Wednesday 10 December 2008

Keogh a polished jewel in duel with Jewell

Life in Wolves world can often be a bit extreme.

It's either wild celebration (and there's been a lot of that in this so-far fantastic season) or it's a crisis.

There's often very little middle ground, and that's why last night's solid, efficient, goal-laden victory over Derby was such a welcome reassurance.

Wolves hadn't won for two whole matches going into the duel with Paul Jewell.

History suggests a mind-set among Wolves fans that a third successive failure to secure three points would start to erase from the memory banks the wonderful results and performances that had gone before.

But crisis, what crisis? And on several levels, last night's performance was an excellent evening's work.

Super Mick wisely played Stephen Ward as a left footed left midfielder, and rightly introduced David Edwards in place of Derby old boy David Jones.

And while there will have been Wolves fans wanting teenager Sam Vokes up alongside Sylvan, he selected Andy Keogh instead to replace ankle injury victim Chris Iwelumo.

And Keogh was great. End of story. If you are a member of the pointless anti-Keogh brigade, you may as well click away from this article too.

I've always been a massive fan of this young Irishman, who has a terrific footballing brain. But there were two specific moments last night that showed why he has come to polarise opinion.

He an outstanding chance to score, breaking free with Sylvan, before meakly firing a bobbling shot wide.

It was a "groan" moment, but the intelligence of the man saw him cut in from the left, then attempt to wrong foot the keeper by shooting low to his right. It didn't work. Fair enough.

Criticise him if you must - or cut him some deserved slack if you're feeling festive.

But what he did for Wolves' third goal showed graphically why Keogh is not good enough for some intransigent Wolves fans - but is good enough for Super Mick, Geovanni Trapattoni, and me!

Put through by an increasingly impressive Michael Kightly (more on him in a moment), Keogh went slightly wide but still got his shot on target. Of course, the goal-starved front man saw his shot saved, but the ball rebounded to him.

He could have ballooned it wide, he could perhaps have scored with a second shot, but no, he steadied himself for a split second and laid the ball back for Sylvan to grab his second.

When Wolves signed Keogh, we wanted his Scunthorpe mate Billy Sharp too. Sharp grabbed the goals, Keogh set them up - just like last night.

Once and for all Wolves fans, get off the man's back. The Keogh who gave 100 per cent, set up Sylvan's goal, won his fair share of headers, and thankfully wasn't asked to play wide right, is the Keogh worthy of a place in the Wolves squad.

Onto Kightly, and the acceptance that since his hamstring injury, he's been quiet, and somewhat off the pace. But last night, for 20 minutes either side of half time, we got our old Kightly back. Some fleet-footed wing trickery, a great cross for Edwards' goal, and an incisive pass to Keogh in the run-up to the third.

That's more like it, and I think Barnsley's left back will have his work cut out on Saturday, as Kightly rediscovers his confidence.

So all in all, a fine win against what I thought ultimately to be a mediocre Derby team. Defensively, we were more alert - with Michael Mancienne, after Saturday's uncomfortable display at QPR, looking more like an England under-21 star than a player who'll struggle to play for Chelsea.

And we have 50 points. Half way to a century.

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