From Wolves away to where we are today
Richard Kosmala, Podcaster, Writer & Casual Crooner.
Twitter: @Richardkosmala
It’s almost one year to the day since that magnificent Super Sunday win at Molineux which propelled us to 14th place in the Premier League under DW and for me was a performance that we haven’t come anywhere near in the almost 365 days since. What a drive home up the M6, that was, listening to our very own @BradfordTerrier waxing lyrical on 6-0-6 and life was good, with a favourable December fixture list to come (what could possibly go wrong eh!?)
So much water has gone under the bridge since hasn’t it!? Bit by bit that Premier League team has been dismantled and with more probably moving on in January, not to mention having a new manager and owner, we have such a different feel around the club now. As i’ve said on the pod a few times, it feels like we have been in hospital with a long time spent in intensive care and have just been sent home, though PNE away I hope was more just a trip for some aspirins and one drink too many after Brentford, rather than anything major.
Steve Mounie lead the line that great afternoon in the Black Country with Alex Pritchard just behind him and it remains to be seen if their Deepdale cameos are a false dawn or a sign of the future. There can be no doubts we looked more threatening when they came on and it’s going to be interesting to see if Danny Cowley uses them more going forward.
Phil Billing and Aaron Mooy were peerless in the win and have left big holes in our midfield (especially the latter) and it will be interesting to see if we are in the market for a creative midfielder come January. Juninho Bacuna has been pivotal in our recent revival, but for me cannot be relied on until he improves his temperament. Lewis O’Brien has been arguably our player of the season so far, along with Karlan Grant and these are the people who we need to build a future Town team around despite the January vultures no doubt circling for the latter.
Danny Cowley has brought the smiles back to supporters faces. He’s come in and appreciated that there is still work to do to fully get back the connect between supporters and players, though cracking followings to Griffin Park and PNE show that this is far down the line. My fear was that the January window would be too late for our hopes of staying in the division and I was struggling to see after Sheffield Wednesday where the points were coming from, so to be 3 points ahead of the dreaded dotted line at the time of writing is pretty amazing in my eyes.
If we are being honest though, when we’ve played strong opposition (Wednesday & PNE) we’ve been well short and knocking over a big hitter and winning from a losing position for me is the next part of our development. The next 2 home games will be very interesting and Saturday looks a must win as Swansea City, Bristol City and Leeds United are ones you wouldn’t be massively confident in, sadly now without Tommy Elphick for a long period of time. If Terence Kongolo plays, then lets hope he looks more interested than in his last outing. Such a shame to see him look a shadow of that first season with us.
So off on a classic Kosi tangent with my first article, but I will end to say i’m a lot more content with the good ship HTAFC at the moment as we all probably should be, but compared to walking out of that away end a year ago this coming Monday thinking we were establishing ourself in the PL, a million miles away from that. I think we all get this, and appreciate everyones efforts on and off the pitch to make sure we don’t become another Sunderland and Wolves and go straight through to League 1!
Burton away anyone!? No Thanks!
UP THE TOWN!
Kosi