Minority Report - Wolves

I am, for now, going to ignore the elephant in the room because I want to concentrate on things that are controllable. We have lost 5 players in the last month. They were vital cogs in our machine, in our organisation and structure. You cannot take that many players out without some effect on organisation. We had some good individuals on the night. Scowen did the running of three men. Williams had his best game since he returned to the club. McDonald and Roberts did little wrong. But we were not the same team because there were gaps in our organisation. Wolves first two goals came from set pieces, something we have been strong on all season long. However, instead of Conor Hourihane marking the space at the near post, we had the diminutive Mowatt. I have no intention of judging him on today’s performance, but one thing is for certain, he is not going to grow six inches overnight. Clearly, someone else should have been doing that job, but who? Scowen? Williams? Hammill? Kent? Against Wolves, we were short on height, and I get the feeling that it may not be the last occasion that I say that this season.

Of course, we switched to 4-4-1-1 and many will question the reason why. Well, my guess is the James had not recovered sufficiently from his first 90 minutes in a long time at Rotherham. That left us with Scowen plus one of Mowatt, Williams or Moncur. For me, they are all players who are currently more suited to a five in midfield, which leaves just one up front. Armstrong offers us nothing defensively at set pieces, so the choice is either Watkins or Bradshaw as the lone forward, and there is nothing between them. If the above list of midfield players is ever to play in a four, then there is undoubtedly a lot of work to do.

By the time Mowatt was sent off, we were already 2-0 in arrears and the game was already as good as lost. Mowatt did some good things, his passing was sound and the system allowed him to get into the box to bring out a good save from their keeper, but he is small and that will force change upon us. Evans who also made his home debut was not close enough to the winger at times, and he tired noticeably in the second half, but given that he was forced to play out of position, and for 50 minutes with only ten players, I thought he did OK.

Now for the elephant in the room. Regular readers of my thoughts will know that I am reluctant to discuss referees. They are a necessary evil. However, Mr Kavanagh found himself the centre of attention, which is always a bad place if you are a referee. First of all, let me say right away, I do not think that his decisions affected the result. However, I think that we must go through the major incidents one by one. Sadly, he was right to send off Mowatt. He was out of control, he injured their player and it might have been worse. He is young and he will learn. Their player was also out of control but he got to the ball first and did not make contact with Mowatt. The Wolves penalty was a total mess from beginning to end and he looked stupid when he had to change his decision after lengthy consultations with his assistant, but he does at least get some credit for having the courage to change his mind. He was right to send Hecky to the stand. As soon as a coach leaves his designated area, he is in the wrong. The scuffle over the delay in returning the ball to Scowen is for the referee to sort out. I have no doubt that Hecky was annoyed at the delay of the game, but he must control himself. Following McDonalds treatment, the ball was returned to Davies, who handled the ball 5 yards outside his box, without punishment. Oh dear me! The seven yard wall at the end just made the ref look very silly, but the game was over, anyway. There were lots of other incidents, which all had the effect of pressurising the boiler, but these were the major incidents. He did not control the game and the losses of temper on both sides were entirely his fault because he lost the confidence of the players of both sides.

 

Fair assessment. The ref was poor but I don't think it affected the result. We lost because we couldn't defend set pieces and Mowatt got himself sent off.

I thought Wolves were woeful. A hoof ball team even against 10 men. A real opportunity missed.

 

Completely agree. I thought the coaching staff were extremely remiss in not spotting the problems caused by having Mowatt at the front post, and it wasn't sp much his lack of height as it looked to me like he just didn't fancy putting his head on the ball. Hamill would have comfortably cleared the ball for the second goal in particular. I was partly relieved when he was sent off as it seemed like the only way we were going to make a change to the defensive organisation.

I'm pretty furious with Mowatt. When you have three games in a week and an extremely shoestring squad thanks to our limited transfer activity, the last thing you need is an hour of extra running on heavy ground with ten players, plus being needlessly deprived of a player for three further matches. I hope he is mature enough to reflect that he has badly let us down tonight

 

He's tweeted an apology but will need to show the apology on the pitch.

 

I think we changed our game to combat a very limited Wolves side confused ourselves and completely overcomplicated matters leaving a mishmash of tactics and misunderstanding. And of course we always lose when we play with one striker it's the law.

 

As ever, I agree with much of the minority report. But I would question the assertion that the referee's decisions didn't affect the result. I don't think there was any bias or malice in Mr Kavanagh's performance, but when a referee delivers such an inept performance, one side will usually have the worst of the decisions. The free kick that led to the corner that led to the first goal was quesionable, to say the least. From that goal going in, we were on the back foot. There were then a series of over-physical challenges which impeded our progress and slowed our counter-attacking. The lenience of Mr Kavanagh set the tone and the Wolves' players took full advantage. Our natural game was hindered and we struggled to counter the physical approach of our opponents. Whether that frustration contributed to Mowatt's rush of blood is difficult to say categorically, but Mowatt, as an experienced professional should have known better. I too hope and believe that he will learn. The numerous free kicks taken from the wrong position, the farcical seven yard wall and the obliviousness to Davies' absent-mindedness when he carried the ball out of the area (for which he would have received a red card from an alert official) displayed a staggering degree of incompetence. When nearly 12,000 people pay good money to see a football match, they deserve better.

I can't agree with Hecky's setup of our team. We've had the debate before, but it's a long long time since I can recall a lone striker setup working for us. I don't think Williams was very much involved in the heavy lifting in midfield, so to me we were effectively playing with a four in any event. Watkins toiled unprofitably for most of the night. I can see that the anticipation of a physical Wolves side might lead us to try and counter it with Watkins' more muscular presence, but in truth that wasn't going to happen with Marley playing on his own. We should have played to our strengths and let the opposition worry about us. The solid but limited Wolves defence would have had more concern with the likes of Armstrong and Bradshaw running at them, and I would have stuck with our current best forward pairing. While we're on that, I am baffled by the decision to let Payne go out on loan - especially with the departure of Sam Winn(f***)all. Safety in the division is close at hand, and there would have been an opportunity for Stefan to have been given valuable further experience of the Championship, and of our newly re-structured team. He would arguably have been far better suited to the role that Marley was asked to play last night.

Having said all that, there were still bright moments for our reconfigured side last night, and I'm far from despondent. At the very least we played for 50 minutes and kept our opponents to the same two goal margin that existed before Mowatt's indiscretion. Onwards and upwards, and bring on North End!

 

Thank-you for your comments and I trust you enjoyed your holiday.

My post was meant to illustrate our on-going problems of a lack of height against big sides like Wolves. Overall, I thought they were poor, but in the moments that mattered, the set pieces, our lack of height undid us. Hecky left three players up on the half way line in order to try and draw Wolves out of our box, but the tactic did not work. It simply gave them more room in which to work. The balance will be better when Matty James gets fit enough to play regularly, but given our attachment to 4-4-2, I am struggling to understand why Mowatt has been added. He is clearly a player who will be more comfortable in a five man midfield and in that respect is the same as Williams and Moncur, who also struggle to get game time.

I thought that we played OK in that first half when we kept the ball on the ground, but there is really nothing for a team that cannot defend set pieces. I was searching for a solution and was preparing to discuss a change to 3 at the back during the half time interval when Mowatt was sent off and that discussion became irrelevant. There is going to be a problem, finding a system that suits the new players in my opinion. We really did need a big guy up front, but I guess there was no-one available at the right price and the right pay scale. Hecky just needs to get us to the end of the season. Things will look a lot better after the summer.

 

Can't disagree with that red rain other than the comments on the referee.

The referee was linked to the officials last night but couldn't wait to give a penalty, signalling for the penalty before the ball hit the advertisement boards. He had no intention of speaking to the linesman until the only linesman with any balls I've seen this season called him over. The referee deserves no credit because both linesmen and the 4th official all witnessed the ballsy linesman telling the referee he had made a complete fcukup. If he had continued to ignore it he would have been slated in their reports. The real question is why when the ball was out of play did he not consult his linesman before thrusting out his arm to give the penalty? It would not have delayed anything or broken up play as the ball was not on the pitch. It was an utter disgrace.

He got the sending off correct, though I personally feel that their player should also have seen red, out of control is out of control, it matters not who comes off worst in the eyes of the law.

Then there is hecky's sending off. Most likely correct but again why was somebody from their bench who was clearly interfering with play also not sent to the stands r if it was a player not cautioned? Poor refereeing which again showed bias. A bias which went throughout the entire match, he allowed their number 19 to scream and shout at him, gave their players talkings to when bookings were needed, couldn't wait to give certain decisions but allowed the same thing to happen moments later.
Spoke to a player for diving but didn't caution. Shocking decision.

He was and is an absolutely awful referee who in my opinion got just one decision correct but even then he only got me aspect of it correct. I don't think he affected the outcome of the game one bit but that doesn't excuse his poor display

 

Stopped reading at Williams had his best game. Soft get. Had a tap in at back post first half and bottled it. Always got caught on the ball. Seriously if he's better than Moncur, then we've done.

 

Thought for the first time Mcdonald looked like a little lost boy in both stature and inability to keep their strikers in check don't think he won a header all night.

 

Although we were two goals down by the time Mowatt was sent off, the ref did influence the result of the game.

Both players should have been sent off, they both went for the ball in the same way, just because their player played the injury card doesn't mean both were in the wrong.

Didn't think it was a free kick for their second goal either.

The referee's technique was all wrong, he turned his back on incidents rather than walking backwards from them, thus missing at least three off the ball events.

Wolves were an awful footballing side, worst I've seen all season at Oakwell and I saw Rotherham!

Two goals from set pieces, but nothing else really, even against 10 men.

They came to disrupt, niggle and play negative football...trouble is, it worked.

 

"Wolves first two goals came from set pieces, something we have been strong on all season long. However, instead of Conor Hourihane marking the space at the near post, we had the diminutive Mowatt. I have no intention of judging him on today’s performance, but one thing is for certain, he is not going to grow six inches overnight. Clearly, someone else should have been doing that job, but who? Scowen? Williams? Hammill? Kent? Against Wolves, we were short on height, and I get the feeling that it may not be the last occasion that I say that this season."


We have been strong on this most of the season, but I really get the feeling that a limited, but physical side looked at Chris Wood's easy first goal in the Leeds game and thought, 'we're having that'. Both goals came from that route, and were easy. Other than that, they just made niggly foul after niggly foul to stop our progress, which the referee contributed to in doing nothing to stop until about 40 mins in.

Scowen worked hard, but like most of the rest of the team his distribution was really poor in my opinion. Ryan Williams played pretty well and went on some great runs but went down way too easily time and time again, which the referee never rewarded. Possibly this was due to the system we played as he kept finding himself isolated at the end of the run with no other options.

 

The linesman you praise should have flagged for a foul on Scowen. He did not do so, the ref clearly did not see it but did see the foul in the box - it was a penalty.

 

Had a brilliant time in Lanzarote thanks, Red Rain. Glad I didn't take any contact details from the Wolves fan I spoke to on the front at Costa Teguise on Monday!

In the spirit purely of friendly discussion, I'm not sure that height made the difference last night. For the first goal the big centre back pullls away slightly and heads the ball downwards. Angus McDonald allows the ball to go either past him or through his legs - I'm not sure which - but he had the chance to clear it if he had anticipated the ball. What kills us there is that the three men on the back post are not picked up, including the scorer Hause. For the second, Edwards (1.85m) is I think marked by Watkins (1.86m) but the ball deflects off Marley into the goal, which is unfortunate. Again, Marley failed to anticipate and deal with the ball headed at him. Neither of those goals could be said to be a taller man rising above to head past - they are more indirectly scored, in my opinion. The third occurs because Evans' inexperience allows Bodvarsson to get inside him and the parried shot is tapped home by the gleeful Edwards. As you say, poor defending of set pieces, but down more to bad defending than height issues, for me. We missed Bree and White, to my way of thinking. Let's hope Callum Elder is useful and that Ghana get knocked out in the semis!

I just don't think that a tall Marley Watkins against four tall Wolves defenders was ever going to be a good strategy. But given that they weren't the most mobile, the ferreting runs of Bradshaw and Armstrong might have unsettled them had we played more on the ground. Although they would probably have required the protection of a more competent referee. As for other alternatives, I again mention Stefan Payne. The lad Hedges may have a bigger profile too, but he doesn't look to have a lot of experience.

 

Not the way I saw that incident. The Wolves player has one foot raised but it is travelling in the direction of the ball. Mowatt's right foot is travelling in the direction of Price's knackers whilst his left is attempting to rake his backside. It was a rush of blood, and you don't give the referee the opportunity to make what was a fairly inevitable decision.

 

Only seen in on the replays but I agree. If Mowatt had kept on his feet, their player might have been booked and maybe should have anyway, no more. But then again, Hammill was sent off for rather less a few weeks ago.

 

We do not just mark one on one in the box from dead ball kicks. We always have a free man (Hourihane) at the near post whose job it is to mop up the balls hit into that near post area. The fact that Wolves had so many tall guys meant that we could not spare one of ours to stand in for the missing Hourihane, who it must be said, did the job very effectively. That meant that one of our midfield players had to act as stand-in, and Mowatt got the job. The fact is that Mowatt is six inches shorter than Hourihane, but more than that, he did not look as though he had ever done the job before. As soon as you miss that first contact, where the ball ends up is a lottery. For the first goal, we had no-one at the back post. Goodness knows where the right back was. For the second, the absence of a blocker meant that the first touch was the killer. My point was that Hourihane, a taller player and a player used to playing as the blocker at the near post would have cleared both crosses. If we had been able to go to a back three, Jackson could have been used to clear the ball at the near post leaving our other tall players to man mark. I had this same conversation last night and I lost my temper when my friend failed to grasp the meaning of Wolves being a big side. I did not mean that they were all bigger than all of our players, I meant that they had more big players, or rather, our midfield was very small so we were out numbered by tall players at set pieces.

 

Correct. And it was clear from the very first set piece that Mowatt did not fancy the job and the bench should have got word out to move Hamill there, who at least has the balls to put his head on a reachable ball. As I said to you before, Mowatt's problem was not just height, as at least two of the balls whizzed past him about five and a half feet off the floor.

 

From my seat, at least 50 yards away, it looked like a foul on Scowen, which was eventually given, or failing that a corner kick, because the second tackler seemed to me to take the ball cleanly. There seemed no possibility of a penalty at any stage before the moment the referee pointed to the spot. As I say, I am not usually one to criticise referees. They have a difficult job and make their decisions in a moment, but I do not think the assessor would have been very complementary last night.

 

Foul already awarded for a push by Watkins before he missed the tap-in.