Those were holts 4th and 5th yellows this season will he have to serve 2 games (1 for the red, 1 for 5 yellows) or will he get away with just 1 game?
Ok, so there it is the win the probably ensures our safety and Wolves relegation. But for a period of self-inflicted squeaky bum time at the end, Wolves rarely threatened. Ruddy - 7 - Couldn't help the goal, but I thought he really commanded his area today. This season has been a real coming of age, and I can't imagine he has any doubters now. R Martin - 6 - Just about kept Jarvis in check down Wolves left hand side. The occasional brilliant pass in attack. Ward - 7 - Reduced Wolves to very few chances. Whitbred - 7.5 Nearly scored again, and kept Wolves strikeforce in check. Lappin - 6.5 - Decent attack, and just about good enough in defence. Fox - 7.5 - Very few missed passes, easily our best creative player today. Bennett - 7.5 - Carried a threat all the way through, some fantastic crosses today, I was sad to see him subbed off. Howson - 7 - In a game where Wolves were practically giving us the ball back, I thought he could have done more. Had some good chances though. Hoolahan - 6.5 - I thought he missed some passes that could have been killer. Jackson - 7.5 - Put in a great shift today. His pace really caused Wolves problems, and twice he was so nearly through on goal. Holt - 8 - (MoM) A vintage Grant Holt performance. Another exquisite goal, to show he is not one dimensional, and a composed penalty too. Red card was idiotic. Subs: Naughton - 6.5 - Rarely troubled in defence, he mixed some great passes with the odd poor one. Surman - 6.5 - Didn't really get much of the ball, had he started I think he could have done as good a job as Howson or Hoolahan though. Morrison - 6.5 - The problems he caused on occasion for Wolves where clear to see, but I don't think he wanted to be playing in a period when we were fighting for our lives.
I guess a few people will re-assess their response to our draw with Wigan after today Massive result for Wigan, could be the death knell of KK!
yeah well done Wigan let's hope Man U batter fulham before we play them (coincendence with wolves there)
Just one game. The 5 yellows get cleared in January so effectively for him to get an extra game ban it would of had to be his 10th yellow
If not bubbly then sparkling wine. I thought him and Fox looked to be forging a partnership but Hoolahan kept getting in the way. I think Howson is still trying to come to terms with the frenetic energy of the Prem and the little run and shot he made showed his undoubted class, rather than Hoolahoops feeble attempt at the same thing. I was disappointed with Bennet, he didn't seem to be able to get past Ward so deserved to be taken off. Lappin was a disastrous experiment. He kept showing the guy the outside and letting him get crosses in. Ward and Whitbread looked solid and Martin was on a hiding to nothing and ball watched for Jarvis to get his goal but in general stopped Jarvis getting too many crosses in. Holt doesn't deserve MOM in my view. His stupid challenge after trying to chase down his own mistake after putting a crap ball into the box could have changed the game totally and against any other team we might have really struggled. I can't fault his determination but footballers really are thick at times. Jacko did some nice things outside the box but was anonymous inside it. Ruddy was a virtual spectator but looked solid again and is increasing in confidence. To be honest, we dominated against a poor side but unless you put away your chances it won't reflect in the scoreline. Safety must be certain now. I hope the guys are relaxed enough now to go out and express themselves. It would be humourous to finsish above Liverpool. We go to Fulham without Holt which might give PL a chance to try something else and I think it illustrates our need for another striker.
really like the look of howson, looks to add a threat from outside the box, something we need. Morison drives me nuts, because he isn't lazy, he does do good work, but his team ethic seems to suck at the moment. I get the feeling he had got a little used to being top striker early on, and is a bit put out by holt's comeback. Fulham's his chance to prove he's the better player, needs another 3 to keep up!
Hmm... everyone has opinions, so don't take this the wrong way, but I disagree with a lot of this. Bennett, as the commentators were saying, was pretty good. In attack it wasn't his best game, but as the commentators said in defence he worked amazingly hard to cover for Martin's lack of pace. We discussed Lappin earlier- I'd hardly say he was disastrous! His defending was not great- certainly Drury is much stronger in this department. However, with the ball at his feet he is much more useful and his crossing was dangerous in the first half. With 2-1 up and wanting to protect the lead, it wasn't a surprise that PL then decided to put a better defensive player on. Howson I thought showed flashes of brilliance, but as you say is still getting used to the frenetic energy in the Prem and there were more than a few times that he lost the ball when closed down quickly and panicking. However, when Howson had time on the ball and made runs forward he looked great. I thought he was unlucky not to score- the deflection helped the keeper. I thought this was amongst Hoolahan's better games without a doubt. He is one to go for the flair ball and it's a bit frustrating when it doesn't come off, also he shouldn't be shooting from range, but otherwise he was pulling players all over the place. As for Jackson I thought he was very good and did exactly what was expected of him- got in behind the defence in the second half a lot, got the assist for Holt's first goal which was a great flick on and showed great anticipation to nearly nick the ball from Hennessey. As for Holt, yes idiocy getting himself sent off, but he was the winner of the match after all and the red card didn't hurt us Ruddy really showed his worth in the last eight minutes with his calming presence. However, I'm giving up praising him! He doesn't need it, safe to say he is just a very good keeper.
Lappin was taken off at half time though which is unusual for PL. Just because he's better than Drury going forward does mean he had a good game though. And Hoolahan gave the ball away 5 times in his last third of the pitch. With How son coming on alongside Fox I can see Hoolahan bench warming when Pilkington is fit. Maybe I was a touch harsh on Be net but I really thought he would murder Ward today but he didn't go past him too many times. Like you say its a game of opinions and that's what makes it so enjoyable. We'll be discussing it for days.
1st of all! WOW liverpool are s**t 2nd of all! Thank god we won, almost certain of safety now... 14 ahead with 24 to play for! I didnt get to watch the game but managed to hear glimpses of it so cant comment much on our performance so will have to go by peoples comments and our 5mins of fame in our last spot MOTD. 3rd of all! I might get slated for this, but my god did lambert make a silly decision today... He should have taken holt off instead of jackson, purely because he had already been booked. as soon as i heard that holt had been booked and then he left him on i thought o dear, and i was right. I do understand the fact he was chasing a hat-trick and obviousley hes an influence to the team but common sense should have prevailed. O well though its happened now so we will have to roll on without him for the next couple of games.
And lets face it, its not as bad as previous seasons when we've relied entirely on him. This season we've been playing without him anyway. Oh, we're on 6th tonight on MotD behind Blackburn/Bolton, Stoke/Man City, Liverpool/Wigan, Arsenal/Villa, Sunderland/QPR Also just read the match report on BBC and I'm a tad confused by Connors view of the game: "I felt we were worth something from today's game. A point would have been a fair result." Um, not from what I saw. Even heard some Wolves fans after the game saying they won't have a hope if they only turn up for 10 minutes
Just had a read through of some of the player ratings and the only one I really disagree with is all the praise for Ward. The first half he was atrocious. I don't think he managed a single pass to a yellow shirt and generally didn't look bothered. It wasn't until he got an absolute earful off Ruddy just before the penalty which received the backing of the Barclay that he picked his game up.
it seems a very long time ago now that people had doubts about Ruddy. He's grown an amazing amount this year, into a top quality, confident keeper. Good on him.
Just had a glance at Wolves fans views on 12yards. Fair to say they don't seem best pleased with how things are going. Great to get back to winning ways. Can certainly see why Lambert purchased Howson. May not of had an amazing game but his movement is excellent and is always looking for the ball. Good threat going forward, could be a great player when he is up to speed with the prem and fully bedded in
Defensively, I felt Ward performed very well. He made some important tackles and blocks. On one occasion he saved Whitbred when he had completely missed a tackle. Just because his distribution isn't great doesn't make him a bad player.
