Against all odds
Brentford vs Wolves preview
I’ve been thinking a lot about the “supercomputer” these past couple of weeks.
This mystical, all-seeing power, with its ability to look into the future and spell out what lies in store, can hold a wicked grip on a football fan’s psyche. Maybe some of us need to be held tight and told everything is going to be just fine, or for many of us this season, have our worst fears confirmed by the data.
Well, just two weeks ago the robot ran the numbers and delivered a unanimous verdict: “Computer says no” to Wolves’ chances of survival. Yep, 100% chance of relegation to the Championship. A machine whose default answer is “maybe” had veered off course to provide a special finding for a truly forgettable, awful football team.
And yet, this cold body on the slab has shown tiny murmurings of a beating heart. Wins over Villa and Liverpool have seen some of us swept up in talk of a “Great Escape”, doing back-of-a-fag-packet sums and plotting out the final run-in.
Those wins, against all odds, have even forced the supercomputer to blink, and quietly retreat from its 100% calculation to 99.88%. By no means is it the kind of U-turn that would leave the tabloids frothing if the computer were a politician in the Houses of Parliament, but it is an indication that Rob Edwards may just have found something to frighten our top flight rivals.
Because realistically there should be no way we will be a Premier League club next season. Nathan Shi’s concession on Friday night that season ticket prices will drop by at least 25 per cent in 2026-27 was confirmation that even those at the very top of the club can’t see another B*ggies ‘05, Sunderland ‘14 or Leicester ‘15 and at least one year in the second tier beckons.
But while it’s mathematically possible, albeit improbable, we can carry on dreaming.
Up next: Brentford (A)
We have a strange old relationship with Brentford, one of those modern rivalries that has followed us through the pyramid over the years. That League One title battle was captivating and they really pushed us up until that 3-0 victory at Griffin Park in February gave us the mental edge to go and win the league.
In recent years, we’ve exchanged equal measure of shellackings. Hwang enjoyed his best performance in a Wolves shirt when he scored a brace in our 4-1 win at the Gtech Community Stadium back in December 2023 under Gary O’Neil, but our 5-3 loss at the same venue 10 months later was the beginning of the end for our old friend from Bromley.
We’re neck and neck in the form table going into Monday night’s game, each taking eight points from the past five games. There is a vulnerability to the Bees, though, evidenced by their rollercoaster 4-3 win at Burnley. They were pretty fortunate to come away from Turf Moor with three points (with a little help from VAR) and Edwards will surely have identified areas where we can hurt them.
We were undone by a Keane Lewis-Potter double (and some pretty shoddy defending) in the reverse fixture at Molineux in December, but we’ve shown some steely resilience in the past couple of league games - and that’ll be needed in bucketloads when we face an avalanche of long throws from Michael Kayode.
Did you know? Our biggest win over Brentford came in 1939, when we defeated the Bees 5-2 at Molineux. The Birmingham Daily Post described our attacking play that day as “sparkling”, despite having to contend with a “treacherous surface”.
Wore both shirts (who am I?):
I started my career at Brentford, playing 16 games before joining Wolves as a 17-year-old for £10,000 in 1951 - a record fee for a teenager at the time
I spent 14 years at Molineux, winning three league titles and the FA Cup
An inside forward, I scored 145 goals in 497 appearances for the club
I won seven caps for England, scoring twice
Think you know the answer? Tweet me @WolvesOnThisDay
Prediction
It’s felt like ages since we’ve played away from home and it’s been great to see the transformation that the team (and the Molineux crowd) has undergone in recent weeks. There’s something about playing under the lights that really galvanises us.
So it’ll be interesting to see if our performances at home translate on the road - particularly against an opponent who are neither a local rival or a ‘Big Six club’. Brentford are a serious outfit and have a proper operator in Keith Andrews. I don’t expect it to be a game for the neutral, but am optimistic we can get a result.
I’ll go Brentford 1-1 Wolves. Leave your predictions below. UTW.
The Wolves Historian
Out of darkness cometh light.