Irish Wolves and Opposition Irish

Plenty of Irish involvement in today's FA Cup match between Birmingham and Wolves, which is now at half-time.

Birmingham have Colin Doyle in goal and Adam Rooney up front. After the first half, Doyle has made a good save on Ebanks-Blake, while Rooney has been physical up front but isolated (playing as a lone striker). As it happened, he collided with Roger Johnson, who injured himself on the landing, so Kevin Foley replaced him.

On the Wolves side, Kevin Doyle is up front and seemingly continuing his poor run of form, while Hunt is playing on the left and while looking busy hasn't done anything of note. Ward is playing behind him at left fullback and made a good penetrating run into the box and has generally looked good going forward.

Pretty defensive game so far, probably only one goal needed to find a winner.

EDIT: Match ended 0-0...Colin Doyle made a great double save in the final minute to ensure the replay.

Some highlights from the match here:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xni...ghlights_sport

Looked like Wolves had the better of the chances. Good goalkeeping from Doyle to keep Wolves out at 1:35.

Good point away to Spurs today, wasn't paying too close attention (watching Soton match), though had Wolves match on in the background...seemed like Wolves were under pressure for most of the match.

I watched a fair bit of this game. It was more distinguished by a poor Spurs who hit about 6 points and 5 overs from shooting range.
Only one double save made by Hennessy, so not that much pressure really.

Heard on the radio that the Wolves owner was question MIck's performance and
comparing it to that of Norwich and Swansea.

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Originally Posted by tricky_colour

Heard on the radio that the Wolves owner was question MIck's performance and
comparing it to that of Norwich and Swansea.

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Yeah heard that on NewsTalk myself. Strange comments.

Afaia, Wolves' owner has never commented about Mick, through good times or bad.

You'd wonder if Mick could ever build a decent team to move out of the dogfight zone? Some parts are his responsibility other parts have presented difficulties that Mick has done well to patch up mid-season. He has a few top class players out there in Fletcher and Johnson.

Hunt came on late against Spurs, enough time to give away the ball from a stray pass.
Ward was just okay. Foley looked a good footballer out there, very tidy indeed.

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Originally Posted by geysir

Afaia, Wolves' owner has never commented about Mick, through good times or bad.

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you're correct in that he is usually steadfast in his support of Mick but he also made some comments earlier in the week about the Wolves performances being unacceptable. I have a feeling the writing may be on the wall to some extent.

I think he is perhaps optimistic if he thinks another manager will do any better.
I'd say there is more downside than upside in changing the manager at the moment.

Got this old data for the cost of the squads and wolves seem to be about value for money.
Albeit it is a bit out of date.

Manchester City - £323m
Manchester United - £228m
Chelsea - £215m
Tottenham - £191m
Aston Villa - £109m
Liverpool - £109m
Arsenal - £96m
Sunderland £87m
Everton - £80m
Newcastle - £68m
West Ham United - £61m
Fulham - £58m
Birmingham - £45m
Stoke - £47m
Bolton - £43m
Wolves - £39m
Wigan - £37m
West Brom - £34m
Blackburn - £32m

Also are they not doing better than last season?
Blackpool - £6m

Nightmare start for Wolves, stream just turned on, some sort of balls up in defence, ball breaks to Bent in the 18 yard box though he was going away from goal...but Berra hauls him down and the ref points to the spot. Was hoping Robbie would take it, but Bent steps up and sends Hennessey the wrong way...1-0.

EDIT: Kightly equalizes, nice work down the right, cuts inside, and curls his left footed effort beyond Given.

EDIT2: Wolves coming on strong now, had two great chances, one cleared off the line and one straight at Given...pretty open and entertaining game right now, night and day from the Birmingham match on Wednesday.

EDIT3: As I type that, Wolves take the lead. Corner in from the right from Kightly, Johnson(?) puts the first header (from roughly the penalty spot) goalward, and Edwards gets a flick on it to get it past Given. 2-1.

EDIT4: Since Robbie equalized the game has gone a bit more quiet...stupid petulant red card from Karl Kenry might have doomed their chance for three points (and even one point).

Watched the Wolves match up to Liverpool's 2nd...they really are atrocious. Have to feel for Mick he is working with basically a Championship team.

Micks been sacked, will be interesting to see what the implications of that are for the Irish lads. Have to feel Ward in particular is very much a favourite of him who may not figure with a different coach.

Surprised they got rid of him after all he's done with Wolves.

A Wolves fan I know had this to say:

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Thanks for everything Mick! achieved more for this club than most.

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I'd imagine a Yorkshire man such as himself would immediately go in to the running for the Leeds job. Not at all surprised by this move but certainly disappointed...as I've noted before he really had a Championship calibre team aside from Fletcher, Johnson, and maybe a couple of others on their day...and yes I do realize that includes quite a few of our players but Doyle and Hunt have been trending downwards and its hard to judge Foley and Ward as they're just a part of a defence that hemorrhages goals.

Mick's a good manager with a proven record at championship level. Given the manager merry-go-round in that division, he's bound to be sought after. Leeds would be a fairly good option and Wiki seems to think he was a Leeds fan.

The names being linked with this job would be quite alarming for any Wolves fan: Curbishley, Warnock, Bruce. I can't imagine any doing a better job thank Mick. They really would need someone who can organise a defence and get the best out of players. Plus, I'm not quite sure how receptive the dressing room would be given that, as hard-nosed as Mick can be to the media, I can't remember him criticizing a player. Normally he's singing the praises of Doyle, Fletcher, Jarvis etc. And they're mostly Mick's signings. Players like Ward, Jarvis and Kightly owe quite a lot to Mick McCarthy given the level they were at prior to him signing them (Bohs, Gillingham, Grays). I'm not sure who, but some Wolves player recently gave him their full backing.

I have felt for ages that Mick has been too loyal to Hennessy in nets (just as Paul O'Shea felt he was too loyal to one of his CBs). Hennessy is a talented kid for sure, as evidenced by some great saves but he is far too prone to soft goals. I'd prefer a keeper who makes no errors to one who mixes wonder saves with dumb errors. I think Hahnemann got a good run in the team last year and stabilised things a bit. MIW?

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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88

I have felt for ages that Mick has been too loyal to Hennessy in nets (just as Paul O'Shea felt he was too loyal to one of his CBs). Hennessy is a talented kid for sure, as evidenced by some great saves but he is far too prone to soft goals. I'd prefer a keeper who makes no errors to one who mixes wonder saves with dumb errors. I think Hahnemann got a good run in the team last year and stabilised things a bit. MIW?

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I've never played in goal, so I'd take my criticism of Hennessey with that in mind, but I've been keeping an eye on him since the Carling Nations Cup last year.
Fahey lined up the free kick, and Hennessey took up one the worst positions I've ever seen for a free kick. Since then, there have been countless goals conceded by Wolves where, if his footwork/positioning/decision making had been a little better, the chance mightn't of even arisen. It's come to a stage where it looks like people are taking more shots than usual because they recognise he's not in the best position. Usually results in a diving save that should never of come about. I don't think he's beyond improving but he'd learn a lot from going back to being an understudy to someone senior.

Somewhat unbelievably, Lee Clark of Huddersfield has lost his job...so another Yorkshire job opening.

What the?
He was being touted for jobs and refused to go. Some clubs are mental.

Surely has to be more to that Clark story. Wasn't too long ago that they were setting an unbeaten record. A ludicrous decision on the face of it.