Clive Smith
Following a boring International fortnight and the endless transfer window postmortem we had a game to go to. Hurray.
With many players having travelled far and wide the resulting fatigue was always likely to affect the line up. Whatever the factors, the team looked very different to what we might have expected. Two debutants, four summer signings were on the bench which meant eight of the squad of 20 were new to VP. That's quite a significant turnover.
We started attacking right from the kick-off. (Why can't we replicate that in home games?) Within seconds Rodrigo might have scored and from the resultant corner Hwang also had a good attempt. That set the tone and for half an hour we played really well. Barnes had too much space and Johnstone made a point blank save, but that aside, Wolves dominated possession. A mixture of long balls to Arokodare, tackling hard, gaining turnovers in midfield and playing through balls from defence into the channels.
However, yet again a far post header from a deep cross led to us conceding the only goal of the game. Agbadou was our closest defender and should have done better, although the cross was very accurate. Our confidence took a hit and it was good to reach the interval without further damage.
Just to get it off my chest, yet again the referee seemed to apply different rules to each side. Our four bookings, starting after only seven minutes, compared to their single one after 88 tells only part of the story. Joelinton, Schar, Burn and Guimaraes were able to wrestle, push and shove at will, without punishment while we conceded a foul whenever the wind changed direction.
Newcastle defended in numbers after the break and we were unable to break through. Our substitutions eventually provided us with more momentum in the final minutes but lacking confidence to shoot or trying to find that telling pass meant an equaliser looked unlikely.
Arokodare looks to have brought us something we've not seen much of in a Wolves shirt. A strong physical presence in attack. Not so much Ray Hankin, John Paskin or Steve Kindon (ask your Dad) more like Diego Costa. Interesting to see how he might play alongside Larsen.