Team News

Blues have no new injury worries so will only be missing the long term absentees O’Connor, Murphy and Parnaby. It will be interesting to see if there are any tactical changes after last weeks’ slightly tired looking performance. Ridgewell has looked a little shaky at left back so maybe Vignal will get a chance.

Wolves will bring Kevin Doyle back into the team in a return to 4-4-2. Mick McCarthy has said that Michael Kightly is not yet ready for action so he is unlikely to feature.

Last Meeting

Our last meeting was a 2-0 victory at the beginning of April that gave us all hope that we would be able to take the Championship title. That hope only lasted a few days as we failed to win either of our games over Easter. O’Connor and Jerome got the goals in what was a comfortable victory despite Lee Carsley getting sent off. The last meeting at Molineux ended 1-1 almost a year to the day.

Recent Form

Blues go into this game enjoying their best run of form all season and unbeaten in four games. We have only one away win but have scored more away from home and have not failed to score on our travels since Old Trafford in August.

Wolves on the other hand have picked up just three points from their last six games and have not won since 20th September. After playing us their next game is at home to Bolton so this is a crucial period if they are to climb up from their current 19th place.

Outlook

This game marks the start of a run of relegation six pointers with Wigan, West Ham and Blackburn to follow. Maybe it’s too pessimistic to use the term “relegation” but anyway there are points to be gained on the run up to Christmas. Wolves will see this as a must win game but a draw would be OK for us as it would keep our five point advantage over them (Effectively six with goal difference).

I expect Wolves to come at us big time from the off so the key will be how well we weather this and push on ourselves. With their solid but slow defence there should be opportunities on the break to use the pace of Benitez and Jerome. I believe our defence will be able to keep their front two quiet for most of the game so I’m not expecting too many goals although a repeat of the 3-2 win in 2007 would be great. As often happens the early Sunday kick-off may keep things quieter than you would expect from a derby. Of course there’s that word “Derby”. Although this is not the biggest game for both sides there will still be local bragging rights for grabs and I’m sure I’m not the only one who has been bantering with a Dingle all week. It would be great to go to work on Monday morning on the back of a convincing victory at their place. Having said that I’d quite like Wolves to stay up as well.

My prediction. 1-1. 

Enjoy the game, I think there’s a few tickets left if you want to go.