger. I let the lads know how I felt about it and this time Lee Naylor confessed to the press that I had rightfully been mad at them for not finishing the game off against 10 men. Following the match, we were drawn to face Burnley in the 4th round, should we manage to win our replay match against The Tigers. But it was back to league football and our next opponents were Reading at Molineux. Bobby Zamora got us one up in the 28th minute and Kenny Miller added another in the first minute of the second half. More wasn't to happen in the match, despite the tough playing of both teams. The midweek game was our FA Cup 3rd round replay against Hull City at Molineux. This time the lads seemed mindful of how I had gone ballistic after the goalless draw, because Colin Cameron got us the lead in the 14th minute. Paul Wotton added another in the 22nd minute, with a 30 yard pile driver from a freekick. Kenny Miller scored his only goal in the 88th minute, his 50th in a Wolves shirt, and in the 90th minute Wotton added his second, with a powerful header after Potter's pinpoint cross from a freekick. Deep in injury time The Tigers got a penalty, following Ryan Garry's handball in the box. Stuart Elliott took the penalty, but Paul Jones showed great reflexes when he saved the shot and managed to latch onto the ball on the second attempt. Next round in the FA Cup beckoned. Back to league football and we had to travel to Leicester for our next match. Kenny Miller celebrated his 50th goal in a Wolves shirt in the 4th minute, by scoring his 50th league goal for us. Colin Cameron added our second in the 49th minute and that's how the match ended, even though both teams tried their hardest to get something more from the game. The fourth round of the FA Cup turned out to be one of the weirdest matches I've managed the team in so far. Beforehand the teams were expected to be evenly matched, but John McGreal decided to put his team at a disadvantage when he got himself sent off for a professional foul after only 36 seconds. Then veteran Dion Dublin scored an own goal in the 11th minute and from that moment on we were coasting. Leon Clarke scored in the 16th minute and Paul Wotton made it 3-0 in the 23rd minute. Burnley pulled one back in the 29th minute, via Gifton Noel-Williams, but Kenny Miller coolly slotted home our fourth in the 35th minute. Graham Branch went off injured for the home team in the 50th minute, to be replaced by Michael Duff. 17 minutes later Mark Kennedy had to go off injured for us, but unfortunately we had already used up all our subs by then. That didn't seem to matter though, because Paul Wotton added his second in the 69th minute from the penalty spot and finally Ganea finished the rout by scoring our 6th in the 84th minute. I was ecstatic after the match and didn't hesitate to tell the lads about it, because my policy is that if they do good, they get to know, the same as if they do badly. Following this match, we found out that our next opponents in the FA Cup would be the winners from the match between Newcastle and Wigan. The final match of an action packed month, was our away game at Portman Road in Ipswich. And according to the pundits, this was the match of the season, despite 15 matches remaining. And what a start to the game. James McEveley scored an own goal to get us one up in the 2nd minute and Leon Clarke added another for us 9 minutes later. Dean Bowditch got one back for the Tractor Boys just before halftime and I was absolutely furious with the lads for losing their concentration so badly. 3 more minutes and Ipswich were back on level terms, again courtesy of Bowditch. I had made a couple of substitutions at halftime, Ganea came on for Clarke and Ki-Hyeon came on for Kennedy, who was carrying a knock from the first half. In the 60th minute I decided to send the ageing Paul Ince on for Darren Potter, who'd been very ineffective in the match. 9 minutes later Ganea scored our third goal and then 5 minutes later, Kenny Miller added another. We didn't have long to celebrate, because Lee Naylor got injured in the 77th minute and with us having used up our substitutes, I went to 3 at the back, with Ince in front of them as cover. Our disorganisation at the back yielded the 3rd goal of the match to Ipswich, this time the scorer was Sam Parkin. But when it seemed that we might capitulate under the pressure, Ganea managed to score our 5th goal of the match and seal the win. A superb match and, to be honest, I didn't have any fingernails left, having bitten them all off. The lads were well worth the praise I heaped on them in the dressing room and I hoped that Naylor would recover soon. Summary All matches Championship, unless otherwise stated Leeds – Wolves 4-2 (Davis (2), Healy, Cresswell – Ganea, Cort) Wolves – Plymouth 2-0 (Zamora, Miller) Hull – Wolves 0-0 FA Cup 3rd Round Wolves – Reading 2-0 (Zamora, Miller) Wolves – Hull 4-0 (Cameron, Wotton (2), Miller) FA Cup 3rd Round Replay Leicester – Wolves 0-2 (Miller, Cameron) Burnley – Wolves 1-6 (Noel-Williams – Dublin (o.g.), Clarke, Wotton (2), Miller, Ganea) FA Cup 4th Round Ipswich – Wolves 3-5 (Bowditch (2), Parkin – McEveley (o.g.), Clarke, Ganea (2), Miller) Top six at the end of January: <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | | Southampton | | 31 | 22 | 3 | 6 | 57 | 22 | +35 | 69 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Crystal Palace | | 31 | 19 | 8 | 4 | 62 | 32 | +30 | 65 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Wolves | | 31 | 19 | 5 | 7 | 56 | 30 | +26 | 62 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Norwich | | 31 | 17 | 9 | 5 | 44 | 22 | +22 | 60 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Sheff Utd | | 31 | 16 | 7 | 8 | 37 | 27 | +10 | 55 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Leeds | | 31 | 14 | 9 | 8 | 41 | 30 | +11 | 51 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre> Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
axeman Posted May 21, 2006 Author Share Posted May 21, 2006 February 2006 Mike and his cleaning duties and some football Finally I decided to pay Mike a visit and usher him over to Steph's place to clean it up. She grinned when she saw the look on my face and told me that there would be a nice bonus awaiting me when I'd return home. My wicked imagination was quick to set up a rather stiff walk to the car, much to the amusement of my fiancée. I came over to Mike's and when I knocked on his door, he wasn't best pleased. But I told him that it was time and he better get ready or I'd make him ready. On that note he got fully dressed and went with me to my car. I took him over to Steph's flat and told him that I'd leave him there for 4 hours and the place better be sparkling when I'd be back, or there would be hell to pay. While Mike was doing his cleaning duties, I had to go over to Molineux because we had a match to play. Sheffield United were coming in for a visit and it was bound to be one hell of a fight, because Warnock's lads aren't known for laying down against anyone. Kenny Miller got us underway, when he scored with a cheeky chip after only 36 seconds. The match was all hard tackles and power play and in a way we were lucky to still be in the lead at the end of the first half. Ryan Garry made the mistake of fouling David Unsworth in the box in the 63rd minute and after we'd spent a minute protesting the call, Unsworth scored from the ensuing penalty. I had already made all my substitutions at that time in the match and changed to a very attack minded 4-5-1 system for the final 25 minutes of the match. Deep into injury time Ioan Viorel Ganea scored the winning goal after he pounced on a rebound from the goalkeeper's parry. The Blades never even had the chance to restart the match, because the ref blew for time when our lads were coming back from celebrating the goal. When I came back to the flat, it had undergone a massive transformation. No longer was it all a mess, but it was shiny and looked as if nothing untowards had ever happened to it. Mike was sitting in the living room, sweat streaming down his face and next to him were 3 females. It turned out that he'd hired them to help clean the place, because he knew, that due to the immense amount of trashing that had been done, he could never finish the job on his own. I told him that he should learn from this and make sure that he'd stay away from Steph from then on. If he didn't, he'd be a very sorry man. He left the house, with the girls in tow, vowing that I'd never see him again. I certainly hoped that he'd make good on that vow. Returning to my flat I noticed that there was a trail of sexy underwear leading from the living room and into my bedroom. *BOING* went my privates and I hurried into the bedroom, only to be greeted with total darkness. What was that all about, but suddenly the door closed behind me and as I turned around to check what was going on, something went over my head and I was dragged backwards and landed arse first on the bed. Next thing I knew, the hood was taken off me and Steph whispered that it was time for my bonus. When I came back from the bliss, it was almost midnight. Given that I'd come home around 6pm, there was no big wonder that I was really tired. I stumbled into the kitchen and opened a bottle of bitter, only to get a little refreshment. But I had only taken one drag from the bottle when Steph came behind me, took the bottle away and told me that it was time for the second half of the bonus thing. Blimey, what a dynamo. I gave up and followed her into the bedroom where things turned into a rather indescribable mixture of acts. I slept late the next morning, or should I say afternoon, since I couldn't crawl out of bed until around 3pm. Steph sat in the kitchen and asked me if I'd liked my bonus. I would have been so full of s**t if I'd said no, so I told her that the next time she wanted to treat me like that, to give me a bit of a warning so I could save up some energy to cope with her. She laughed at that and sent me off to run the afternoon training session. What a woman, I wonder if she'll kill me with her boundless energy?! A week later and we got to play at home again. The visitors for this match were the struggling Luton Town and, to be honest, nothing was on the cards for them to change their fortunes. Darren Potter, on loan from Liverpool, opened our scoring in the 9th minute with a vicious volley from 10 yards and then Ryan Garry added two more from penalties in the 19th and 31st minutes respectively. Rohan Ricketts added our fourth before halftime. Kenny Miller then rounded off our trouncing with a beautiful header from David Raven's near post cross. We had lost Paul Wotton to injury midweek and in this match Mark Kennedy got injured, when he got hit in the face accidentally in an aerial combat. Next up was a trip up to Deepdale to entertain the Preston North End fans. The match turned out to be a huge entertainment for the neutrals, but neither us nor the home side would be in any mental state to talk about the match after it finished. PNE took the lead when Colin Cameron did one of the dumbest things one can imagine. With defenders moving up the pitch to set up the off side trap, he passed the ball behind them. Since none of them had a chance to catch up with Dave Nugent, Paul Jones came out of the goal to try to clear the ball, but failed to reach the ball in time, which resulted in a simple goal for Nugent, from 40 yards. Cameron made up for his mistake 9 minutes later, when he scored one of the most bizarre goals of the year and that's how it was at halftime. Bobby Zamora came on for Kenny Miller halfway through the second half and he scored two goals in quick succession, only for Preston to come back at us and even things up via Chris Sedgwick. Rohan Ricketts wrapped up the points for us in the 88th minute though, and my old ticky ticker could relax after the rather frantic final moments. After the match I went on a long and rather harsh rant in the dressing rooms, because the goals we conceded were so easily avoided. The culprits held their hands up and admitted their mistakes and said they'd work on that side of things in training, which was good enough for me. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
axeman Posted June 12, 2006 Author Share Posted June 12, 2006 Our next venture in football was our trip to Premiership relegation candidates Wigan Athletic, yes it was FA Cup night. Nobody could even begin to visualise the events of the match, especially not the press. Because they had predicted that Wigan were the clear favourites for the match. Little did they know that our lads had tasted blood in our previous match and wanted more. So a shock win of 5-0 to the Wolves wasn't exactly what we'd expected, let alone anyone else. Colin Cameron (2), Leon Clarke, Rohan Ricketts and Ioan Viorel Ganea scored our goals, four of which came in the first half. Our defensive frailties were also non-existent, so I was a very happy manager after the match and Steph got a good workout from yours truly when I finally came home from the JJB Stadium. Next up was another away game, this time we had to take a trip to London. Our destination was Loftus Road, the home of QPR, who were languishing near the foot of the table, though not in the relegation zone at the time of the match. They started with obvious intent and Kevin Gallen put them one up in the 6th minute, much to my annoyance, but this was early in the game and I knew that our lads had the quality to put things right. Whether they'd actually pull it off was another matter entirely. Kenny Miller equalised for us in the 11th minute and added another in the 33rd minute, for us to take the lead. Then Colin Cameron decided that scoring was fun, so he promptly scored his 4th goal in 3 matches, much to the joy of the travelling fans. In the second half things were much more quiet, after the fireworks of the first half. Still Ganea came off the bench once again to score, but then he got injured three minutes later, so we decided to shut up shop and not risk getting caught on the break. 4-1 was well in tune with the match as a whole, so we went back home in quite a good mood. Finally it was time to play at home. Molineux was nearly packed to the rafters as we entertained Hull City. As usual the Tigers proved to be a very hard team to break down and it wasn't until the 28th minute when we finally broke the ice, after much pressure had been going on. Paul Wotton despatched a penalty with his usual confidence and then we tried like mad to put the result beyond doubt, but it took us the rest of the first half and most of the second half to finally secure the three points. Carl Cort scored our second goal minutes from time and it was a very relieved manager who greeted the players in the dressing room after the match. This was our ninth win on the spin and we actually looked like real contenders for the Championship title. Summary All matches Championship, unless otherwise stated Wolves – Sheff Utd 2-1 (Miller, Ganea – Unsworth (pen)) Wolves – Luton 5-0 (Potter, Garry (2, both pens), Ricketts, Miller) Preston – Wolves 3-4 (Nugent, Sedgwick (2) – Cameron, Zamora (2), Ricketts) Wigan – Wolves 0-5 (Cameron (2), Clarke, Ricketts, Ganea) QPR – Wolves 1-4 (Gallen – Miller (2), Cameron, Ganea) Wolves – Hull 2-0 (Wotton (pen), Cort) The Championship table at the end of February. <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | | Wolves | | 36 | 24 | 5 | 7 | 73 | 35 | +38 | 77 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Southampton | | 36 | 24 | 5 | 7 | 66 | 29 | +37 | 77 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Crystal Palace | | 37 | 22 | 10 | 5 | 76 | 42 | +34 | 76 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Norwich | | 37 | 22 | 10 | 5 | 56 | 25 | +31 | 76 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Leeds | | 37 | 18 | 10 | 9 | 55 | 40 | +15 | 64 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Sheff Utd | | 37 | 18 | 8 | 11 | 44 | 36 | +8 | 62 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre> Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
irishregan Posted June 13, 2006 Share Posted June 13, 2006 I just started with this story axeman, and although I know you can't update all that often, it's top stuff and I look forward to much more. The soap opera stuff away from the football is hilarious. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
axeman Posted June 14, 2006 Author Share Posted June 14, 2006 Thanks for the heads up irishregan. I really appreciate the kind words ----------------------------------- March 2006 We started the month with a 2-0 victory over Burnley, who fell into the relegation battle after the result was confirmed. Paul Wotton scored our opening goal with one of his trademark freekicks and then Colin Cameron wrapped up the 3 points with an opportunist's goal, following a top notch cross from Carl Cort. I couldn't have asked for a better birthday present from the lads than this win. After the match I invited the whole team and their spouses to come to a fancy dinner at one of the posh restaurants in Birmingham. Granted it was a late dinner, but I didn't care. The lads had earned their meal on the night and I was going to let them enjoy themselves, because soon enough the seriousness of the league would take over again. The following weekend we had to come up against a red hot Crystal Palace team and this would be a test of character. Fortunately it was to be played at Molineux, so that helped us immensely. Seol Ki-Hyeon scored his first goal of the season, when he managed to twist away from his marker and then slide the ball into the near corner. But we couldn't cheer too long, because Jon Macken pulled Palace level in the dying moments of the first half, with a goal that came about after a series of errors on our defensive end. In the second half Paul Wotton came to life and scored one of his trademark piledriver freekicks, but 4 minutes later Davenport gave away the ball in a poor position and that cost us a goal, which Marco Reich scored. In the 79th minute we went a man down, when our opening scorer Ki-Hyeon was stretchered off injured. I decided to throw caution to the wind and ordered our 5 midfielders to attack with all their might and that bore fruit, when Wotton scored with a glorious header, deep into injury time. After the match I told the players that they'd been a disgrace to the club, with the exception of Wotton and if I saw more of the same, changes would be made. Wotton revealed this fury in his post match interview and said that he agreed with everything that I'd said in my scalding speech. He was about to give everybody hell when I came in and took the words right out of his mouth. Next up was a visit to Derby, who'd been doing rather poorly in their recent matches. Colin Cameron got us a lead with a great individual effort and then Leon Clarke lobbed the home goalkeeper for our second goal. Despite them being a man down after only 18 minutes, they came after us like crazy and we really had to work hard to avoid conceding a goal. Finally Cameron added his second and our third and that settled it. Following the match, Phil Brown got sacked from his position as Derby manager. That win secured our spot in the playoffs for promotion, but I wasn't satisfied with that. I wanted to secure automatic promotion and I wasn't ready to relax until that had been secured. All of our training was set towards that goal. Next up was another FA Cup night, this time our opponents were Man City. All hopes of a surprise win came to nought, as the match petered out to a rather boring 0-0 draw. I couldn't help but sympathise with the lads, because we'd had a few good chances to score, only to be thwarted by Nicky Weaver in the visitors' goal and MOM Richard Dunne at the back. Three days later we had to play host to the Welsh representatives in the Championship, Cardiff City. It was a fierce and hard fought game and we could count ourselves lucky to win the game by two goals. Kenny Miller got us a dream start when he scored in the 2nd minute and then Cardiff were reduced to 10 men in the 46th minute, when VÃctor Manuel Torres Mestre got sent off for his second bookable offence. We added another goal after 73 minutes, via Mark Kennedy, and then Cardiff's poor fortune was confounded when their goalkeeper, Neil Alexander, was stretchered off in the 83rd minute. 2-0 was the final score and despite their bad luck, they still fought back and it took all of our resolve to withstand their onslaught at the end of the match. Summary All matches Championship, unless otherwise stated Wolves – Burnley 2-0 (Wotton, Cameron) Wolves – Crystal Palace 3-2 (Ki-Hyeon, Wotton (2) – Macken, Reich) Derby – Wolves 0-3 (Cameron (2), Clarke) Wolves – Man City 0-0 Wolves – Cardiff 2-0 (Miller, Kennedy) Top 6 at the end of March: <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> | Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | Pl | Wolves | | 40 | 28 | 5 | 7 | 83 | 37 | +46 | 89 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Southampton | | 40 | 26 | 5 | 9 | 71 | 36 | +35 | 83 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Crystal Palace | | 40 | 24 | 10 | 6 | 86 | 45 | +41 | 82 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Norwich | | 40 | 22 | 10 | 8 | 57 | 31 | +26 | 76 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Leeds | | 40 | 21 | 10 | 9 | 62 | 42 | +20 | 73 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Sheff Utd | | 40 | 20 | 8 | 12 | 50 | 39 | +11 | 68 | </pre> Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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