Time for questions to be answered

Did they do enough in the summer? Was the faith in last season's Championship winners misguided? What happened to the players of Premier League experience Mick McCarthy wanted to recruit? Where now does owner Steve Morgan's bullish talk of 'not just making up the numbers' sit? And the most important question of all: Where do they go from here?

As much as there will be no knee-jerk reactions from the Molineux hierarchy in the wake of yesterday's disheartening derby with Birmingham, a firm and positive response from within the camp is urgently required to hold back the forces of criticism gathering to de-stabilise the regime of the 3Ms.

Those forces will have a point. In the joyous aftermath of promotion, Wolves fans were promised a club that would equip itself for the Premier League in a way which would ensure the team would not be "cannon fodder" this time around.

Six years after their first ill-starred attempt at bridging the gap between English football's top two tiers, McCarthy's Wolves are smack bang where Dave Jones's team were – second bottom – only with a point less and a further point distant from the safety line.

Nobody said it would be easy but this is, nevertheless, not what they had in mind and the contrast with Birmingham City yesterday only highlighted the difficulties now facing Wolves' governors.

Most obviously must be the lack of top-flight experience. Alex McLeish celebrated his second anniversary at St Andrew's yesterday and not only deserves a medal for sticking with it despite working for Karren Brady and David Sullivan but also for the trio of signings which have clearly fortified his team – Stephen Carr, Lee Bowyer and Barry Ferguson.

Wolves and McCarthy deserve huge commendation for replenishing their staff-list from the opposite end of the player market. But the combined Premier League knowledge of Messrs Kightly, Ebanks-Blake, Foley, Hennessey, Keogh, Henry et al would not add up to what this trio have forgotten. And it showed.

McCarthy started his summer programme declaring his intention to plug that gap – to specifically target an Ince and Irwin for this new era. For a combination of reasons, most obviously persuading such figures to come for a price that didn't shatter Wolves pay structures, that didn't really materialise.

Wolves took to the field yesterday for their most important game thus far with only three summer recruits involved. Goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann was making his first league appearance of the season; Greg Halford was taken off after 30 minutes; Kevin Doyle remains an obvious source of optimism but there is only so much he can do. Right now, it appears Wolves didn't make enough advances in the summer and are paying for it.

So where do they go from here? Obviously, January provides one last chance to change the club's personnel and we know that Wolves will be scouting around trying to find a couple of crusty old pros who could make the difference.

But luring them to jump aboard a ship already deemed to be sinking will now be even more difficult. And they have outlawed press-ganging; the only weapon with which you can club your targets over the head these days is a cheque book.

There is no need for abject despair. For a start, Wolves only have to finish 17th and that is still only four points away. Secondly, survival may be an immediate-term priority but it is only part of a long-term project which will have relegation and re-promotion, a strategy from which Albion have largely benefitted in the Noughties, factored in.

But Wolves are endeavouring to pursue this course in an era which does not encourage patience. Molineux began to turn yesterday, just as it did in McCarthy's second season. Will he be able to withstand a second wave of criticism remembering how cranky he got back then?

Questions, questions, questions. And Wolves need to find better answers than they did in the summer.