Opponent : Southampton at Home

Date : 10/04/09

Result : W 3 - 0

Game :

Report : Wolves v Southampton – 10/4/09By Gulraj Kular 

Good Friday. And how good it felt. Grandmother Kular was on her way back from India and no matter how bad our performance was on Monday or how everyone else was being negative and miserable, nerves failed to grab hold of me. There was an air of expectation hanging around Molineux. I took my seat in a buzzing Southbank. The regulars surrounding me were in good voice. 3:15pm and the players marched out. I was craning my neck to see who our strike force was in the absence of Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and Chris Iwelumo. I was impressed. Super Mick had resisted the temptation to play his new loan signing Marlon Harewood, with Andy Keogh and the precocious Sam Vokes charged with the responsibility of putting the ball in the net.

Kick off and the Golden Palace roared. What followed was the start all 20,000 plus Wolves fans had been dreaming about. 38 seconds and David Jones whipped a wonderful corner in from the right. It landed right on the head of the precocious Sam Vokes and the teenager duly obliged by planting the ball in the Saints net. Less than a minute gone and a sense of a real Premier class performance was on the cards. We weren’t made to wait too long before a second goal came along. How fitting it was that it came from the Club Captain, a man who has twice come back from the fringes of the club, seemingly down and out, to have a real Molineux renaissance. A short corner was played back to Jones who delivered a sumptuous cross for Craddock to attack and glance into the far corner. The stadium erupted and that slightly harsh song we have about Craddock reverberated from all corners of the ground. Wolves were in control. At the centre of it was David Jones, a man brought in to bring that creative edge to our play that we lacked last season, but also someone who hasn’t lived up to that billing. Until today and it was his innovation that eventually led to the awarding of a penalty 18 minutes into the match. Jones stood over a free kick 25 yards from goal, certainly within shooting range. As everyone else awaited a strike at goal, Edwards layed the ball off to Jones and he cleverly reversed the ball into the path of the onrushing Foley. Foley’s delivery was poor, but the loose ball was latched onto by the excellent Dave Edwards and he was tripped by Saganowski. Stonewall penalty. With the absence of Iwelumo and Ebanks-Blake, it was unclear who would take on the penalty-taking duties, but the ever responsible Jones stepped up to emphatically lash the ball into the top right hand corner of the goal. 3-0, 18 minutes gone and the game was over and done with.

We were so comfortable that I refused to go along with my usual half-time good luck charm. Usually I would make my way across the Jack Harris stand to greet my school mates. So far this season each time I have done this we have not lost. Yes, that is how comfortable we were. As the second half kicked off I received a text from one of my mates, saying ‘we’re gonna lose 4-3 now’ which brought a humorous response from me. The second half was played simply as an exhibition. An exhibition for Southampton to show why they are regarded as one of the best footballing sides in the division and an exhibition of how not to do a Mexican wave at a football match by the home fans. It was all in good humour as Wolves went on do a professional job against a naïve, inexperienced Saints team. The usual trip home was met, somewhat unusually, with positive radio phone-ins, with Wolves proclaiming that we have reached the Promised Land and I must say I don’t disagree.

We arrived home and were greeted at the door by the warm arms of Grandmother Kular. ‘Bully jethgai?’ referring to the Wolves result (we haven’t had the heart to tell her Steve Bull has retired). I responded with a beaming smile on my face and she second guessed that yes, in fact we had won. ‘WE SHALL NOT, WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED!’