Bom Dia! Welcome to the season one finale at Estadio Molineux, where Nick and his Portuguese Wolves are just in the playoff spots after a mixed season so far. They’ll need a strong finish for a shot at promotion at the first attempt. Can they do it?…

Here’s how things stand with 13 games to go. We’re just inside the playoff spots by a point. Stoke have a game in hand on us, but we still have to play them, as well as Sheffield Utd, Sunderland Norwich, Forest, Reading and Charlton, but let’s take it one game at a time.

We start at home to Oxford, where Coelho and Cavaco put us two to the good. There are a few close shaves, but we make it to half time unscathed, and Coelho wraps it up with 10 minutes to go, to cap a solid win and clean sheet to get this week off to the perfect start.

My head is literally in my hands when we give away a penalty after a lacklustre 80 minutes at The Valley against Charlton, but if one thing has defined us this season, it’s been late goals, and help arrives in the form of a Coelho brace to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat…

For f*ck sake…

Tranmere beat us last time, so I really want to win this one. We pile on the pressure and go ahead, but Segers is sent off and then they turn things around within 3 minutes. Coelho levels, and although Simonsen’s up to his old tricks, Pinto gets the winner. Sweet revenge!

The Frog hops to it and gives us an instant lead at Reading, but despite another 10 shots, we can’t build on our lead before half time. We continue dominating in the 2nd half but a man of the match performance from their keeper keeps it at 1-0. Wins is wins is wins I s’pose…

Segers is suspended, so Carlos starts in goal against Stockport. We’re off the mark thanks to an own goal, and Coelho gets his 32nd goal this season to make it 2-0. Stockport fire their Gannon to get back in it, and despite a late flurry of chances for us, it finishes 2-1…

The next run of games will make or break our season, starting with 2nd-placed Sunderland. We’ve quietly been going about our business and are unbeaten in nine games, winning the last six, so at least we’re in good form for it…

Bully gets us started, but the Black Cats start to purr, and kick our Arce, as they hit four goals in a row. Despite the score, we have plenty of chances but can’t put them away until Coelho finally finds the net with 12 minutes left. Tony Coton won’t have many better games…

We start Terribly at Huddersfield, as Trevor Steven rolls back the years, but we battle back and go in for half time in front. The second half is end-to-end, but it’s us who take the lead as Bully smashes one home and then Luís Fernando comes off the bench to seal the deal.

Revenge is on the agenda against Norwich. Bully fires us ahead but has to wait until the hour for his second. After a goal a piece, the visitors strike again to make it a nervy last 15, but Kubicki makes sure. Can you hear the canaries sing? I can’t hear a f*cking thing…

Next is a Monday night trip to Bramall Lane. Pinto is back, although Dougie had an 8/10 in midfield last match. We’re the better team right up until the hour, when we then proceed to just roll over and let The Blades cut right through us. We never just lose 1-0, do we?

Really not good news…

A draw at home to Stoke will be enough to secure a playoff spot. It’s a drab first half, with just one shot on target from both teams combined, but it’s a different story in the second, and we come to life to give ourselves a shot at promotion. Dare we dream?!

Bully and Dougie open the scoring in the second Black Country derby. Pinto makes it three and The Albion pull one back, but lose their keeper for fouling Bully, who dispatches the penalty himself to seal an emphatic win.

The Haymaker puts Swindon ahead, but Dougie gets us back in it. We keep knocking on the door and have two goals disallowed before Bully Boy makes it 3rd time lucky and grabs the winner with 5 minutes remaining…

No matter how well we’re playing, we’re still capable of throwing in a stinker now and then, and we do just that at Forest, who sweep us aside with relative ease as our season ends in defeat. At least the result hasn’t cost us.

So here’s the final table. Birmingham leapfrog us into 5th, but it doesn’t really matter, and we’re comfortably inside the playoff spots. We finish joint top scorers with table toppers Sheff Utd, but 79 goals conceded is a real problem, but that’s the gamble of the 2-3-1-2-2…

Our efforts win us £475k and a semi final date with pre-billionaire days City…

Straight to the first leg we go. We fly out of the traps and find ourselves 3-0 up at half time after a Kit Symons own goal and a Bully brace. I expect a City backlash in the second half, but we carry on dominating, as The Frog makes it four, and Bully completes his hat trick. It’s a fantastic result, but the job’s only half done.

Hopefully we don’t need any late goals…

The second leg rolls around. City start brightly and we’re behind inside a quarter of an hour. But that’s as good as it gets for them, thanks to Segers, who pulls off a string of fine saves to keep them out. We’re going to Wem-ber-ley!

Where we’ll face Boro, who saw off Birmingham in the other semi…

The big day arrives, and I optimistically check their squad, hoping that some key men are injured or suspended, but no such luck.

It’s the worst possible start, and we’re behind after 5 minutes. We miss a glorious chance on the stroke of half time, only to see them to go straight up the other end and make it 2-0. Bully gives us hope on the hour, but it’s just not our day in the end and we’ll have to it all over again next season. F*********ck!!!

So that’s season one done, and we couldn’t have come much closer to promotion at the first time of asking. It’s disappointing, but hopefully this experience will make the boys more determined than ever next season.

Join me next week as I look to offload some of the deadwood and see what Jorgey Boy can bring in for me over the summer in preparation for season two. Adeus!

Bom Dia! and welcome back to Molineux, where after a great start, Nick and his increasingly-Portuguese Wolves squad have slipped out of the playoff spots after a few bad results. Can they bounce back as they near the halfway point of the season?

Here’s the current state of play. We’re a point outside the playoff spots after a terrible end to last week, where we suffered four consecutive defeats. There is however a 10-point gap between us and 9th place, so it could be worse. Let’s hope for better things this week…

We start at Stoke with our best performance in a while (the bar is low). There’s a Thorne between two Bully goals, and a man of the match display from big Neville Southall, but today is our day, and we can even afford to miss a penalty. Just what the doctor ordered.

Time for our first Black Country derby against struggling West Brom. Bully gets us off the mark and Sérgio doubles our lead before The Albion show that they’re still in the Hunt. Our defence stands firm and we secure the local bragging rights. Back-to-back wins send us 4th.

We’re not content with a three-goal lead at Swindon, and let them score two in as many minutes just to make it interesting. Thankfully, The Frog and a second for Bully give us more daylight before a late Ndah consolation. And just like that, we’re back up to 2nd!

And then Forest remind us that we’re not out of the woods just yet. It’s no surprise that Van Hooijdonk buries his first chance, although it’s only his 6th goal this season. By the time The Frog gets a consolation, the damage is already done, and we sit 4th at the halfway point.

So, back to the start we go. The Tractor Boys are clearly out for revenge, and they’re in front just before half time. Richard Wright does what Richard Wright does, but Dougie is on target half an hour earlier than normal and the points are shared, probably a fair result.

A few wins are enough to get me back in the board’s good books, for now…

The squad was full, but we’re in desperate need of a central midfielder. I’ve been rotating Cavaco, Dougie and Bully in that position up until now, but with no success, so I pay £28k to release Don Goodman, and then fill his space with this lad from Pacos Ferreira for £600k.

Pinto goes straight into the side and assists two of our three goals in a pathetic performance at 2nd-from-bottom Bury. Adie Mike really is starting to get on my tits now. I expect the board to say abysmal result, but they decide the best punishment is to say nothing at all…

I’d like to take a quick break from the action just to say that never in my 27 years of playing this game have I ever seen Sol Campbell sign for Aston Villa, and for such a low fee as well…

Back to it, and we lead Bradford from the spot against the run of play after riding an early storm, and Bully makes it two before The Bantams deservedly pull one back. We look to have thrown another lead away, but Coelho channels his inner Dougie to snatch the points.

The Frog puts us ahead at lowly Crewe, and is our best player on the pitch until he gets injured and then they equalise. We waste chance after chance and inevitably pay the price and go behind. Dougie rescues a point from the bench, but it’s still a shite result. Boo.

I’ll admit I saw this coming, and it makes our win at the Riverside seem like a fluke. That said, we have 9 shots on target but there’s just no beating Mark Schwarzer today. Despite the hammering, there’s one man who remains unfazed and resumes his business as usual…

After our less-than-consistent league form, the FA Cup comes as a welcome distraction. I make a couple of changes, but it makes no difference whatsoever, and it’s another 90 minutes of wastefulness up front and dire defending as The Blades cut us to ribbons and send us out.

City are similarly unsympathetic, with 29 shots at our goal. We get a couple back in quick succession, including a first of the season for Luís Fernando, but the gap is just too big. As a certain Mr. Pochettino said not too long ago… “When we are bad, we’re so, so bad”…

We’re immediately down to ten men against QPR, and are more than a tad fortunate after they have not one, but two goals disallowed, so a draw doesn’t seem like the worst result considering the circumstances. On the positive side, it’s our first clean sheet in 16 games… 16!

Bobby Gould actually resigned from the Wales job in this save, rather than giving the Welsh FA the usual satisfaction of sacking him, so it’s nice to see him back in management, even if he couldn’t have picked a worse club to join…

We end the year with our first win in 6 games at Port Vale as Bully and Coelho get the new year celebrations underway. It’s also a good day at the other end as we keep our 2nd clean sheet in a row! The win takes us back into the playoff spots. Could things be on the up at last?

We lead early in the West Midlands derby, until Birmingham, who are also in playoff contention, turn the game on its head with half an hour left. But late goals are our forte, and we catch them up on the final Furlong to make it a Desmond and earn a valuable point.

We’re instantly behind at Fratton Park, and have to wait until almost the hour before Coelho scores for the third game running, and Pinto gets the winner 2 minutes later. It’s a good win all things considered, and it keeps us in the playoff spots with 13 games remaining.

So we end the week a place better off than where we started it. We’re 4 points adrift from Birmingham above us, and a point ahead of Stoke below us. The Potters do have a game in hand on us, but we still have to play them again yet towards the end of the season…

Do come back next week for the season finale, where we face a tough run of games including the top two, Sheffield United and Sunderland, and the two below us, Stoke and Norwich, which should be fun. We must finish strongly if we’re to stand any chance of getting into the Premier League at the first attempt. Adeus!