Wolves have had two wins in a row, one of those coming over Millwall, but that was at the Molineux. At the New Den the game will be totally different. Wolves’ away form this season has been indifferent, only three wins, it really hasn’t been good enough. Wolves had a extremely good result last week where they put away the chances at West Ham, with Cort and Miller looking a good partnership up front. Lax defending cost Wolves two times, Zamora twice netted for West Ham as Wolves were just unaware of people around them and Lee Naylor became increasingly worrying at the back as Marlon Harewood muscled him out several times. Good point for Wolves is that it seems like Hoddle has found “his” Wolves, and “his” first 11. Leon Clarke, Shaun Newton and Joachim Bjorkland all played in the 3 – 1 loss to Aston Villa mid-week indicating they are not part of Hoddle’s plans for the near future. Seems like Hoddle will stick with the same attacking line-up that broke into West Ham so easily.
Hoddle himself praised Wolves attacking prowess indicating he is extremely happy with the partnership of Miller and Cort explaining, “There is no better feeling for a player or a coach when you’ve worked on something and you see the players put it into practice at a key moment and get the rewards for doing it. That is first class work and as a result I think Kenny and Carl are improving as a partnership.”
Wolves got good news and bad news this week. Paul Ince indicated his future lies with the Wolves, even if it is a non-playing position, which is good for the morale of the club on a whole. While Matt Murray had increasing doubts about his fitness, results of a foot scan to be released on today will determine whether the injury which kept him out all last season has come back to haunt him. Murray has look assured in the Wolves goal after his recent comeback and it would be a shame for him to have his comeback cut short by yet another injury.
After the last turnout in the FA Cup, Dennis Wise will be motivated here to make sure Wolves go back to the Molineux with nothing, and this would mean Millwall have achieved the double over them in the league this season. Millwall put in a really poor performance at the Molienux in the FA Cup, losing 2 – 0, but they had no choice but to put out an under strength side due to injuries and suspensions. For this match several players will be in the team that were excluded from the FA Cup tie, including Kevin Muscat, ex-Wolves player who is hot-tempered and is bound to put 100% into this game. Other players who will return into the line-up are ex-Albion duo Scott Dobie and Danny Dichio, both scored as Millwall clinched all 3 points at Molineux earlier in the season, Adrian Serioux, Darren Ward and Danny Livermore.
The New Den will be an extremely hard place to go for the Wolves who have been pretty short on confidence away from Home all season. With Millwall being in good form, and with a convincing win away from home against Nottingham Forest; Wolves will have to put in 110% here, as Millwall is never an easy place to go.
Prediction: 1 – 1