15th February 2004

WOLVES Defender Denis Irwin still believes Wolves can beat the drop and claim a piece of history in doing so.

 Since the Premier League was formed, every club who has occupied bottom place on Christmas Day has been subjected to relegation. On Christmas Day 2003, Wolverhampton Wanderers occupied bottom place, so, should Wolves survive this season they would have to make history in breaking that famous curse.

 Wolves' Denis Irwin believes Wolves can still stay up, despite a poor 4-1 defeat to Leeds United earlier this week. "Everybody knew we were in for a battle" Said Irwin.

 "At the start of the season, even though you're optimistic you won't be involved in a relegation battle, I think it was always going to be the case. We finished fifth in the First Division last year, and we've had more or less the same team, so it was always going to hard for us."

"But there's always been a good team spirit here - I don't know whether it was because we expected to be down there, because the likes of Blackburn and Manchester City wouldn't have. But when you look what happened this time last season when we grouped together, hopefully we can do the same again."

"We got off to a great start to the New Year but one match has taken the shine off. We just have to regroup and go from here - we've done it before and we can do it again." Said Irwin.

Source: Express And Star