Bom Dia! and welcome back to Molineux, where Nick and his mostly-Portuguese Wolves side have endured a bit of an up and down start to season two so far, but will the addition of no fewer than four internationals add some quality and help settle things down a bit for them?…

Here’s how we’re looking so far after twelve games. As usual, we’ve had no problems scoring, but have some serious issues at the opposite end. No need to panic just yet though.

We begin with the second leg of our League Cup tie with Carlisle. Sá Pinto has settled in nicely, that’s 4 goals in 2 games for him, and he and Coelho get our contribution to a 6-goal thriller, which gives us an 8-6 aggregate win, and a third round date with Blackburn…

All that charging around has finally taken its toll on poor old Bully…

With Carlos out injured, and Claro not really staking a claim for the No. 1 spot, I bring in another keeper. He’s not much to look at, but has good average ratings and a few clubs were after him, so hopefully that’s a good sign…

Bradford are the first of three straight away games. It’s end-to-end stuff for the first hour, with the score at 1-1. Coelho puts us back in front, and then 23 minutes later, Manarte ensures that a late McGinlay strike doesn’t deny us a first league win in 4 games…

We run riot in the first half at Swindon, with Manarte netting a hat trick. But our defensive frailties refuse to go away, and we manage to concede twice. We score once more in the second half through Manarte, and all in all it’s a ruthless performance away from home…

It’s a terrible first half at Oxford, as we fail to register a single shot on target and trail at the whistle. The second half is much more lively though, with 6 more goals, but despite having more chances and shots on target, we end up losing 4-3. I believe they call this a champing…

I knew Pinto’s injury proneness stat of 17 would be an issue, but luckily Boa Morte is back at the same time…

We batter Birmingham for the first half an hour, and miss a penalty after their keeper gets sent off, and then they go up the other end and score with their first shot at goal. We end up with a total of 19 shots at goal and still can’t score against 10 men. Un-f*cking-believable…

I’m not sure I’ve seen Everton get relegated in season one before, but here they are. It’s a horrendous first half, and we trail 3-0 without a shot on target. After they make it 4, we manage to pull 2 back but it’s too little too late, and another minus 2 on the goal difference…

We lead 11th-placed Tranmere at half time thanks to Paulo Sergio, but they’re back in it on the hour. We seem to get better as the end nears, and Boa Morte fires home after a goal mouth scramble to banish the ghosts that have haunted us since our last visit to Prenton Park.

League Cup time, and we trail Blackburn 2-0 at the break. After missing a third penalty of the season, my patience runs out with Coelho, and his spot kick duties are done. We finally score on 70, but the comeback only lasts 14 minutes as Kuka gets his second goal to finish us off…

I’m getting fed up with losing and conceding goals, so I decide to try and do something about it against Stoke. There’s only one man to turn to when it comes to tactics, @9798Nikolai. I saw that he used this tactic in a recent save with Birmingham that saw them keep 11 clean sheets in 13 games, so let’s give it a whirl…

The early signs are good, as Manarte quickly gets us off the mark. But that turns out to be the only goal, mainly due to their keeper being on fire. The new formation definitely helps though, and gets us our first clean sheet of the season! I’m not getting too excited yet though.

And this is exactly why… We defend well against City but what can you do against a striker of Uwe Rosler’s calibre?

A brief moment of humour after that defeat… This is definitely a save for never-before-seen transfers and unbelievably low fees…

We bounce back immediately at Bolton, as Manarte gets things started, and Pinto scores on his return from injury to make it 2-0 at half time. Manarte gets his second and Boa Morte finishes things off 7 minutes from time to cap a great performance at both ends of the pitch.

It’s goalless against Huddersfield up until just before the hour when Manarte puts us ahead. The visitors come close a few times but we hold on for a second consecutive win and third clean sheet in 4 games. Interestingly, both keepers had ratings of 9 out of 10…

23rd-placed Charlton are the final game of the first half of the season. Coelho strikes on 21 minutes to end a run of 9 games without a goal, and we defend solidly once again to secure clean sheet number 4 of the season. I think I might have a new favourite formation!

Back to the start, and to say Carrow Road wasn’t a happy hunting ground last season would be an understatement, but those ghosts are well and truly banished as my new penalty taker, Boa Morte makes no mistake, and Pinto gets his second goal in 4 games to make sure…

The balls are emptied from the velvet bags, and it’s Newcastle in the FA Cup…

Last up this week are 2nd-placed Ipswich, who will give the formation its first proper test. After keeping them at bay all match, they look to have won it from a corner in the 85th minute but thankfully it’s disallowed. No win, but a good point and another clean sheet…

So here’s the table. It might not look like any progress has been made, but we were as low as 9th at one point, and thanks to the new formation, we’ve kept 6 clean sheets in 7 games whilst still being the top scorers in the league, and have pulled ourselves right back into the playoffs race, so I’ll take that…

And here’s the squad. Muscat, Kubicki, The Frog and Bully are the only remaining non-Portuguese Men o’ Wolves now…

Join us next week as we look to continue this newly-found defensive solidity as we approach the business end of the season. There’s also that FA Cup visit from Newcastle to look forward to. Adeus!