What a match, what a comeback! Pleasure to be there to witness, though to be absolutely honest, I am referring to the second half, of course!
What happened in the first 45? I don’t think any of us could fathom it. A decent start up until the goal but it wasn’t as if we went to pieces, we just never got going in any cohesive manner. Poor ball control and retention, poor running off the ball, lacklustre all over the pitch. It couldn’t have been tiredness, the second half proved that, to me it was a further extension of the general poor form since the Liverpool match. Absolutely no fight and terrible body language throughout. Neves, Moutinho, Traore, Jimenez, Donk all guilty of some p!ss poor passing. And the goals, yep amateur defending. Mind you the first was after a lovely cross from Ward-Prowse and a decent finish from the lad, irrespective of Docs positioning. And then pint size Albion reject, Long beat Donk to another very good cross. And the miss from Jimenez was typical as it was poor.
Dejected at half time and you look at the bench and think oh f**k! Hideous half. There was much gnashing of teeth in St Mary’s Northam End, I can tell you.
But as I sat, contemplating the grim journey home, Nuno was at work in the changing room. Since he’s been our manager, those 15 minutes represent the biggest moment I would have wanted to be a fly on the wall. What did he say, how did he say it, how did the players react?? A speech worthy, perhaps, of folklore status??
From the off, the tempo was different, the endeavour was greater, the body language more positive. We were in their face! I’m not going to say we transformed into the silkiest display I’ve ever seen, that would be ridiculous (we didn’t) but we changed and it was enthralling to witness. Uplifting, exciting, wonderful and winning!
I hope you’ve all had chance to see the goals by now, Neto’s a lovely turn and bang, back of the net. Was a comeback possible? What energy this lad demonstrated yesterday to get his 4th goal of the season (I’m counting the nauseating VAR reversals at Anfield and Old Trafford). As for the second, the only two people In St Mary’s who didn’t think it was a penalty was the ref (what was he thinking) and Hasselhuteldootlepootle. So VAR favoured us at last? So be it. And finally the third, lovely run from Traore, but I thought it over ran it but instead he turned played a pass perfect and a beautiful deft shot from Jimenez and wild celebrations! That shot was sumptuous, Raul’s touch a delight as he guided it towards me with only the net to stop it.
We witnessed a reasonable resurgence of Saints after that, Redmond clipping the bar from distance but that turned out to be the major sweaty palms moment before the final whistle. This was because, in no small part, our defiance and guile lasted till the final seconds of the match.
Well done Wolves, a superb thriller, an excellent spectacle, a magnificent 3 points.
As for VAR yesterday, my observations are this. All of our goals involved VAR. The first took bloody ages to sort out, nobody could understand why they were reviewing a handball. We celebrated, we stopped, the review, the choruses of ‘F**k VAR’, the decision, the muted re-celebrations. Then the penalty itself. Yes it helped us but in the interest of parity it still received the same chant from big numbers of Wolves fans. Again it took an age to rectify. The third goal, I went mad for a split second then stopped, you just knew a review would dampen celebrations and so it proved, but when ‘possible handball’ came up, we were thoroughly confused. An age to decide, yet again, with the appropriate Wolves chorus yet again, followed by more muted celebrations after a decision made miles away from the action.
It’s been said before but we now in an era when you can no longer celebrate the moment which is most precious in football ....... a goal. This has been taken away from us to appease the arm chair pundits and tabloids. What a state we now find ourselves in. My moment, and that of many, many more, a rare and special moment of reversing a 2 goal deficit was dampen and dulled. Sad.
But we won and uplifting, so my grim journey home wasn’t as bad after all. It was also an important lesson, never ever give up in this team we’ve got!!!
Who’s up for beating Liverpool next? Count me in!
UTW!