|
|
|
|
|
| Latest Injury News
|
Ground Directions
|
|
|
Ticket Information
|
Fans' Views Pre Match
|
Fans' Views Post Match
|
|
|
The Manager's View: Match Preview
|
The Manager's View: Match Reaction
|
|
|
Match Ratings
|
|
Man of the Match Poll
|
|
 |
|
Not Yet Started
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wolves 1-0 Hull City – Full Report
By JOEL REED at Molineux
Damien Delaney’s freak own-goal handed Wolverhampton Wanderers their second consecutive Coca-Cola Championship victory and rewrote the history books in the process as the Molineux men extended their unbeaten league run to a record breaking 21 matches.
Hull City central defender Delaney’s 18th minute error – a wicked deflection, which came off his back past his own goalkeeper Boaz Myhill, following a dangerous Ki-Hyeon Seol cross across the six-yard box – in the end was the deciding factor in this mediocre contest, which wasn’t helped by the torrential rain which descended across the Black Country shortly before kick-off.
Tigers boss Peter Taylor helplessly watched on as a rampant Wolves side, boosted by the return of their skipper Paul Ince, who used the treacherous conditions to his advantage to fly in with slide tackle after slide tackle, ran the Championship new boys completely ragged.
And if Wolves could have found their form in the Molineux pitch’s final-third, to capitalise upon the superb build-up play they produced, Glenn Hoddle’s side could have reaped a harvest of goals, instead of riding their luck in the game’s final quarter-of-an-hour.
This is something that Hoddle picked-up upon in his post-match press conference, the former England coach said: "In the first half of the game we were excellent, magnificent and we could easily have been three or four goals up at half-time. Some of our play was excellent.
"Individual players went out there determined to do their jobs, we showed good movement and there was a nice balance in our play so the only let-down was that we didn't score more goals.
"We need to punish teams more to put ourselves in a dominant position by the end of the game and this afternoon we should have been out of sight. But at the end of the game Hull had a couple of long shots which goalkeeper Michael Oakes needed to save."
Wolves could easily have been three or four up before the end of the first half, as they began the game in pulsating style, with striker Kenny Miller pulling the strings in attack.
The Scottish international forward set the rhythm for the contest when in the opening 30 seconds he managed to pull two superb angled shots across Hull City goalkeeper Myhill’s goal.
Inspired by his striking partner’s exploits, Carl Cort, who missed facing his brother Leon in the Hull defence because of his sibling’s foot injury, should have scored, when South Korean international Seol whipped in a cross from the right and Cort directed his powerful header well wide of the target.
But as Wolves peppered the Hull City goal with shot after shot, it seemed a question of just how long the Tigers defensive line could stand resolute against the wave of attacks.
The answer – not very long – as with 18 minutes gone Wolves finally penetrated the Hull City back-line with a goal which came from the most unlikely of sources.
Seol waded his way past two lunging slide tackles, which sent jets of surface water in to the air, before he looked up, contemplating whether to have a go on goal or cross the ball, he eventually decided to thump a powerful cross across the six-yard area, which hit the unfortunate Delaney, who until this point had been reasonably solid, on the back and past Myhill, who had no chance.
A quarter-of-an-hour later Hull City’s best hope of turning the game around – former Wolves midfielder Keith Andrews, who moved on a Bosman fee to Hull in May – was forced to hobble off with a foot injury.
Wolves began to turn the screw and should have gone two clear, but they were thwarted by the heroics of Myhill, who did superbly to react and tip Carl Cort’s header over the bar after Lee Naylor delivered the cross. Myhill did well to deny Paul Ince, Mark Kennedy and Rob Edwards in quick succession.
The gulf in class was beginning to show and Hull City boss Taylor desperately tried to tinker around with his side to find a reply, bringing on midfielder Stuart Elliot for Stephen McPhee after 37 minutes and Nicky Barmby was sacrificed for Ryan France 20 minutes in to the second-half, but none of the changes paid any dividends and Hull didn’t possess enough quality to muster a goal.
The Tigers’ best attacking threats came in the final few minutes of each half; with 38 minutes gone Stuart Elliot charged down the left flank and picked out Nicky Barmby, who volleyed a perfectly legitimate goal past Oakes, but the assistant referee raised his flag and the goal was chalked off.
Elliot was involved in Hull’s second real chance of the match, which came within the last few minutes of the game. The substitute hit a rasping drive from 20 yards out, but Oakes was alert and tipped the weaving ball on to his crossbar and over for a corner, which came to nothing.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
