Truly woeful

Last updated : 11 February 2004 By Dave Burgess
Well - what a complete shambles last night was!

To have lost such an important game by such a margin, against a team with seven consecutive defeats behind them, took some doing - but we pulled it off.

On a wet pitch in windy and cold conditions, the starting eleven for Wolves managed to produce a Charlton-esque performance that will long live in my memories - under nightmares.

Quite simply 7 players didn't turn up. With the exception of Ganea, Butler, Craddock and Rae the rest were a complete disgrace.

Leeds started with no confidence whatsoever. Wolves, you would have thought would have taken the game by the scruff of the neck.

However, Paul Jones decided he could imitate Oakes and stay nailed to his line for the whole of the evening. When the cross came in for the first goal, the defence were expecting the keeper to come for it. However, Jones was crying on his line in fear. Smith scrambled the ball over the line and Leeds fans couldn't believe their team had scored and they were winning.

However, Ganea - one of the few bright spots in the dire 90+ minutes, scored from outside the box with a sweet drive after a chest down by Carl Cort.

Okay, 1-1 let's do the business?

Well no. Wolves's midfield couldn't pass the ball more than 1 yard in a straight line. The game really was there for the taking at this time but we contrived to throw it away.

Jones once again produced an incredible error to gift Matteo a goal after coming off his line to make a feeble attempt to punch clear a cross from the right.

What a shrewd peice of business by Dave Jones. Buy a keeper with exactly the same attributes as Oakes (i.e a shot stopper who can't come for anything off his line) - who is six years older! I remembered just why we let Jones go back in 1996 now as Stowell was far superior.

So 2-1 down at half time, playing poorly but not all lost ?

Well Leeds absolutely murdered us in the second half. The entire team fell apart. We completely lost what little shape we had and it was embarrassing to watch at the end. I missed the Viduka's goal as I, like many other Wolves fans, left early to get away from the disaster.

It was men against boys. Leeds were rampant at 3-1 taking the proverbial and toying with us. Cameron was a court jester in the middle of the pitch giving light relief when the game became boring.

It's not a one-off. We boast the worst away record in any of the four divisions. For those who don't make it to the away games - consider yourself lucky.

It was a long way removed from the first half against Arsenal or the heroics versus Man United and Liverpool.

Dave Jones just hasn't figured how to play away from home. Well Dave I can tell you - drop Kennedy and Miller and pack the midfield with 4 orthodox midfielders. Forget trying to open defences up - just help ours out for once.

Last night was a game too many for Cort. He looked 25% fit when he started. Miller was useless on the right - a player with less control you'll be hard pressed to find for £3 million. Kennedy couldn't cross the ball past a first defender even if there wasn't one standing in front of him.

So apart from Ince and Camara this was our first choice eleven.

How do we turn it around now?

Well we've seven home games - we just have to win them all. We're going to get nothing away from home at all.

It's too much to ask. Everyone was looking forward to an exciting end of season run-in where we went down to the wire in our battle to escape relegation.

Well the bad news is that our season is very likely to finish in mid April now. So if you've got some holidays in May you can breathe a sigh of relief. You might even see some of our 'players' on the same beach.