You just look at we’re playing the top team so no one expects us to get anything from them and, you know, if you do it’s a bonus. I enjoy them, I enjoy the games. We should have got something from Chelsea last week, so Man City should be no different for us at home, we should have a good chance of getting something from the game, so be positive and look forward to them.

Mick McCarthy is notoriously entertaining on the sidelines and in post match interviews but is quieter behind closed doors. Kevin explains:

Yeah, you know, people would only see him on the sideline, but he’s not as vocal in the dressing room, whatever he says, you listen, and he’s not in the dressing room screaming or shouting at us. All of the players respect him and want to play for him, and if a manager has that, usually the team do well, and hopefully we can pick up our form this season and repay him.

Doyle also reveals that he doesn’t think much of room-mate Hahnemann’s music, but does like U2. Ergh!

For the full interview and full match commentary, tune into Absolute Radio’s Rock & Roll Football Show: Saturday 30th October only on Absolute Radio extra – on DAB Digital Radio, 1215AM and online in the UK from 1.30pm. It’s actually quite good.

My preview is now written.

In the first half Wolves played, on the whole, confidently and fluidly, were creating all the chances were only denied a bigger goal margin by a couple of good saves from the otherwise uncertain Robert Green in the Hammers goal.

In the second half we conceeded an early penalty (soft but fair; unnecessary from Foley) to give them the goal they needed, and then stood back like rabbits caught in the headlights as all the good work of the first half unravelled. It was only a debatable hand ball decision in the last minute that avoided the scoreline having a more familiar ’2-1; goal conceeded in final minute’ shape to it.

Mick McCarthy assessed the situation thusly:

I’m pleased with the response after [the penalty] because West Ham played well and took the game by the scruff of the neck and we had to show all the battling qualities that we hadn’t showed in the first half because we were all over them…And when you have a penalty given against you in that situation it’s always going to change things.

This worries me, because it misses the obvious point that this result is not just about West Ham, who looked very, very poor in the first half, suddenly finding their game. This result is very much in keeping with a larger pattern of Wolves second half capitulation. Look, I’ve drawn a graph of our goals for/against in each half this season to point out the obvious:

When things go wrong, reach for the bar chart

We’re playing rather well in the first half, and rather badly in the second half. This was obvious on the field yesterday.

In the first half we were passing the ball, closing the opposition down and always looking to attack. There were four or five Wolves players in the box several times on the attack.

In the second half we were timid, never moved to offer the player with the ball a decent pass, and there was rarely more than one player in the box when we looked to attack; more usually, there were none.

West Ham did raise their game (starting from a very low base point) and we were always likely to spend more time defending, but we had attacking chances and never looked like we really believed. Substituting Fletcher for Van Damme can only have contributed to this strangely negative reaction. Van Damme played fine, but the game was there for the taking, and surely Ebanks-Blake deserves more of a chance after a good start to the season – the five minutes he got was not enough to judge. Perhaps the fact that in the end we were lucky not to lose justifies the timidity of the substitution, but I’d be more inclined to say that the substitution was at least part of a wider mentality that led to us nearly losing.

Onto the individuals. Doyle was the standout player for me, if only because of the contrast to his usual excellence. We shouldn’t have to rely on him as we did last season to drag the general standard of the team up, and judging from this performance, we won’t be able to anyway. He looked fed up.

As a general rule, everyone played much worse in the second half than the first. Jarvis in particular was excellent in the first half, useless in the second. Berra deserves a good word and Mancienne was sound – he harried the opposition well in the midfield in the absence of Henry, kept up his level of performance in the second half, and is the only player I can remember trying to run forward with the ball (why, oh, why don’t we do this more often – we see enough of it against us every week). Ward continues to be good at the last ditch tackle and terrible at backing off until he has to put in a last ditch tackle to save the game. Edwards battled and ran, and on a poor day, was one of the better players on the pitch, and was certainly one of the more positive in the second half. I’d have been interested to see Milijas play though.

So we stay second from bottom with a bit of a difficult run of games coming up (I think that’s what you call Chelsea – Man U – Man City – Arsenal). Can we turn this around? Judging from the first half performance: Yes. Judging from the second half performance: Down by Christmas.

I’m worried if McCarthy doesn’t acknowledge that there was a problem with our team yesterday, and it’s not just that our opponents wake up in the second half. There was a clear lack of confidence to attack, even in the face of our evident superiority over the opposition in the first half. At this point, we can’t rely on a run of good results to get some confidence into the team, so the Manager needs to persuade them fast that they can win games like this, even when bad things like conceeding a penalty occur.

County were ahead with seven minutes to play, when Berra was hauled down in the box.  The County player received a red card and Milijas calmly converted in what was the first turning point in the game.

The second turning point was the introduction of Doyle for extra time.  Within 2 minutes, he and fellow sub Fletcher had linked up to put Wolves ahead for the first time.  Doyle then got his first Wolves goal of the season in the dying moments before the change of ends.  It was 3-1 and it should have been plain sailing, but Wolves contrived to allow the ten-man League One outfit back in the game, before Doyle sealed the result with another goal in the final minute.

All credit to Notts County for a fine display, but the fact that Wolves made such heavy weather of the game is a worrying reflection on the quality of the not-even-really-second-string.  These are players if not enjoying regular first team football, definitely with ambition to be there, who should have managed better in normal time.  On the positive side, it was good to see Doyle and Fletcher linking up successfully in extra time; let’s hope it will be the start of a beautiful relationship.

Sadly the win was overshadowed by a shameful attack by apparant Wolves ‘fans’ on Notts County coaches travelling back from the game.  I am embarrassed, as all real football fans will be, to seem to have any kind of association with these thugs.  The attacks have nothing to do with Lee Hughes or his behaviour on the pitch, and are the responsibility entirely of the idiots who perpetrated them.  I hope that they receive lifetime bans and criminal convictions and that anyone who can help to identify those involved does so.  And then the rest of us from all teams can get on with watching the game of football in peace.

For the first 10 minutes, Fulham looked like there would walk the game, but in truth, passed the ball very nicely up to the point of needing to take a shot on goal, where they were largely ineffective.  Then Van Damme got an unlikely goal for Wolves from a lovely ball by Doyle.  After that, Fulham still looked like they’d walk the game, but still they couldn’t get the goal, and Wolves gradually came into the match.

Before the match I stated my doubt about Van Damme as an attacking threat.  More fool me, because he had a good first half, with the goal to prove it.  His substitution for Fletcher in the second half did not help the team defensively, and ultimately did not come off, with Wolves conceeding within 5 minutes of the restart.  It was not a good goal to let in, but the second was worse.  For Berra to give away the free kick in the first place in the 91st minute was silly, for the ‘wall’ to completely abdicate it’s responsibility to stay together and try and get in the way of the ball was ridiculous.  Most people learn lessons the hard way, so let’s hope there’s one learned here: Don’t jump unless the ball is going over your heads, and don’t jump apart.  Perhaps someone can write that down.

So, we left Craven Cottage disappointed by the nature of the defeat, if not with any real argument with the scoreline.  The positives were that Doyle looked much sharper, Foley much more in control, and Jarvis very good in patches.  Ebanks-Blake worked hard, and we pulled together a few decent attacks.  On the negative, Mancienne did not have a very impressive return and all in all we punted and lost the ball far too much, giving away possession and letting Fulham pass the ball forward through the midfield with ease at times.  Hahnemann had an amazing season last year but made a few poor decisions today again.

A lot of the post match talk has – again – been about Wolves being, to use one of the politer descriptions ‘over-physical’.  I understand the Fulham fans may have sung something along these lines (probably not ‘Wolves – they’re over-physical’, however: I don’t know what exactly, because personally all I heard from their end all game was ‘You’re not singing anymore’.  Ok, and ‘Come on Fulham’, once).  Anyhow, I digress.  Seven yellow cards, one red does not look good. However, I defended the team last week and will continue to do so for as long as it’s true – whatever the stats say, Wolves did not play dirty.

It’s wasn’t shocking to see Berra sent off, as he’s too regularly to be seen with his arms around the opposition, but that’s more stupidity that bullying.  It was bad to see Zamora’s injury under a tackle from Henry, and I wish him a swift recovery, but no one can seriously argue that was anything other than very unfortunate.  The majority of the other yellows were debatable but, whatever the case, we’re going the way of getting a very bad reputation with referees and opposing fans. There’s nothing that can be done about that, however, except continue to try and play strong but fair (in Berra’s case, today, I’m placing the emphasis here on ‘try’ – try not to be so clumsy would be another good bit of advice for a number of players.)

Next up Spurs away: three points last time around.

Is that a Fulham fan I see before me?

Another solid defensive display against an uninspired Fulham side.

A large and loud Wolves contingent had filled the away end and taken over much of the ‘neutral’ Putney End of the ground, but in truth there was little in the game to get the pulse racing. But on a beautiful sunny day in south west London, the neutral stand made a refreshing change: Although the vast majority were behind the Old Gold, there was a fair smattering of actual neutrals or Fulham scarves cohabiting very amicably. Perhaps this can only be achieved at a relatively trouble-free (fan-free?) club like Fulham, but it was good, and I would be happy to see more of it.

Oh I do like to be beside the riverside

There was probably less to say about the game than the crowd. Wolves made a habit at times last year of a certain gung-ho ‘score one more than you’ approach to games. This season, for obvious reasons, couldn’t be more of a contrast, as Wolves adopt more of an ‘if we’re not going to score, nor are you’ line.

It’s immensely satisfying to see the defense shored up this year with an unexpectedly brilliant central defensive partnership. Craddock was fine again, this time against Zamora, Berra was sound and Zubar continues to impress on the right. He was tough defensively, survived a couple of hard tackles, and willing to get involved in the attack when possible. Elokobi had one of his best days, so an all round impressive defensive display.

It is clear, however, that our attacking options will need a serious shot in the arm in the transfer window. Kevin Doyle didn’t see a great deal of the ball with the midfield failing to create much of note, but managed a couple of shots wide of target. Edwards, otherwise fairly quiet, also saw a shot go (some distance) over the bar. Jones was disappointingly quiet, given recent performances. Jarvis, also not living up to recent form, and then Jones repeatedly failed to deliver corners which cleared the first defender.

Guedioura came on to little effect for the last 15, closely followed by Milijas, who put himself about a bit and worked hard to get the ball forward, but without having much more impact than anyone else.

Zamora came closest for Fulham, seeing a good strike sail past Hahnemann and off the outside of the post in the second half.

Other than that, neither keeper was seriously threatened as the game played itself out to a quiet stalemate and a good point on the road to Premier League survival for Wolves.

It would be nice to feel a great deal more secure, as even with only three games remaining, the table can be changed a great deal with a few lucky/unlucky results, but I’d rather be us than Hull.

I’m not going to argue with his claim that he has been playing well, that his all round play has improved, and I certainly hope he is right that his best years are ahead of him.  I’m pleased to hear Doyle assert that he’s fitter and stronger and that Wolves work him harder than ever.  He says he’s learned to “sleep better, generally look after myself and be more professional in everything I do”.

Maybe if I were a Reading fan I’d be a little bit narked by the implication that he ate junk food, stayed up too late and didn’t exercise when he played for them (and I’m sure this isn’t the case - Mr Doyle seems a lovely young man).  However, as a Wolves fan, all I’m going to ask is: can he beat his first Premier League tally of 13 goals for Reading?  I hope so, but even if not, and if Wolves stay up,  there will be no doubt that his all round play will have been instrumental in this.

The game started with a bang, with Villa having a decent chance and Doyle being incorrectly denied a penalty in the first three minutes, but rapidly fizzled out. Wolves were again solid in defence, with Zubar making another good impression following on from last week’s debut. A mention for Craddock, Wolves’ only survivor from the last Premier League squad, who is looking infinitely better this time around.

It would have been good to see a little more creativity going forward, and several more shots. However, Wolves showed great character to get a goal back after going one down with less than 10 minutes left.

And finally, great to see: 1) Ebanks-Blake with his first goal, and 2) Wolves actually be given a penalty.

Kevin Doyle and Andy Keogh are both in the full Republic of Ireland squad, with Keogh an unused sub and Doyle showing encouraging signs with a goal against Cyprus.

Wayne Hennessey and Dave Edwards will be in action for Wales on Wednesday, and Nenad Milias looks set to play for Serbia on the same day.

New signings Segundo Castillo and Stefan Maierhofer play for Ecuador and Austria respectively, with Maierhofer finding the net for his country for the first time yesterday, if only against the mighty Faroe Isles.

With Berra only missing out on a game for Scotland due to illness, and with Vokes and Mancienne both playing this week at under 21 level, and Scott Malone earning a first call up for the England under 19s, the future looks bright for a talented young Wolves side.  Although I hope with so many key players involved that we don’t hear anything about any injuries.  I’ll try and bring you a round up of everyone’s performances after Wednesday.