ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE: Wolves 1 West Brom 5:THIS WAS the blackest of Black Country derbies for Mick McCarthy and an afternoon that could well prove to be his downfall as Wolves manager.
Standing at the edge of his dugout, watching on in disbelief as his players were ripped to shreds by a rampant West Brom, he could hear clearly the chants that emanated from the furious home support.
“You’re getting sacked in the morning,” they sang, before one of the locals threw his gold and black scarf on to the turf and left the stadium in disgust. It was a mutiny of the sort that cannot help but spook a club’s hierarchy.
With Wolves now in the relegation zone following this fourth successive home defeat, all McCarthy can hope is that Steve Morgan, the Wolves chairman, and Jez Moxey, the chief executive, who was in attendance here, continue to believe in his ability to keep the club in the Premier League having got them promoted in 2009.
Given the desperate circumstances, however, it is conceivable they may give in to fans, many of whom continued voicing their disgust outside Molineux for over an hour after the final whistle.
McCarthy refused to discuss his future after this match but did acknowledge that a nadir may well have been reached in his six-year tenure at the club. “I apologise for the performance,” he said. “I’ve never done that before but I feel it’s warranted because we were awful. We capitulated, which is not something you can associate with me or my team.
“I don’t have any messages [for the fans]. An apology is as much as I can do at the moment. The fact I’ve never done that before shows how badly I feel.”
Whatever happens, this is a result that will not be forgotten in these parts for some time. Wolves were brought to their knees by Albion’s biggest victory on enemy territory since 1962 and a result that was as justified as it was resounding. The visitors were the better team from the outset and, aptly, their best player, Peter Odemwingie, scored his first hat-trick for the club. Jonas Olsson and Keith Andrews, on his debut for Albion, also registered.
“It was good to win an important derby match,” said Roy Hodgson on the first anniversary of his appointment as the West Brom manager. “We played well and it’s important the team takes confidence from their performance and begins to wonder not how many points they are from the relegation zone but how many they are from 10th place.”
Hodgson was generous enough to offer his support to McCarthy, describing him as a “top coach”, but there was also something cutting about his remark that Wolves’ best player here had been their goalkeeper, Wayne Hennessey.
The 25-year-old certainly could not be blamed for the rout, having made three outstanding saves before Odemwingie gave West Bromwich, who are now up to 14th, the lead with a deflected drive on 34 minutes.
Wolves, struggling to cope with their opponents’ high-pressing and composed approach, in which the lone striker Marc-Antoine Fortune played a pivotal role, appeared flattened by the goal but Steven Fletcher showed enough gusto to bring the scores level seconds before the break having exchanged passes with Kevin Doyle and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake.
That should have been the cue for Wolves to go and win a second successive match but instead West Bromwich regained control and made Wolves pay for their lack of defiance in defence. Olsson struck on 64 minutes after the hosts had failed with numerous attempts to clear, before Odemwingie scored again 13 minutes later in similar circumstances. Andrews’ finish on 85 minutes saw the first outbreak of boos and when Odemwingie sealed the rout three minutes later there was no holding back the rage from the stands.
Guardian Service
