John taras reports on wolves performance against Crystal Palace
After having a brilliant April with six wins Vitor Pereira won the Manager of the Month Award.
This obviously put the mockers on the beginning of May and we lost to Man City away 1-0. Brighton were up next and unfortunately we had a poor performance losing 2-0 at home. Tonight it’s Crystal Palace away followed by Brentford at home on Sunday, four tough fixtures.
The game kicked off and the first 15 minutes was uneventful. Neither side came close to scoring. Wolves had one corner but Sarabia failed to clear the first man. Then on 24 minutes Wolves got another corner and this time Sarabia hit it long to the back post. Strand Larsen challenged for the ball, it popped up in the box and Agabadou rose highest to knock it goalbound. The referees watch buzzed for a goal and Wolves were in front.
Then Wolves decided to commit defensive suicide and gave away two of the softest goals in the space of five minutes. Four players missed tackles before the ball was squared to Nketiah who calmly slotted it home from 12 yards.
Five minutes later Wolves were caught cold when a quick breakaway by Palace and a square ball to an unmarked Nketiah who beat Bentley from 8 yards.
Wolves steadied the ship but didn’t threaten Palace’s goal again before half time.
Vitor brought on Joao Gomes and Semedo for the second half.
Disaster struck on 50 minutes, Bellegarde gave away a needless free kick on 25 yards. Chilwell’s kick was not causing any problems until it took a wicked deflection off the wall and spun away from Bentley into the corner of the net. 3-1 to Palace. Wolves were up against it.
None of Palace’s robust challenges were being punished. The blatant dive by Devenny also escaped a booking from David Webb.
Wolves pushed on with their attacks and from an in swinging Bellegarde corner Strand Larsen got between two defenders to glance a header over Henderson into the net on 64 minutes.
Vitor threw on Cunha and Munetsi on 70 minutes to try and force an equaliser, but Strand Larsen went off. He’d been on the floor holding his foot so we may not see him against Brentford.
Wolves were throwing everything at Palace but that left them wide open to counter attacks. One such attack fell down and the ball was quickly moved to Eze. Wolves only had one defender back marking three attackers. No contest and Eze slotted a simple shot into the corner.
Bentley made a brilliant point blank save to stop it going 5-2. Four minutes of extra time didn’t produce any more goals.
Final Thoughts
What is now turning into a sad end to the season I feel for the die hard away fans who’ve travelled to London to watch a disappointing performance from a disjointed team tonight mainly as a result of six changes made by Vitor.
Depending on results next Sunday Wolves could slip further down the table unless they get a result against Brentford. Tonight too many passes went astray, challenges missed, tackles missed, players left unmarked.
Collectively it was a poor performance and I think one or two players have secured their place on the transfer and released list! Vitor has some more work to do during the closed season. But how that will go is unknown.
Reports today on X talk of Fosun putting the Club up for sale. So how much of the possible £63 million coming from Cunha’s sale to United will be made available for Vitor we’ll have to wait and see.
One game to go next Sunday, Brentford another team like Palace. they have fast attackers.
Disappointing last two results, self inflicted losses.
ARTICLE BY JOHN TARAS
Wolves Member for several years but follower since the 70’s. Now retired and looking forward to being involved in discussions.