Wolves earn scrappy point
Wolverhampton Wanderers 1 v Southampton 1
Two months have passed since I last saw the Old Gold stroll out onto the lush green swathe of turf that occupies the Molineux. Back then they were misfiring a series of less than convincing halves being interspersed with some dispiriting defeats. Could Wolves be suffering from second album syndrome? When on Sunday 22nd September the side - already 1-0 down to a hard to beat Crystal Palace - was reduced to ten men, the grey clouds hanging over them suddenly turned black. But with barely a minute of the game remaining up popped Diogo Jota to gain an unlikely equaliser and all of a sudden those clouds were lined with silver (who writes this guff?). At which point it felt as if Wolves’ 2019/20 premier league season had finally got started.
I say “felt as if” because unless you happen to be Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and perhaps Manchester United and Tottenham, survival in the premier league is never assured. The last gasp draw at Selhurst Park lead to a home triumph v Watford and a famous away win against Manchester City, the six points gained translating to mid table comfort. With the visit of Ralph Hufflepuff’s* Southampton would the recovery continue?
In short, not really, for this was another disjointed Wolves performance not helped by first half injuries to Ryan Bennett and Ruben Neves. Furthermore they were once again on the wrong end of a VAR decision. For their part Southampton were hard to break down and with the excellent Nathan Redmond providing a threatening link between defence and attack there was no point during the game when Wolves were entirely comfortable.
That said the home side started the game brightly moving the ball about crisply and seemingly in control. But around the twenty minute mark they went off the boil sloppy passing leading to two good chances for the visitors neither of which they could capitalise on. It was not until minute 41 that Wolves created their first real chance, a lovely move involving Raul Jimenez and Patrick Cutrone. The latter’s back heal was parried by Angus Gunn into the path of Jimenez who side footed home. The ground erupted as much out of joy as relief only to then have that joy extinguished by VAR. In a voice akin to Big Brother we were informed that the decision had gone to VAR. We then sat there in glorious ignorance as a verdict was reached. The goal was overruled. For what we knew not, though where the subsequent free kick was taken from indicated off side. VAR is ruining the game. You attend live football matches to see your team win, play good football and to experience the visceral joy of celebrating a goal. VAR is destroying that spontaneous pleasure.
In a pre VAR world Wolves would have left the field at half time one to the good. But as it was they were level and within a minute of the restart Jesus Vellejo was doing his best to give the visitors a lead when his square pass across the box picked out Danny Ings. Fortunately Ings fired weakly his attempt being easily saved by Rui Patricio. The sloppiness that had hindered Wolves during the first half had clearly not been expunged and on 52 Vellejo was at fault again with another poor clearance this time to Oriol Romeu. His forward header was then missed by Conor Coady, leaving Ings free on goal and this time the Southampton striker made no mistake tucking the ball passed Patricio.
Within six minutes however Wolves were back on level terms as Matt Doherty’s weaving run into the penalty box ended with a clumsy challenge from Pierre Emile Hojbjerg and an exaggerated dive. Referee Bankes pointed to the spot the subsequent penalty being slotted home by Jimenez.
Thereafter Wolves huffed and puffed without ever breaking down a resolute Southampton defence. Then, in time added on, James Ward Prowse stretched Patricio with a curling free kick from twenty yards. Given all that had preceded it, a point was probably a fair result.
Wolves: Patricio 6, Bennett 6 Sub Vallejo 5, Coady 6, Boly 6, Traore 6, Castro Otto 7, Dendoncker 6, Neves 6 Sub Doherty 6, Moutinho 7, Cutrone 6 Sub Jota, Jimenez 7
Southampton: Gunn 6, Badnerak 6, Yoshida 6, Vestergaard 7, Valery 6 Sub Boufal, Bertrand 7, Romeu 6 Sub Danso, Hojberg 6, Ward-Prowse 6, Redmond 8, Ings 7
Attendance: 30,915
Referee: Patrick Bankes 7
*Hasenhuttl
©Mark Brennand