Those were the days my friend, we thought they would never end, we would sing and dance, forever and a day. It was funny coming out of Ashton gate with that feeling and it was familiar of course. Somewhere deep in the belly you remembered it and it kind of put a spring in your step and even the banterous bullshit City fans outside the ground were a bit taken aback with the vehement replies to their crap bars. The write up was a bit poor and I do apologise. Shaky Jake came round the next day laughing in his new groove. He’s been off Heroin now for eight weeks with my help and we are coming to a point in our relationship where he needs to know about the Wolves and what happened in Bristol. The fog is clearing a little and it’s the same with Wolves. Nuno is getting his shake on. Going mad in the Directors box. I point Jake to the Gif and I point him to his own victories. In my mind alone they go hand in hand. Both of them surmounting the odds to achieve some sort of relevance in a world that can crush and annihilate you in a second. A bad game would change Nunos zeitgeist and a visit from the Bailiffs did indeed change Jakes.

My cash supplies are down to £2.47p as I spent £8 in Bristol and Jake needed to get milk so now that last few vestiges of the cash society have withered away and gone but all is good and all is positive. If Nuno can survive this shit, if Jake can hide away his shakes then yeah. All is good.

Brentford I can truly say, ‘What is a Brentford?’. Do I have to castigate every team I write about? I had a great email from a Bristol City fan berating me for not mentioning one of their players in my last post. I didn’t even mention Lee Johnson either. But he was a bit confused as to why. It’s because I’m not interested in them as individuals or as a team. You truly are just another stop on the journey. Barreling through these towns I can see the fog of faces standing on the platforms but you all just blur into one and often I dont even look at you, I’m staring at my own reflection in the glass, wondering and pondering. Your journey doesn’t interest me. I’m done with forensically analysing team form and shape, how they have done over the past few weeks. Ignoring all the ‘they have done well this month’ talk. I couldn’t give a shit. You are a number and three points maybe. My heart has hardened.

I’m driving past Jakes and I see two arseholes in quasi military stab proof combat booted horribleness and I block their car in and get out.  One of them has a shit beard and soy protein tits. Jake is nowhere to be seen but his woman is in tears and I am angry. I want to kick these doughnuts around but they are camered up with funky Go-Pros. I ask one to take it off and come around the corner for a proper chat. Angry and stoic I suppose. Don’t be afraid. Nothing is won in anger I know but the season is now at that point where anger is palpable in the air and solid. But it’s time to think properly and be academic about things. I’m ready to kick off but afterwards when these doughnuts do get their money and after a load of abuse from me and the lads they go off into their little bitter existences. I find out afterwards there were things I could have done to alleviate the situation but I lost it.

So I stand with the dogs down the canal in the cold rain under Devils Elbow bridge and the dogs are sniffing invisible scents and the cold canal is clear and I can see beer cans, bottles, a bike frame, a microwave, a lone Perch and a dead Jack Pike. I see Brentford tonight and I don’t know who they are and I don’t care either. That rain is cold and we have to reign in our fire too. Not on the pitch. Our team are too professional to let the next few months bother them, maybe. Jota is becoming a machine. Saiss a leader. Boly a monument. Doherty grows with each game I see him. Bennett, how they castigated you at Norwich, how you have instilled new belief in yourself. Douglas a vision of the dead ball art. Neves unstoppable, dynamic, sensuous, a delight, a constant threat. Ruddy again believing, commanding. lithe and bald is indeed beautiful. Coady on that stairway to legendary status. I go through the whole team and I see no negativity in it, no angst. What will Brentford bring to this concept tonight? I’m not sure. How would you play against Wolves? Bristol City relelgated all ideas at one point and brough a hulking tower on for snotting. The ball arced over the midfield again and again. Lost ideas. Lee Johnsons concepts were lacking. 94th Minute and I still can’t talk now, a few days later.

One game blends into another but I will not waiver and lose it. My mind was set on the positive from the start of the season. I just chose to believe for once but not just that errant belief you have at the start of every season but a new belief. Always be positive. Never cuss a player. Never criticise during battle. Give your all every game. At Ashton Gate the Wolves fans behind that goal sucked the ball in with belief. If that ball was just placed on the centre spot with no players there our energy would have sucked that ball right into the netting. We must do the same every match we play. Are we the proverbial 12th man? No, we are the soul of the whole edifice of Wolverhampton Wanderers. What is our bonus for promotion? Zilch in monetary terms, it’s not going to pay that gas bill, the Virgin media bill, the demands from Severn Trent,  but in emotional release? Everything. Why do our emotions tangle up with Nunos celebrations? Because he is us, he is our edifice and our monument too, for now at least. Our empathy is complete with him now, his journey is also our journey, our footballing DNA wrapped up with his. Did you see Jeff? Do you understand the courage and bravery he showed in running up those steps to Nuno. to stand by him as if Nuno was going to be attacked? Do you realise he broke one of the central tenets of Chinese business ethics in an outpouring of emotion?

Do not listen to negativity I plead with you all. Don’t worry about anything. This whole concept of the Nuno-Jeff-Us merry-go-round is starting to enter it’s last conclusions whatever anybody says. Nuno is right, nothing is won in January but we have won one thing already and that’s the belief that we can actually do it and that my friends is a priceless thing in the months to come. Hang in there Brothers and Sisters and those that aren’t sure. Be strong and carry on believing. Oh yeah. Fuck Brentford.