Late mistake costs Wolves all three points.

A late error by Lee Naylor cost Wolves all three points this afternoon.

When an offside decision wasn’t given against Okocha who was returning from a prior attack, Naylor was harassed into conceding a throw. This resulted in Bolton quickly seizing the initiative and putting in Okocha. Butler came over to fill the gap left by Naylor, leaving Kevin Davies unmarked. When Davies was played in he had the time and space to fire past Oakes.

It was a very harsh on the previously excellent second half backs to the wall defending that had kept Bolton out.

In the first half Wolves were far the better team. A fine strike by Alex Rae from a partially cleared corner was no more than we deserved. The midfield had bite and every player was working 110% to give Wolves the upper hand.

In the second we played too deep and Oakes had to be on his best form to deny several long range shots as well as the succession of corners that Bolton forced.

Kenny Miller worked hard on his own up front but all too often we just had no outlet when we did manage to clear the Bolton attack.

Alex Rae was excellent but both he and Ince tired inevitably in the second half and Kennedy disappeared when his help was much needed. Butler and Craddock repelled everything that Bolton threw at them physically. Irwin was again solid.

It was a real shame that we weren’t able to hang on for those last few minutes to get a much needed victory. Bolton were definitely relieved to get a point. It seemed like they weren’t going to get any return from all their pressure.

So we now have two points. Four would have been excellent and taken us above Newcastle and off the bottom.

However, in the first of our mini-league within the Premiership we have our first point. Unfortunately, we face Man City then Fulham who are probably just above us in terms of expectations.

The 4-5-1 system again worked well but we didn’t really look like scoring from an attacking move. However, for those who don’t travel to the away games at least I’ve seen both of our league goals this season ;-)

E-mail me with any comments to dave@wolves-mad.co.uk