BYRAM AT DOUBLE TO LIFT LEEDS
SAM BYRAM scored his first goals of the season to help Leeds win at Molineux for the first time since 1984 in the battle of the Championship’s most saleable clubs.
If Leeds owner Massimo Cellino does like tinkering in team affairs, the kind of substitution he must dream about helped turn the game after Benik Afobe had given Wolves a deserved lead.
Leeds lost Tom Adeyemi to an injury and manager Steve Evans opted to bring on striker Souleymane Doukara. Cellino could not have made a better change and must have been delighted as his players took control.
Stuart Dallas had almost scored with an audacious 25-yard volley against the post, after chesting the ball down himself, before Wolves went ahead. Their recalled top scorer Afobe ran on to James Henry’s header, opened up his body and rolled his shot past Marco Silvestri for his ninth goal of the season. Afobe could have scored with two more efforts before Doukara’s introduction.
Leeds got their reward a minute before the break. Doukara dropped deep, pulling Ethan Ebanks-Landell out of position, and Lewis Cook played a crisp pass into the space and Byram initially miscontrolled the ball before slotting home an equaliser from Chris Wood’s pass.
The second half continued in the same vein. Wood should have scored a hat-trick, Carl Ikeme pulling off three brilliant saves, but Leeds were on fire. Dallas ran on to a neat one-two from Doukara and fired in at the near post in the 51st minute before Byram rose high to head in Charlie Taylor’s left-wing cross on the hour mark. Wolves were reeling but they did pull a goal back nine minutes from time when substitute Nathan Byrne volleyed in Jordan Graham’s cross.
Steve Morgan wants to sell up but in the meantime Wolves are floundering, uncertain of their direction. It is said the owner, who bought the club for £10 from Sir Jack Hayward, wants £15million for a quick sale, and another £15m on promotion to the Premier League. That looks a distant prospect as all of manager Kenny Jackett’s hard work in reviving the club threatens to be wasted.