Brentford take on Wolves this Saturday and there is sure to be all manner of hype spouted in the build up as the top sides in League One prepare to lock horns. So I’m going to get a few things out in the open and then leave things here until the weekend.
Our reader may be aware of several ‘observations’ posted here from visiting supporters in recent months. Some eloquent; others less so (pleasingly, recent comments have been very much in the former category), As such, I’d like to clear up any misconception in regards to my own feelings.
To read the rest of this article, season 2013/14 is now available to download onto Kindle, in full. Containing previously unseen content, you can do so here for less than the cost of one matchday programme.
Thanks for reading over the course of the campaign. For now I need to make space on this page for any follow up. The ‘close season’ / World Cup columns continue in full, further on in this site.
BrentfordFC 
I come as a Wolves fan – in peace. The points you make Nick are entirely valid. No matter what our club history or indeed the size of our fan base, we are a League One side and we have no God given right to a more lofty status. We have genuine aspirations of an immediate bounce back to the Championship but this is not guaranteed.
This Saturday sees the coming together of two good sides. The work that Tony Craig has done this season is impressive indeed and you are where you are on clear merit. Quiet efficiency and an impressive inner belief sees you deservedly leading the pack. True football fans felt your pain last season with a collective wince over that last minute penalty, and you have done remarkably well to ensure the pyschological scars have not lingered on into this term.
As for Wolves, well we are witnessing an equally impressive season of transition under the understated leadership of Kenny Jackett. He took over a club in crisis, where the relationship between fans and club (both team and board) had broken down entirely. We were in freefall, a footballing euphemism for “laughing stock”. The Jackett has almost singlehandedly gone about the job of healing all this and giving rise to a new belief, a renewed pride and that lifeblood currency that all fans need – hope.
Since his arrival, he immediately banished a core of the failed stars of two relegations to exile and gradually went about the task of removing the rest of the legacy of our past failures from the team sheet. He has done so by being brave enough to dip extensively into the deep well of talent within our Academy and supplementing these with handpicked additions to create what is becoming an attractive, potent mix.
Only two players who started our last match of last season in the Championship at Brighton made the starting line-up against Notts County at the weekend – Bakory Sako and Dicko, then on loan from Wigan but signed up in January. KJ has managed this total transformation while still managing to maintain a position within the top three all season.
We remain on course for a speedy return and, if we achieve it, I suspect most Wolves fans will look back on this season in League One with fondness. We have definitely enjoyed the trips to new grounds, enjoyed the banter with ‘true’ football fans and enjoyed the almost forgotten feeling of watching our side win. I am not certain that this feeling would extend into a second season at this level even though we have become pretty good at adjusting our expectation levels of late. We remain optimistic and hopeful.
Saturday’s game at Griffin Park will be tasty and there will be few Wolves fans, save for the myopic minority, who will believe this will be anything other one tough game. It will be an interesting encounter and we we anticiapate with relish even though the fixture seems to have a draw written all over it.
The automatic places will not be decided this weekend although it will have a bearing, of course. I for one genuinely hope that these two teams are still occupying the top two spots at the end of the season, and I frankly don’t care in which order. We are both more worthy than Orient based on the evidence so far this season of our football, and not our perceived status.
This said, I still hope we secure the three points this weekend.
We are Wolves. We have history – “those were the days my friend” – but our hopes and dreams all lie with the future. I look forward to a repeat of this fixture in the Championship next year.
Thanks very much – really appreciate it and a fascinating look ahead at the weekend’s fixture. Couldn’t agree more with your sentiments and its nice to see so many Wolves fans with positive viewpoints rather than, as you say, a ‘myopic minority’.
I really am looking forward to how well our respective sides do against each other.
Cheers