Wolves built on the victory over Manchester City with a hard-earned point against Aston Villa at the weekend, in a West Midlands derby with plenty of flash points, which were all covered during Matchday Live.
Worthy of a point
Hee Chan Hwang converted Pedro Neto’s low cross, after another powerful run from the Portuguese to put the hosts in front, before Pau Torres quickly levelled for the visitors. It was anybody’s game by that point, and the Old Gold missed chances to go in front, before Mario Lemina was dismissed and Gary O’Neil’s side were forced to hold on for a point.
Post-match, former Old Gold star Andy Thompson said: “It wasn’t a classic, end to end game, but the disappointment will be getting themselves in front and then giving away the goal so quickly. Considering the way we defended and the way we played, there wasn’t going to be much in it, so they’ll be disappointed they conceded that, but some good defending and good goalkeeping has kept us with a point.
“I thought we defended well throughout the game. Dawson and the two lads either side of him, Kilman and Toti, played really well. They dealt with Watkins, who is a big threat. He’s a player who loves to run beyond, we saw what he can do in previous weeks – he got a hat-trick – and I thought they marshalled him really well. It’s about making sure we defend as a team, and we did it pretty well. I thought the midfield looked good, we broke up a lot of the things Villa threw at us, and we had the counter attack threat from our lads up front, which is where the goal came from.”
Another Wolves defender Lee Naylor added post-match: “I thought Sa was outstanding. Straight from the off in the second half, Villa had an opportunity through Watkins, and he had to be on it. To keep concentration when you’ve just gone in from the break, and to make a save like that. He made two or three unbelievable match-winning saves. For me, he was 100 per cent my man of the match.”
Jose's fingertips protecting the point 🧤 pic.twitter.com/tSQ05vmB3w
— Wolves (@Wolves) October 10, 2023
Lemina’s late dismissal
With at least eight minutes left of injury time, Lemina was dismissed for a second yellow card, meaning he’ll now miss the trip to AFC Bournemouth and the Matchday Live team debate if the midfielder should have been withdrawn earlier in the game
Thompson: “He left himself open to be sent off, that was the problem with Lemina. He left the referee no choice really. Do you leave Gomes on and take off Lemina because he’s on a yellow card? Maybe they should have looked at that. The manager decided to leave him on, and he has to be disciplined. He’s got to make sure he doesn’t do it.”
Naylor: “I think the manager did it because he did it recently, Lemina was on a yellow and he left him on, and he finished the game well to be fair to him. In this one, where it’s a bit of a scrap, with silly little fouls being made, in that midfield area if someone gets away from you, sometimes you’ve got to take a yellow. I wouldn’t have made two changes, I would have made one, but because Boubacar’s been in that arena before, that was the right decision. Once you make the decision to take Gomes off, you can’t take Lemina off. It didn’t look like he was going to put himself in too much trouble, but it’s safety first. When you’ve got the quality of Gomes still on the pitch, that’s when you can take Lemina off.”
Neto flowing with confidence
Neto’s assist for Hwang was his fifth of the season and he’s been involved in goals in Wolves’ last six Premier League matches, and Thompson and Naylor believe he’s key to future successes for O’Neil.
Naylor: “All you’ve got to do is find a weakness in the opposition and tell Neto to stand on him. He didn’t have many opportunities to do it, but there was the penalty shout when he was running with the ball. He didn’t stop when he had the opportunity, but when they were out of possession, they had a flat back six.”
Thompson: “He’s so confident now, running one-on-one. We’ve got to get that supply to him, we did it against Liverpool in the first half, where we gave him loads of the ball and we saw what he did. I know we got the sending off against Luton, but again, we saw the pace and power he had to get the goal, and somehow we’ve got to try and utilise him a lot more. It’s all about supply, if you’re a winger. He’s got to make sure he’s available to receive the ball when we get it, but also need to feed him a lot better. If you get the ball to Neto, at the moment he’s causing absolute mayhem.”
Hwang in the goals once again
On Sunday Hwang became the first ever Wolves player to have been directly involved in a goal in five consecutive Premier League home games, and the pundits believe if he keeps making the right runs, the goals will continue.
Thompson: “I’ve been shouting out for somebody to get across the front for weeks. If you’ve got Neto and Cunha running down the wing, looking for somebody, we seem to be pulling to the back post. If you get across the front area, you can cause mayhem, but if you time it right, you can cause big problems. He’s got the advantage because he’s sprinting across him and as soon as that ball comes in, he’s got the touch and it’s a great finish. Because there’s players in there, it can ricochet off anybody, sometimes you don’t even have to touch it, because your run is causing problems for them defending. It was a great finish, but that run causes problems for defenders and goalkeepers. They can’t react if anybody gets a touch.”
Naylor: “Just by making the run, you’re going to put yourself in a position to score. Making the run is the most important thing you can do and he’s making those runs. He saw Neto was going to beat the centre half and he gambled, and that’s what forward players are expected to do, expect the best. Making the run is so important and he’s doing it.”
