The Opponent: Wolverhampton Wanderers
I must admit, when the draw was made for the fixtures this season, way back before Topcat realised Bristol City had a forum of their own, this was one of the first ones that I looked out for. It is a big ground for a big football club, who were one of the original 12 founder members of the football league. Now many on here will only ever remember Wolves in recent years being something of a stable Championship team with the occasional flirtation with the promised land of The Premier League. But now, like many big fish before them, such as Sheffield Wednesday, Leeds, Forest and others, they find themselves in the 3rd tier of English football. Incredibly, way back in the 1950’s, Wolves managed to win the then League 1 title 3 times and 2 FA Cups thrown in for good measure. Personally its another one for me to tick off the lists of grounds to go to having missed the League Cup encounter a few years back.
The City of Wolverhampton is slightly larger than Swindon and is currently the home to around 250’000 Wulfrunians, some of the notable folk that have been associated with Wolverhampton include Rusty Lee’s sister, Tessa Sanderson, Actor and comedian Eric Idle, Bank of England boff Mervyn King, Politician Enoch Powell, Dexy’s Midnight Runners front man Kevin Rowland and WWE grappler William Regal, a poor man’s British Bulldog. Not the most common of football kit colours, the gold and black colours of Wolverhampton Wanderers FC originate from the city's motto 'Out of darkness cometh light', with gold and black representing light and dark. One of the 3 towns and cities that Wolverhampton have twinned themselves with is none other than Ulaanbaatar, the capital city of Mongolia, which itself has its list of notable residents, including Asashoryu, Hakuho, Mungonzazal Janshindulam, Sanjaasurengiin Zorig, Nambaryn Enkhbayar and famous Yak slayer, Harumafuji Kōhei Smith.
The last time we met at – Molineux – Despite holding Wolves to a goal less draw in normal time, we lost 6-5 on penalties back in 2009. This will be the first time we have met them in the league for 13 years.
They’ve served for us both – Ernie Hunt, Miles Storey, Andy Mutch, Peter Eastoe, Frank Talia, Glenn Hoddle, George Ndah, Paul Ince and Jake Jervis.
Where the opposition gather – http://www.wolvesforum.co.uk/showthread.php?22746-Wolves-vs-Swindon-Build-up-threadLast 6 – LDWWW – Wolves are currently 2nd in league 1 on 13 points.
The Odds – Wolves 5/6 Draw 5/2 Swindon 10/3. Nile Ranger is looking sharp in front of goal and is 8/1 to score the first goal with most places. The home side have some 5 players at shorter odds to score first than Ranger, much like QPR did a few weeks back.
The Son Says – He is excited for this one, nearly as much as me. He gave me his prediction earlier today as I was digging out my 5th ton of stone and soil in Croft Road and despite the rain, he made a bold prediction of 2-0 to The Town.
The Prediction – Wolves have scored a fair few in the last 4 games (all of which they have won), and have conceded very few so this could be a tough encounter. If we play some of the football we are capable of playing for sustained periods there should be nobody in this league that we fear, Wolves included. 2-1 Town, 19’223 in attendance with 1601 loud away supporters.
And Finally – The surrounding area near Wolverhampton became known as 'the Black Country' when, during heavy industrialisation of the area in the late 19th century, pollution covered the area in black soot and left the soil black.
