Nuno’s happy to shake it up
SPOILER alert. Wolves’ Championship title challenge is for real, as the Molineux men showed here they can cope with spoilers as well as superstars.
A week after seeing off Aston Villa’s attempts to outplay them, Wanderers shrugged off Preston’s attempts to out-battle them to maintain top spot in the Championship.
Despite being far from their best, Wolves led 3-0 through Ivan Cavaleiro and a Leo Bonatini brace, and held on despite Preston fighting back with a Jordan Hugill header and Conor Coady own goal.
Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo said: “I’m not complaining about the gameplan of our opponents, but we stood up to it.
“In the first half there was too much stopping, too much holding. Preston are a good side and their gameplan was all about controlling our game.
“We have to find new solutions for it because it’s going to happen – and we did.
“I think in the second half we became much better.
“It is good that we scored three goals against a side that had the best defence in the league but at the same time we conceded two – 3-0 would have been better.”
That aspiration to perfection will be tested to the limit in midweek as Wolves visit Manchester City for a Carabao Cup clash between Premier League and Championship leaders.
Santo added: “It’s a big challenge for us but we are going to go there and compete. It’s a fantastic team with a fantastic coach, so we have to enjoy it, but at the same time we want to perform well.”
To have a chance, Wolves will need to defend better than they did in the opening half-hour here.
Errors from Barry Douglas and Roderick Miranda presented Preston’s Daniel Johnson with chances but a 20-yard strike was tipped around the post by John Ruddy and he later steered a better opening over from 12 yards.
Wanderers went ahead a minute before the break as a couple of ricochets fell their way and Douglas picked out Cavaleiro at the back post to turn home, despite the best efforts of Ben Davies on the line.
The game was decided in four minutes around the hour mark. First, Josh Harrop was penalised for a clumsy challenge on Doherty and Bonatini coolly slotted home from the spot.
It seemed game over when Jota’s volley was saved by the legs of Chris Maxwell and the ball bounced in off an unwitting Bonatini’s chest to make it 3-0.
But Hugill headed home Alan Browne’s cross from close range on 65 minutes and Coady turned a Tom Barkhuizen low centre into his own net 11 minutes later.
However, Wolves held out and Preston were reduced to ten men late on for a second yellow for Browne, who had to be called back from the dressing room to see the red card after initially just walking off.
That angered Preston boss Alex Neil, who said: “To be honest it summed the referee up.
“He said he hadn’t actually sent Alan off. What he wanted to do was call him back to show he was in control of the game which embarrassed him as much as anything else.
“I thought that the penalty was harshand our goalkeeper is clearly impeded for the third and the referee chooses to do nothing about it.”