By Tom Bason
January 14 2015

Wolves usual FA Cup third round exit occurred last night, albeit not in the usual limp way. After drawing with Fulham 3-3 after extra time, Matt Doherty’s missed penalty in the subsequent shootout was ultimately Kenny Jackett’s team’s undoing.

- After an excellent win away at Blackburn Rovers only two days prior, it was of no surprise that Kenny Jackett made a few changes to the starting line-up for the visit of Fulham in the FA Cup. Given the diminished importance of the Cup in recent years, I think Jackett would have made a couple of changes no matter how long since the previous game. With Benik Afobe apparently set to arrive, neither Leon Clarke nor Nouha Dicko were selected upfront. Given that Dicko is seemingly made of glass, I think I always expected him to be rested. But in what could have been one of Clarke's last chances to make an impact in a Wolves shirt, winger turned striker Rajiv van La Parra ploughed a lone furrow upfront, while Liam McAlinden was selected on the left wing. Elsewhere, Matt Doherty came in at left back for the cup-tied Kortney Hause and Lee Evans replaced Sunday's match winner, Dave Edwards. 

- Fulham lined up in a diamond formation, with Scott Parker protecting the midfield at the base, and Ross McCormack at the tip, just in behind a striker pairing of Cauley Woodrow and Moussa Dembélé (no, not that one). McCormack was at the heart of everything Fulham did, and found it far too easy to find space in behind Jack Price and Kevin McDonald. He really did look a class above, stinging Carl Ikeme's fingertips with a drive from distance early on, and putting a clear chance on a plate for Dembélé to fluff. 

- One of the issues with playing a diamond is a lack of width. Often, none of the midfielders are really wide men, so it relies on either the forwards to drift to the flank or the fullbacks to put forward.  For Fulham, it was the fullbacks who got forward. Initially, I thought we were going to have a classic fullback v winger battle between Liam McAlinden and Jack Grimmer, along the lines of Cristiano Ronaldo v Ashley Cole at Euro 2004, or Scott Golbourne v Patrick Roberts at Craven Cottage earlier in the season; a match up where despite being in direct opposition, both the winger and fullback excel. McAlinden ran at Grimmer early on, Grimmer won the tackle, but as both collapsed to the ground, I'm fairly certain both kicked out at the other. Then five minutes later McAlinden elected not to try and beat Grimmer, but instead whipped in a dangerous cross. But equally, going the other way, Grimmer twice went past McAlinden like he wasn't there. The opening goal came from Fulham's other fullback, as Kostas Stafylidis got forward, and delivered a cross that was superbly headed in by Woodrow. 

- Given Fulham's lack of width upfront, this meant that fullbacks Dominic Iorfa and Matt Doherty had no direct opponent. Instead, whenever Iorfa or Doberty got the ball, Seko Fofana or Sean Kavanagh shuttled out to close them down, with the other midfielder tucking in to make it 3v3 in the centre of the park. This meant that the other fullback was often left free, but we didn't move the ball quick enough to utilise this. Lee Evans, the one midfielder who can move the ball quickly from flank to flank was playing in the number 10 role, and thus was too far up the pitch to spread the play. Evans struggled in this role, never really getting into the game. I don't think he has the skill on the ball, that burst of pace to take him past a defender or the nous to really play in this position. 

- One of the advantages of having McAlinden wide left is that we had someone who could go down the outside of Grimmer. He only did this once, whipping in a good cross before being switched with van La Parra after Fulham took the lead. The issue we then had is with a left flank of van La Parra and Doherty; both of them were always looking to cut inside on their right foot. This meant we had no real width down the left flank, and a congested central midfield area as those two constantly drove inside. I'm a big fan of having left footed players in a team, I think they can open up the pitch in a way that a team of right footers can't. Having just right footers in our first 10 players meant we lost a dimension that we'd have otherwise.

- At half-time, Jackett made a tactical switch, moving to a diamond for the first time that I can remember since we beat Swindon last season. On came Nouha Dicko and David Edwards, replacing James Henry and McAlinden. Price sat deepest in the diamond, McDonald to the left, Evans to the right and Edwards was in behind van La Parra and Dicko. Van La Parra seemed to position himself on the right hand side, meaning that we were quite lopsided for much of the second half. With neither side playing with wingers, this almost made the fullbacks on both side redundant. I did wonder whether we could have taken off Doherty and moved to three at the back, giving us an extra man further forward. Doherty was reluctant to go outside down the left (in fact, on the basis of one run and cross, Richard Stearman, who was excellent, was probably our biggest threat down that flank) and at times Iorfa's brain and feet appeared to be on different wavelengths. However, Iorfa was a threat down the right, reaching the by-line and pulling a decent ball back that Dicko couldn't quite convert. This meant a change in formation for Fulham, who moved to a more orthodox 4-4-2. Ross McCormack switched to the right flank, while Kavanagh pulled out to the left. This did marginalise McCormack, who was never in the game as much while playing out wide. 

- We had a decent spell of pressure, and could have equalised a few times. Firstly Doherty headed an Evans' corner onto the post and saw his rebound cleared off the line, before Fulham goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli tipped a Dicko drive onto the bar. But, the equaliser came, and it was well worked as Iorfa reached the byline, and this time his cut back was met by Edwards, who prodded into the goal. Two minutes later and Wolves were ahead. This was thanks to a moment of brilliance by Kevin McDonald who for so long in the second half was marginalised as he was stuck on the left hand side of midfield. This time though, he got the ball in the centre of the pitch, played a beautiful through ball to van La Parra, whose delicate chip over the sprawling Bettinelli almost didn't reach the goal line. But we couldn't hold on for long, and Dembélé’s shot was parried by Carl Ikeme, leaving Cauley Woodrow with as easy a tap in as he'll ever have. 

- With the snow falling, both teams struggled with the conditions. The ball wasn't rolling true, leading to a lot of miss hit and underhit passes. Wolves took the lead in extra time as Danny Batth picked the ball up and drove forward down the right. His driven cross was flicked him by Dave Edwards at the near post, to leave me with the hope I'd catch my train. But it wasn't to be, and in the last minute, referee David Coote awarded Fulham a free kick on the edge of the area. McCormack's free kick was struck into the wall, with dhxjx adjudging that someone handled the ball. Penalty, and McCormack rolled the ball in with the last kick of the game. I've no idea if it was handball or not, I really couldn't see from my seat. But I thought the initial free kick looked harsh - it seemed very much to be a player whose team were losing in the last minute, throwing himself to the floor in complete desperation. But, a penalty shootout, and I thought generally the standard of the penalties were poor, with Doherty's being the stand out. His run up was stupid, and I never thought he looked like he was going to score. Edwards' and Clarke's penalties looked decent from where I was, but once again it's an FA Cup third round exit.