Wolves Fans' Verdict v Man City: Mistakes cost us!
Our Wolves fans have their say on the defeat to Manchester City.
John Lalley
Wolves turned up and fulfilled the fixture as they were duty-bound to do so.
Barring a miracle that no-one at The Etihad was prepared to believe in, this match was destined to be a no-contest from the very outset.
City simply had too much on the line to allow us even the ghost of a chance. Wolves unproductively went through the motions, gamely upped their tempo a fraction early in the second period before fading towards the end, utterly outclassed and relieved no doubt that the margin of the chasm in class wasn’t emphasised to an embarrassing extent.
Wolves had made a poor start to the season when an unbeaten City visited Molineux late last September. The superb against the odds result we achieved proved to be the springboard that has seen the club exceed all expectations this season.
The energy, total commitment and sheer determination shown that day was inspiring. Mistakes were at a minimum; we guarded the limited possession we were granted with intensity and defended with rugged efficiency.
Craig Dawson’s muscular shackling of Erling Haaland was one of our best individual performances of this campaign. The notion that we could reproduce such a performance at this late stage when our race is all but run was beyond fanciful; Wolves have given the impression for a good while that their last fixture can’t see its end soon enough.
This game was significant for City but of little genuine relevance for us. Just the same, it was infuriating to see our carelessness in possession account for two of City’s goals and with the result always inevitable, you had to stifle a chuckle that the on-field referee called two wrong decisions for both penalties.
Knowing he had hesitated and been harsh to penalise Ait-Nouri, he turned a blind eye to the Semedo indiscretion and was over-ruled by VAR. Made not a jot of difference to the outcome, but par for the course in a series of monumental clangers officials have heaped upon us starting from our other trip to Manchester on day one.
Biggest worry though was our increasing uncertainty often bordering on panic in possession playing out from the back. Wolves are surely one of the poorest exponents of this modern trend. City gratefully exploited our failings; a must improve for next season!
Clive Smith
It was not men against boys, we played better than that, but it did look a bit like £50million players v £15million players at times.
Having a referee who was intent, and quick, to award fouls, cards and a penalty against us before allowing VAR to re-ref another penalty, hardly helped.
