By Tom Bason
March 1 2014

Wolves recorded a seventh consecutive victory to move to the top of League One. Bakary Sako gave Wolves the lead before a Nouha Dicko double wrapped up the win.

- With Kenny Jackett seemingly settled on his favoured starting line-up, he was able to pick the same ten outfield players for the fourth successive game - this recent run of excellent form has been founded on consistency of selection. But with nine games to play in 29 days in March and April, there will need to a degree of rotation.

- Port Vale played a 4-4-1-1 formation, with Chris Lines in behind Tom Pope upfront and Rowley Regis born former Wolf Dan Jones on the left. Port Vale pressed high up the pitch and really stopped us from building from the back. It was really difficult for Kevin McDonald and Jack Price to get on the ball and dictate the play. There were a number of times that the ball would be passed out Ikeme, and within a few passes it would be back at his feet. In the first half especially, Port Vale did an excellent job in stopping us from playing, and this twice almost caused us big problems. Firstly, Jack Price miss hit a pass back to Ikeme, and for a second I think most in the ground thought we might be seeing a David Davis-esq own goal. Secondly, the unfortunate Price gave the ball away sloppily, directly resulting Port Vale having the clearest opportunity in the first half, Tom Pope blasting over when one on one with Ikeme. What was pleasing was that the mistake didn't signal the start of Ikeme kicking the ball long. The next time he passed it out, someone behind me shouted "Are you not gonna learn from what you've just done?", but I appreciated the fact that we kept doing it. It reminded me a little of Gary Neville’s superb analysis of Barcelona's system and their bravery in playing out from the back- http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x12zxiw_gary-neville-u0027s-analysis-of-the-clasico-between-barcelona-real-madrid-on-dec-10-2011_sport

- But Port Vale couldn't press forever. We've seen this a few times this season; teams come to Molineux with the intention of pressing high, and it often works early in the game. But as the match progresses and players tire, it becomes less effective and Wolves were able to get a proper grip of the game. Yet, it took until the 37th minute for the first effort on target, as Sam Ricketts' header hit the underside of the bar and bounced out. Prior to this, the better chances came from direct running from midfield, with Michael Jacobs and Bakary Sako doing this particularly well, beating players almost at will. 

- I think that there was always a feeling that when Wolves managed to get the first goal, more would flow. The goal came from Bakary Sako with a heavily deflected effort. Sam Ricketts picked him out well with an excellent cross-field pass, which Sako collected and used his power to shrug a defender off. He then beat another to get the ball back onto that left foot, firing in a powerful effort that flicked off a defender looped and span into the top corner. The things that got me about the goal was the presumably rehearsed dancing with Nouha Dicko. Now, I’ve nothing against players celebrating, but it was a goal that was massively deflected. I think that if I scored a goal like that, I’d almost be a little embarrassed to celebrate, especially with a pre-planned dance routine. Sako had earlier almost scored a wonder goal, weaving his way into the penalty area before being slightly unfortunate as his strike from a narrow angle hit Nouha Dicko and bounced out for a goal kick. 

- Wolves were in control much of the second half with Sako and Scott Golbourne combining particularly well to make progress down the left hand side. But the second goal was created down the right flank, as a cross was eventually bundled home by Nouha Dicko. At this point, Micky Adams decided to make a treble substitution – I don’t really understand why he waited until it was 2-0, and then made all of his changes. But, those changes had zero effect, as Dicko made it 3-0 moments after. This was a lovely goal, as he flicked the ball over a defender, ran around him and finished. He then had the opportunity to seal his hat trick, but his weak penalty was to close to Port Vale keeper Chris Neal. I’m still not sure what to make of Dicko, obviously a player who scores a goal every 107 minutes is going to be more than useful, but for large parts of today’s game I was unimpressed. He has a lot of strength, but doesn’t hold the ball up or distribute it particularly well. I think he is a player who would almost be better suited to a lesser team; his main attributes are his pace and strength and he would be perfect for a side that was looking to sit back and hit teams on the counter attack. But we aren’t really able to play like that – we are expected to take the initiative and teams come to Molineux expecting to defend. Perhaps a forward with a little more subtlety would be better at linking up the intricate play that Sako, Jacobs and James Henry can provide. Perhaps this striker could be Leon Clarke – if Kenny is prepared to play him as the second striker, then presumably he has noticed something in Clarke’s game that would suggest he’s more than a typical League One striker. And maybe Kenny Jackett is already considering the possibility that we will be a Championship side next season, facing better teams and have more opportunity to play the sort of football that will bring the best out of Dicko.