Chris Humphries reports on wolves' 2-2 draw with forest
One change for Wolves today from the side that lost to West Ham , Cunha coming in and Wolves facing former Wolves cub Morgan Gibbs-White. Another point to note is that the squad situation is so dire that we have two keepers on the bench.
The game starts with both sides looking comfortable, Chris Wood has a half chance when the ball breaks to him in the box, but an offside flag goes up, then Doyle releases Semedo down the wing but Cunha asks too much of Sarabia and Wolves lose possession in the opposition box, then Forest break well and Yates shot is charged down by Doyle for a Forest corner.
Wolves have better possession in the next phase of the game and after some decent play Doyle unleashes a rather poor effort that is closer to the goals in the Notts County ground than those in the City Ground. Next passage of play sees Yates strike from distance for the third time, this one is straight at Sa who holds comfortably.
Forest put Wolves under some defensive pressure here, conceding a couple of corners, one of which sees Toti making a superb blocking tackle to save Wolves from conceding.
Wolves turn now to have the ball and put Forest under pressure , Semedo seems to be pivotal in most of the moves and his shot is charged down. 20 minutes have now passed.
Another half chance for Wolves , Doherty jumps on a misplaced pass and squares the ball to Cunha but the attack breaks down.
Then Semedo gives the ball to Reyna who has a good chance to score but drags the ball wide.
Wolves work the ball well to Cunha who lets fly just over the bar from the right corner of the 18 yard box, then Sarabia lays Semedo free on the right wing but his cross is too near the keeper but then the keeper lets the ball find its way to Joao Gomes and his shot is headed off the line by Murillo to Sarabia, who volleys the ball past the post, should have scored this was the best chance of the game so far. Half an hour gone Lemina gets a booking , he won the ball and is booked for a high challenge after a VAR check for a red card.
Wolves having some decent possession and the centre backs are in Forest half, both Bueno and Kilman making runs forward, a deep cross from Doyle just eludes Cunha at the back post.
Then Doherty plays Wolves into trouble with a senseless ball into our own box that Wolves struggle to clear and in the end give a foul away.
The forest attack mounts to nothing and Cunha breaks and releases Doherty, who lays the ball square but Forest clear and their attack is claimed by Sa , he releases the ball to Cunha who drives into the box and he loses his man for a yard and curls the ball into the top corner, how we have missed a player of his quality
Forest reply and break down their left Semedo goes down with a knock to the stomach , and Wolves concede a corner, 43 minutes gone then the next corner comes over and Gibbs-White is adjudged to have for the last touch on the ball and its 1-1 with 2 minutes into 4 minutes of injury time which passes to leave us level at the break.
half time forest 1 wolves 1
Second half starts and see Doherty playing the ball straight out of play. Wolves then showed good composure and methodical possession retaining the ball until Semedo earns a free kick , which Wolves chose not to attack with and go back to ball retention mode.
Ball is becoming elusive for both teams Joao Gomes is booked for a pull back and is walking a tightrope with every challenge then the ball is squirmed out to Danillo after a challenge by Doherty and he scores, 2-1 .
The manager takes off Joao Gomes and Doherty and replaces them with Hugo Bueno and Hwang who immediately drives into the box and loses his balance not enough on the challenge for a penalty . 60 minutes gone.
Wolves break and the ball comes to Hwang his shot is blocked for a corner, the corner is won by Kilman the keeper flaps at it parries it to Cunha who finishes neatly to bring us level . Then chaos ensues Wolves try to undo all their work and Sa has to come to our rescue saving from Danilo.
70 minutes have passed and the game has calmed down a little, Wolves look more threatening with a front three of Sarabia, Hwang and Cunha. I would like to see Boubacar brought on for Doyle, Forest are pressing hard again.
Boubacar comes on for Cunha and that’s a sign we are content with a point today in my view and we will protect Cunha for next week when we have three matches in 7 days .
78 minutes played now and most of the play is with Forest with Wolves looking to catch them on the break. Forest have an effort from Nico Williams which is gathered by Sa , Sarabia is looking tired and needs replacing players are running past him , my criticism of O’Neil this far is of the need to freshen tired players quickly , Doyle gets a chance from distance but it was always arcing away from the goal.
Origi goes on a run with tiring Wolves failing to get a tackle in and goes down on the floor looking for a penalty but its ruled as no foul. Williams ends up getting a chance for Forest which is deflected wide for a corner which is cleared by Santi Bueno for another corner which Sa parries away. Sarabia lets more people run past him in the box and another corner which this time goes out for a goal kick, finally 87 minutes have passed and Sarabia is taken off along with Semedo to be replaced by Fraser and Chirewa ( too slow to react to fatigue with subs in my view)
The ball breaks down Wolves left to Origi down the wing and he pushes into the box, Wolves look tired and have no energy but his cross/shot misses the goal and avoids Wood at the back post. There will be 6 minutes of stoppage. Hwang gets fouled which earns the aggressor Murillo a booking and there is a chance to fire a ball into the box which we do but there is another foul . A tired Toti lets a forward run past him to flick a ball on which gives Forest a corner which is cleared by Fraser and the game ends 2-2 .
A tired performance lacking energy that the exertions of a small squad have left them with nothing in the tank , some quality has now returned that will mean we take chances now with more regularity but we are a tired tired team
Match rating 5
Man of the Match Cunha 7
FULL TIME FOREST 2 WOLVES 2
ARTICLE BY CHRIS HUMPHRIES
Chris Humphries is a Season Ticket holder at Molineux who has been supporting Wolves since the mid 70’s. His other interests include Formula 1 and Rallying.
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