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Click on month for reports: 2005-6 Review Apr06 Mar06 Feb06 Jan06 Dec05 Nov05 Oct05 Sep05 Aug05 preseason SEASON 2005-6 Final Position 7th Championship - fixtures/results here Page contents: Preseason Sug05 Sep05 Oct05 Nov05 Dec05 Jan06 Feb06 Mar06 Apr06 final table fixtures/results Well the coup of the transfers was to bring in the Celtic captain Jackie McNamara after a bit of a falling out (very Butleresque). Other surprises included Glenn’s long term favourite Darren “Sicknote” Anderton. Rohan Ricketts also stayed on and George Ndah was given a “pay as you play” deal. Paul Ince’s new contract required Glenn’s intervention. Pre-season(reports in full)
August 2005 (reports in full)
The next match against newly promoted Hull set a 83 year old unbeaten record with a great shot from Seol deflecting off Delaney for a 1-0 win in the pouring rain. Keith Andrews’ return to the Moli was cut short after 23minutes. Set a record - then bring it to an end with a comprehensive 2-0 defeat at Elland Road against former captain Paul Butler’s Leeds. We could take encouragement from the stats though - 15 shots for us against 6 for Leeds, but they had a 33% conversion ratio to our blank.
Although we were ahead after 6 minutes it took a couple of refereeing decisions - first not giving a penalty when Kenny was upended in the box and later disallowing an own goal by Danny Shittu because Carl Cort was “interfering with play” to wake the Moli crowd up. But it was a comfortable win to move us up 4 places into 6th. September 2005(reports in full)
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So we returned to the Moli and in front of Sky’s cameras could we make it 3 in a row and go third? No, we were mugged according to Glenn and Steve Cotterill’s well prepared Clarets broke a 19 year record by being the first Burnley team to score at Molineux since September 86! We October 2005(reports in full)
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A Back on the road to Watford though and a storming first half should have put us totally in command for loanee Tom Huddlestone’s debut. A sublime ball over the defence for Kenny from Tom should have brought more. But we didn’t take our chances and a devasting 8 minute period led to three Watford goals. Ross, also on debut, replaced the injured Gyepes at half time, was the culprit for two of the crosses - coupled with Oakes’ inability to come off his line. But the devastating blow was Kenny’s hamstring injury in the 83rd. The picture says it all
November 2005(reports in full)
And it was the return of Colin Cameron - picking up Vio’s rebound off the bar which brought us a point.
A To close the month we’re back at home against red stripes - this time disappointing Saints who are really struggling - except against us. And another 0-0 draw leaves us unbeaten taking 9 points out of 15 but in 10th position in the league. December 2005(reports in full) Can December launch the run to the Premiership as it did for West Ham and Palace in the last two seasons? Well it wasn’t a bad month with one defeat by league leaders Reading (?Reading!!) who showed themselves a class above us, and another 9 points to get back into the last playoff slot.
A disputable penalty given against Gabor Gyepes, though, gifted Ipswich their equaliser in the 60th and applalling misses by George Ndah and Seol cost us the points. January 2006(reports in full) A February 2006 (reports in full) A March 2006(reports in full) A April 2006(reports in full) A
COCA COLA CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON 2005-6 Note that the Sky televised schedule may change matches schedules. For match pix/reports please click on the month
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A slightly different programme with 2 matches in Dundee for the City of Discovery Cup, where we did score 4 against Dundee, bit were beaten by Wednesday and one in Den Haag- possibly memorable for some of those who went - once they’d sobered up! Some fans were surprised to find the team on their early flight from Birmingham to Den Haag. A surprise defeat at Wycombe showed what would happen in the season - plenty of possession, plenty of shots wide and saved, and a silly goal given away. But a final fling against the Villa bought a nice 2-1 victory to give some confidence, although the Villa were well off proper fitness levels. there are Villa and Wycombe pictures on the “Pre Season” page 
So after last season’s disappointment it’s time to start again, and once more Wolves are one of the promotion favourites and an ok month it was finishing in 6th (after reaching 3rd) place. We kick off with a televised start against arch rivals (of the sixties) and newly relegated Saints at St Mary’s. In spite of a much superior performance by Wolves Saints held out for a 0-0 draw. The match was enlivened late on by the traditional Dennis Wise/Paul Ince tussle and the league debut of the 16 year old who would finish the season as England’s youngest ever player,Theo Walcott.
Then our first home match brings relegated team - Crystal Palace to the Molineux, together with England player AJ, Andrew Johnson. But of course,Joleon contained him perfectly and we ran out 2-1 winners with Seol and Cort (from a lucky deflection of Fitz Hall) scoring. The match marked the long awaited return of George Ndah. Although we just about deserved to win the match will be remembered for Ref Rob Styles disallowing a perfectly good Palace goal.
At least we had some light relief against former favourite Keith Curle’s Chester with a 5-1 home win in the Carling (League) Cup. Scorers were Kenny Miller, Colin Cameron (2), Darren Anderton and Vio Ganea and 4 debutants were introduced - star of the future 17 year old Captain of England U17 Mark Davies, Goalkeeper for the future Carl Ikeme, Hungarian centre back Gabor Gyepes (pron Geepesh), and new signing Darren Anderton, previously known as Sicknote, while loan goalie Stefan Postma was on the bench. To cap an outstanding performance by Man of the Match Anderton including a goal from a free kick, Kenny opened his scoring account, as did Mickey (Colin Cameron) with 2, and we saw the return to competitive football of Vio Ganea after a year’s layoff, and an impressive cameo from George Ndah, making the second goal.
Back to the league, and it’s the challenge that many Wolves fans didn’t want - to Cardiff against the manager who got us into the Premiership - Dave Jones. Although expected to struggle Cardiff’s impressive Jerome Cameron took them into a 2-0 lead but 19 year old Leon Clarke took advantage of a deflected Cort shot to round the goalie and in the last few seconds Joleon won the ball in their six yard boxand hammered it home to secure the draw. DJ was disappointed not to get the points and Glenn Hoddle was clearly unhappy about 31 ineffectual shots on goal, but why he took it out on Kenny rather than Cort was a mystery.
Another day, another Cort. A hattrick from Carl easily saw off struggling QPR on a Tuesday evening at the Moli.
A month where we moved up to 4th behind Sheffield Utd and surprises Reading and Luton started poorly with an away draw against Luton, and a depressing home defeat ruining our home run which started against Millwall. Perhaps it was fitting that they ended it, but the ramifications of losing to the bottom club would be felt for the rest of the season. Following that by a 0-0 draw at home against Leicester followed by a Carling Cup exit at Watford left everyone really depressed. But two cracking away wins - and we thought we were back on track... until Burnley came and stole all the points at the Molineux. Everyone else was having problems though so we gained 4th place. Meanwhile Kenny Miller was making national headlines (even in England) for starring performancs for Scotland against Norway and Italy.
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t Luton - prime candidate for the source of the “My garden shed is bigger than this” fans’ song meant that there wasn’t even room for the players so Vio, George Ndah and Mark Davies joined us in the stands while Hungarian international Gabor Gyepes made his debut. Again we had chances but ended up defending in the second half. It was from here thought that Seol’s season started going downhill and he should really have been taken off at half time. Carl Cort got the goal.
hen to the Moli and that loss against Millwall. We got over-confident after Carl again scored (in the 19th from a terrific cross from Scot Jackie McNamara) and the 74 Millwall fans who turned up thought it was a steal and we couldn’t blame anyone but ourselves! It looked as though they’d settled for a draw when, in the fourth minute of Uriah Rennie’s extra time, Hayles lobbed Oakes and we lost the record and the points. The only consolation was seeing George Ndah back in action.
After this debacle we welcomed Leicester, still smarting from the Premiership 4-3 comebaclk, and at last we saw Vio’s return after nearly 18 months. Only 6 shots on target - 2 of which were from right back Rob Edwards - showed we had no clue how to break the Foxes down. In fact Rob was our best forward! In the end we were lucky to hold out for a draw
But, at last we get an away game on track, and goals from Nayls (a terrific free kick) finishing off a 3-1 win at hapless Stoke after two Seol assists to Carl Cort and Kenny Miller. And then the confidence comes back as we hammer Crewe 4-0 at Gresty Road... all the goals coming in the first half
hit the bar - twice in a few seconds by Kenny and Nayls - we weren’t given a clear penalty on Seol, and Carl missed an open goal. Burnley had 3 chances and a great free kick for Burnley beat us. Atrocious coniditions thoughout and even Joleon looked very tired. But we’re in 4th and feeling a bit better.
October starts with confidence as we go to the Blades. And we were massacred. The 1-0 scoreline flattered us. Sheffield - after only 12 matches are 11 points ahead of us! We could have been really lucky if the ref had spotted this pull on Joleon in their penalty box.
it of a shock then. But made even worse as the next two matches are 1-1 draws. We seem incapable of killing teams off... Kenny scored in the 6th minute against Derby so we should have been up and running. Idiakez - a prime transfer target - was well muted, and a couple of crunching tackles from young Mark Davies making his starting debut kept him very quiet. However, if the strikers are played wide all the time they’re not going to score. This was to plague us for the rest of the season.
nother home match - against Preston - who, indeed, came to win, and had more chances, and if their shot which hit the post just before Vio Ganea equalised had gone in then it could have been all over. But it was Vio who stole all the headlines - hero (according to the fans) , villain (according to Glenn) with an outstanding equaliser - a cross from Seol and Vio, on the edge of the box, withstood the challenge from Claude Davis, and looped it over Carlo Nash - one of the most spectacular goals we’ve seen for a long time. The goal was one of the tv goal-of-the-month candidates. Vio’s celebratory dive into the North Bank earned him a booking, and then a stupid challenge brought his secong yellow card and a sending off.
November took us to a great chance to pick up against ex manager McGhee’s Brighton, but, in the end a 1-1 draw was a bit lucky. Glenn thought we should have won; Mark McG thought he was robbed, but this is where we must pick up points. A stamp on Oakes at Watford had brought in Stefan Postma (on loan from Villa) who really rescued us.
Then newly relegated Norwich came to Molineux. The Canaries were, unexpectantly struggling, and Seol’s second minute goal didn’t help their confidence. But it took outstanding defensive work from Jody Craddock on Dean Ashton and Rob Edwards containing Huckerby to keep our control until Vio scored our second to put it beyond doubt. Another debut brought Lewis Gobern his first first team start
Off on the road again and a Friday night televised 3-0 win at Derby County lifted the team and the supporters. Even more so since the first goalscorer with a really brave header was the returning fans’ favourite George Ndah. Again we had relied on Stefan Postma to keep us in the game.
nd then the League leading Blades come to Molineux. Who would have thought a few weeks earlier they dominated us, but Neil Warnock decided to play for a 0-0 draw - and when he got that it was him punching the air as though he’d won. Especially since the ref denied us two clear penalties - one handball - and one right at the death when Delap held Gabor Gyepes down
We started at the tractor boys where our season fell apart in the first match last season. After the first 20 minutes when Postma kept us in it saving from Huckerby and a Huddlestone back header,we took control with 15 shots at goal, but only one successful from Colin Cameron.
