By Tom Bason
November 2 2013

 Wolves beat Stevenage 2-0 today to extend its lead over third place Peterborough to three points. Kevin Doyle gave Wolves an early lead, but the points weren’t wrapped up until the final ten minutes as James Henry scored his third goal in as many games.

- Wolves boss Kenny Jackett made two changes to the side that beat Bradford City last week, both changes coming upfront. With Kevin Doyle having been so effective when introduced from the subs bench, he was handed a start. Readers of this blog know my feelings for Doyler, but I'd argue he's been our most important player this season; the player whose absence we feel the most. Alongside Doyle was the recalled Björn Sigurðarson, replacing Leigh Griffiths whose midweek jaunt over the border left him unwell - Scotland can do that to you. Also missing out was Kevin McDonald, a player whose apparent qualities haven't yet quite resulted in the type of dominant performance we'd hope for. This meant the central midfield merry-go-round continued, with Jackett going back to the pairing that started the season; Lee Evans and David Davis. 

- There was one other interesting change in defence, where Jackett selected the same personnel as last week, but organised slightly differently. Scott Golbourne kept his place at left back, and Danny Batth was as usual the right-sided centre back, but Sam Ricketts and Richard Stearman swapped roles. Stearman started the season as Batth's partner, before the signing of Golbourne saw Ricketts switch inside taking Stearman's spot. Last week Stearman slotted in to replace the injured Matt Doherty, with Ricketts continuing as a central defender, but they switched today. I've generally felt sorry for Stearman this season (and indeed loaning him out last season was a mistake), but was quite surprised when he started the game in the middle. I can only think that Jackett wanted James Henry to tuck inside, opening up the space for a more roving fullback, and felt that Ricketts was the best player for this. As it was, Ricketts only got forward a few times, but on one occasion created a double chance for Evans who saw his first goal-bound effort blocked, and the second cleared off the line. 

- Wolves took the lead early on in the game, again from a Bakary Sako cross. Sako did excellently for the goal, chasing down a loose ball (incidentally it was the second time in the opening ten minutes he did this) before whipping in a dangerous low cross that Doyle was able to touch in at the far post. At least, Doyle celebrated the goal, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it turned out to have come off the defender. At that point, one-nil up after seven minutes, at home to a team just outside the relegation zone, I thought we might have had the opportunity to really open them up and go for the kill. But, perhaps mindful of a long mid-week trip to Carlisle coming up, we were happy to play our normal game. I thought we were the better team in the first half, and put together two or three really nice moves; the best of which ended with Sigurðarson acrobatically putting a volley wide of the far post

- Stevenage played with quite a defensive 4-4-2 formation, with their two forwards quite isolated from the rest of the team, but on occasion Luke Freeman and Filipe Morais were able to get forward. Generally, when we were pushing forward we were quite happy to leave Stearman and Batth 2v2 against Greg Tansey and Francois Zoko. Zoko in particular was a handful, and won pretty much every 50-50 that was fired into him. His holdup play was excellent, and had he been a little more clinical in his finishing, Stevenage could easily have come away with a point. They had one spell of intense pressure midway through the second half, where Carl Ikeme made two excellent saves, and a Stevenage player headed wide when he really should have scored. This spell showed the inexperience in the middle of the park as neither Evans or Davis had the maturity or know how to get the ball and settle the side down. Instead, there were lots of panicky balls forward, highlighting how much we needed an experienced head in there to keep the ball and regain the team’s composure.

- Ironically, it was just after Stevenage’s best spell that we doubled the lead, through James Henry’s third goal in as many games. My very first impression of him wasn’t the best, but he has thoroughly won me around, and if we can sign him in January, he would be an important cog in the team beyond the end of this season. I’m not 100% sure who played the ball through to him, but he has been making that sort of run since he joined; starting on the right, and running along the line of the defence, hoping they wouldn’t notice him. I think today’s run was the first time he’d managed to stay onside, and he finished with aplomb. I have to say, there was no doubt in my mind that he’d score when he went through - in fact in that position I think I’d have more faith in Henry than anyone else in the team. I certainly wouldn’t back Leigh Griffiths to score from there.

- I mention Griffiths, and he came on for Sigurðarson on the hour mark. This was a big chance for Sigurðarson to prove himself - playing in the position he wants to play, and alongside the player who makes us tick. In the past, Sigurðarson has started alongside Griffiths, and this hasn’t really worked due the massive gap between the defence and midfield that it creates. But, alongside Doyle, he had the chance to prove to Jackett he deserves  a sustained run through the middle. He missed one good chance early on, but was on the periphery too often. Perhaps he was getting the ball too far forward, so often receiving the ball with his back to goal, rather than facing it. The last thing he did before being substituted was to be clattered out on the right touchline, which for some reason wasn’t given as a foul. When he was taken off, he went straight down the tunnel, so maybe that tackle caused a slight injury. Within minutes of Griffiths coming on, he headed an excellent Henry cross wide at the far post, and five minutes after that couldn’t quite get on the end of a Sako cross.

- The second substitution was the return of Jamie O’Hara to the first team, his reintegration to the first team seemingly complete. As he was preparing to come on, there were a few boos but generally he got a warm round of applause. To my surprise there were even a few chants of his name going around the ground, something I’ve not heard for a long time. He looked weird wearing the number 25 shirt, with his number 24 having since gone to Michael Ihiekwe (if that wasn’t a sign that he would never play the club again, I don’t know what was). He didn’t really have chance to make an impression, playing on the left side of midfield, but he should in theory be the fittest he’s been since signing. I guess next week’s game at Oldham Athletic will give us an idea as to his future - if he gets himself cup-tied, the probability is he’s playing to get himself a January move.

- A minor observation was that Kevin Doyle was the player left forward when we were defending corners. For the first four years of Doyle's Wolves career, he has defended the near post area with aplomb. Then, this season Jackett has given McDonald that role. But with no McDonald, I assumed Doyle would defend that part of the penalty area, but instead it was left to Sigurðarson. Presumably Jackett preferred to have Doyle’s ability to hold the ball up if and when it is cleared, but I wondered whether Sigurðarson’s pace would be a more useful weapon? Saying that, Sigurðarson more than proved his worth in the position by clearing a goal bound chance off the line in the second half.

- This was a good win, and I felt that the Leyton Orient and Peterborough result went in our favour. Carlisle on Tuesday will be a tough scrap, but given our good run of form, even a draw there would leave us in a good position going into a possible 18 day break from league football. A win, and we’ll be superbly placed going into what is likely to be an important seven days with games against Brentford, Tranmere and Peterborough.