In our latest Opposition Focus, Matt Wiggins spoke to Harry from The Wolves 77 Club podcast to get an away fans perspective ahead of Friday night’s game at Craven Cottage…
In the reverse fixture, it finished 1-0 to Wolves at Molineux. What is your reflection on the match?
I remember that game well because I expected us to win with ease! Turned out to be tougher than we thought and your keeper had a worldie from memory! Was happy we won but remember the reaction from our fans being very negative as we had ambitions of a top 6 finish back then…
Wolves currently have 35 points, are sat in 14th place and have 8 games left to play, are you somewhat disappointed with Wolves’ lower position after 2 very good seasons in the Premier League?
Yes, very disappointed. But we had a long, long season last season and something didn’t feel right going into this season… we sold Jota and Doherty and replaced them with Semedo and Fabio Silva. Both have struggled and when you add all our injury troubles in there, it’s not too surprising we find ourselves in the bottom half of the table.
You’ve been without Raul Jiminez for a while now, and despite having Willian Jose up front, it looks like Wolves are missing something. Do you think his absence has had an effect on your season?
The Raul Jimenez injury was huge! We were 6th in the league when he picked up his head injury back in October! Young Fabio got thrown into the deep end and couldn’t fill in for him in terms of goals! Jose came in and hasn’t scored in 10 apps so far, he doesn’t look capable of replacing the goals either. If Raul didn’t get injured we’d be comfortably in the top 10 at least in my opinion, he’s that important to us.
Despite the lower position this season, Nuno Espírito Santo has done a fantastic job for Wolves since he arrived. Do you worry that bigger clubs may come calling at some point?
I do worry yes but he’s had Everton and Arsenal show interest in his era with us so far and he’s snubbed off the interest straight away both times! A small minority of fans called for Nuno’s head after the Albion loss this season and that was so disappointing to see after the loyalty he has showed us.
Who has been the standout player for Wolves so far this season?
Pedro Neto has been head and shoulders above every player for us this season! We will do well to keep hold of him this summer.
Who’s one Fulham player you feel can threaten Wolves on Friday?
Mitrovic! He gives Connor Coady the run around every time you play us!l. I’d love him at Wolves as back up to Raul Jiminez if you do go down.
When we spoke before the last game, you gave us predictions of Liverpool, Man City, Chelsea and Man Utd to finish in the top 4 and Burnley, Fulham and West Brom in the bottom 3. How do you react to those predictions from October?
Well, we got Liverpool very wrong! Ha-ha, didn’t see that coming… all the other picks seem ok to be fair…
Finally, how do you see the game panning out and what is your score prediction for the match?
I see us coming to your place and trying to be much better defensively! You guys are scrapping for your lives so our fanbase is not confident going into this one at all! I see a fairly attacking game with it maybe being a score draw! I’ll go with 2-2.
Thanks to Harry from The Wolves 77 Club podcast for answering our questions. Check out their match preview where they spoke to Focus’ Matt Boisclair about tonight’s game. Click here
