Serabia turns tide as Wolves strike late to claim win

Wolverhampton Wanderers 2 v Tottenham Hotspur 1

Notwithstanding last week’s flawed VAR adjudication, Wolves’ defeat away at Sheffield United was not without precedent. For, in the league of club’s who lose to bottom placed sides, Wolves do rather well. Take the 2017/18 renaissance season under the excellent stewardship of Nuno Espirito Santo. Though they were crowned Champions, Wolves still contrived to lose to bottom of the division side Huddersfield Town, not merely once but twice. And delve back further into the mists of time to season 2001/02, with Wolves in second place, their points lead over third placed West Bromwich Albion well into double figures. On a cold Tuesday evening in February Molineux played host to bottom of the league side Grimsby Town. When some ninety minutes later the Mariners departed having sealed an improbable 1-0 win it set in train the choke of all chokes. Not only did Wolves fail to make the second automatic promotion slot, it was their fierce rivals from up the road who overhauled them. Cue further defeat in the play-offs to Bolton Wanderers, thus ensuring yet another season in the Championship. So, disappointing though the defeat at Bramall Lane may have been, it did not come as a great surprise.

Which cannot really be said of those perennial underachievers Tottenham Hotspur, who appear be thriving under new Manager Ange Postecoglou. For much of the current season they have been riding high atop the Premier League but arrived at the Molineux on the back of a chaotic 4-1 home defeat to Chelsea and without key personnel in James Maddison and Micky van de Ven. But any hangover from that loss was soon dispelled when with barely two minutes on the clock Brennan Johnson slotted home following good work by Pedro Porro and Dejan Kulusevski. Who’d be a manager? You spend all week working on defensive drills and come Saturday you find yourself down before you’ve really taken a breath.

In fairness Wolves responded positively by dominating the next quarter hour, the highlight coming in minute ten when Ryan Ait Nourri was put free on the left. But the Wolves left back delayed his shot a second too long and it was blocked by the boot of Ben Davies. The pattern of possessional dominance continued for the remainder of the half. Just a shame that Wolves failed to make use of it, their distribution at times appalling with Nelson Semedo the biggest culprit. (Would that O’Neill chose Doherty ahead of him). In consequence, a half chance for Mario Lemina on the half hour was the sum reward for their effort and as the two sided departed at half time, it was hard to see how Wolves were going to get back into the game.

That path or rather lack of one, continued for much of the second half, Wolves missing the pace of Pedro Neto to get beyond the Tottenham back line. Half chances did fall to Mattheus Cunha and Hwang Hee Chan but both failed to hit the target and the longer the game continued, the more Wolves appeared to be staring at defeat. As the game entered its final phase and with nothing to lose Manager Gary O’Neill rang the changes introducing Sasa Kalajdzic, Tommy Doyle and Paulo Serabia. But with six minutes of the game remaining another chance went begging when Kalajdzic headed wildly over following a good cross from Joao Gomez.

Wolves continued to strive and as the game crossed the ninety-minute mark Cunha picked out Serabia advancing on goal in the left channel. Controlling the ball with the outside of his left boot and in one movement the Spanish forward volleyed home with power using the same boot. It was the moment of brilliance that Wolves required and with Tottenham having spent much of their afternoon play acting, there was still plenty of time for the home side to find a winner. And find it they did as Serabia now turned provider, this time picking out Mario Lemina with a lovely slide rule pass. With only Guglielmo Vicario to beat the Wolves midfielder calmly side footed home from inside the six-yard box. Molineux erupted, half anticipating a VAR intervention.

But none occurred. The goal stood and thirty seconds later referee Tim Robinson brought the game to its conclusion. Priceless.

Wolverhampton Wanderers: Sa 6, Semedo 5 Sub Doherty, Dawson 7, Kilman 8, Gomes 7, Ait Nourri 7 Sub Doyle, Gomes 6 Sub Serabia 9, Lemina 8, Bellegarde 6 Sub Kalajdzic, Cunha 6, Hee-chan 6

Tottenham Hotspur: Vicario 6, Porro 6, Dier 6, Davies 6, Emerson Royal 6, Hojberg 6, Bissouma 6 Sub Lo Celso, Sarr 6 Sub Bentancur, Kulusevski 7, Son Heung Min 6, Johnson 6 Sub Gil

Attendance: 31,642

Referee: Tim Robinson 8

©Mark Brennand