Tchatchoua won’t be feeling too crash-hot right now; making him feel worse is in nobody’s interests.
Fan columnist John Lalley pens his regular Wolves article.
By any criteria, Jackson Tchatchoua’s startling clanger at St Andrew’s is destined for a substantial stint in the memory bank.
Interminable television replays and hysterical belly-laughs; inexplicable, extravagantly comical but for Wolves fans, anything but amusing.
Predictably the volume of criticism has been substantial and unstinting and any plea in mitigation will likely fall on deaf ears.
Many reckon Tchatchoua’s position in the squad is now rendered untenable; he has faced huge scepticism almost from the day he arrived and in truth his input, to express it in the kindest terms, has been a trifle sketchy.
But fans seeking the comfort of a lynching would be wise to exercise a measure of restraint.
If and when he is selected in any upcoming games, he will need some unconditional support, besides to blame all the woes on one player’s inadequacy for the failure to beat Birmingham is simplistic and wholly inaccurate.
Wolves spectators have often been identified by outsiders as impatient and quick to voice dissatisfaction and worse still, outright disdain when they identify perceived weakness.
This discontent can and does occur at every other ground but there have been some egregious examples over the years at Molineux.
Following the club for so long, nothing has depressed me more than on the occasions a section of our fans turn their ire on one of our own.
It’s embarrassing, cringingly uncomfortable and more often than not wholly inappropriate.
Nothing remotely positive is achieved, it simply stirs up bitterness, rancour and division.
I first witnessed the phenomenon seeing Alan Hinton being scapegoated in the early sixties; he left Wolves, won a Championship medal under Brian Clough and became acknowledged as one of the finest orthodox wingers of his generation.
A few years later, John Holsgrove on the receiving end, responded with a double-digit Churchillian salute and I didn’t blame him either such was the unfairness of the abuse.
Mind you, around the same time, the Holsgrove spat was rendered insignificant compared with the withering tirade directed at goalkeeper Alan Boswell.
He struggled at First Division level and to say that he was made aware of his shortcomings is to interpret events somewhat mildly; unmitigated derision, horrible to witness.
In more recent times, Keith Andrews and Stephen Ward were illogically targeted.
Even club legend Mike Bailey was absurdly barracked late in his magnificent career by a misguided minority.
Tchatchoua won’t be feeling too crash-hot right now; making him feel worse is in nobody’s interests.