Wolves heading nowhere
Wolves 0 v Brighton & Hove Albion 2
Last season Brighton & Hove Albion finished third in the Championship only to miss out on promotion in the lottery of the play offs. A year on and they find themselves atop the Championship currently five points clear from second placed Newcastle United. But for the aberration at Norwich, manager Chris Hughton has done well where ever he has been and in his second year in charge at Brighton is doing so again. In Lewis Dunk, Dale Stephens, Solly March, Kevin Knockaert, Tomer Hemed and Glenn Murray he has a clutch of players who provide both spine and skill to a side that this year should gain automatic promotion to the Premier League. Would that the same could be said of Wolverhampton Wanderers.
As games go this was a free hit for Wolves. The fear of relegation had gone and they were clear underdogs. So one might think that they would come out all guns blazing, keen to demonstrate that the season has been something of an aberration, that there is substance behind the sums of money invested in the squad. One might think that, but things did not quite pan out that way. In only one statistic – possession – did Wolves achieve parity with Brighton. In all the other aspects; defensive quality, speed of thought and action, guile and skill, they were miles from their opponents and the 2-0 deficit probably flattered them.
That said Wolves started the game brightly enough and had the better of the opening fifteen minutes. But thereafter Brighton dominated carving out far more chances and crucially taking them when the arrived albeit with the help of the Wolves’ defence. The visitors had to wait until the 44th minute to open their account when a long clearance from David Stockdale was first missed by Matt Doherty and then Kortney Hause. The ball reached Kevin Knockaert on the right touch line. He still had much to do but coming inside on his favoured left foot he was allowed to reach the edge of the eighteen yard box before firing at goal. The attempt should have been saved by Andy Lonergan but the Wolves keeper, allowed it to pass tamely under his left arm and into the net.
The tenor of the first half continued into the second with Brighton controlling affairs without getting out of second gear. The mystery was that it took them until the 81st minute to extend their lead a beautifully flighted ball from Stephens finding Glenn Murray who headed it on to Knockeart. His right footed shot from the centre of the box found the bottom right hand corner Lonergan again suspect.
“So where did it all go wrong Paul?” might have been a fair opening question at the post match press conference. If he were honest Manager Lambert might have replied “Cavaleiro is too elaborate and not worth the £7m we have paid for him, Weimann not good enough, Saiss sends too many poor passes and then berates the intended recipient for not controlling the ball, we don’t have a goalscorer and the play is too ponderous and predictable. I should not have substituted Marshall and the squad in terms of the number of staff is morbidly obese. When Liverpool won their first title under Bill Shankly the first team squad numbered 15, and not much has changed.” He might then have signed off by saying “A seismic shift is required if this club is ever to get anywhere but I’m not sure if I’m the man to achieve it”. It’s a shame that he said none of this because honesty is much more fun than flim flammery. But neither is it a job preserver.
Happy Easter.
Wolves: Lonergan 4, Coady 5, Batth 5, Hause 5, Doherty 5, Saiss 5, Edwards 6, Cavaleiro 5, Marshall 6 Sub Dicko, Weimann 5, Bodvarsson 5 Sub Wilson
Brighton & HA: Stockdale 6, Bruno 6, Dunk 7, Hunemeier 7, Pocognoli 6, Knockaert 8, Stephens 7, Sidwell 6, March 7 Sub Murphy, Murray 6, Hemed 7 Sub Norwood
Attendance: 23,221
Referee: Geoff Eltringham 8
©Mark Brennand