LFL: WOLVES

This was never going to be easy after we were obliged to play most of the match with ten men but we managed to come away with the point that absolutely guarantees another season in the Premier League.   

BEFORE

I'm always a bit wary of playing sides sides who are already relegated as they can loosen up and produce shock results but after a short decent run Wolves have gone off the boil again and lost their last three games. I think we'll get a point at least today and that will remove the last tiny doubt that we could be relegated. Spurs failing to beat Villa tomorrow would do the same. Having conceded nine goals in our last two matches we certainly need to reverse that trend and show a lot more effort and I think we'll manage that. Many are calling for Isidor to start and I wouldn't mind seeing him have a longer run-out. It'll have to be audio only for me today and my match prediction is 2-1 to us.

I got the team-news about an hour before kick-off and here were two changes from the Forest game with Reinildo and Talbi starting in place of Rigg and Diarra. I was pleased to see Talbi in as he usually creates some good attacking moves while Diarra hasn't impressed overall. It was also good to see Jocelin back on the bench.

THE GAME

I couldn't find any commentary on safc.com but finally managed to get one on YouTube. The match was already into the eighth minute and it was still goalless but Wolves had had a corner and Mukiele had been down injured for a while. Wolves seemed to be doing more of the pressing but their moves petered out in the final third, which sounded familiar. We won a corner in the sixteenth when a good attempt from Brobbey was deflected. Xhaka took it and Mukiele rose above the defenders to head it onto the ground and up into the net to put us ahead. It was a free header and the Wolves defending was poor. There was a lengthy VAR check on a hair-pull on Arokodare by Dan Ballard and it resulted in a red card for Dan and we were down to ten men for the remaining three quarters of the game. It also meant that we wouldn't be seeing Dan again for the rest of the season as it's a three-match ban.

We won another corner in the twenty-sixth but this time Wolves managed to get it clear. Despite our disadvantage in numbers, we were doing most of the pressing and a Talbi shot was saved by Bentley in goal two minutes later. Wolves soon won a corner but Alderete headed clear. Almost straight away Alderete was there again to make a crucial tackle as Mosquera shaped up to convert what seemed an easy chance. It sounded like we hadn't made any significant change in our formation since the red card. I don't know who the commentators were but they said Wolves had no cutting edge upfront so I hoped it stayed that way. Elsewhere the Mags were 2-0 up against Brighton. Wolves won another corner and Roefs was forced into a diving save from Arokodare. Alderete went down with an injury about five minutes before the break and thankfully he was able to continue. Four minutes of added- time were announced and as Wolves were doing most of the pressing I was looking forward to the whistle. Brobbey was yellow-carded for a foul on Mosquera, who milked it so much that even his team-mates were telling him to get up and stop writhing around. It remained 0-1 at the break and all in all I was happy enough despite Ballard's dismissal. 

The commentary went gaga during the break as the summary of the first-half was repeated endlessly.

Rodrigo Gomes had replaced Lima as we kicked off again but we'd made no changes. Wolves started brightly and an Armstrong shot was blocked a few minutes in. In the first-half Wolves had pumped in a lot of high crosses that went nowhere but they appeared to have abandoned that and were relying on a more patient build-up. Roefs saved another effort from Armstrong in the fiftieth and we hadn't done anything upfront so far this half. Wolves won a corner a few minutes later and Santiago Bueno headed it home to make it 1-1. It sounded a very similar goal to ours with defenders allowing a free header. There was a VAR check for a foul on Sadiki but nothing came of it. Xhaka was yellow-carded for arguing with referee Paul Tierney. There were thirty-five minutes to go and it started to feel an awful long time. As the hour-mark came and went we were still doing very little attacking but maybe Regis would make a change or two before long. 

We started to press forward more and won a corner in the sixty-seventh. Again the Wolves defenders failed to connect with it but we had no one there to head it home. Roefs was called upon to make his best save so far, from Mane, and then we made a triple-switch in the seventy-second with Isidor, Cirkin (Cirkins, as BBC Sport always call him) and Diarra coming on for Brobbey, Reinildo and Sadiki. We certainly weren't settling for a point but a shot from Diarra which went for a throw-in wasn't going to help. Anyway, I was feeling more confident than I had been and thought we could nick a winner. Cirkin was booked for a foul on Mane and we finally managed to get the resultant free-kick clear. Roefs saved well from an Armstrong header and we survived the corner. There was also a VAR inspection of a suspected handball from Alderete and we survived that too. Five minutes to go and as Wolves pressed forward they were  leaving lots of space at the back which hopefully Isidor could take advantage of. Arokodare had been very ineffective as a striker for Wolves and I was pleased to hear him maintaining such form as he missed a real sitter. I hadn't been expecting much added-time but we had five in the end without a great deal happening apart from that miss and it ended 1-1.