Charlton to feel the force of a Molineux cauldron of noise.

Last updated : 22 August 2003 By Dave Burgess

Well the 4,000 at Ewood Park made some noise, but you wait until 25,000 fans greet their team’s arrival on to a Molineux Premiership pitch on Saturday.

Boy-oh-boy will the roofs come off all four stands!


I expect the atmosphere to rival and even surpass the Newcastle Cup tie and
Norwich play-off semi final. It’s a chance for the loyal fans to show their team exactly where they are – 110% behind them in this inaugural Premiership season.


The team themselves are going to have to show a marked improvement on the display just seven short days previously.

Charlton might not be a team you’d want to see as much as the big guns, but they’re an established Premiership team who have some real quality players in their ranks.


With the high profile arrival of the enigmatic Paolo Di Canio they have, for me, a fantastic talent who still has a great deal to offer.


As well we are going to see a return to Molineux for Carlton Cole. Cole who was on loan to us last season, will need to show his new team mates a bit more passion and commitment than he did for us in that time.


Add to this the likes of Matt Holland, Chris Powell, Richard Rufus and Claus Jensen and it’s a big task.

However, whilst we might not realistically be able to compete with the likes of Blackburn this is a real test of our Premiership credentials.


This is the sort of game that we just HAVE to get something from. Home, against a team that might not struggle but are beatable, just has to yield something for us to get some hope for the rest of the season.


Hopefully, a weeks training will have got some of the pre-season rust off one or two of the players but we will still be missing three key players.


I expect Blake to replace Sturridge and possibly Luzhny come in for Naylor with Irwin switching over to the left. I’d like to see the hard working Cooper come in for Silas on the left to give us more cover.
Newton will continue I think on the right. He did some good runs on Saturday but his tracking back leaves the full back with a lot of work to do.


The fact remains we just HAVE to get something out of the game. Personally, I believe it’s going to take something extraordinary to combat Charlton. We aren’t equipped for the Premiership and so we are going to have to pull off something special.


Jones will see this game as an indicator. With just 8 days until the end of the transfer window he will be looking to bring in more recruits. The more the better as far as I’m concerned. We desperately short in all areas on the field. We can’t rely on Super Jo, King Kenny and Sparky to make the difference. We need some top quality players so if you’re the manager you try to believe us when we express our dissatisfaction with what you’ve failed to bring in so far.


Transfer budget or no transfer budget, we’ve failed big time in the transfer market to date.


We can’t rely on supporter power alone. We’ve bought the tickets, Jones you buy the players. On 10k a week I’m sure that you should be able to do something surely?


Charlton will be organised and competent so we need an early goal to settle the nerves. Charlton will come more and more into the game as the clock ticks on.

I hope that we show Charlton what Wolves are all about. Nothing would thrill me more than us to get all three points at the Molineux, a ground I still believe to be the best in the football league.


The fans are excellent; they’ve done their job it’s time for the team and management to respond equally.


E-mail me with any comments to dave@wolves-mad.co.uk