Last night at Old Trafford, Mick made 10 changes to the Wolves team before we faced Man Utd. And stirred up a right old storm.

Firstly, I do have sympathy for all the Wolves fans who travelled up and paid a lot of money to watch the game.

However… Mick isn’t the first manager to do this, and certainly won’t be the last. Sam Allardyce did it with Bolton a few seasons ago. Also, how about all the so-called top clubs who do it all the time in a once-in-a-lifetime cup match? More hypocrisy and double standards again…

The issue I have with it is that it sends out the wrong signal – we might have gotten something last night and it says to every other club that we are always up for a game. However, if we finish 17th or above, last night won’t be remembered.

The Times branded Mick more of a villain that Terry Henry… good journalism there!

Beating Burnley now becomes more about winning the fans back…

We’ll be fine.

I don’t think cheating is good or shouldn’t be punished. It should. Not really sure how you can do this though… perhaps France could request a replay and really confuse FIFA etc??

However…

There is no way that there can be a replay – because that will open the door for every game that turns on a dodgy incident to be replayed as well.

Also, we really live in cloud cuckoo land if we think that other Irish players haven’t cheated before.

However, it did get a great press conference out of Roy Keane.

Again, the BIG injustice was the seeding. That was scandalous. FIFA/UEFA should have nasty things done to them for that.

Get Platini and Blatter to comment on that. The Henry handball is utterly insignificant in comparison.

This is what makes football interesting… controversy.

If you follow me on twitter then you might have an idea of what I think about this last night… basically I do know that it is gutting to lose from a goal that shouldn’t have been allowed. It was handball in the buildup and in a perfect world Henry should have stopped and held his hand up. However, he’s not going to and nor would any of the Irish team. Nor the English team. Nor Liverpool or Manure or Chelski. Or even Wolves. If anyone is at fault it is the referee, linesman and FIFA – football should have video technology in use for controversial decisions.

This ridiculous view that only foreigners dive or cheat doesn’t even deserve a response. Get a life if you think that.

Good ol’ Freddy.

I couldn’t listen to the test match this morning as I was in a meeting in Cheltenham (I say meeting, I really mean out for a coffee). To be honest, I genuinely dreaded listening as I thought that the Aussies would make the total. So to walk into a big shopping mall in Cheltenham and see on Sky that we’d won was a great relief.

So great that I treated myself to some DVDs from HMV.

Little Miss Sunshine – £3

Ghostbusters 2 – £3

Most impressive – The Ashes 2005 series victory. 3 DVD boxset……….. wait for it……… £3

Already watched the Edgbaston Test from 2005…. now that was real tension.

As for the coffee…. ordered a decaf for my third coffee of the morning – and got a caffeine fix. That lasted until late afternoon. To be fair, I only paid for one of them so I shouldn’t grumble.

I’m not sure that I’m the only one who grew to be totally sick and tired of hearing how all Man Utd needed to do last night was to turn up and they’d be European Champions… so I was thrilled to see Barca outplay them with fabulous football. Makes you realised just how good Spain are going to be at next years World Cup as well unfortunately for England.

However, I’m more interested in how Barcelona are run.

The club is owned by its fans and not a single owner who at any minute could pull the plug and destroy the club

The club is not sponsored by anyone – they PAY money to Unicef for them to be on their shirts

Interesting…

I always knew we’d do it again some day

We thoroughly deserve it and I don’t care if we’re already favourites to go down (13/8 apparently) it’ll be worth it. For what its worth I think we’ll stay up (I would though wouldn’t I) for a few reasons which I’ll list below. Before you get there though – read THIS ARTICLE on the official Wolves website which continues to explain my great confidence.

1. We have a great chairman with a bit of cash, but more importantly with a lot of sense who likes to buy young hungry players with a point to prove.Our CEO is phenomenal and crucial to our current success.

2. We have a good manager who on the whole has bought good players that have improved with us.

3. There are several Premier League clubs going out of business slowly. They have owners with no sense, and debts that make bank managers edgy. We are currently debt free and making a profit.

Anyway, as with all Champ Man. fans, I’m simply looking forward to the summer transfer speculation as there will be plenty of ridiculous stuff in all the papers every day.

I’ve had such a great Easter… so much to blog about but I need to ensure that this gets watched first…

This time tomorrow we could well be promoted

Its only just sinking in

COME ON YOU WOLVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

News story here

Tragically died from bone cancer aged only 46. Great player for Wolves and Villa.

First goal I ever saw Wolves score at Molineux was by him against Forest in the league cup.

Don’t even know if that’s how you spell it…

Wolves are 6 points clear from 2nd place, 10 points clear of 3rd place and playing well.

Why am I expecting it all to go wrong???????????

I am bitter, twisted and English, and therefore couldn’t care less about the entire tournament.

However

I’m going to support the other totally overrated national team that never wins anything.

Spain

I came in 719th at 2:04:48.

Not bad considering the heat.

Had my first ever (!) cans of Red Bull after the race. Never again. Tastes like cough medicine thats been through a soda stream (remember those?).

Today was hot hot hot…

Terrible organisation meant a late start but I got off well – the heat was always going to make things really difficult, but I started to really struggle at about the 8 mile mark. By the 11 mile mark I was really hurting, 12 miles I had lost the will to ever run anywhere ever again, and at the finish I collapsed over the line and didn’t get up for 15 mins.

Time… nowhere near my pb of 1:45 – I think I came in around the 2 hour mark, but I’ll get the exact time later this week. I’ll post some photos when they get passed on to me.

Worst moment… walking past a photographer at about 11miles who gave me a cheeky grin and took a photo. Hopefully I won’t be the “tired runner” in the Echo tomorrow…

To finish 7th on goal difference (1 worse than Watford) is galling.

The fact that the Baggies finished top makes it worse.

But worst of all… I’m struggling to beat Charlton on Pro Evolution.

Did my last long run today before next Sunday’s marathon… I ran the whole course in just under 2 hours, which I was well pleased with. I’ll run loads faster next Sunday I reckon…

Don’t forget to give me some money… all cash raised goes to the Potters Village

After my ridiculous post a while back I’m glad to report that I’m back to my Man Utd hating best.

Apparently the Chelski penalty on Saturday was the FIRST penalty all season awarded against Manure.

I was shocked.

Also, I’m found a bit of love for the Chelski… come on West Ham and Wigan!

The Tewkesbury Half Marathon is coming up quickly… my training isn’t going too badly – I’ve got my usual bout of shin splints though which just makes it all painful. So far I’ve done some long jogs in Florida (too hot!) and around here – did about 10 miles yesterday which was all fine until the heavens opened twice and I got completely soaked. This resulted in 2 nice blisters and an early arrival home (was hoping to do about 12miles).

More importantly, I’m going to run to raise money for the Potters Village in Kisoro, Uganda (see pic below or click on my Flikr link)

I’m asking all those who read my blog to feel free to contribute to this… I don’t have a fancy website set up for fundraising so you can either email me or leave a comment with your amount! Also, if I break my PB of 1:45 from last year i’m asking for an extra £2 on top which gives me some extra motivation!!

As Hitchmo has put the enemy’s match report up, I thought that I should really put the truth about yesterdays game.

Fact – we lost 6-1

1-1 at half time… I only played the last 20mins, by which time we were 4-1 down. Jon Hills played a blinder with a hattrick – flukey corner, reasonably good second followed by a dodgy penalty . Being the good sport that I am, I have to congratulate the winners…

My biggest moan is with the fact that we couldn’t play at “Bishops Cleeve Stadium” and had to make do with a rubbish pitch with no tunnel and changing rooms like a prison cell. Still, like the Murphys I’m not bitter.

Oh, yeah, we DID steal all the chips and sausages afterwards!!!

I’ve been thinking… I don’t support a Premier League team (and sadly am unlikely to for a good while barring a miracle) and I generally just hope for teams to lose (especially Bolton, Tottenham and Middlesborough). I’ve also wished that Man Utd would lose on most occasions… until recently. I’ve suddenly realised that I actually quite like them… and here’s why:

1. They are keeping the England team afloat (Wes Brown aside as he is totally useless)

2. Ronaldo is really one of the best players EVER in the game (he dives as much as lots of ENGLISH players)

3. They play good attacking football

I do feel like I’m confessing some kind of sin though… my first ever football shirt was a Liverpool “Crown Paints” top as my grandmother supported them. I need to pull myself together… I need to spend time with more smug Man Utd fans to reignite my hatred.

I would still love it if Arsenal could overtake them in the league…

The good contenders don’t want the job (Curbishley and Allardyce)

The rest AREN’T good enough.

No top club will take a risk on English managers BECAUSE they aren’t good enough. Capello wins leagues in his first season in charge in different countries. So does Mourinho. Why? Because they are better trained and better equipped to do the job than Curbishley or McClaren. They had to earn their way up  the ladder. We give jobs to half decent players (Robson and Southgate are 2 examples) who aren’t proven or ready to manage.

English managers need to learn better management and coaching skills from our friends abroad. They need to learn more languages. They need to not be in such a rush to get top jobs and earn their apprenticeship properly – see Martin O’Neil for an example as he was at Wycombe and Leicester for over a decade.

We need to radically change how we train and teach our coaches, and our players. I’m sick to death of people moaning about having a foreign this and that. The fact that we haven’t got anyone good enough should make us rethink.

THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES ON.