By Tom Bason
August 25 2012

Wolves today were held by a strong Derby County side to a 1-1. Kevin Doyle opened his account for the season, before Theo Robinson deservedly equalised with virtually the last kick of the game

- I think most Wolves fans had almost forgotten that there was a game today. The preceding week had been completely dominated by the departures of Steven Fletcher and Matt Jarvis, and with no replacements yet signed, it was inevitable that the high of Tuesday's night win over Barnsley would not be carried over.

- The lineup was exactly what I expected, with David Edwards replacing the departed Jarvis and David Davis coming in for the injured Karl Henry. Perhaps strangely, pre-game I felt that it would be Henry who would be the most sorely missed. He was starting to forge a decent understanding with Tongo Doumbia in the centre of the midfield, and both were noticeable by their absence as we lost control of the latter stages midweek.

- We started with Edwards wide right and Davis in the middle with Doumbia, but it was clear that this wasn't working. Davis at the moment is a tidy player, but doesn't force his personality onto the game in the way that Doumbia and Henry do. This isn't a criticism, and as he matures, Davis will learn to dominate and control midfields. Today though, Davis didn't have the best of games. He was tentative in possession and not particularly forceful in the tackle. After half an hour, he was switched with Edwards, who brought his unique energetic style to the middle. Edwards fared better than Davis, but isn't particularly well suited to a team looking to calm the situation down and keep possession. Equally, Davis doesn't have the necessary attributes to play as a winger. He isn't a particularly attacking player, and generally looked stranded on the flank. It was of no surprise to see him replaced by Anthony Forde in the second half.

- On the opposite flank, Slawomir Peszko continued to settle in, albeit on the left flank. I was looking forward to seeing how he and Stephen Ward combined down the wing, and the answer was simple; they didn't. While Ward and Jarvis didn't quite have a Leighton Baines/Stephen Pienaar style telepathic understanding, they were able to link up well at times. Yet, today there was no understanding between ward and Peszko, with Peszko often offering Ward an angle for the pass inside, where Ward was looking for a player hugging the touchline. This probably contributed to Peszko having his poorest time in a Wolves shirt so far, only really playing one cross of note into the box. However, Peszko proved himself to be reasonably adept defensively, prepared to track his fullback deep into his half. But, he doesn't have the explosive pace of Jarvis, and this, along with another anonymous performance by the youngster Forde, contributed to a complete lack of an out ball for the midfield and defence. When we needed the wingers to take the ball 40 yards up the line and relieve some pressure on the defence, neither were really able to.

- Saying that, perhaps the out ball should be provided by the forwards, but again, there was a general lack of link up play between Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and Kevin Doyle. While Doyle worked hard, and linked up well with Peszko to open the scoring (hopefully the first of many), I felt Ebanks-Blake was poor. It seems like it's not really necessary to say that he looked overweight, but he seemed to have forgotten how to make his extra weight work for him. In the past, he's used his sizeable rear end to hold off defenders and bring other players into play, but today he wasn't able to do this. I've long questioned Ebanks-Blake's added value to the team when he's not scoring, and today was one of those days. I was very surprised not to see him substituted late on when we were hanging on for the win; he wasn't holding the ball up particularly well and looked too tired to effectively pressure the opposing defenders and chase down loose balls.

- In fact, the decisions Ståle Solbakken made in the closing stages were surprising. I fully expected Ebanks-Blake to be withdrawn to bolster a midfield that was being dominated by Derby players, but instead he just pulled Doyle back slightly into a 4-4-1-1 formation. While in theory, this was slightly more defensive, in practise it meant we still had two forwards and two wingers on the pitch, not ideal when trying to close out a game. Instead, the changes were made in defence and midfield. The most interesting was moving Ward into central midfield. I've often thought the attributes needed to be a full back and defensive midfielder are very similar, and Ward could do a decent job here. Unfortunately, we really needed a proper 'snotter', a player who sits in front of the defence; both Doumbia and Ward were too eager to break forward. We did bring on a player who could do this in Eggert Jόnsson, but his weakness when in possession only added to the pressure on the defence.

- That was the biggest weakness today, our apparent inability to keep the ball for any length of time. Neither Doyle nor Ebanks-Blake held up the ball particularly well, while the midfield were wasteful in possession. This led to Derby being free to attack at well, fairly free in the knowledge that we wouldn't be able to put together an attack to hurt them. Jamie Ward. In particular was very impressive, linking up Derby's play very well and looking to bring players into the game. He was clearly Derby's best player today, and caused our defence and midfield numerous problems with his clever movement.

- Our standout players were probably Carl Ikeme and Roger Johnson, who between snuffed out a number of good goal scoring chances that fell Derby's way. Johnson appears to be going through a mini renaissance, and hopefully will be the defender we all expected him to be. Ikeme still looks slightly suspect at saving shots; a couple nearly got away from him, but is commanding in his 6 yard box and beyond. I did have one slight niggle - the players seemed to forget it was Ikeme in goal and not the ambidextrous Wayne Hennessey, and so a number of times our players gave the ball back to Ikeme on his left foot, something he's clearly not comfortable with.

- Despite conceding a last minute goal, the thing that annoyed me most was the idiotic booing. Have fans forgotten how competitive the Championship is? Did they turn up today expecting an easy three points? This season can most probably be likened to the summer of 2006; a new manager takes over, while all the star players disappear. The atmosphere around the club was fantastic that season - who can forget the incredible 6-0 defeat at home to Southampton? Solbakken has taken over at a difficult time, and appears to be under illusions at the lack of quality left in the squad. Odds are, we won't go up this season and there will be plenty of times when fans are left frustrated. But this doesn't necessarily need to be voiced, especially at the end of what has clearly been a difficult week for the club. Solbakken is making changes to the team, and this takes time. There won't be any quick fixes, and a single sticking plaster won't be enough. Please have patience with the team.