Wolves are storming the Championship this season and are undefeated so far, they've only dropped two points since the opening day. At home they have an even more imposing record, their defense have only let in 2 goals in 4 matches, while their front line have scored 13.
Now my lot - After a slow start, especially away from home, the team seem to finally be shaking off the cloud that's hung over their heads since being relegated from the Premiership last season. They're improving with each game away from home, but are still looking to register their first win. At home we don't have any such problems having scored a stunning 10 goals over the last two games while not having a single goal scored against us.
There's not doubt this is gonna be one of the hardest games we'll play this season, whether Wolves can keep up their impressive run or not, they'll still be right near the top come the end of the season.
For impartial football fans the two teams couldn't be playing each other at a better time, Wolves are in cracking form scoring goals for fun, and as I've pointed out above their defense is tighter than a gnats chuff at home. And Reading are coming off another stunning win at the weekend having totally dominated Swansea, our forwards seem to be free scoring too at the moment, Doyle having recovered his form, Noel Hunt settling in well and Steve Hunt playing sublime football at the moment.
In a weird way I feel that my lot may by playing Wolves at the right time. Wolves' record has to be broken at some point, and so has Reading's inability to win away from home. There's no question we have a quality team, and as a result they'll go into most games this season as favorites to win, but that brings it's own pressure as expectations are high. Tonight however is probably the first game we've gone into where we can't be considered favorites, and I'm hoping that'll work to our advantage.
Having said all that on paper it's gonna be one of the toughest tests Wolves will face this season too, and there's nothing like beating a team that was in the Prem last season, and prove you're Premiership quality yourselves. Whoever wins I'm sure it'll be a hard fought game, if you read nothing more about this game on this blog it'll be a pretty good indicator that we lost, if we win I'll be crowing for a couple of days.
Staying with football, I discovered this great blog, written by a professional footballer who plys his trade in the lower leagues of English football. His name is Gavin Strachan, and at 29 years old he's reaching the end of his career.
People's perception of professional footballers is that they're over paid prima donas, ala billion dollar Beckham, and it's true many of them are, but many, many more are not. Gordon's one of them, and his blog offers us a look at the flip side of the same coin. Gordon's career didn't bend like Beckham's, he hasn't been able to earn enough during his career not to worry about money when he retires, so he's worrying about money when he retires. He's married with kids and so the pressure is on, he's playing out his last couple of years, and going to night school at the same time studying for a media degree, in the hope that it'll help him find work when it all comes to its inevitable end.
I can't think of seeing anything like this in the past, I mean maybe the odd article, but nothing as deep. It's all pretty abnormal when you think about it, I mean it's strange that a young man should have to face the end of his career at the point in life when most others are just beginning. All credit to the BBC for giving space to Gordon to write about his woes, although the mere fact that he's writing this blog will almost certainly end up impacting his life in some way, hopefully in a positive way. Perhaps he'll discover opportunities that may have otherwise evaded him, but good luck to him if he does.
This great insight into the not so glamorous side of professional football is called Gordon Strachan's Blog and is updated weekly.
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