BACK ON TRACK
Wolves end poor form to close on promotion
Nursing a hefty headache caused by the damaging defeat by Aston Villa, Wolves found the perfect pick- me- up opponents in reading.
A few jitters started to spread after saturday’s 4-1 loss down the road in Birmingham but, back at Molineux after three games away, the Championship leaders enjoyed a stress-free victory that reopened a 10-point gap to third.
The result will pile more pressure on Jaap stam, whose reading have won once in 17 league games to lie three points off the drop.
The only blemish for nuno Espirito santo’s Wolves was an ankle injury to Diogo Jota. ‘We are worried,’ said nuno. ‘Diogo was in pain. Let’s see what he has.’
Jota was down after less than 25 minutes due to a rolled ankle. He tried to continue before accepting his fate and limping off using a physio each side as crutches.
The atmosphere was growing a bit tense but the opening goal arrived four minutes before the break as wing- back set up wing-back. Helder Costa curled a pinpoint cross to find Barry Douglas and his header back allowed Matt Doherty to nod in.
Doherty was involved again after the break when he picked out Benik Afobe, but the Wolves striker dragged his shot badly wide.
in the 58th minute Afobe was offered a chance he could not miss. not for the first time this season, ruben neves was the catalyst. He drove the ball deep but applied deceptive backspin so reading goalkeeper Anssi Jaakkola had to back-track rather than collect and Costa raced on, jinking to the byline then laying it back to Afobe, who rolled in.
Another dazzling move led to Doherty’s second. The defender finished superbly when given a shooting opportunity from ivan Cavaleiro’s lay-off.
Costa should have added a fourth when clean through in stoppage time but he was too lax and allowed Jaakkola to make a double save.
reading did not manage a single shot and stam was angry. ‘At times you need to show more quality,’ he said. ‘You also need to show you really want it. Of course i am not calm, it is frustrating.’