Thomas' official match report v Wolves - Part One

A relocation to the South Midlands means that my diet of Reds’ away games now involves the likes of Birmingham City, Wolves and Bristol City, rather than Ipswich Town and Norwich City, so it was nice to return to Molineux last night, to a ground I last visited in the seventies when the likes of Palmer, Parkes, Richards and Dougan were around.

Typical of the treatment of away fans at so many clubs with a large fan-base, we were rammed into a small segment right up ‘in the gods’ in a corner of Molineux. It was a good job I don’t suffer from vertigo, or altitude sickness. As time wore on, I found that I actually liked this vantage-point, as it gave a very complete overall view of the game – a bit like looking down on a chess-board, so you could see more clearly the patterns of play. We seemed so remote that I did wonder if the players were at all aware where we were as the following team took to the field:

Fernandez

Hassell Foster Wiseman Golbourne

Cywka Mellis Perkins Etuhu

Davies Harewood

It was to be a game of ‘three halves’ – the first 15-20 minutes; the middle hour; the final 15.

First half:

We started brightly enough and matched well a slightly sluggish looking Wolves. The atmosphere around Molineux was very much like a ‘cold start’ and there were times in these early minutes when they looked like a team haunted by the memory that they had not won at Molineux for a long time. Our pattern was at its best when firing good long passes along the deck and into the channels for Davies and Harewood to latch on to. Davies looked dangerous during this time and was starting to get the occasional chance. At least he was looking for the goals and to get shots away.

I had thought beforehand that the battle between Hassell and Jarvis would be key, as I regard the Wolves winger as their main threat. I wasn’t wrong, even though Hassell never lets us down. Wolves’ main threat during this early spell was down their left and our right, Jarvis stripping Hassell for pace more than once and getting in dangerous crosses for the forwards to attack – good job Fletcher is on sick leave! When the combination of Jarvis and Ward attacked down our right, we were simply torn apart, Ward starting with an attacking run and then continuing into the box for the return pass and slotting past Gonzales, who had little chance. There was a suggestion of handball by Ward in the build-up, but I would need to see the replays. We did not really deserve to be behind, but it shows what a couple of premiership standard players can do to you just through their own skills and determination.

We took to the challenge and, at this stage, I could still see us getting back into it. There was some trickery from Perkins, although he chose the wrong option to pass and the chance was lost.

Wolves were starting to dominate from about twenty minutes in and, more significantly, were coming to terms with stemming our football at source in midfield, so the balance of possession shifted and we were starting to lose the ball more. Our loss of possession at critical times during build-up play was a key factor, as Wolves looked more and more dangerous on the counter-attack. We started to get pressured into making mistakes and gifting possession back to Wolves, who were much more up for it now. We had just one more gilt-edged chance, well made by good build-up play from Mellis and, in particular, some great trickery from Cywka, whose pull-back from the goal-line near the edge of the six yard box was begging to be turned in, but there was not a blue stripey shirt in sight, as the ball evaded even the alarmed Wolves defenders – where was our midfield to get on to this sort of ball?

Gonzales made a confident save from Doyle’s long-ranger.

 

Second half:

We started brightly and Wolves again looked as though they could be caught cold – and nearly were, but we looked a little surprised and were unable to capitalise. Chances came within seconds to Etuhu and Harewood, but we also were guilty of a cold start to the second and were not alert enough to get that crucial equaliser to be put the nervous pressure back on Wolves.

Dagnall came on for Harewood, as Hill looked to inject fresh impetus into our search for an equaliser. Dawson came on for Perkins, who, I thought, had been our best player, so it must have been an injury, although this was not obvious.

Wolves certainly re-established their dominance, pressurising us into mistakes, so that possession was very much with Wolves for longer periods and we were struggling to put together many moves. Worryingly, Wolves were getting more time on the ball. With their class of player, you cannot let them do that and they started to look like a class side, stroking passes around and emerging as a class above us for longer periods of time.

The second goal was a killer and it was likely to come, but not in the manner it did. Ebanks-Blake certainly looked offside and looked as though he thought he was, as he dallied after having put the ball away – I would like to see that one on the replays – looked off. Either way, for that move, our defence was as wide open as a barn door and that was worrying. We just seemed to switch off and expect the flag. Stern words needed from KH, especially as this killed off the game and, from this point on, Wolves relaxed and, at times, started to show-boat a bit as well. I thought we could be in for a hiding, especially with Wolves throwing on new players like Sigudarson, Edwards and Peszko, all up for making an impact, two of them on their home debuts. One did and the other two nearly did.

Our final change was Cranie on for Hassell, which meant Wiseman going to right back and Cranie coming in to left central defence alongside Foster. Cranie did well in my opinion, made some good tackles and blocks and brought a calming influence to the middle – looks a good purchase, who will prove his worth by the time the season is out.

Wolves’ third goal was a product of their continuing dominance and pressure and was a truly class goal in my opinion. This time the threat came down our left, where Golbourne had battled well all evening. Wolves worked the space well and got in an excellent cross for Peszko to nod back and Edwards to time his sprint to perfection to bury the ball in our net. Game over as a contest, or was it?

The show-boating only went on for a while and, during the last fifteen minutes or so, Wolves were putting us under less pressure on the ball and our passing moves and possession improved, so that we were able to turn the tables a bit. We started to threaten again for the first time for almost an hour. Etuhu ran at the left side of the Wolves’ defence and pulled back a nice pass for Cywka to take, turn and slot home a really neat goal. Great celebrations up in the gods and chants of ‘we are premier league’ – not!! Truth be told, most of our shots at the goal during the last fifteen were woeful efforts from distance, which flew either high, or wide and occasionally both, but at least we were trying and a second goal would have had Wolves’ biting their finger nails. We would not have deserved this on the balance of play, but it was good that we hadn’t given up altogether and had a go at putting the pressure back on.

Wolves’ class players were still a threat – Bjorn Sigurdarson clipped the top of the bar with a header at the end of a flowing move and Doyle shot just wide near the end.

On balance 3-1 was a fair reflection of the overall balance of play.

Easy journey home down the M5, which was nice.