GOLDEN GAMES: WOLVES 1-0 IPSWICH, 8 AUGUST 2006
Entertainment for the housebound masses, without David Dickinson
Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans. So said John Lennon, or in a second hand way if you prefer, Tim from The Office. The long and the short of it is that we've gone from planning trips to Athens and possibly Gdansk to a position where it soon might not be that easy to get to Aldersley and Graisley. There's a very real possibility that a good number of us will be stuck at home every single day...with nothing to watch. Terrifying, isn't it. If you haven't glanced up at the TV while working at home only to see David Dickinson's boat race in full HD, you haven't experienced true horror.
So, I've decided to take the lead of Sky and BT and dip into the archives to rustle up some kind of entertainment. I hope I make a better fist of it than Sky, who for reasons best known to themselves kept showing a tragedy of a 3-2 home defeat of ours against Burnley from 2007 when they had their "Championship Gold" segment. An Owen Coyle-led Burnley at that. Let's not get into him just now.
Some of the games might be good, some of them might be bad. Depends what I feel like writing about. Plus how much I need to take my mind off my ever-decreasing stocks of pasta and the brooding thoughts of maiming those who are ransacking the shops as if it's a zombie apocalypse. Seriously people. Behave.
So without further ado, let's go back to the heady days of 2006, when Morrissey was still making passable albums and not constantly being a terrible racist. It's Mick McCarthy's first home game and would you look at that midfield:
Rohan Ricketts, Karl Henry, Kevin O'Connor, Jamie Clapham
Hmmm. So you can take it as read that we weren't about to see any silky football here. Of course, this was all a matter of necessity. Glenn Hoddle had left us with a squad of about 14 outfield players, about 63p to spend and around a month to go until the season started. So thanks for that, Glenn. It was a case of bringing in whatever waifs and strays we could at that point. We shall forget my suggestions of Danny Senda and Kenny Lunt at the time. What can I say, I was young.
What we did have was the return of Matt Murray. His career will forever be one of the great what-ifs...it seems inevitable that at some point he would have played for England had he not been repeatedly and cruelly struck down by injury. Probably the case that he wouldn't have been earning those honours while at Wolves, so at least we never had to go through the trauma of seeing him sold (unlike his pal Joleon Lescott, who had already bade us farewell a month or so before this game). Even though his career here was one that shone briefly and brightly then burned out, it was a genuine privilege to watch him. This game was one of his very best.
Since he'd last been a first team regular for us, we'd had to deal with Michael Oakes (game, but limited, and about as far away from Murray in terms as profile as you could ever imagine), Paul Jones (may God have mercy on us all) and Stefan Postma (not as bad as was made out and what he gets up to with his good lady wife is his business, but never the answer) in nets. To have Big Matt back was such an incredible boost to a threadbare squad that would have to punch above their collective weight to have any impact at Championship level. From the outset here, the difference in what we'd seen for virtually the entire last three years was stark. Teams couldn't just fling the ball into our box and watch our jittery back four contrive to treat it as if it were coated in dog shit. Matt would have that. Clean through on goal? Far from a given that you're going to score. His presence alone was worth points, his actions worth more still.
Here he saved a Matt Richards penalty just before half time (conceded by Jody Craddock, who at that stage was still in clown car mode. Thankfully he ended up with a better legacy by the end) and was the indisputable Man of the Match. We were already 1-0 up by then after a superb strike by Jay Bothroyd and also down to 10 men after Carl Cort was sent off for waving his Mr Tickle-esque arms about. Seriously, that's about as languid a strikeforce as you're ever going to see at Molineux. Bothroyd is still playing now incidentally in the J-League despite being soon to turn 38. If Murray didn't fulfil his potential due to sheer bad luck and natural brittleness, our goalscorer on the day (who lest we forget, will end up with one more England cap than Matt ever got) only has himself to blame for underachieving, relatively speaking. Still, he does at least seem to accept it now, so fair enough. None of us are perfect. Despite Ipswich's inevitable pressure, we hung on and got the win.
But it was more than three points and a clean sheet. After the slowly deflating tyre that was Dave Jones' time in charge and 18 months of sheer tedium under Glenda, we had a proper team back. Not the most skilled, pretty much no pace anywhere in the team and one that goalkeeper aside, you could generously describe as "functional". But they cared again. From a squad of horribly ageing players slowly seeing out their contracts and muddled tactics devised seemingly at random, we had a basic plan, some structure and a bit of fight. I'm not really one to call for your likes of Stuart Pearce bawling away on the touchline and banging on as if it's still 1993, but you can't put a price on a bit of pride in the shirt (or indeed in wearing the manager's bench coat). Back in 2006, we didn't ask for much. Whatever Mick McCarthy's limitations, he gave us heart again. I'll always be grateful to him for that.
Wolves: Murray; Clyde (Edwards 45), Craddock, Breen, Naylor (Olofinjana 48); Ricketts, Henry, O'Connor, Clapham; Cort (s/o 36), Bothroyd (C Davies 64).
Unused subs: Oakes, Clarke.
Ipswich: Supple; Sito, De Vos, Naylor, Harding; Peters (Parkin 86), Williams, Bruce, Richards (Currie 62); Bowditch (Lee 53), Forster.
Unused subs: Price, Wilnis.
Goal: Bothroyd (27)
Attendance: 19,199