Graham Pearcey

Date: 31 August 2022

After a massive defeat on Saturday, and the departure of both the Head Coach and his assistant on Tuesday, a clean sheet must surely be seen as a good result tonight?

Perhaps the appearance of Neto in goal was the biggest talking point before kick-off; though it was also of interest that new signing Fredericks, unavailable through injury until now, was on the bench. Neto, in the end, was hardly tested at all, with just a couple of easy saves to make. (He was booked for timewasting quite early in the second half. In the event, it didn’t seem deliberate – just indecision as to whom to pass the ball to!) Fredericks made his debut appearance for us in the second half when we switched to a 5-3-2 system, and he got almost immediately involved flying down the right wing. Our best players on the day were probably Kelly, Christie and Tavernier. Billing and Zemura had variable games; while Solanke – to me – looked poor.

There wasn’t much of interest in the first half, apart from a penalty shout for a tackle on Zemura (not given) and Wolves’ record signing Nunes once hitting the crossbar.

Bournemouth’s best spell was just after the break. Solanke’s close range shot was on target but easily gathered by the Wolves keeper. And we had our first corner of the entire game in the 48th minute (and only two corner kicks all match).

Our switch to 5-3-2, with Tavernier surprisingly at left wing back, didn’t seem to help our scoring chances at all. And as Wolves upped their game we were clinging on to the 0-0, especially through the six long minutes added at the end! So frantic did it become that when we were awarded our second corner kick near the end of the match we kept most of our players back. Neto seemed to be requesting permission to go up for the corner, but if so permission wasn’t granted.

Wolves missed so many ‘sitters’ in the last part of the game, including a couple of shots that went wide and one that was cleared off the goal line by Kelly. So they didn’t really deserve to win. Their fans booed at the final whistle, while ours applauded our team enthusiastically.

The team lined up as follows at the start of the game:

Neto;
Smith, Mepham, Kelly, Zemura;
Tavernier, Cook, Lerma, Christie;
Billing, Solanke

By the end the line-up was:

Neto;
Fredericks, Smith, Mepham, Kelly, Tavernier;
Cook, Lerma, Anthony;
Moore, Solanke

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