Wolves v Middlesbrough Preview

Posted on | January 23, 2009 | No Comments

With Wolves top of the Championship and Middlesbrough plummeting down the Premiership by the week, in theory this should have possible cup upset written all over it. However, with Mick McCarthy desperate to get his Wolves side promoted this year there could be a chance that he doesn’t take the competition that seriously and puts out a weakened side.

While there’s probably quite a few Premiership sides that Wolves may feel they have a chance against, there’s a big chance that Mick McCarthy plays some fringe players in this encounter. As it stands the Molineux outfit are leading the Championship by five points although recent form hasn’t exactly helped them extend that gap. McCarthy’s men haven’t won in the league since before Christmas and considering the fact they looked almost unbeatable up until then, that’s a frightening statistic. Still, amongst all of the poor results in the league was an FA Cup win over Midland rivals Birmingham. That was a convincing result and considering the fact that the Blues are just a couple of places below them, it was an excellent score for confidence.

Middlesbrough on the other hand have been dreadful in recent weeks and have some of the worst form in the country. Boro have failed to win in their last ten outings and that has put increasing pressure onto Gareth Southgate’s shoulders, especially with the team now rooted in the relegation zone in 18^th place. Their last game was a 3-0 humbling to then-bottom side West Brom and Southgate even admitted after that that he wouldn’t be surprised if he was relieved of his duties. Things could have been far worse though and it took a scrappy performance to get through to this stage of the competition. Boro only just managed to beat non-league Barrow 2-1 and perhaps that shows what a mess they’re in at the moment.

As for team news, no-one quite knows how Wolves will line up with Mick McCarthy hinting that he could make several changes. He’ll have to be without at least two players though, with Stephen Ward and Richard Stearman unavailable through injury and suspension respectively. As for Middlesbrough, Gareth Southgate has one or two concerns as well and both Emanuel Pogatetz and Julio Arca are doubtful with injuries. Didier Digard is out through suspension, although Southgate could be handed some good news if Justin Hoyte is deemed to have enough fitness to play.

This is probably one of the hardest games of the weekend to predict, as Wolves are tipped to put out a weakened side whereas Middlesbrough are in a terrible rut of form. With that, we think it could end up in a scrappy draw – 0-0.

Related posts:

1. Reading v Wolves Preview
2. Premiership Middlesbrough v Tottenham
3. Birmingham v Wolves Preview
4. Wolves v Cardiff Preview
5. Wolves vs Chelsea preview- 2011 betting

Comments