WOLVES ON PROWL
Nuno hails ‘poetic’ Neves opener as his side make it three wins from three
Nuno Espirito Santo’s Wolves maintained their 100 per cent start to the Championship season to set up a mouthwatering top- of- the- table clash with Cardiff this weekend.
nuno, brutally sacked by Porto this summer after a second-place finish and just two league defeats, is in good spirits again courtesy of his new-look team, who added the scalp of relegated Hull to those of Middlesbrough and Derby.
‘We had moments off really good football and we deserved the goals we got,’ said nuno. ‘Thee way we have started has not surprised me, it is reward for our hard work. The players have worked hard from day one.’
It is a marathon not a sprint, of course, butut Wolves already look settled, tled, organised and high on quality.lit
Ruben neves showed exactly why Wolves broke the Championship transfer record to secure him this summer with the exquisite sixthminute opener from distance.
There appeared little danger when the £15.8million recruit, who followed nuno from Porto, received possession 30 yards from goal. But in a flash the midfielder released the ball from under his feet and thrashed it with great precision across Hull goalkeeper Allan McGregor and into the top corner.
‘It was poetry,’ was nuno’s reaction. But Hull, who turned down a £10m bid from Burnley for midfielder Sam Clucas earlier in the day, hit back when captain Michael Dawson headed in inside the six-yard box from Kamil Grosicki’s corner. Parity lasted just a quarter of an hour, however, as Wolves once again created a chance from nothing. BrightBrigh Enobakhare wriggled off thet right touchline and left ChelseaCh loanee Michael Hector for dead, surged into the area and teed up DiogoD Jota, on loan from Atletico Madrid, at the farf post. Hull rallied in a bid to preservep their unbeaten startst under English football’sball first Russian manager LeonidLeoni Slutsky, with Fraizer Campbell hitting the woodwork with a glancing header. But things turned sour when Abel Hernandez, scorer of a hat-trick against Burton on Saturday, was carried off on a stretcher. He is to have a scan on a damaged achilles today. Wolves sub nouha Dicko made the points safe on a breakaway, making David Meyler’s injury-time penalty for Hull academic. Slutsky was in no doubt about the quality of the victors: ‘I’m very proud of my team, one that was built in a short time, because I think Wolves are the best team in the league.’