Adrian Chiles has it right - it's the hope that kills you

Agreeing with supporters on the dark side is not something I choose to make a habit of, writes Wolves blogger Tim Spiers.

But I reckon, er, Adrian, er, Chiles – aka the jammiest git in showbiz – had it just about right when he said: "For football fans, it's the hope that kills you."

Or words to that effect.

Hope is something there isn't too much of around Molineux at the moment after a downright soul destroying run of eight defeats from the last 10 league games.

Back in August, though, hope was there in abundance after we swept to victory in our opening two matches in the manner of an actual Premier League-standard team.

I wrote a blog after the Fulham win saying how I'd never known things to be so good in my entire Wolves-supporting lifetime.

Well they say a week is a long time in football but those heady summer days seem like at least two ice ages ago, such is the perilous position we now occupy in the table.

Off the field too, things have changed for the worse, with falling attendances rendering the redevelopment of the Steve Bull stand far from certain, leaving us with the possibility of Molineux looking "awful" – Jez Moxey's verdict, not mine.

But it's the team's woeful form which is the most concerning aspect for the here and now, especially ahead of such a vital run of three home games against Sunderland, Stoke and Norwich.

Just like Sunderland supporters are probably thinking, it really wasn't meant to be this way.

Which brings me back to hope and, more specifically, expectations, for it seems that's what did for Steve Bruce this week.

I'm not sure if supporter expectations really were that lofty at Molineux during pre-season.

The general consensus seemed to be that we were quietly confident of avoiding relegation and perhaps pushing for mid-table if the team clicked – no more than that.

Traditionally Wolves fans are accused of raising expectations unnecessarily, but in this case it was the manager and the players who managed it for us.

Unusually for him Mick McCarthy was rather bullish before the season began, saying a top 10 finish was achievable – a claim he surprisingly repeated ahead of the Wigan game last month.

It wasn't just the manager though, with players including Jamie O'Hara and Roger Johnson repeating this assertion.

Nothing wrong with aiming high of course and two wins from those Blackburn and Fulham games seemed to justify that confidence.

But it wasn't just the six-point tally, it was the manner of the victories – plus the clinical disembowelling of Northampton in the Carling Cup - which was so promising.

And in the same vein it has been the manner of our two latest defeats, not the fact we've been beat away at Everton and Chelsea, which have created despondency.

Losing to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge is nothing to be ashamed of, whether you're Wolverhampton Wanderers or Barcelona.

But there's a right way to lose and a wrong way to lose and on Saturday we went down the latter route.

I'm not just talking about the schoolboy standard of defending for the home team's goals either.

I'm talking about the total lack of urgency in our play, the fact some players were on autopilot for 90 minutes and the apparent absence of passion and fight.

To use a well-worn McCarthy maxim, they turned us over and tickled our bellies.

Work rate – yep that was there in abundance. Those boys will chase shadows all day long.

But closing opponents and reaching loose balls first? Nope, it's just not happening at the moment, not by a long way.

This is not the Wolves team we've become accustomed to in the McCarthy era and the Chelsea game was by no means the first time we've seen this in 2011-12.

We're desperately struggling for any kind of form and consistency – other than consistently losing – and the manager is making haphazard decisions, seemingly without a settled formation or gameplan.

This comes despite a lack of injury problems and indeed before Saturday I believe we had the most ever-presents in the Premier League.

You can look at the table and argue that we're not in the relegation zone, or that we're two points and two places better off than we were this time last season.

But, as the man at the helm has said, 17th place is not what we're aiming for.

Taking small steps and improving season on season is fine as long as it's clear that progress is being made, slowly but surely.

I thought we did make progress last season, scoring more goals and winning more points in an undoubtedly tougher league than a year earlier.

And this was the season to kick on, as McCarthy no doubt steadfastly believed we would by placing such trust in his squad and bringing in just two fresh acquisitions.

However that loyalty is not being repaid and at the moment the manager looks clueless as how to reverse the trend.

No doubt he's dismayed by the form of Roger Johnson, the man designed to be the one to finally shore up our perpetually leaky defence.

But he needs to work out how to arrest the slide and make sure that this run of results is as bad as it gets this season.

We could be coming up to a precipice as far as the season goes, as well as the off the field redevelopment, as happened this time last year.

With all this big talk of a top 10 finish – and remember Jez Moxey thinks we should be aiming for the top five in the long haul – we could be about to fall flat on our faces.

However, time is on our side and we have the opportunity to turn things around with these three winnable games from four fixtures, just like in 2009 when sandwiched by a defeat at Old Trafford we galvanised our season by beating Spurs, Burnley and Bolton.

There will be no excuses for another inhibited performance this Sunday, new Sunderland manager or not.

Live or die, sink or swim – it's over to you Mick.