Blog: It sure is nice to be feeling good about Wolves again

Let's face it, as a club our glory days as far as the top echelons of English football are concerned are in the past.

Many love nothing more than to relive the days when we were the Greatest Team in the World™ in the 1950s.

And of course this weekend is a pertinent one, with it being 40 years since our 1974 League Cup triumph over Lee, Law, Marsh et al.

Since the 1980 success in the same competition, however, it's been slim pickings on the nostalgia front – bad news if you're a 28-year-old Wolverhampton lad with a penchant for supporting your local team through thick and thin.

Not that I'm bitter.

My misty-eyed nostalgia extends to a plucky 1-1 draw at Everton being a 'pretty good day once', the skid-mark 1992 Goodyear kit being a 'fashion accessory' and Darren Simkin being a right-back of 'real potential'.

False dawns, there've been a few, from Graham Taylor's swashbuckling attackers of the early 1990s – crippled by injuries and a John McGinlay right hook away from a play-off final – to Mick McCarthy's maturing young guns of 2011-12, when a season which promised so much turned into a Black Country-based apocalypse.

But I wonder, I do wonder, if we'll look back on the current gold and black crop with nostalgia of a genuine gold glow.

When a team is gunning for a club record, it certainly hints at such, and after a sticky first half to the season where results and performances didn't tally, it seems everything's coming up roses for Kenny Jackett.

We're playing with a verve and swagger not previously seen from a young squad still finding their feet in professional football.

And that's a huge testament to the squad Jackett has moulded in such a short space of time that we're even challenging for promotion.

You can yell "w'im a big club we am" as loud as you like, but we have absolutely no right to win this division.

Leeds United and Nottingham Forest – multiple title winners and European Cup finalists – each spent three years in League One, and both Sheffield clubs has struggled desperately at this level.

Throw in a disenchanted squad who were about as happy as the photographer who got the gig of having to follow a half-naked Simon Cowell walking a Chihuahua in a park, and Jackett's task was enormous.

The notable and striking thing about this season has been the consistent success of Jackett's signings.

Each and every one of one of them – save the yet to be properly tested Leon Clarke – has made a valuable and telling contribution during the campaign.

It's a unique feat and vindicates the decision to give a man with years of experience at this level the manager's job.

Michael Jacobs and James Henry in particular look like bargain buys who will flourish at a higher level.

But the brave decision to discard with Kevin Doyle and top scorer Leigh Griffiths at a key juncture of the season took real guts and looks like paying off.

Nouha Dicko's signing hardly set the pulse racing but he's exactly the type of player we needed – someone to hold the line with strength, power, pace and an eye for goal.

He looks a real find and seems to have helped revitalise Bakary Sako.

But it's the success of three local academy lads – Jack Price, Carl Ikeme and Danny Batth – which really warms the heart.

Price in particular displays a remarkable composure and an assuredness which belies his youth.

To be honest, he had me at the beard, but Price has the potential – and the word potential must be stressed for someone with so few appearances under his belt (David Davis springs to mind here) to anchor our midfield for a while to come.

Consistency, that word again, has been key to this season run, as in consistency of selection.

For the first half of the season there was so much chopping and changing, particularly in midfield, that the side just never had a settled look.

But the addition of Jacobs has allowed Jackett to dispense with 4-4-2 without sacrificing any attacking intent.

March will be the make-or-break month with games coming thick and fast and there is the worry that a couple of injuries will set us back.

And after the last two seasons, you won't find anyone getting ahead of themselves on or off the terraces.

But come on, admit it, this may be League One but it sure is nice to be feeling good about Wolves again.

And in 20 years time, maybe even nostalgic.