Wolves will survive despite Doyle's injury
The Wolves supporters hoping that their winger Matt Jarvis finally receives international recognition when England host Ghana at Wembley on Tuesday night may have had second thoughts after one of their star players suffered a season-ending injury representing his country on Saturday night.
Striker Kevin Doyle is almost certainly out for the rest of the campaign after damaging his medial ligament early on in Republic of Ireland's crucial 2-1 Euro 2012 qualifying victory over Macedonia, which took them joint-top with Slovakia and Russia in Group B, which they are [4.1] to finish first in.
The setback has seen Wolves' relegation odds move in from [3.7] to [3.5], because while the former Reading forward is far from prolific, having netted only five times this term in the Premier League, his work-rate and ability to lead the line will be hard to replace.
Despite that, we remain fairly convinced that Mick McCarthy's side will survive fairly comfortably. Though they are still in the relegation zone, they are the sixth-best team in the division on current form, and also in their favour is the fact they have comfortably the easiest run-in of the strugglers.
Wolves have already faced each of the top seven twice, meaning that their final eight fixtures comprise of trips to Newcastle, Stoke, Birmingham and Sunderland and home games against Everton, Fulham, West Brom and Blackburn.
With West Ham the only other bottom-half club rivalling them in terms of recent results and momentum, it's not unthinkable that they could get through the closing weeks without being beaten, even if such a run would appear unlikely.
Sylvain Ebanks-Blake should prove a capable deputy for Doyle too, even if his all-round game isn't quite as complete, and is actually Wolves' top goalscorer on six despite only starting nine league matches.
Think they will defy all expectations? They are [7.4] to finish in the top ten...
Published: 29 Mar 2011
Leave a comment