Wolves wonder goal sees off Chorley
Pick that one out: What a way for Vitinha to open goalscoring account for Premier League club at Victory Park
“Part-time players with a full-time mentality,” was how a proud Jamie Vermiglio described his Chorley players after watching their FA Cup dream finally end last night. Wolverhampton Wanderers would certainly vouch for that.
Wolves were pushed all the way by the lowest-ranked team left in the competition and, by the end, doubtless grateful not to suffer similar embarrassment to that which the club experienced at the hands of the same opponents 35 years ago.
Chorley beat Wolves 3-0 in the first round in 1986 and, while they fell just short of pulling off an even bigger upset, it spoke volumes that the Premier League side were limited to just one shot on target. Unfortunately for Chorley, it proved enough, Vitinha’s 30-yard strike – his first for the club since arriving on loan from Porto in September – earning Wolves a fifth-round meeting with Southampton or Arsenal.
Chorley played like this might be their last game – and it could yet be, for this season at least. This Cup run has netted the Lancashire club up to £500,000, but their National League North rivals have not enjoyed a similar financial safety net and, with the competition suspended for a fortnight amid discontent over funding, it is uncertain when, or if, it will resume. For Vermiglio, those were worries for another day. Last night he just wanted to bask in pride at his team’s performance.
“I just said thank you to the players because they’ve given me a moment I will remember for the rest of my life,” the Chorley manager said. “Ultimately, I’m disappointed, because I think we could have won. Up and down the country, people are struggling and it’s no different in Chorley, but those players have given those people something to look forward to and that makes me immensely proud.”
Chorley are a team of lift engineers, apprentice electricians, butchers, builders, personal trainers and students, managed by a primary school head teacher, who sit 110 places below Wolves in the pyramid, but you would not have known. Wolves have been struggling in the Premier League and it is easy to see why. In attack, they were toothless, Fabio Silva and Patrick Cutrone no substitute for the injured Raul Jimenez, and their passing was slow and uninspired.
By contrast, Chorley were brave and purposeful, particularly after the interval, when Elliot Newby twice went close, once with a header and then with a volley, before John Ruddy was called upon to make a fine fingertip save to push over
Andy Halls’ header from a Willem Tomlinson corner. “If we’d been able to take those chances, then who knows what might have happened,” Vermiglio said.
In the end, Vitinha’s thunderbolt decided it. It was some hit from the 20-year-old, but only goalkeeper Matt Urwin will know if he should have done better with the shot, even though it did swerve late.
Nuno Espirito Santo, the Wolves coach, was relieved to escape with the win. “The boys were professional,” he said. “I’ve been on the other side, I played against big teams, and I know what it meant to Chorley. I think we should do better, but not in the attitude we showed.”
Chorley (5-3-2): Urwin; Birch, Halls, Leather, Baines (Miller 84), Shenton (Henley 84); Calveley, Tomlinson, Newby; Hall (Smith 87), Cardwell. Subs Dutton (g), Putnam, Garratt, Mckenzie, Roberts, Birchall.
Booked Tomlinson, Birch, Cardwell.
Wolverhampton Wanderers (3-4-1-2): Ruddy; Boly, Coady, Kilman; Hoever, Moutinho (Neves 68), Dendoncker, Ait-nouri; Vitinha (Traore 69); Silva, Cutrone (Neto 68). Patricio (g), Semedo, Richards, Otasowie, Lonwijk, Corbeanu. Coady.
Referee Anthony Taylor (Cheshire).