GOLDEN YEAR
Wolves are flying in the league ...now they’re hunting Cup glory
OBODY expected Wolves, with their millions spent on squad enhancement and a direct line to some of Europe’s prime talent, to struggle on their Premier League return this season.
Indeed, few eyebrows are raised by the fact that Nuno Espirito Santo’s side are seventh in the table, just below the glass ceiling created by the big six.
But winning the FA Cup for the first time since 1960? Well, that would represent truly astonishing progress in the three years since the Fosun takeover at Molineux.
The 3,400 travelling Wolves fans gleefully sang ‘Que sera, sera, we’re going to Wembley’ after the final whistle yesterday and who can blame them for daring to dream?
Into the quarter-finals for the first time since 2003, the draw might open up for them.
Yes, of course, Manchester City are favourites and one of Chelsea or Manchester United will be in the last eight, but if the draw is kind, there is a chance.
‘It is a competition we really appreciate. The previous moments in the competition give us a good chance to become a better team,’ was all Nuno would say on their chances as he refused to get ahead of himself.
But Matt Doherty, for one, appears to be on a personal mission to deliver silverware for those wearing old gold.
The Irish defender spared Wolves’ blushes with a last-minute equaliser at League One Shrewsbury Town in the last round and then scored twice and created another in the replay.
Here at Bristol City, it was his thrusting runs down the right wing that most unsettled the spirited hosts and his first-half assist for Ivan Cavaleiro that carried Wolves through.
Doherty excels as a wing-back and it was apparent early on that his duel with City’s Jay Dasilva, a 20-year-old on loan from Chelsea, would be of critical importance to the outcome.
Dasilva, naturally attack-minded, was caught out of position several times early on and when Conor Coady’s searching ball from the back found Doherty on 28 minutes, he took him on.
A fortunate ricochet — off the hand, according to City boss Lee Johnson — took Doherty into the box and he found Cavaleiro, who swept home from 12 yards.
‘Matt doesn’t stop running, it’s incredible,’ said Nuno of Doherty. ‘These players with more years in the club, they know what Wolves have been through. They are now in a good moment and credit to them.’
Wolves were a class apart in the first half, with Doherty striking a post and Leander Dendoncker denied by a Frank Fielding near-post save after the breakthrough goal.
Their dominance seemed to rile the City coaching staff, with assistant head coach Jamie McAllister shown a yellow card by referee Martin Atkinson after a verbal exchange in the tunnel as everyone headed in at the break.
‘They’re a fiery bench and we’re a fiery bench as well,’ said Johnson. ‘It’s handbags, it’s nothing.’
Having won nine straight matches in all competitions, the hosts — on course for a Championship play-off spot — knew they could do better and laid siege to the Wolves box in the second half.
Johnson changed the formation to match Wolves’ 3-5-2 and Bristol improved enormously, with Doherty clearing Adam Webster’s flick off the line and John Ruddy saving from Matty Taylor and Marlon Pack.
At the death, goalkeeper Fielding, waved forward by Johnson for a corner, saw a shot blocked by his opposite number Ruddy.
Wolves wobbled but held out and City’s attentions will now switch to a reunion in the Premier League next season.
‘We showed the character, charisma and intensity we are after,’ said Johnson. ‘I am hurting that we’re out the Cup but we have taken a top-seven Premier League team down to the wire.’
Top seven and FA Cup winners? Don’t rule it out.