[Archived] Rovers v Wolverhampton Wanderers

[onlyonejackwalker]

Saturday the 6th October 2012 – Venue: Ewood Park – Kick-Off 3pm

As a child in the 1970’s I followed Wolves from afar when Rovers were marooned in lower divisions, primarily as I liked their kit! Both my parents attended the 1960 FA Cup Final.

It was the 26^th September when I first started researching for this game. I originally thought I had agreed to preview a game that would be dominated by off-field events and potentially a mass boycott by the home supporters! I am pleased common sense has prevailed and a new start can be had by one and all.

Two founder members of the football league, meeting in a competitive game at Ewood Park, with the largest crowd of the season attending and a great deal at stake after relegation for both teams, is a mouth watering fixture rich in history. I am genuinely pleased the focus has returned to the football as this game is fully deserving of the headlines generated.

May I take this opportunity to welcome back all our fans who will be returning to Ewood Park for the first time this season. It will be pleasing to see many seats occupied again.

(My lasting memory from writing this preview is the amazing history of these two great clubs, the success Wolves have enjoyed over the years and lately the shocking results Wolves have had this last year or two!)

Our Visitors - Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club - Molineux Stadium, Waterloo Road, Wolverhampton, WV1 4QR – Year Formed: 1877 – Ground Capacity: 28,525 – Current Manager: Stale Solbakken – Chairman – Steve Morgan

Club Colours - The first badge to be worn on Wolves shirts was the coat of arms of Wolverhampton City Council, usually worn on special occasions such as cup finals. In the late 1960s, Wolves introduced their own club badge consisting of a single leaping wolf, which later became three leaping wolves in the 1970s. In 1979, Wolves changed to the now modern wolf-head badge.

The club's traditional colours allude to the city council's motto "Out of Darkness Cometh Light" with the gold and black representing light and darkness respectively.

It could be argued that this motto applies more to the Rovers than Wolves this week!

An Exclusive Club - Wolves are one of 12 founder members of the football league, which includes ourselves of course. The club was formed in 1877 as St. Lukes Football Club, but merged with a local cricket and football club, The Wanderers two years later and then became known as Wolverhampton Wanderers. The club's first manager was George Worrall from 1877-1885.

The club finished the inaugural season in a respectable third place as well as reaching their first FA Cup Final, losing 3-0 to ‘Double’ winners Preston North End. Jack Addenbrooke then took over from Worrall and amazingly stayed in the job for 36 years making him the longest serving manager in their history. Other managers over the years have included Stan Cullis, Bill McGarry, John Barnwell, Graham Taylor, Mark McGhee, Glen Hoddle and more recently Mick Mcarthy and Terry Connor.

Wolverhampton Wanderers have played at Molineux, since 1889. Their previous home was in the Blakenhall area and although no signs of the ground remain, a nearby road is called Wanderers Avenue. The Molineux name originates from Benjamin Molineux, a local merchant who built his home on the grounds of the old brewery that became Wolves home ground.

The ground is also steeped in history and in 1953, the stadium became one of the first to install floodlights at an estimated cost of £10,000. The first ever floodlit game was held on 30 September 1953, as Wolves beat South Africa 3-1. The ground’s old South Bank amazingly often held over 30,000 standing fans in that end alone!

The leading goalscorer for Wolves is Steve Bull, with 306 goals from 1986 to 1999. Bull also holds the Wolves record for the most hat-tricks scored - 18 in total! Bull also played 13 times for England scoring 4 goals, although Wolves were never in the top flight during his time there. In the 1987-1988 season he scored a record 52 goals in all competitions. An excellent achievement even in the old Division Four.

Derek Parkin holds the record for the most appearances with 609 between 1968 / 1982 and the clubs biggest league victory is 10-1 against Leicester in the 1937-1938 season. Jimmy Mullen was the club's youngest player, when he made his debut against Leeds United in Division 1 on 18 February 1939. He was 16 years 43 days .

1980’s

An interesting fact regarding Wolves is that they were relegated from the old Division One into Division Four in consecutive seasons. In season 1983-84, Wolves were relegated from Division One, but by the time season 1986-87 came around, they were playing Division Four football.

Main Club Honours

First Division Champions: 1953/1954, 1957/1958, 1958/1959.

UEFA Cup - Runners-up- 1972/1972.

F.A. Cup – Winners - 1892/1893, 1907/1908, 1948/1949, 1959/1960.

League Cup – Winners - 1973/1974, 1979/1980.

Charity Shield Winners - 1959/1960.

1960 FA Cup Final – 7^th May 1960

Recognised as the one of the biggest games between the two clubs. This match was one of the warmest cup finals recorded, with many spectators having to be treated for fainting, leading to the game being played at a very sedate pace throughout.

Wolves had won the league title on two out of the previous three seasons and missed out in this year by 1 point only to you guessed it…. Burnley! They were clear favourites going into the match.

Rovers on the other hand, had not had a great season, finishing in 17th place in only their second season back in top flight football. Both league games between the two during the season had been won by Wolves (3–1 and 1–0).

A Mick Mcgrath own goal and a double from Norman Deeley secured an easy 3-0 win for Wolves, with Dave Whelan famously being stretchered off with a fractured leg in the days before substitutes. The attendance was a mind blowing 98,954! My family attended, travelled down on the train and apparently had an amazing day out. They report that Rovers were very poor and once Whelan was injured we had little chance against a quality Wolves team.

Current Form Rovers

29^th September 2012 – Away – Charlton – 1-1 (D)

21^st September 2012 – Home – Middlesborough – 1-2 (L)

18^th September 2012 – Home Barnsley – 2-1 (W)

15^th September 2012 – Away – Bristol City – 3-5 (W)

1^st September 2012 – Away – Leeds – 3-3 (D)

28^th August 2012 – Away MK Dons – 2-1 (L)

Current Form Wolves

2^nd October 2012 – Home – Crystal Palace – 1-2 (L)

29^th September 2012 – Home – Sheffield Wednesday – 1-0 (W)

25^th September 2012 – Away – Chelsea – 6-0 (L)

22^nd September 2012 – Away – Peterboro – 0-2 (W)

19^th September 2012 – Away – Ipswich – 0-2 (W)

16^th September 2012 – Home – Leicester – 2-1 (W)

2^nd September 2012 – Away – Cardiff – 3-1 (L)

Recent Head to Heads – Last Four Fixtures

10^th March 2012 – Barclays Premier League – WWFC v BRFC – Referee – Chris Hoy – Attendance 26,121 - Half Time – 0-1 – Full Time – 0-2 – Scorers - (Hoilett 43, 69).

13^th August 2011 – Barclays Premier League – BRFC v WWFC – Referee – Kevin Friend – Attendance 21,996 - Half Time – 1-1 – Full Time – 1-2 – Scorers - Formica (20) – Fletcher (22), Ward (47).

22^nd May 2011 – Barclays Premier League – WWFC v BRFC – Referee – Howard Webb – Attendance 29,009 - Half Time – 0-3 – Full Time – 2-3 – Scorers - Roberts (22), Emerton (38), Hoilett (45+0:47) – O’Hara (73), Hunt (87).

04^th December 2010 – Barclays Premier League – BRFC v WWFC – Referee – Howard Webb – Attendance 22,314 - Half Time – 2-0 – Full Time – 3-0 – Scorers - Dunn (29), Emerton (43), Nelsen!! (55).

Wolves Scored First!

It was a letter from William McGregor, a Director at Aston Villa, to four other clubs on March 2, 1888, which led to the formation of the world's first league football competition. "I beg to tender the following suggestion," McGregor, a Perthshire-born draper, wrote to Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers, Preston North End and West Bromwich Albion, "that ten or twelve of the most prominent clubs in England combine to arrange home-and-away fixtures each season…"

In the inaugural football league season, Villa, Blackburn, Bolton, Preston and West Bromwich were joined by Everton, Burnley, Accrington, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Notts County, Derby County and Stoke as The League's founder members.

Ten of that dozen played on the opening day - Blackburn and Notts County being the exceptions - though a variety of kick-off times led to much debate about who scored the first ever goal. It has now been credited to Gershom Cox, the unfortunate Aston Villa full-back, who in attempting to clear a shot around the half-hour mark in a match away to Wolverhampton Wanderers, only succeeded in turning the ball over his own goal-line!

PNE are accredited with the first ever ‘intended’ goal. Gershom with the first ever ‘own’ goal.

One to Watch

Number 9, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake. Nationality: English - DOB: 29/03/1986 - Height: 5'8" (172.7 cm) - Weight: 14st 5lbs (91.1 kg) – Goals this season 4. I chose Blake as all and sundry find it easy to score against us and I am sure he will get chances.

Prediction

2-1 to the Rovers. Recent results have gone in our favour and Wolves have had a torrid last year or two. Last year the Wolves won just 5 of the 38 matches they played, drawing 10 and losing 23. And we thought we had it bad! The year before they won 11, drawing 7 and losing 20 matches whilst accumulating 40 points for survival.

COYB - With fans at long last being able to look forward to visiting Ewood again and many old fans returning for this fixture it is imperative we put on a good performance. Losses to Boro and the draw at Charlton have seen us slip down the league and we have a tough game away at Forest as well to factor in. We must win our home games to stand any chance of automatic promotion.

Sources - www.wolverhamptonwanderers-mad.co.uk – www.wolves.co.uk – www.wolves.stats.btinternet.co.uk – Wikipedia – Cross referenced and verified where possible.

[Ralfinho]

3-1 Rovers roared to success by a 23,341 crowd

[cn174]

Good preview!

Looking forward to the first post-kean home match. Will wait till after tonight to decide on a score though!

[Steve Moss]

Good preview.

I really hope the disillusioned fans return and give the club the boost it needs now that the cancer is gone.

[Daremz]

Coming to England to visit my beloved Rovers & Ewood again (JW, just love to sit right at the edge of the pitch). Last few years a few mixed results (0-2 vs. Spurs, 1-0 vs. Bolton and 0-2 vs. Newcastle), so I don't expect firework, but do hope for it. Realisticly I'd say Rovers 1 - Wolves 1, the Rover in me hopes for a 4-2 victory. Let's bring it on!

21.906 fans at Ewood.

[Eddie]

Getting up for this match and looking forward to it. Tough fixture, but expecting at least a point.

[Salgado Is A Hero]

Really looking forward to this but it will be a tough test.....they've hit some form and Ebanks-Blake is a completely different player in this league.

I wonder if we'll get more than the 18,000+ we got at home to Fulham next year....that would be great.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

1-1

17,500

[patrickvalery]

I'm starting to wonder whether buying a ticket for this match was a bright idea. I had sunk a few when Kean got potted and got swept away in the romance of it all. Now, the thought of a 9 hour round trip to watch maybe 1 or 2 shots on goal seems far less appealing!

[BRFC1995]

nothing but a wolves win seems likely, spawned a clean sheet tonight and created nothing with further evidence that it is an utter myth that we have a good squad. Our defence being only slightly better than what has to be among the worst midfields in the division providing what should be among the best strikers with absolutely nothing

[JAL]

nothing but a wolves win seems likely, spawned a clean sheet tonight and created nothing with further evidence that it is an utter myth that we have a good squad. Our defence being only slightly better than what has to be among the worst midfields in the division providing what should be among the best strikers with absolutely nothing

Fabio Nunes is definitely good enough for the left wing and should be on come saturday.

I'd have Martin Olsson David Dunn and Morten Gamst Pedersen in the centre but who do we have that is fast to play on the right wing Kasim- Richards maybe.

Nuno Gomes would be the striker with Rhodes and Rochina waiting on the bench to come on as Gomes tired.

Givet would be left back, plantot Dann and Young Hanley at centre half, and maybe the other young Henley at right back with Robbo in goals.

The focus would be on support and creativity of the midfield five .

[Neal]

Looking forward to returning to Ewood this weekend.

if only the fans where like this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZnUlEJFPjs&feature=player_embedded

[philipl]

Excellent preview.

Big 6 pointer with a big crowd.

We should have enough to win this but I suspect Wolves' superior fitness will get them a draw- perhaps nick a win at the death. So no forecast except a plea for the lads to put on a show.

[callumrovers]

lets hope the crowd can be as loud as this on Saturday!

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=related&v=fDND3bFCV-4

[Mercer]

Looking forward to it immensely.

Hope we get 20,000+.

However, rumours that Rovers have overstated attendances on earlier home games, so it would not surprise me, given the Keanites still in Ewood, if the 'official' gate is smaller than the 'police' gate !

As to the match, we simply have to create more and have a real go as Wolves have struggled defensively over the last couple of seasons.

I'd go:

Robbo / Ribeiro, Dann, Givet, Olsson1 / Simon, Etuhu, Dunn, Fabio / Gomes / Rhodes

I'd expect us to score a shed load and run out winners by 4 or 5 to 2 or 3.

What we really need is some sparkling stuff to go with what should be a carnival atmosphere.

Then the hard work will begin !

[LeChuck]

I'd go:

Robbo / Ribeiro, Dann, Givet, Olsson1 / Simon, Etuhu, Dunn, Fabio / Gomes / Rhodes

Get Colin Kazim-Richards on one of those wings and I'd be happy.

I'd be tempted to drop Gomes as well, he's been a bit ineffective recently and we have plenty of options in that position (plus he makes a cracking super-sub). Maybe play Simon "in the hole" and CKR on the right wing.

[BigBar]

Robbo

Orr Dann Givet Henley

CKR Etuhu Dunn Olsson

Gomes

Rhodes

Would love to see it, never gonna happen though, all out for the win!! We need to throw a bit of caution to the wind on this win and go for the Fcukin win!! Enough negativity, big game, big crowd, big result!!!

COME ON YOU BLUES!!!!!!!

[JAL]

Is Vukcevic available for selection for this game ?

[Mike E]

Robbo

Orr Dann Givet Henley

CKR Etuhu Dunn Olsson

Gomes

Rhodes

Would love to see it, never gonna happen though, all out for the win!! We need to throw a bit of caution to the wind on this win and go for the Fcukin win!! Enough negativity, big game, big crowd, big result!!!

COME ON YOU BLUES!!!!!!!

Only change I'd make there is to have Vukcevic in place of Gomes and bring Gomes on later in the game.

[J*B]

Robinson

Henley Dann Givet Olsson

CKR Etuhu Murphy Simon

Gomes Rhodes

Lets go all out. Bugger it.

[BigBar]

[/center]

Only change I'd make there is to have Vukcevic in place of Gomes and bring Gomes on later in the game.

I think its a decent team, i know the flanks could be questioned but were not exactly blessed there so i say go for it, people are loving simon but cant help but think its to defy kean for not playing him...few subs appearances before we turf him in for a start...thats team above would give every team in the division problems if the right tactics were provided

[ABBEY]

if any manager has the balls to go all out and attack in this league ,its there to romp.

[Shabani]

Bringing 3 family members with me on Saturday, who between them have seen about 3 games in 20 years. Hoping for a big crowd but reckon it'll be around 19k, which isn't too shabby.

[roverandout]

was hoping for a new manager by now to be honest, renewed my season ticket last saturday so i will be there, probably be a draw which will be good as it won't give venkys the excuse to give black the job fulltime

[BRFC1995]

strikers are currently getting zero service,

midfield cannot retain posession in the slightest,

no out ball when the opposition press with virtually 60% posession or more in every match,

no energy in the center of the park,

no pace on the flanks,

since the day samba left absolutely no leadership at the back utter cowards when it comes to defending Scott Dann the main culprit,

442 with the same people has proven to not work we get utterly dominated every match, can't bring new players in so unless something changes its a wolves win every day of the week.

...................................................................Robbo.................................................................

...Pedersen(feck it hes not Orr) ...........Hanley......................Givet................Henley(cannot understand what happened to him looked outstanding when he's played)

..................................................................Murphy (Quarter back) ........................................

...........................................Etuhu................................Martin Ollsen( bomb forward and got the legs to put shift in) .........................................

........Nunes(no decent right footed option ) ....................................,......Vuckcevic (whats been seen of him he has what not many others have i.e. class) .............

....................................................................Rhodes................................................................

same old same old is'nt good enough, Black does anything like above i'll have some time fo him........but 442 with dann,orr, and rhodes starting with gomes and he can feck off.