Crystal Palace leave it late to hunt down Wolves
Crystal Palace’s late show earned a deserved 2-0 win at Wolves.
Jordan Ayew and Luka Milivojevic, from the penalty spot, scored in the final seven minutes to ease Palace’s goal woes.
The Eagles’ loan pursuit of Liverpool’s Dominic Solanke looks over with doubts over his fitness while Wilfried Zaha stretched his goal drought to 14 games.
Wolves are chasing Chelsea’s Tammy Abraham, currently on loan at Aston Villa, and both teams showed why they needed fresh firepower in a forgettable game.
Willy Boly wasted Wolves’ best opening, making a hash of a free header, as they dropped to ninth in the Premier League.
Palace stay 14th but they were good value for the win despite the game failing to spark.
Joao Moutinho fired over during a subdued start at Molineux as Palace controlled the game without setting pulses racing.
Boly’s error gifted Andros Townsend the chance to break before Milivojevic’s tame effort was turned over by Rui Patricio. Boly was left unmarked to reach Ivan Cavaleiro’s corner but miscued his header from 12 yards and Matt Doherty could only nod the spinning ball over.
Wolves improved after the break and Cavaleiro’s cross caused panic in the Eagles defence before the underworked Vicente Guaita claimed it.
But Jonny summed up Wolves’ lack of attacking nous when he ballooned over from the edge of the area after an hour.
Zaha was stuck on the fringes for Palace and after three goals in his first four matches this season the forward’s strug- gles will be a growing concern for boss Roy Hodgson.
Yet, despite Palace’s minimal attacking threat, they grabbed the opener with seven minutes left.
A piece of penalty box pinball ended with the ball coming to Van Aanholt on the edge of the area and his mishit shot fell to Swansea loanee Ayew to fire home his first goal of the season from six yards.
Ruben Neves nearly levelled in stoppage time but Guaita palmed his deflected drive wide and Milivojevic wrapped up Palace’s win, burying a penalty, after Ryan Bennett fouled Zaha.