Further ramblings of a self-made pauper

While I was on holiday, Wolves unveiled the strip they will be playing in next season in the Premiership:



I am hoping that they do a replica in a suitably lardy boy size for me (and most typical fans). The shirt has a slight retro feel to it and the advertising isn't too intrusive - I am old-fashioned enough to wish there were no such thing as a 'shirt sponsors' but that bird has flown, sadly. Anyway, when I consider what the strip looked like when 'Doritos' sponsored the club, well...

My nerves are shot, but The Wolves beat QPR 1-0 at the Molineux this afternoon and we are promoted to the Premiership for only the second time since the Premier League was created in 1992. It is just like the Wolves to do it in the most nerve-jangling fashion possible.

Primarily for my own benefit and knowing that I can no longer jinx my team, here is the Championship table with two games to go:




I feel a visit to the pub in my imminent future...

I was going to wander down to Camden and mooch around Mega City, but I think I might just stay in instead - I can always do it tomorrow. I think I might hover around by the telly downstairs, watching Sky Sports News, becoming ever more agitated as Wolves fail to get the win they require for promotion to the Premier League. I have been a supporter for over thirty years (I didn't take much notice before I went to college) and a season ticket holder for a number of years before I came to London.

Since the horrors of the mid 1980s when the team imploded, fell through the divisions and were within 5 minutes of extinction, things have improived greatly, but with the exception of 2003-04, we have been unable to promote out of the second tier (currently the Championship, previously the first division and before that the second division - all the same thing, but they do like to reorganise) of English football. I, like most Wolves fans, have developed a sort of masochistic relationship with the club. We hope for the best, expect the worst and have been rarely disappointed in our expectations over the years. At the time of typing, we are one win away from certain promotion with three games to play. We have been at the top of the Championship table for 99% of the season to date and are already assured of a Play-off place if we need it. I still can't quite believe that we will get promotion and won't until it's a mathematical certainty. The team over the years has clearly been over run by the Karma Pixies and they have delighted in raising my hopes and expectations before dashing them cruelly.

I shall now go down and stare at the telly in mounting desperation as Wolves implode and our nearest rivals in the division all register steamrollering wins that keep the agony and uncertainty brewing for a further week...

Last time I posted about the Wolves and how good the season was going, the team promptly imploded. They have since recovered and at the risk of prodding the Karma Pixies into action, I am recording the league table here for my own benefit and enjoyment!

With Wolves beating Burnley 2-0 and the Blues only managing a 1-1 draw away to Forest, the gap opens to 6 points. The team to keep an eye on though, is Reading, closing the gap on the Blues to 1 point after a 3-0 thumping of Derby. Reading are the team that started our mini slump a few weeks ago and they are scoring freely. We don't play them again until the end of January, so hopefully there's time for us to build up a bigger gap, Karma Pixies allowing.



Ah well. Best not count the chickens yet. There's still over half the season to go and we've had many, many false dawns over the years, but right now at this moment it's looking good.

I should have known better than posting up an entry a few days ago about how well Wolves are doing at the front end of this season. The Karma Pixies promptly nipped across to the Molineux and hamstringed both of our wingers in the knowledge that our most prolific forward was already suspended for the game. That’s the first choice attack decimated at a stroke, then.

Still, a 3-0 defeat at home is still a touch embarrassing, especially as the opening goal was scored by our own goalkeeper who seems to have started the game with butter on his gloves.

Ho hum.

It could be worse: Reading are a good team, so I expected a tough game from them and frankly, we had to expect a setback at some point. The Blues only managed a draw, so we are still two pints clear at the top with a far superior goal difference. It’s a bit early to panic yet, but then, that’s what we Wolves fans do: look on the dark side of things even when it’s all going reasonably well.

I rarely blather on about sport here, unless there’s something funny to comment on, but I have to say that I am impressed by Wolves’ start to the season.

As a supporter of the team for over 30 years, I am used to being disappointed by them; since I have been taking an active interest, they have spent their longest period outside the top flight in their history, made Europe but once and only won one major trophy (and a minor one). They have picked up a number of promotions following the disastrous period in the 80s that saw the club go bankrupt twice, followed by relegation, promotion and then three successive relegations at the end of which they briefly sat at the bottom of 92 professional clubs, 5 minutes from going bankrupt a third time and disappearing into history.

Narrowly missing out on promotion after an impressive turn around under Graham Turner, they achieved two successive promotions and then stalled in the second tier, where they remain, despite a brief and unsuccessful flirtation with the Premiership on 2003.

Most seasons they manage enough of a run at some point in the season to flood me with what tends to prove to be unfounded hope and we settle down for another season of dog fighting in what is now the Championship.

This season, however, after eight games they have won seven and dropped only two points, remaining unbeaten in the league. The team’s best start in 60 years has got me all hopeful again and for once I don’t find myself apologising for being a Wolves supporter. It’s great.

There are a lot of Spurs fans in the office and for once, I am not the really glum person on a Monday morning.