Wolves v Brentford Match Report: Stung Twice as Wolves Slump to Another Home Defeat

Wolves get stung by the same Bee twice, as they slump to another defeat at home.

Finally, we saw the first displays from Fosun that they had listened to the noise from the fans, Jeff Shi was removed from his position on  Friday, this wouldn’t deter the next phase of protests, the OUR CLUB signs dotted around the ground. It didn’t go unnoticed by the media.

This game against Brentford was an opportunity to build confidence after an encouraging display against Arsenal last week and take a vital win. The AFCON Cup has taken some players from us as well as injuries, this will impact our bench more than anything else.

The staring lineup was as follows:

Sa, Doherty, Hoever, Krejci, Santi Bueno, Wolfe, Andre, Joao Gomes, Fer Lopez, Hwang, Strand Larsen. 

It appeared that it was a 3-5-2 formation that Edwards wanted to play and stifle the Brentford midfield, who are dangerous in possession of the ball when going forward.

In the first early exchanges, Wolves had the better of the play, good possession with the ball and Hwang in particular looked busy as he worked well with Wolfe. Wolfe was able to get some space on the left side and a few crosses into the box were cleared, one ball whipped in caused the keeper to tip over, as it looked like it was going to dip in. Fer Lopez was trying to create things and did win a free kick about 25 yards out, this was taken by Andre but tamely hit the wall. Its one of many areas that we lack quality, a free kick taker, amongst lots of other aspects I hear you say.

Wolves didn’t have it all their own way though, Brentford broke forward with pace and accuracy as the half went into the latter stages, Doherty and Hoever being the busy defenders, Sa had to also make a save from a Brentford chance that fell to Lewis-Potter. Fer Lopez also had an opportunity to break the Brentford backline but his run onto a clipped ball through was blocked by Kelleher.

A small positive then at half-time, we went in level. 

Half-time Wolves 0 – 0 Brentford

Wolves come out for the 2^nd half and surely, they can build on the stability of the first half, that wasn’t the case for the first 10 minutes, Brentford were taking advantage of our lack of creativity in the centre of the pitch. Jose Sa had to make two great saves from shots that looked destined for the net. We did get a half chance in the 52^nd minute, a deflected clearance drifted into the Brentford area but Hwang couldn’t quite get to it before Kelleher punched it clear. Then came the sucker punch on 63 minutes, a cross in from the Brentford left, bounced over Krejci and Lewis-Potter hit it first time into the far corner, you could see it coming to be honest. Wolves 0 – 1 Brentford.

Strand Larsen gave us all a comical moment at one point, funnier than his 87^th minute contribution, a ball into the box was gathered by him, he slipped and tried to head the ball twice as it was on the ground, what was he thinking was my reaction.

We did get an effort towards goal as a busy Mane crossed to the far post for Wolfe to head it back towards the far post but it drifted onto the roof of the net, it felt like it wasn’t going to even end in a draw. Brentford nearly doubled their lead just after as a long crossfield ball fell to Damsgaard, he curled it around Sa, who was miles off his line and the effort just evaded the far post. It was only a matter of time before Lewis-Potter stung us a second time, he swept away a cross unmarked past Sa, the boos were echoing around the ground and the stadium started to empty very quickly.

It wasn’t the last of the drama though, on 87 minutes, Matt Doherty was brought needlessly by Kelleher and after a VAR check a penalty was given. Strand-Larsen steps up and tries to outwit the keeper, who dives to his left to save what I would say was a weak penalty, why didn’t he smash it down the middle. If you are low on confidence, you want to make sure you score and not try to be clever, its been a poor season so far from a player who last year was one of our goalscoring heroes. He is not the only one though to have dropped his levels, that’s why we are in this mess.

The full-time whistle goes and it ends in defeat again.

Full-time Wolves 0 – 2 Brentford

It’s been a miserable 8 months since we have all seen a win in the league, you can see the pain, resentment, acceptance of relegation and dread of watching the team when we go a goal down on all the fans faces. It’s not going to get any easier before the year is out and beyond in my opinion, there needs to be a clear out in January and the summer. Let’s face it, there are players here who will go and need to go, the squad needs to get ready for the Championship.

Fosun and Nathan Shi have a massive job to do, Rob Edwards must be thinking he has made a terrible error coming here but we will still be her supporting OUR CLUB, we could do with Harry Potter at Wolves to wave his magic wand!!

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year,