Wolves 5 Nottingham Forest 1 – In Mick We Trust

By: Matt | August 30th, 2008

For the third week running Wolves completely dominated a team, playing fast, incisive, one touch, pass and move football. 13 goals in 4 league games, 4 goals conceded, Wolves are top of league. Mick McCarthy, take a bow. Wolves chairman Steve Morgan, take a bow. It’s very early days, Wolves aren’t promoted yet but Mick McCarthy has built a team of young, hungry, talented and valuable players.

Towards the end of last season, many fans were calling for McCarthy’s head but Morgan stayed loyal to his manager, dismissing the short-termism of previous years to stand by his manager and show patience. Even if Wolves collapsed immediately and MCarthy had to go, he would leave us in a very healthy state. After the first game of the season, a 2-2 draw away at Plymouth, The Observer published the views of a Plymouth fan who stated “Wolves have a great team, but their manager is just not good enough.” I remember thinking at the time, who do you think built this team? You numpty. Wolves have been transformed from a team of old, over-the-hill, ex-Premier League has beens, into a young, talented, highly motivated and exciting team.

The scoreline by no means flattered Wolves, with two disallowed goals for offside, decent saves by the Forest keeper and a thunderous strike off the crossbar, as well as chances wide, Wolves could were well worth their win. This was a magnificent performance by Wolves, compounded by a particularly poor showing from Forest in the majority of areas of the pitch.

Forest had an early chance, Tyson and Martin combined to give Martin a chance to shoot, which was smothered by Hennessey. From then it was all Wolves, initially playing direct to Iwelumo, Wolves played a combination of effective long-balls as well as decent wingplay that frequently left Forest at sixes and sevens. The first goal came from Iwelumo setting up David Jones to curl the ball in from 20 yards, with very little Smith could do. It was almost two as Iwelumo headed over, and again it looked like Chambers had put it into his own net but it was just wide.

The second goal was fortunate, the Forest keeper came out to punch, but it was a poor punch with no height, hitting Morgan on the head and ending up in the net. Forest couldn’t keep the ball, nor win it back from from Wolves, and Kightly was increasingly menacing – unleashing a thunderbolt from 20 yards with nobody closing down, and striking the crossbar before reaching safety, another shot was blocked by Bennett.

Jarvis skinned Chambers for the umpteenth time and brought a good save from Smith, but Ebanks-Blake was offside when he put in rebound. The goal had to come though, and what a goal from Kightly – again, he wasn’t closed down at all – but couldn’t have hoped for a sweeter finish from around 25 yards into the top corner of the goal to give Wolves a pretty much unassailable lead. The fourth goal came when once again, Wolves attacked down the left through Jarvis who passed to Iwelumo to smack the ball into the goal from close range.

The second half began as the first ended, with Wolves attacking and Iwelumo somehow missing. Forest did come into the game, but you have to ask yourself how hard Wolves were trying when they were already four goals to the good. Forest then scored through an own goal, a cross from Martin was flapped at by Hennessey and it ended up in the net off a Wolves Stearman.

Then Kightly was left free whilst Bennett, Breckin and Morgan stepped aside, he strolled past the static Forest defence before deftly curling the ball beyond Smith from 18 yards.

The “secret weapon” that McCarthy talked about yesterday turned out to be, as I predicted, Stephen Ward. However, this was such a one-sided attacking performance that this was a mute point. The club have also announced today that they have had fees agreed for both Matt Hill from Preston and Jason Shackell form Norwich, so our defensive crisis is over for now.

As for player ratings, I’d give everyone a 9, with the exception of Hennessey (7) who had little to do but did flap at a corner to give Forest a goal and a man of the match performance from Jarvis (9.5) he even outshone two goal Kightly on the other wing.

Tim Nash, of the Express and Star, delivers his video verdict here

Teams:
Wolves: Hennessey, Foley, Collins, Stearman,Stephen Ward, Kightly (Gray 77), David Jones, Henry,Jarvis (Edwards 66), Iwelumo, Ebanks-Blake (Keogh 65).
Subs Not Used: Darren Ward, Ikeme.

Goals: David Jones 14, Morgan 29 og, Kightly 43, Iwelumo 45, Kightly 62.

Forest: Smith, Chambers (Wilson 71), Morgan, Breckin,Bennett, Perch (McCleary 71), Guy Moussi, Cohen,Tyson (Cole 71), Earnshaw, Martin.
Subs Not Used: Thornhill, Roberts.
Booked: Chambers, Bennett.

Goals: Stearman 55 og.

Att: 25,301

Ref: Grant Hegley (Hertfordshire).

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