Brentford 1 (Maupay 41) Wolves 1 (Doyle 64)
Wolves battled for more than 80 minutes with 10 men on the road as Gary O’Neil’s men were able to fight back and claim an FA Cup third round replay against Brentford.
Despite Joao Gomes being given his marching orders for a challenge early in the match and then falling behind when Neal Maupay opened the scoring, Wolves gave their all until the end and snatched a well-deserved draw as Tommy Doyle struck a thunderous effort into the top corner, with his sweetly-struck left footed driven shot taking the tie back to Molineux.
The hosts came out strong in the opening few minutes of the third round tie, as the defence were tested, but it was Wolves who had the first real chance of the evening.
Matheus Cunha was given the ball by a loose pass from Thomas Strakosha, and after taking the ball around the Brentford goalkeeper, Cunha was unable to find the net as the red and white shirts got back to deflect the ball over the crossbar.
Despite their positive start, Wolves found themselves with a mountain to climb inside the opening 10 minutes at the Gtech Community Stadium as the Gomes was dismissed early on.
The midfielder stretched to try and get the ball back off Christian Norgaard, but accidentally caught the Brentford captain on the back of his shin. Harshly, the referee was quick to pull out the red card and send Wolves down to 10 men.
With one player less, Wolves spent most of the first half on the back foot as Brentford tried to make their man advantage count. Former Old Gold defender Nathan Collins came close to opening the scoring when he was found at the edge of the box, but his shot narrowly missed over Jose Sa’s crossbar.
The visitors were coping well with Brentford’s first-half pressure and were trying to catch the Bees out on the counter, as well as through set-pieces. Maximilian Kilman was unable to turn home from a corner before Toti headed over the crossbar at the far post after meeting a tantalising Pablo Sarabia free-kick.
Wolves believed Brentford should have had a sending off of their own when Mikkel Damsgaard appeared to stamp on Tommy Doyle as the two battled for the ball – in similar fashion to Gomes’ challenge – but not even a free-kick went the way of the visitors.
After Mathias Jensen slashed the ball well wide from a good position inside the Wolves box, and Josh Dasilva’s bouncing effort off the wet grass was pushed clear by Sa, the men from the Black Country weren’t as fortunate moments later as after a free-kick wasn’t cleared, the ball bounced around the penalty area before finding Maupay who fired a bullet effort inside the far post.
Half-time | Brentford 1-0 Wolves
A change in formation for the second half saw Wolves come out looking a more attacking threat after the break, and that tactic almost paid dividends when Sarabia turned the ball over the crossbar from close range after clever work by Matt Doherty and Doyle.
However, with 10 men, Wolves were always susceptible on the break from Brentford, and Sa had to have his wits about him to deny Damsgaard, before Dasilva fired wide of Sa’s post when he was found with a volley over the top of Toti and Doherty.
With 35 minutes of the second half remaining, O’Neil turned to Pedro Neto to change his side’s fortunes, and that switch almost immediately paid off as the Portuguese was heavily involved in the attack, although Strakosha was rarely troubled.
But there was nothing the Brentford keeper could do about Wolves’ equaliser. A Neto corner was played short to Jean-Ricner Bellegarde and the Frenchman laid it back to Neto who set up Doyle, 25 yards out from goal, who let fly with his left foot, straight into the top corner of net like a thunderbolt.
Wolves grew in confidence from that moment, but they were unable to turn their pressure into another goal, with Doherty heading wide, while Kilman tried a curling effort into the far corner, but it narrowly missed Strakosha’s post.
The game became stretched in the closing stages as both teams looked for the winning goal, but the Old Gold were able to hold on and ensure their name would be in the hat for the fourth round draw.
Full-time | Brentford 1-1 Wolves
Brentford | Strakosha, Roerslev (Peart-Harris 46), Collins, Zanka (Yarmoliuk 74), Pinnock, Jensen (Baptiste 74), Norgaard (Janelt 10), Damsgaard, Dasilva (Olakigbe 63), Maupay, Lewis-Potter.
Unused subs | Balcombe, Brierley, Adedokun, Fredrick.
Wolves | Sa, Semedo, Kilman, Bueno, Toti, Doherty, Gomes, Doyle, Bellegarde (Chirewa 90), Sarabia (Neto 55), Cunha.
Unused subs | King, Mosquera, Keto-Diyawa, Hodge, Griffiths, Barnett, Kalajdzic.
Referee | Tony Harrington
