By Tom Bason
October 27 2012

Wolves today again conceded a home equaliser when looking well placed for three points. Bakary Sako had given Wolves a first half lead, but Lawrie Wilson equalised after 58 minutes to earn Charlton a share of the spoils.

- Wolves have kept a consistent starting eleven for the last three games, with only Karl Henry's suspension at Huddersfield preventing an unchanged line-up in those matches. Yet, I think this says more about the limited options available to Stale Solbakken than it does about the form of the chosen XI. I was quite critical of Solbakken's substitutions in midweek draw with Bolton, but the options that he had, especially in offensive positions, restricted his options. The biggest midweek disappointment was arguably Björn Sigurðarson who really hasn't found his feet in the English league yet. This is slightly more disappointing when you consider he is halfway through his season, having already played 13 games for Lillestrøm before joining. Given that our fourth choice striker is the absent Franck Nouble, a signing that puzzled many supporters, there is must be a growing pressure on Sigurðarson to improve - Sylvan Ebanks-Blake and Kevin Doyle are clearly the first choice strikers, but both will come in and out of form and the sheer number of matches played in the Championship means that an alternative is necessary. Surely Stale has noticed the current leading scorer in League 1...

- The first ten minutes were incredibly sedate, with more than just a few murmurs of discontent around the ground. The tempo was slow, with the ball constantly being passed from defence into midfield and back again. But, it livened up after 12 minutes. Kevin Doyle dropped deep to collect the ball, before playing it out wide to Jermaine Pennant. Kevin Foley overlapped, and his cross was met sweetly by Sako at the edge of the area. It was a classy finish; it would have so easy for Sako to just put his boot through the ball and hit it as hard as he could, but instead he gently guided the ball into the bottom corner. Incidentally, Sako was the only outfield Wolves player to be wearing gloves; for some reason wearing a glove just on his right hand in the first half, before finding a left handed glove at half time.

- Charlton lined up with a general 4-1-4-1 formation, with Bradley Pritchard and Jonnie Jackson taking it in turns to support the lone forward Rob Hulse. This made it very difficult for Wolves to break down Charlton's midfield, although it wasn't helped by the slow passing that didn't move Charlton's midfield at all. The main problem was that when Henry and Tongo Doumbia received the ball, they had three Charlton cutting off their passing options, forcing them to go backwards. I couldn't help but think that it might have made more sense to go with one striker and perhaps bring in another midfielder. I'm personally a big fan of freeing Doumbia from his midfield responsibilities, and wouldn't have complained if Doumbia had been pushed forward with either Dave Edwards or David Davis sitting a little deeper. But, the fact that it is Edwards or Davis who are the only real options demonstrate the level of quality of players beyond the starting eleven. Perhaps this will become more of an option if/when Jamie O'Hara gains a semblance of fitness, although there is a chance this will coincide with Doumbia's African Cup of Nations departure.

- Being 1-0 up meant that taking the sting out of the game perhaps made sense, although taking the initiative and trying to extend the lead would probably have the preferred option for the majority inside the ground. But, at half time we were in control - while he hadn't particularly looked like scoring again, we'd restricted Charlton to just one or two long range efforts, with only one causing Carl Ikeme any problems. The game changed at half time, with Ståle apparently being happy with a 1-0 win, and looking for us to keep the ball for the remaining 45 minutes. The ineffectual Ebanks-Blake was taken off for Sigurðarson who really does not yet look up to the pace. He had one or two moments of nice play, but he shrugged off the ball far too easily far too often for him to have any real impact upfront. Doyle will obviously have a little more confidence following his Bolton brace, but will be getting déjà vu all over again as he seemingly doing the vast majority of the work upfront on his own. Again, this perhaps adds weight to my liking Doumbia in a more advanced role.