By Tom Bason
January 11 2014

Wolves second win since November came at the expense of Preston North End. After David Edwards gave Wolves a first half lead, Lee Evans secured the points with a scrappy finish early in the second half. With Leyton Orient and Brentford also winning, victory was vital to keep touch with the automatic promotion slots.

- The big decision facing Wolves manager Kenny Jackett ahead of today's match was the selection in goal. With Wayne Hennessey apologising for his reluctance to play in the defeat at Gillingham last week, would Jackett give him his first Wolves appearance since a 0-0 with Sunderland while we were still in the Premier League. Some Wolves fan, myself included regard Hennessey as the best keeper at the club. When I heard Carl Ikeme had broken his hand, I expected Hennessey to come into the first team and still be the incumbent in the goal at the end of the season. But, Hennessey's decision, together with the confident performance from Aaron McCarey meant it was always likely the young Irishman would keep the shirt. I was interested to see what sort of reaction Hennessey would get, and there was a smattering of boos when the tall Welshman's name was read out prematch. I don't think it would surprise anyone if Hennessey has played his last game in a Wolves shirt with Ikeme due back next month. It does seem like Hennessey has added his name to the growing list of established squad members no longer wanted by Jackett. 

- Elsewhere in the team, Leigh Griffiths returned for his first start since his disastrous first half against MK Dons to replace Kevin Doyle, but Bakary Sako could only make the bench. Those three games in 6 days were tough on the likes of Sako who played every minute of all the games, and so it's not really a surprise Sako was left out. We played a 4-1-4-1 formation, with Kevin McDonald sitting deepest in midfield, providing the platform for Lee Evans, David Edwards, Michael Jacobs and James Henry to attack. Apart from the first half against Leyton Orient, where Jacobs played through the middle, we have noticeably lacked midfield runners through the middle, but the Welsh duo of Edwards and Evans did this to good effect. This is something that was definitely needed, given that Leigh Griffiths was the lone-striker and couldn't be expected to hold the ball up by himself upfront. 

- It was one of these runs from Edwards from which the opening goal was created. McDonald picked the ball up deep, and drove towards the Preston goal. His pass was perhaps slightly fortunate to reach Edwards' run in the inside right channel, but Edwards finished well. He delayed and delayed until he was right on top of the goalkeeper and slid the ball underneath him. He had missed an almost identical chance a little earlier, this time clipping his effort over the top of the sprawling goalkeeper, but his effort was weak and a defender was able to get back to clear. He then had another similar chance, this time on the left hand side, but the keeper got out at him very quickly and was able to block Edwards' flick with the outside of his right boot.

- Preston played a standard 4-4-2 formation, with Joe Garner playing slightly behind the out and out striker Ian Hume. To be honest, I wasn’t very impressed with them. Preston has been on an excellent run of form, but I didn’t see anything from them that made me think they could be challenging at the end of the season. They had two good moments – the first when Sam Ricketts gave his opponent too much time to bend a cross in, but the player at the far post was offside. Incidentally, a Preston fan was evicted from the Steve Bull Upper for celebrating this non-goal. Their other good opportunity was almost a wonderful equaliser; a counter attack saw the ball at the feet of Joe Garner, probably around 35 yards from goal in the left hand channel. He hit a first time, right footed effort that dipped and swerved past McCarey and was very unfortunate to see his effort hit the woodwork and rebound in the goalkeeper’s grateful arms.

- With Preston playing two forwards, you could be forgiven for thinking that one of the fullbacks would be more hesitant to go forward, but Ricketts and Scott Golbourne were arguably our best offensive threats. Ricketts enjoys getting forward, and being able to cross with both feet gives an added dimension to his game, that you might not expect from a 32-year old centre back. But, he is able to twist and turn defenders, and got to the by-line on a few occasions to create crossing opportunities. Golbourne attacks in a slightly different way, preferring to let the play build up on the other flank, biding his time before there is space ahead of him, which he can attack once play has been switched. He was excellent today, probably the best player on the pitch. Going forward, he reminded me slightly of Ashley Cole; he’s not necessarily exciting when he attacks (although at one point today he actually dribbled past a defender), but is quietly effective, always offers an option and is instrumental in stretching play when the wingers drift inside.

- Challenging Golbourne for the title of Man of the Match was Kevin McDonald, who arrived as a ‘number 10’, but spent today as the deepest of the midfield. When we had the ball, he was very good (although there were a few sloppy moments towards the end). He seems to have radar in his head of where every player is on the pitch. I love the way he can find a player in space with a first time pass. He is the sort of player who is always looking to receive the ball, no matter how much pressure he is under and will generally take it and look after it. I’m sure this is his best position; I’d generally prefer to see him a little further forward, especially when Jack Price returns, but he showed the way he can still be a force going forward by playing a crucial role in the opening goal. At times when we didn’t have the ball, his lack of defensive positioning in that position showed, as it was far too easy for Garner and Hume to drop into space.

- Upfront was Leigh Griffiths, and although he wasn’t quite as ineffective as he was against MK Dons, he wasn’t at his best again today. Sometimes, he frustrates the hell out of me with the way he hovers 30 yards from goal instead of getting into the penalty area. At least twice today, we got the ball into good positions on the flanks, and instead of making a darting run into the penalty area, Griffiths was hanging back outside the box. He had too chances today; the first came after a deep James Henry cross found Griffiths left boot on the volley at the far post. It was perhaps a slightly more difficult chance than first seemed, given the distance that the ball travelled, but Griffiths probably should have done better than scuff his effort into a defender given the position he was in. He definitely should have done better with his second chance; sent scurrying through on goal, just to the left of centre, he could only lash his effort wide of the near post. I have long thought that he struggles to finish when he has time. He is quite an instinctive player, and is at his best when he doesn’t need to think about what he’s doing. Saying that, he had a big part to play in the second goal that finished the game off, perhaps fortunately managing to get the ball into James Henry’s path on the right hand side of the area. He actually had two similar opportunities; the second one he hit high over the bar, but this one he fired too close to Declan Rudd in the Preston goal, who could only spill his save at the feet of Lee Evans for his first goal since against Gillingham in August.

- Jackett made a few second half changes. The first was a tactical change, as Evans pulled wider to the left, allowing Jacobs to have a more central role to support Griffiths. This is the only position in which Jacobs has really impressed me so far, where he used his pace and dribbling ability to drive at defences. I feel that when he plays out wide, he has a tendency to run inside into trouble, invariably losing the ball, although he did reasonably when on the left wing today. David Davis, who had only appeared twice in the last 10 games came on for David Edwards and gave a little more defensive support alongside McDonald. Liam McAlinden had an impressive 20-minute cameo, hitting one shot straight at Rudd and beating Jack King three times in about 20 seconds to waste time late on by the corner flag.

- Obviously, this was our first win against a top-6 side this season, but I thought it was also the best 90-minute performance we’ve given. The first half against Leyton Orient was excellent, but we were very good today in what could have been a very tricky game, given the respective form of both sides. In so many of our wins this season, Carl Ikeme has been vital, but it says a lot about the way we dealt with Preston’s attack that I’ve barely mentioned McCarey, and am shoehorning him into this bit so he gets a mention. I thought he did well; there were two very god takes from crosses but one that he got nowhere near. A push wide in the second half was pretty much all he had to deal with. But what I particularly liked was the way he yelled at the defence after a Preston player fluffed a free header from a corner towards the end of the game. He certainly wasn’t shy in saying what he thought of the marking.

Wolves 2-0 Preston North End

Discussion started by Wolves , 11/01/2014 18:39

Wolves
11/01/2014 18:39

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014:02:01:18:53:22 by toomb.

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jamwolf
11/01/2014 20:42

Thanks for the report Tom. A real confidence booster to comfortably bear a top 4 side. As you say, it siunds like we played well for 90 minutes today, not 50 as we did against Orient.

Still work to do, but you would have to hope that Brentford or Orient could hit a sticky run in the next couple of months.

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toomb
11/01/2014 23:41

Quote:

jamwolf
Thanks for the report Tom. A real confidence booster to comfortably bear a top 4 side. As you say, it siunds like we played well for 90 minutes today, not 50 as we did against Orient.
Still work to do, but you would have to hope that Brentford or Orient could hit a sticky run in the next couple of months.

I think today was our most complete performance under Jackett. No surprise that we've kept the ball best when we've played 1 upfront. It really gives the likes of Jacobs and Henry the platform to go and play



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