Bully Bites with Steve Bull

Wolves legend Steve Bull gives it to you straight in his weekly column and pinpoints the weapons in the team that can fire the club up the table.

Maybe I saw a different match from a lot of the Press boys last Sunday, but I couldn't believe some of what I read in Monday morning's newspapers.

Words like 'rout' and 'thrashing' were being used to describe Wolves' 5-2 loss at Sunderland, but I thought that it was a very close game for 75 to 80 minutes. Not every defeat is a disgrace - far from it. Because, at 2-2, I really did think that we were going to go on and win.

Let's also not forget that it took an awful lot of guts, commitment and character to peg Sunderland back to 2-2, or the fact that Wolves were on the receiving end of quite a few really dubious refereeing decisions.

But, nonetheless, I guess that this Saturday's match at home to Portsmouth will be described as a 'six-pointer' or a 'must-win.' I think maybe quite rightly, because both Wolves and Pompey will be operating in the same division, this season – by which I mean the lower half of the Premier League – and we need to try and take three points from those matches, especially at home.

Portsmouth might be both rock-bottom and without a point to their name, but I saw enough in their last match, at home to Everton, to suggest that Saturday is going to be no easy game. They should have got at least a point from that fixture, Paul Hart's team really didn't deserve to lose.

I suppose that this upcoming game is a clash of two teams in transition, really - because Portsmouth are desperately trying to steady their ship after selling Peter Crouch and Co during the summer, while Wolves are still trying to mould a number of new faces into their Championship-winning team of last season.

Wolves have got an excellent chance of winning at home on Saturday but I still think that they'll concede at least one goal, unfortunately. That's not because I think that we've got a particularly dodgy defence or an error-prone goalkeeper, just because the quality of finishing at this Premier League level is so very high.

Even tiny mistakes tend to get punished by some of the supposed 'smaller' sides. Just ask anyone at Chelsea after their defeat at Wigan last week! That's why I'm sure that Wolves boss Mick McCarthy will have had all his forwards practising their shooting and finishing all this week.

Because even though we scored two goals at the Stadium Of Light last Sunday – and that really should have been enough to have secured at least a draw away from home – it really could and should have been many more, considering the number of chances that we created.

In my experience, by the way, shooting and finishing are two very different types of training drills. Shooting practise was about striking the ball as hard as possible from 20 or 25 yards – sometimes for hours at a time.

Finishing practise was very different - about bagging 'cheap' goals from inside the six-yard box, learning various different tricks and techniques for beating a goalkeeper from close range.

The Wolves player most likely to score that type of poacher's goal is Kevin Doyle. I've been really impressed by him recently, he's more than justifying that big transfer fee from over the summer.

In fact, I was saying to some friends of mine recently that I feel Doyle is one of the few members of Wolves' squad who could comfortably play for Manchester United. Speaking of United, I'd say the player that Kevin most reminds me of at that moment is Michael Owen.

But, as I well know, goalscoring is often about striking partnerships rather than individuals, and Andy Mutch was absolutely crucial to my early success with Wolves. We were a bit of an 'odd couple' because, with me being from Tipton and him from Liverpool, we often couldn't understand each other! But we did have a great understanding on the field of play.

Without even looking up, sometimes, I knew where he was going to be, or the space that he'd be running into. That communication between us was worth dozens of goals a season.

What both Doyle and Wolves need to discover is exactly the right kind of striking partner for him – and I'm hoping that might turn out to be Sylvan Ebanks-Blake.

But what makes the situation difficult is the fact that they're going to have to try and make their partnership prosper, while possibly playing under pressure.

That's no easy task, but maybe I'm old-school in my attitude to it, because I think that if you can't step up to the plate and perform under those kinds of circumstances then maybe you shouldn't be a professional footballer.

Whatever combination is picked to start for Wolves on Saturday, it's crucial that they take their chances. One of the many things that's changed in football since the days when I was playing is that fact that, while 20 years ago a centre-forward might get six or seven good chances to score in each match, these days – and particularly in this division – it's probably down to only two or three, at most.

Top-flight football really is totally different from how it was even comparatively recently – the quality of the defending, passing and playing surfaces is just so much better. In fact, the only thing that the 'old' and 'new' eras have in common is the fact that each match lasts for 90 minutes.

Or 1997, if you're playing Manchester United.

BULLY'S BETS OF THE WEEK

My money this weekend is going on both a 3-0 or 3-1 home win at Molineux, which are both 20/1 at Sportingbet.com I'm not sure if Ebanks-Blake will start, but if that's looking likely, him scoring the first goal at 4/1 is another great shout.

Go to sportingbet.com/wolves for more Wolves bets than anyone else, and to win match tickets and money-can't-buy experiences.