Wilder is left frustrated as Doherty saves Wolves a point
WOLVES 1 SHEFFIELD UNITED 1
SIXTH and seventh respectively in the table, these are two teams who continue to punch above their weight – particularly Sheffield United, promoted only last season.
Wolverhampton Wanderers, who finished sixth last campaign, have been here before but the presence of two teenagers on their bench is an indicator of how hard they must work, with a relatively small squad, not to slip back.
Wolves stretched their unbeaten sequence in the Premier League to nine matches. The Blades, for their part, kept their unbeaten away record intact.
After Matt Doherty’s header cancelled out Lys Mousset’s fourth goal in six matches, a draw was probably the right result, although Chris Wilder, the United manager, wanted more, especially given that his side had chances either side of the interval to put the game to bed.
Mousset had given them the lead after just 63 seconds. Before half-time, John Fleck had a great opportunity to double the advantage and early in the second half there were several chances for David McGoldrick.
“I’m a bit disappointed because in this division, when you really do get the opportunities, you have to put teams to bed,” Wilder said.
“But full credit to them – they played in midweek and I think there is a stat that they score the most goals in the Premier League from 75 to 90 minutes, so they were always going to come at us.”
Nuno Espirito Santo, Wolves’ head coach, said he was proud of the way his players dug deep after a 3-3 Europa League battle against Braga in Portugal on Thursday, which clinched their place in the knockout stage.
“It’s a challenge to go from that to Sheffield United, against such intensity and direct football,” he said. “Trying to grow through the competitions is the big challenge, and we have to compete again on Wednesday. Yet we finished the game on the front foot and had chances to win.” (© Daily Telegraph, London)