By Joe Sharples
August 23 2002

It’s been a positive start to the season for Wolves and already things are looking up for the Molineux faithful. Next up is fellow promotion hopefuls Derby County who scraped through away to Grimsby on the weekend... Just like Wolves previous opponents (Burnley and Bradford) Derby’s finance problems have been well documented. Derby have said numerous times that they want to off load overpaid players such as Ravenelli and Burley. Despite the fact that John Gregory has made clear that he does not want to keep Ravenelli but continues to play him while he still at the club.

Going on both teams last week’s performances you would have to say that Wolves would be favourites. Wolves commanded a poor Burnley side and could have had more than they did where as Derby struggled against an average injury hit Grimsby side and Ravenelli in particular wasted numerous chances to kill the game off.

However, Derby are at home, and won convincingly 3-0 on the opening day at Pride Park, where as Wolves, despite their fantastic away form last season, struggled to break down a depleted Bradford team.

So if you’ve followed all that, the long short of it is that Derby has the advantage on form because they are at home. This might not mean a lot as were only a couple of games into the new season.

Wolves will line-up almost identical to the way they did on Saturday. Cameron went off injured on Saturday, and if isn’t passed fit, is expected to be replaced by Kevin Cooper with Ince not being moved into the side yet. Despite the talent of Ince, Cooper gives Wolves a lot more natural width and is the obvious replacement.

Derby will probably keep an unchanged side that beat Grimsby, injuries permitting.

So I’m going to stick my neck out now and go for a 2-1 Wolves win. Although both teams have quality players its not going to be the prettiest matches ever seen. The outrageous ticket prices of Derby’s have not scared off Wolves fans in the slightest with 4,500 tickets sold. Its going to be a cracking atmosphere to say the least!!

Lets hope Wolves can continue the excellent start to the season