Wolves Fall Flat as Fulham Secure Historic Molineux Win

Vitor Pereira named an unchanged side after the fantastic win away at Bournemouth.

 

 

It’s been quite a while since we started a game badly but in the first minute we got caught out on the left. A ball from Fulham caught out Semedo to leave Sessegnon in on goal and he calmly slotted past Sa before some fans had even taken their seats. 1 – 0 down already, we were so asleep, a mountain to climb already.

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Cunha was the first to react after the goal, his drive towards the box drew a foul, his free kick went out for a corner, the resulting set piece ricocheted around the box and eventually Doherty strikes the ball wide.

We try to get into the game now and a busy Andre, volleys an effort on goal on 12 mins, its just not flowing today. We work the ball around the midfield and try to penetrate the solid line of Fulham there’s some better
play as its worked to far post and Gomes blasts over.

The ball over the top from Fulham is causing us problems and Muniz is winning every header against Santi Bueno, we looked edgy and nervous, you could sense this in the stadium.

On 18 minutes, a move down left side with Bellegarde and Ait Nouri, sees a fizzing cross deflect to Gomes, who smashes in a volley off the bar, he makes it 1-1.

Santi Bueno is having a tough night, his block on Adama goes unpunished but it’s a corner. Traore is causing problems with his direct running across the box. The resulting corner is cleared but just after that  Santi gets a yellow card for a poor challenge, it was very rash and now he is walking a tightrope for the second game running. We really miss Agbadou, even though Santi has had a good solid few games, he is feeling the pressure in my opinion.

Matheus Cunha is also starting to cause issues at the other end, he is taken out, there are no cards given by a poor referee. Cunha has an effort that goes comfortably into arms of the keeper. Cunha again manages to get a shot away with his left foot but its tipped over for a corner. which results in nothing. Its a lacklustre half from us, Sa giving us palpitations with his distribution and lack of commanding his area.

There are no real stand out performances from us except Andre and João Gomes, who are shining in the centre of the park to break up play against two huge midfielders. 

 

As the half wears on, João Gomes wins a battle for pace with Adama, he plays in Cunha but he shoots over. At last we are trying to break the lines of Fulham. We win a free kick for a foul on Cunha on the edge of area, surprisingly Bellegarde takes it, the ball comes back to him after its blocked but he shoots at keeper. Cunha looked frustrated at that decision.

Wolves are finding it difficult to penetrate the low block of Fulham, we have lots of possession but can’t get in behind them. When we are attacking, its all too laboured and the ball goes sideways, it allows the Fulham players to get 9 men behind the ball.

Vitor Pereira makes changes as the half wears on, Strand Larsen comes on for Bellegarde, who is unlucky to be taken off, Jorgen makes some good runs into space but there’s no end product from him. The last 15 minutes see Sarabia and Doyle on for Santi Bueno and Andre. Tommy Doyle makes a last ditch tackle in last 5 mins as Raul and Iwobi are getting behind us, with chances for Raul that luckily he can’t finish.

The last 10 minutes are mainly us having the ball but not being able to create any chances at all, we’ve looked poor today for the majority of the game. We have not broken forward quick enough, Cunha looked tired in those last 15 minutes and a last chance for Ait Nouri in the 18 yard box is blocked after some neat inter passing.

The referee blows the whistle after 7 minutes of added time, we come away with nothing, a point would have been acceptable by us all but we go away frustrated and bemused.

This was an opportunity to put further daylight between us and the bottom three, we missed the chance and I really hope it doesn’t come back to bite us tomorrow when Ipswich and Leicester play. I was really disappointed with our intensity, guille, tactics and malaise this evening. I hope this is a blip and the team goes away, rests and comes back against Everton with renewed vigour, passion and energy. I’m not too fussed if there are plenty of changes for the cup game on Saturday, we need to be ready to go again in 11 days time, every game is a cup final until the end of the season