By Tom Bason
January 26 2013

-          And that is why, possibly the most important moment in the game was not the equaliser, but was the knock Zubar picked up in the first half and aggravated in the second half before being taken off. At this point, Saunders made a poor decision, switching Foley, who’d dealt so well with Ince, to right back and bringing on Stephen Hunt to fill in at left back. Now, bear in mind that Hunt hasn’t kicked a league ball for the Wolves first team since May (and hasn’t accurately kicked a ball in a long time since then…), why was he brought on at left back against one of the most highly rated wingers in the league? Personally, I felt that Foley should have continued at left back, with someone else filling in at right back. Danny Batth isn’t really a fullback, and I doubt he’d be particularly comfortable there, so my choice would have been Karl Henry or David Davis. I’ve long thought that the fullback and defensive midfield positions require a similar set of abilities, and Henry played there for a sustained period in 2006/07, while Davis has played there at times this season. It just seemed counter intuitive to move Foley across to right back when he’d been so effective at shutting down Ince. Had he still been at left back, would have prevented Ince’s winner? Maybe not, but I’d have given him a hell of a lot more chance than with Hunt in that position.

-          Saunders made two more changes after Blackpool’s winner, Sigurðarson and Davis replacing Doyle and Peszko, moving to a 4-2-1-3 formation, with Sako and Sigurðarson as wingers and O’Hara tucked in behind Ebanks-Blake. I could understand bringing on Sigurðarson, but introducing Davis baffled me. It was like he’d been watching a review of last season’s Premier League season, and saw Roberto Mancini bringing on Nigel de Jong to much derision in a game Manchester City needed to win. But, that freed up Yaya Touré to roam forward, he scored twice as City went on to win the league. But, without being disparaging, Jamie O’Hara is no Yaya Touré. And even if he was, we were playing a team happy to be 2-1 up, whose midfield were never going to attack in the way they might if it was 1-1. Being 2-1 down at home, did we really need two defensive midfielders on the pitch at the same time? Perhaps Saunders wanted that slightly extra protection given that the left back was Stephen Hunt, but that only highlights the mistake he made with the earlier substitution. And even if Saunders was still worried about a lack of protection, why not put on Tongo Doumbia, a player with far more to offer going forward than Davis does? This is not intended as a slight on Davis, but I’m not sure he offers a huge amount to a team chasing the game.

-          I didn’t really see what happened with Johnson’s red. The most annoying thing about it was that at the time, we were counter attacking. Davis had the ball on the right flank, and may have just been about to make me eat the words in the previous paragraph (of course, if he had created something, I’d never have written them). I’m sure you know that he probably wouldn’t have created something, but he might have. If Johnson has attacked the Blackpool player (and I’m not sure who it was) then the club should hammer him. At least we should have the opportunity to see Danny Batth over the next three games; if he’s half as good as his reputation amongst Wolves fans is, he’ll be an asset to the starting eleven.

-          Finally, on a slightly lighter note, during the warm-up, Bakary Sako had an effort that, unsurprisingly, went over the bar. But, it smacked into a seat in the North Bank, snapping it in half. I couldn’t help but be reminded of my experience at Birmingham City, just over a year ago….