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Wolves 1 Sheff Utd 0 29/12/2001 |
| Match Report | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Report by Bizket Wolf
A crunch game if ever there was one, this was one where the result mattered much more than the display (sorry pure footy pundits). Our last game of 2001, where three points were essential after Man City's lunchtime drubbing of Burnley to keep us up with a shout. A bitterly cold day but - with another healthy size crowd to keep the heat up at Molineux - it went unnoticed. As predicted Naylor lost his place to Camara (is he really injured?), so it was virtually the same team that died against Preston. As in most cases, Wolves started brightly, with Sturridge looking lively and Rae looking to dominate midfield. Early chances went to Wolves with Sturridge pulling in a good cross, before he again with Newton's help worked well to tie up Cameron in their area, but hesitation delayed his shot and he was crowded out. It wasn't all Wolves as some neat footy by Devlin (more about him shortly), saw him somehow pile a low drive in, whilst surrounded by four Wolves players, that Oakes needed two attempts to gather. Wolves seemed to be gaining confidence and managing to put in plenty of crosses, unfortunatley most came to nothing. We had what seemed like ten corners in the space of a only twenty mins, but as I've said before - what's the point we never score from corners. Probably the turning point came on 24 mins as Devlin (who looked like the player most likely to trouble Wolves) committed an absolutely horrendous studs up tackle on Camara - don't let the papers say otherwise it was nasty attempted tackle. The ref wasted no time and gave him an automatic red card, much to the disgust of their manager (Ha!). But what so many times with Wolves, we found it extremely difficult to break down ten men. A dodgy awarded free kick, 25 yards out saw Kennedy feebly hit the wall, then Rae smacking the rebound yards over into the upper tiers of the south bank. On 30 mins neat play by Blake teed up Cameron whose shot grazed the post. It seemed to be one way traffic (as you should expect), but quality passing and crosses were few and far between. Rae seemed to be our best bet for a goal having one powerful shot just go agonisingly wide then just after his powerful header causing their keeper to make a very good save. We seemed to do everything but score, but deep into stoppage time, Sturridge picked up a loose ball to despatch a vicious low right foot shot into the corner of the net. Oh yes how was that needed! Half Time 1.0 Wolves started brightly in the second half and it looked for a short time that we could have a hat full. Kennedy crossed for Sturridge's volley to bounce off a defender, whilst Blake's cross shot somehow failed to find the net. However gradually they came back into the game (cus we let them I think), and for a short space of time it looked decidedly dicey as they had a few chances on goal. Blake had a couple of half chances, before on 65 mins he teeded up Newton for a one-on-one, but their keeper saved well from a very tight angle. We seemed then to take more control as they tried to hit us on the break, but for all our efforts, the all important second goal proved elusive. Blake was subbed for Roussel, with only 5 mins to go (tactical I think), but it was too few minutes to put himself in the shop window. Full time and three points in the bag, as mentioned earlier this was definitely what was needed. Afterall Sheffield were in a run of eight games unbeaten and our home form being a little shaky I would have settled for this after the Preston game. Alex Rae played his heart out (maybe he was trying to keep busy from thinking about all the xmas booze he hadn't been bought!) and deservedly won my man of the match. He seems to be an excellent buy, lets hope we can reward him with premiership footy next year. Bring on the mighty Crewe!! Have a happy and boozy night. See you next year
Match Stats to follow shortly
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