Bully Bites Back with Steve Bull

Wolves legend Steve Bull gives it to you straight in his weekly column and believes that two Sunday wins on the spin could add a fresh impetus to get stuck into 2010.

Happy New Year - and that FA Cup win at Tranmere certainly got 2010 off to a good start for Wolves supporters.

I must be honest and admit that, before the match, I'd have quite happily settled for a draw. Prenton Park is a tough, tough place to go and get a result – I speak from experience! Supporters who remember back to the 1990's will recall that John Aldridge nearly always seemed to score against us whenever we went up there.

Trying to view the match via a live internet feed which kept breaking up did not make matters any easier, either. I don't know how you watched it at home, but we tried running the computer through our Wii to try to improve things, so that we could watch it on our TV screen, like a normal televised match. But I was delighted that, every time we put the various wires and plugs back in, it was still goalless!

I did manage to get a clear view of Matt Jarvis's terrible first-half miss and was amazed when our household when I predicted he would go on and score the winner. With my form in the betting stakes so far this season, I should have put some money on that!

All things considered, I spent the majority of the match watching the action through my fingers but was delighted to see us rack up a deserved and timely victory. After what happened at Old Trafford, everybody's first instinct was to look at Mick McCarthy's line-up but our boss is an 'old school' manager who takes the FA Cup seriously.

With Manchester United having already been knocked out, quite a few clubs will now think they might be in with a great chance of appearing at Wembley.

Wolves are nowhere near that stage yet but are entitled to think that home to Crystal Palace is a winnable tie. The fact Neil Warnock is their manager will add a bit of extra spice, but wes really should be able to beat a mid-table Championship side at Molineux.

A similarly kind fifth round draw would then see us only 90 minutes away from a quarter-final. So I think that the events of last weekend have already answered the question of whether the cup might prove to be of little more than a distraction to Wolves this season.

If it hadn't been for that cup-tie on Merseyside, Wolves would be heading into their next crucial couple of Premier League matches on the back of two straight defeats.

As it is, we can all now approach our weekend trip to Upton Park to face West Ham with confidence, having just won our last tricky away game. Our manager can take quite a bit of pride from those two Premier League performances over the Christmas period too.

I felt that we held Liverpool very well on Boxing Day and the Reds got a couple of lucky breaks, just as the home crowd were starting to get on their players' backs. Maybe it just goes to show how far we've come in quite a short time when our supporters are disappointed not to take at least a point from Anfield.

If we were unfortunate at Liverpool, Wolves were desperately unlucky on quite a few occasions at home to Manchester City. The incident which led to City's 'killer' second goal was clearly offside and it was no wonder that Mick was so furious.

That successfully-converted free-kick for 2-0 made the game safe for City, just when it seemed Wolves might force their way back into it. But it is worth remembering that Jody Craddock has scored a couple this campaign that have been equally dodgy and that these things tend to even themselves out over a full season.

Two wins over the next couple of games could go a long way towards achieving Premier League safety and I'm certain Mick will be looking for six points from West Ham away and Wigan at home. I know that our manager has tinkered occasionally with either five players in defence or midfield, but it wouldn't surprise me if he went for a straight 4-4-2 on Sunday.

I would imagine that his team-talk will be something along the lines of 'West Ham are a pretty good team and we've got to treat them with respect. But if we can win in London at Tottenham then we're certainly good enough to beat this lot today!'

It is absolutely vital – just taking a quick glance at the league table – that we gain some form of result at Upton Park and keep the East Londoners firmly locked in the bottom three. I'm convinced this Wolves side is good enough to do it.

That's despite the fact we don't have what you'd call a prolific centre-forward in our ranks at the moment. Which makes these two upcoming league matches – with Wigan following the next Saturday – all the more crucial.

If we win both and shoot back up the table, it would make Wolves a much more attractive proposition to any proven Premier League striker presently 'umming' and 'ahhing' over a move to Molineux.

Mick's not a manager who likes to do his transfer dealings via the newspapers, so take it from me that despite the fact things might presently look a little quiet at Molineux, our manager is well and truly in business during this January window.

And I happen to think his transfer record at Wolves has been a pretty good one so far.

BULLY'S BETS FOR THE WEEK: -

My heart tells me that Wolves can win at West Ham on Sunday, but my head tells me that a draw would also be a good result.

So I'll go for a compromise in tipping Nenad Milijas to score the game's first goal – at a generous 14/1 at Sportingbet.com – but with the final score finishing at 1-1, which is an 11/2 chance.

For a whole host of money can't buy opportunities and more Wolves bets than anyone else, just log on to www.sportingbet.com/wolves