WOLVES STILL ON A MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR
But Brighton give Nuno run for his money
DiOGO JOTA scored twice and should have had a hat-trick before the break as Wolves took their unbeaten run to 11 Premier league games — their best since stan Cullis was manager and the Beatles had Pete Best as drummer.
Nuno espirito santo’s enterprising side move sixth after gleaning a hard-fought point from a game which saw four first-half goals, a penalty appeal waved away by VAr and three cynical fouls on the quickfire Adama Traore in the second half.
Much of the talk will, rightly, be about Wolves mounting a serious challenge for the european places with a wafer-thin squad and their own Thursday night adventures.
But Brighton matched them. They overcame a sluggish start, several individual mistakes and a punishing schedule to go toe-totoe with the visitors as two goals in 96 seconds turned this game on its head.
Brighton manager Graham Potter put it best, saying: ‘That’s a good point. hard earned. hard fought against a good team. We started off OK and they grew into it with the quality that they have. They defend really well.
‘They have international experience and some frightening pace on the break with Traore.
‘All the time you’re on the edge when you have the ball. You know if you make a mistake they’ll punish you.’
dale stephens was lucky to get away with an early error, his weak header at the edge of the Brighton box falling to ruben Neves, who fired just wide.
Then, after a classy short-corner routine, romain saiss saw his thumping header clawed away by Mat ryan.
The pressure told and Jota ended a run of eight Premier league games without a goal in fine style with almost half an hour gone. he played two one-twos down the left flank: the first with Jonny took him into Brighton’s half, the second with raul Jimenez — who put the ball on a plate for the winger — was duly dispatched.
Unease began to fill the Amex. ‘Come on! They’re murdering us,’ screamed a fan. And then, the clincher, ‘ They want it more than you!’
Potter admitted: ‘The crowd were getting frustrated. We weren’t quite able to play through or around them.’
Then, in the 34th minute, it all changed.
From his own half, stephens hit a long ball over the top. it bounced once, then Neal Maupay held off Conor Coady and rifled a left-foot shot into the net via the right wrist of rui Patricio. ‘You have to find a way sometimes in football,’ said Potter. ‘i didn’t think the way would be Neal Maupay banging in a goal like that.
‘i read a quote that he felt he had struggled a little bit. he hadn’t felt himself, he hasn’t felt as well as he’d like to feel. i thought he was as good as anybody in this game.’
With the stadium now alive, Aaron Mooy broke free from helping dan Burn contain Traore. Bursting down the left, he fed leandro Trossard and the Belgian’s cross found davy Propper, who thumped home a header.
Minutes later, Propper was shaking his head in disbelief after gifting Wolves a leveller.
Under little pressure and facing his own goal, he spread the ball to Brighton’s right. The trouble was, he found Jonny, not steven Alzate. The spaniard darted forward, passing to Jota. With his back to goal, he turned and beat ryan with an unerring finish.
Before the break, Jota was denied by a brilliant piece of goalkeeping from ryan and in the second half was adamant that he should have had a penalty.
Another loose pass from stephens was picked up by Jimenez and after finding Jota near the penalty spot, some desperate Brighton defending ended with lewis dunk lying on the floor and nodding the ball on to the top of his own right arm. A VAr review ruled in favour of the Brighton captain, but Jota disagreed.
‘ it’s clear i’m there, i don’t understand. i know it was handball because i saw,’ said Jota after the game.
Jon Moss waved away another penalty appeal as Coady wiped out Maupay after another lofted pass from stephens, then three fouls on Traore drew more attention from the referee.
dunk, Burn and stephens all callously felled the speeding spaniard, but Nuno refused to be drawn on whether he needs protection from referees.
‘he’s a strong boy. everyone can see that but no matter how strong you are, if you have been kicked it is impossible,’ he said.
‘he’s a beast,’ agreed Potter.
BRIGHTON (4-3-1–2): Ryan 7; Alzate 7, Webster 6, Dunk 6, Burn 6; Propper 6.5, Stephens 6, Mooy 7; Gross 6 (Jahanbakhsh 68min); Maupay 7 (Murray 68, 6), Trossard 6.5. Subs not used: Button, Duffy, Bissouma, Bernardo, Montoya. Scorers: Maupay 34, Propper 36. Booked: Dunk, Burn, Stephens. Manager:
Graham Potter 7. WOLVES (3-4-3): Patricio 6; Dendoncker 6, Coady 7, Saiss 7; Doherty 6, Neves 7, Moutinho 7, Jonny 7; Traore 7 (Ruben Vinagre 90), Jimenez 6.5 (Cutrone 85), JOTA 8 (Pedro Neto 77). Subs not used: Ruddy, Bennett, Vallejo, Kilman. Scorer: Jota 28, 44. Manager:
Nuno Espirito Santo 7. Referee: Jonathan Moss 7. Attendance: 30,189.