Wolves 2 (Whittingham 29, Angel 65) Sunderland 2 (Geragusian 1,82)
Wolves under-21s were held to a draw in the Premier League Cup against Sunderland on Monday night.
In response from last week’s defeat against Altrincham, Wolves fought back from behind against a well-drilled Sunderland side, but the result meant that James Collins’ side were knocked out of the Premier League Cup.
The visitors were faster out of the blocks and opened the scoring in the first minute, as a darting run from Ben Middlemas saw him advance into the box before squaring the ball to Finn Geragusian, who tapped in from close-range.
17-year-old Josh Gracey pulled out two fantastic saves in quick succession to keep the scoreline to one 10 minutes later.
Matty Whittingham was the man who got Wolves on level terms just shy of the half hour, as Leo Lopes’ run opened the space for Whittingham and he coolly slotted his effort past Daniel Cameron.
The Old Gold looked to advance further and were inches away from taking the lead when Tom Edozie’s header narrowly rose over the crossbar.
Half-time | Wolves 1-1 Sunderland
Wolves were competitive after the restart and enjoyed exploiting down both flanks, with Ethan Sutherland and Wes Okoduwa heavily involved.
Collins’ side enjoyed more of the ball in the second period, however, the Black Cats looked dangerous on the counter-attack, but Wolves defended as a unit when they were required to.
Dani Angel then increased his tally to three goals from his last four appearances when he gave Wolves the lead in the 65th minute.
Sunderland failed to deal with a cross from Caden Voice and Angel was three yards from goal when he side footed the ball into an unguarded net.
The visitors got back on level terms with under 10 minutes of the game left to play, as Geragusian’s effort was bundled in to deny Wolves a chance to progress.
Sunderland were expecting the net to bulge late on but Gracey made a remarkable save with a strong left hand in the closing minutes to keep the game all square.
Wolves battled to try and find a third goal but failed to do so, resulting in their Premier League Cup campaign coming to an end.
LINEUPS
Wolves | Gracey, Okoduwa, Olagunju (Reynolds 87), Mabete, Voice, Rawlings (Bradbury 60), Lopes, Whittingham (Keto-Diyawa 87), Angel, Edozie (Esen 72).
Subs not used | Igbinoghene.
Sunderland | Cameron, Lavery, Kindon, Bell, Bainbridge, Middlemas, Jaydon Jones, Whittaker (Neill 87), Gerugusain, Walsh (Lenz 60), Tutierov.
Subs not used | Metcalf, Holcroft, Lenz, Scott.
NEXT FIVE
07/02/2025 | Sunderland (A) PL2
11/02/2025 | Rochdale (A) NLC
17/02/2025 | West Bromwich Albion (H) PL2
21/02/2025 | Tottenham Hotspur (A) PL2
28/02/2025 | Southampton (A) PL2
Report by Thomas Gibson
