Wolves blog: Nuno’s battlers are just one game away

In fact, the job could be done on Saturday evening if Fulham fail to beat London rivals Brentford.

And if Cardiff don’t win against Norwich, that will open up Sunday’s Molineux showdown as a Championship-winning decider.

It’s been a long season, with a couple of downs but, on the whole, enormously positive.

Not just in the league – Wolves displayed a valiant effort at the Etihad against Man City, taking them to penalties with our second string eleven.

Scoring nine goals in the space of two home games in November against Leeds and Bolton, destroying Aston Villa at Molineux, and keeping 21 clean sheets have been great highlights.

But the most dramatic moments have come away, at Bristol City, Middlesbrough and Cardiff – three away wins managed in the most unlikely of scenarios.

Ten-man Wolves were poor for much of the game against Bristol, before their keeper was sent off and the resulting free kick scored, turning the tide before THAT Ryan Bennett header which led to one of two superb Nuno-based GIF images being created as he celebrated wildly from his position in the stand, having been sent off.

Wolves had not beaten Middlesbrough away for generations but looked comfortable at 2-0 before two red cards led to the Alamo-style defending dubbed the ‘Battle of Boro’, and a 2-1 victory.

Cardiff away last weekend was to this Wolves team what Derby away was to the 2009 champions – no mathematical guarantee of promotion, but effectively this was the game that sealed it.

People were sat in shock after seeing Cardiff fail from the spot twice in the depths of injury time to hold onto a 1-0 win that saw Nuno race onto the pitch and caused Neil Warnock’s name to spike on Twitter trends.

If Wolves can achieve their goal this weekend they can enjoy the final three games as celebrations and a goodbye to a league all Wolves fans will be hoping they never have to experience again, as Wolves look to hit new heights as a force in football.

We were told as Nuno arrived that he had been criticised for a lack of passion in previous jobs – he must obviously really love it at Wolves, the amount of vigour he shows every week.

It makes it all the sweeter when you see a manager enjoying a win as much as us in the stands – he is desperate to succeed and he must be delighted with the relationship he has built here.

What can you say about his star player, Ruben Neves – his performances in recent games have been as good as they can get.

After his world-class looping shot went into the top corner against Derby, it felt like game over – nothing could top that, so both teams seemed to call it at 2-0 there and then.

He is a player who has exceeded even the expectations of a £15 million player with his passing, tackling and presence – and to score six sensational goals and only have had a handful of touches in the opposition box is testament to a player who is on his way to the very top.

One of the mantras of this season has been to ‘do it for Carl’, our stricken goalkeeper – they are almost there.