By Scott Cooper
March 2 2005

WOLVES travel to Pride Park tonight for what should be a top of the table clash in the newly named 'The Championship'. Unfortunately it's only Derby who are riding high as Wolves season has yet to take off.

At the start of the Season Wolves were red-hot favorites for automatic promotion - and why not? Before the season started at Stoke, on paper, no side outside the Premiership could boast such an array of 'talent'. One time seven-million pound man (bought for 2M) Carl Cort and Romanian International Ioan Viorel Ganea were backed up by £3M Kenny Miller, £1.5M George Ndah and Dean Sturridge. Wolves should have been able to list Henri Camara to the list, but we all know what happened with him.

In midfield Wolves looked strong. Seyi Olofinjana, wanted by Monaco, joined Wolves for £2M whilst Colin Cameron had enjoyed the last few months of the Premiership season. Shaun Newton will always be a good winger in the lower leagues and who can forget £1.5M and £2M Kevin Cooper and Mark Kennedy? Oh and there was always Paul Ince. 

In defence it wasn't looking too bad either. Rob Edwards joined from Villa, Joleon Lescott returned from injury, Mark Clyde and Lee Naylor looked promising, Jody Craddock was stating to act like the £1.7M defender Wolves had signed from Sunderland and Wolves had cover in the shape of Bjorklund. 

In goal Wolves were able to boat three exceptional goalkeepers. Paul Jones being one, Matt Murray being the other and current goalkeeper Michael Oakes being the third.

Sadly the season failed to turn out how so many had expected it. Olofinjana failed to settle (he still hasn't), Ganea and Ndah were ruled out for the season, Rob Edwards was ruled out for 6 months, Matt Murray broke his foot, and Mark Kennedy also suffered long spells on the sidelines.

For weeks injuries were used as an excuse for Wolves abysmal start to the season. However when said players returned, performances didn't improve. The very same players (minus, Rae, Irwin and Butler) who beat Manchester United in January 2004 were failing to play for the manager and after a pathetic performance against Gillingham, Dave Jones was sacked.

Glenn Hoddle was signed on a strange but expensive £600,000 6-month contract and still things failed to improve. True Wolves are now hard to beat, one defeat in twelve a testament to this, but performances are still poor. Wolves are simply not winning games with nine draws in the last 12 games. Sadly only two were wins.

Derby County on the other hand were expected to struggle for survival, but Burley has created a team full of spirit and their position in the league is nothing less than they deserve.

They play neat passing football, work for each other and show fans 100%. Something the players from Molineux might like to learn from.

It's time for the Wolves players to perform for the fans. 21,000 season ticket holders - the most, by far, in the division - deserve something for their loyalty.

The players now MUST deliver, if they don't, things may start to get nasty.

DERBY VS WOLVES