Gardner sees red

By Tom Bason
May 1 2011

Wolves today drew 1-1 with Birmingham City. Steven Fletcher gave Wolves the lead from the penalty spot following Ben Foster bringing down Steven Ward, before Seb Larsson equalized after a Michael Mancienne mistake. With Birmingham down to ten men following the sending off of Craig Gardner, Wolves pressed for the winner but to no avail.

- I got into St Andrews without knowing the lineups, and first saw them on Sky Sports News on a television inside the ground. Despite knowing who was playing, I had absolutely no idea where half of them would play. Stephen Ward could just have easily been playing left or centre midfield as the striker position he ended up playing. While this indicates the flexibility of the squad, it also suggests we have a number of players without a defined position. Can they train the skills needed for differing positions to the same extent as if they specialised?

- When the players lined up, and I realised we were going with a 4-4-2, I could not understand why we needed both Richard Stearman and Kevin Foley down the right hand side. Had Birmingham had a roving left back I could understand it, but they had Liam Ridgewell, effectively a central defender masquerading as a fullback. In front of him was Lee Bowyer. While he's an effective player, at no point was he going to go past Stearman through pace, so why the need to negate our attacking play by putting a fullback as a winger?

- Despite it being a gloriously sunny day, it was actually a little cold inside the ground in the shade, purely due to the swirling wind. I was initially worried about Wayne Hennessey dealing with crosses, but I should actually have been more concerned with Michael Mancienne. I think he was trying to duck out the way to allow the ball to bounce through the keeper, but the wind maybe just held the ball up a little more than he expected.

- While Mancienne was clearly at fault for the goal, I thought the way he bounced back belied a maturity beyond his years. Both Jody Craddock and George Elokobi instantly went to Mancienne following the mistake to ensure his confidence wasn't completely shot. To make a mistake that early when you're just feeling your way into the team would have eaten up some players, never mind that it was in a relegation battle and a local derby. Maybe it’s because Mancienne doesn't care as much as others - he'll most likely be back at Chelsea next season whatever, but he shook the mistake off and gave a generally gave a very accomplished performance for the remaining 63 minutes.

- Kevin who? Many of you who read this regularly know of my deep and undying love for Kevin Doyle, but Steven Fletcher has been excellent since coming into the starting lineup. While he may look a slightly flimsy player, he wins more than his fair share of headers, and is decent with his back towards to goal. I'm not sure whether Mick McCarthy was just reluctant to trust him, or whether Fletcher has just taken an awful long time to find his feet at Wolves, but it’s a pity he's only just starting to show what he can do.

- Has Mick been taking tips from his American namesake, Green Bay Packers' coach Mike McCarthy, an NFL coach? I lost count of the times that we obstructed Birmingham players with no attempt to go for the ball. I've got used to seeing Christophe Berra do it, but I always thought this was just his style of play. Seeing Matt Jarvis do it though makes me wonder whether it's being coached and the players are being encouraged to block opponents. Birmingham could easily have had a penalty on 34 minutes when Elokobi jumped into Roger Johnson with no consideration for where the ball was at all.

- So, 1-1, Birmingham down to ten men. Surely you'd have thought we'd have had the odd shot? Ben Foster made one save the entire match; a pea roller from Jamie O'Hara that I'm not even sure was on target. We had lots of territorial position, and admittedly Johnson and Martin Jiranek made a number of blocks, but to play for 60 minutes with the opposition one down and hit the target with just one shot is a damning statistic and may go partly to explaining the predicament we are currently in.

- Talking of shots, one player who isn't afraid to have a pop, Adlene Guedioura seemed prepped and ready to come on at one stage in the second half. I assumed it would be for Karl Henry; there was no real need for a defensive midfielder at that stage with both Barry Ferguson and Bowyer happy sitting deep in front of the defense. Instead, Sam Vokes came on for Ward. At this stage, I thought it might have been Elokobi who came off. Seb Larsson wasn't getting forward much down their right flank, and Ward is obviously a better player going forward than Elokobi. I also thought that Elokobi could have been withdrawn when Stephen Hunt was introduced, with Hunt playing at left back, a position he played semi-regularly at Reading when Bobby Convey was also fit.

- After the Tottenham Hotspur match, I wrote that there's not a lot of point the referee getting all the little decisions correct if they make poor calls for the big ones. Today it felt equally infuriating to see Kevin Friend get the big calls correct, but make baffling little ones. It cannot have been an easy game to referee; the first half especially was like a typical old fashioned local derby with neither team giving an inch, and plenty of whole hearted tackling.

- Are these two points dropped or one gained? Yesterday’s results put pressure on today’s result, while the result at the Emirates (1-0 Arsenal as I write) is working in our favour. Birmingham is a difficult to beat at St Andrews and needed to avoid defeat to prevent being dragged back into the relegation battle. The two remaining home games and the trip to Sunderland whose players heads are already clearly on their holidays should be enough for us to get the necessary points for survival. Saying that, 60 minutes against ten men should be long enough to get a winning goal, and those extra two potential points could easily be the difference when it comes to judgment day.

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