Surely all the signs are good.  We got two great results against Spurs last season, and they’re hardly coming into this game on a wave of success: A great first half lead against Werder Bremen in the Champions League let slip in the second; a draw with They Who Must Not Be Named, and they even contrived a home loss to Wigan.  They’re likely to have several decent players out, they played in Germany midweek, and, for all their quality, they tend to struggle against exactly teams like us (to be honest, read ‘teams who are not usually as good as them’).  Surely…

However, despite sitting 9th in the table, for all the robustness of their approach, Wolves have shown a worrying fragility in the last couple of games.  We’re not keeping the ball, and the ease with which Fulham passed through the midfield at times last weeks was shocking.  In a game like this, I’d prefer to see five in the midfield (unfortunately, and probably unfairly, for Ebanks-Blake, that would mean Doyle on his own up front).  Realistically I don’t expect to see any changes from last week though other than Stearman, who has been touted by McCarthy as the likely replacement for suspended Berra.  With a few players (Mancienne, in particular) upping their performance, we’re capable of winning this, but I don’t think it’s going to be our day.

Whatever the result, I won’t be there. The club got scared by seats left at Everton and slashed the allocation for this game leading to it selling out in a couple of hours.  I’m regularly amazed at the hapless Wolves ticket office’s inability to understand, well, ticketing for Wolves fans.  However, mistakes are made and I digress.

I’m in Oxford today having been to a gig by the ever-brilliant, ever-ebullient Josh Ritter, so will be listening on the radio in the car on the way home.  The game’s on Absolute Radio extra – on Digital, 1215AM and online from 1.30pm.  Having cancelled my Wolves World subscription this year, I look forward to checking out this commentary, and hope the topic of conversation is something other than whether Wolves beat up their opponents (they don’t and I want to hear about something else – hopefully how great our team is, but we shall see on that one).

Prediction: 3-1 Spurs and lots and lots of unnecessary moaning.  I seem to have come over all doom and gloom for a moment, so here’s hoping for better.

Come on Wolves.