Blues v Wolves preview

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April 1, 2013 by Gabriel Sutton

I don’t think anyone could have predicted what happened on Friday. I knew we’d improved in recent weeks, but I didn’t think we’d improved that much. To go to Selhurst Park, a place Palace hadn’t lost since the opening game of the season, and win 4-0, was unbelievable. The confidence and swagger that we played with was uncharacteristic of us. I didn’t see the result coming at all, but I now feel so glad I stuck by Clark after that 5-0 defeat at home to Barnsley. And now, we have the opportunity to nudge Wolves in the direction of the relegation zone, and potentially move ourselves up to 8^th! Now wouldn’t that be good…

Team News

Both Chris Burke and Keith Fahey will undergo late fitness tests, as both are struggling with knocks. One of the Championship’s top assisters, Bakary Sako misses out to a hamstring, so does Dave Edwards to broken metatarsal. Stephen Ward made his return for Wolves against Middlesbrough after serving a suspension, and winger Nouha Dicko may feature after joining on loan from Wigan.

Expected XIs

If Fahey is fit, I wouldn’t be too surprised if Clark named the same team that beat Palace 4-0. They all played together with so much confidence. I think our team will be (right to left): Butland; Caddis, Davies, Robinson, Hancox; Redmond, Fahey, Morrison, Elliott, Ferguson; Zigic. Expected Wolves team: De Vries; Doherty, Johnson, Gorkss, Robinson; Sigurdarson, Davis, O’Hara, Hunt; Doyle, Ebanks-Blake

Key battles

Curtis Davies against Sylvain Ebanks-Blake will be a key aerial duel, because both are very physical players and are powerful headers of the ball. Davies is our best defender, whilst Ebanks-Blake is Wolves’s top scorer this season, with 16 goals. Jamie O’Hara and Keith Fahey are the deep-lying playmakers in the teams, who sees more of the ball could have a decent bearing on which team takes control of the game, because both are great recyclers of possession. Where I hope Blues can get some joy is down our left side through Shane Ferguson, against the inexperienced Matt Doherty, who has been on loan at Bury this season. Roger Johnson returns to St. Andrews.

Wolves this season

22nd in the Championship, and in danger of going through a second successive relegation. Dean Saunders took over the club from Stale Solbakken in January with the team underperforming, but since his arrival, things have gone from bad to worse for Wolves. They’ve slipped into the thick of the relegation battle. And now, none of the games in their run-in are ones against teams in the bottom half of the division at home, so Saunders certainly has his work cut out to preserve their Championship status. However, they have picked up 9 points from their last 4, which does give them a chance of getting out of trouble.

My prediction

I can see us winning this. I hope the 4-0 win over Palace was a sign of things to come for us, and I reckon we can build on it. Wolves are in the thick of a relegation battle so I doubt it’ll be another walkover, but I think we’ll have the edge seeing as we’ve had an extra day to prepare for it. Then again, wouldn’t it be classic, typical Blues to go on and lose this after what happened on Friday? But I’m going to be positive, hopefully the result will boost the confidence,
so I’ll go 2-1.

Referee : Carl Boyeson