Wolves Fans' Verdict v Villa: Derby delight!

Adam Virgo

There aren’t any better ways to win a football game than that, absolutely incredible!

We’ve played terrible for around 75-80 minutes and somehow ended up coming back from 2-0 down to win 3-2, mind the gap eh.

A Daniel Podence masterclass, without him we don’t even draw the game let alone win. Easily man of the match and he only played for around 15 minutes, the confidence he had with the ball and the way he was beating players, he’s put himself in contention to start the next game.

3-5-2 is an absolute no go and did not work at all, especially when Dendoncker was occupying a central mid/right wing role. Hwang and Adama were way too far apart from each other as well.

4-4-2 however worked an absolute treat and they couldn’t deal with us when we were putting the pressure on, would absolutely love to see that more often.

Huge credit to the players for not giving up with 10 minutes to go though, first goal we worked brilliantly. Second and third had elements of luck to them but who cares, absolute scenes when they both went in.

Up to eighth in the league and hopefully we can keep progressing. Performance wise we’ve not been great in our last three but we’ve won them all which shows there’s a lot of belief in the squad to win and we’ve got a winning mentality right now. Add improved performances to that and we’ll be a delight to watch.

John Lalley

Bewildering; substantially so and freakishly almost defying logic but frankly from a Wolves’ perspective who gives a hoot?

Talk of Villa imploding, indulging in complacency or their wretched game management are all irrelevant and meaningless distractions. This ‘game management’ jargon can be defined any way that suits your own perspective.

The Wolves’ ‘game management’ was hard to argue with; score three goals in the last ten minutes and win the match. Seems a pretty effective course of action to me.

The last time I checked, the duration of a game was ninety minutes and if you go AWOL late on, sour grapes won’t replace reality. Wolves applied pressure, believed they could take something from the game and Villa failed to respond.

Full credit to Wolves for their spirit and resilience; as to why Villa succumbed so irresolutely, that’s their problem. Anyway, no amount of varied speculation as to why Villa lost this derby can tinge one iota that absolute feeling of ecstasy at the final whistle.

Mind you, the dramatic finale was a real surprise considering much of the action beforehand. The first half was a all a bit of an anti-climax with a single breath-taking sortie from Traore the limit of our ambition. McGinn slipped Saiss all too easily on our left side to create the opener for Ings and when Neves was the unfortunate recipient of a deflection for McGinn’s second, the omens were grim.

But Neves was to extract the sweetest of revenges with another huge deflection this time to his benefit leaving Martinez gloriously stranded and utterly helpless. To put it mildly, Ruben’s pots at goal this and last season have been a shade erratic and as he approached the ball expectations were not the highest despite the euphoria of having pulled ourselves level.

Like Coady’s equaliser, the winner was a scruffy affair but that was the least of our worries; the ball squirted in almost apologetically, but it was a delightful sight just the same!

Daniel Podence had been a game-changing substitute; his guile and sure touch cleverly helped to fashion our first two goals. All credit to Traore too in assisting with Coady’s goal; he kept his cool and patiently linked up with Podence when with time running out it would have been so easy to rush and waste the opportunity.

Flawless it certainly wasn’t, satisfying it definitely was; truly you don’t indulge yourself in victories like this too often! Forget Villa’s deficiencies – Wolves won it and what character they showed in doing so!

Russ Evers

At 79 minutes, my summing up was going to consist of just one word – abject.

But the no plan A and no movement and sideways/backwards passing was forgiven after the introduction of Silva and Podence who just moved, ran at defenders and generally mad a nuisance of themselves.

Even at 2-0 down, Villa looked awful but posed more of a threat than we did despite Adama’s wonder dribble but missed opportunity early on.

No one stood out for Wolves with a 5/10 for Kilman possibly getting MOTM status up until the 79th minute when it all changed. Heart and desire – that is what took over and the scenes at the end in the away end were matched only by the 100-yard sprint from Jose Sa to join in the celebrations when our third went in.

Not sure how we are eighth but don’t really care either.

Clive Smith

Wow. Where to start? Maybe the eightieth minute, or the seventy-fourth minute when our first subs came on? Perhaps it was even later when I finally decided I needed to apologise to Bruno.

First things first then. The first half was dreadful – has there been a worse one in the Premier League this season? Both teams preferred to be without the ball and were willing to slow the game down. Goal kicks, throw-ins, back passes, the game was disjointed to say the least. Ings forced a good save from Sa while Traore ran fifty yards, riding several challenges and had his shot saved by the keepers legs. Not a very long highlight reel.

The second half saw things get worse and at 2-0 there was only one winner. We showed no signs that we might score while there looked every chance we might concede again. Getting possession in the final third continued to be a challenge.

It was about then the Manager’s decision making came into question. Why start with Dendonker? Hwang and Traore hardly looked a match made in heaven. Why had we not brought Podence and/or Jimenez on? So, I apologise to the boss, seems like he did know what he was doing.

Eventually we made some changes, but it felt like it was too late. Then the earth moved on its axis. Podence looked the go-to guy. We played in the final third. A Neves, through the eye of a needle pass, a cross from Podence – the sort all good wide men should deliver and Johnny on the spot Saiss gave us some hope. Moments later a (rare good) set piece followed by a scramble and our Captain Fantastic invites pandemonium as he drills home from several inches out. They all count, apparently.

Then, at the death, Row Z awaited, as a Neves freekick was lined up. The rest... will not be forgotten for a long long time. Credit to Sa for coming off his line to reach the far corner flag twice in five minutes to join in the celebrations. I don’t remember seeing Phil Parkes ever do that.

Thank goodness we had a VAR-free game. Any intervention that invalidated those celebrations would have been a crime against football.

Neves gets my MOTM but Podence was the game changer. He turned the game on its head quicker than you could day yippee-eye-ay.

Villa fans chanting, two down on your big day out, had a much better ring to it when we upgraded the words slightly.

The end, was very much a Bristol City away day moment. Hopefully all limbs are still attached to their rightful owners. Priceless.

Rob Cartwright

Well what a rollercoaster of emotions this game was.

You can’t change the fact that this was a poor performance, with a poor game-plan and poor timing of substitutions; followed by a quite remarkable last 15 minutes which gave a result no-one inside the stadium could dream of as Wolves laboured to create scoring opportunities in the second half.

Who are we to know? A reminder to us all why only the chosen few get to be top managers in football!

It was a frenzied Derby game in the first half. Villa were on top, but Wolves had the best chance to open the scoring when Traore dribbled from the half way line shaking off challenge after challenge to face Martinez one-on-one. He shot straight at him.

We were overrun in midfield, lacking width in need of changes. The game was crying out for Jimenez at this point. I was astonished that no changes were made and he cut a frustrated figure warming up from the 60th minute and ready to come on.

Villa had already taken the lead when Saiss failed to cut out a cross to Ings nicely placed in-between Coady and Kilman to head home. Plenty of time to change things.

Inexplicably, Mings was booked for time wasting, on 60 minutes.

We went further behind on 67 minutes and it really looked the point of no return. Hwang Hee-chan gave the ball away in a dangerous area for McGinn to shoot from long range. A lucky deflection wrong footing Sa.

A double substitution was made on 74 minutes. Still no Jimenez, but this was time for Podence who proved to be the game-changer. He was joined by Silva who also added more energy to the front line. The tide had turned, but surely we’d left it too late?

Ten minutes to go when a measured cross by Podence found Saiss unmarked at the back post. This was like a shot of confidence to the Wolves players who were magnificently marshalled by Coady to search for the equaliser.

Traore made amends for his ‘miss’ when in a tight space, inside the box, he made the perfect pass to Dendoncker who crossed for Coady to score. It was one way traffic now.

We entered added time and we were well on top with Villa playing deeper and deeper.

Traore made another maisy run and was fouled on the edge of the box. This is the part of the pitch known as “Neves Territory” and there was great expectation in the stands.

He lived up to the challenge, courtesy of a deflection just like McGinn’s goal had taken earlier. The celebrations were loud and long.

Mings wasn’t time wasting anymore!!!

What a comeback that was. My man of the match is between Coady for his leadership and Podence. I’ll give it Podence for the game changing impact he had, even though playing only the final 20 minutes.