Wolverhampton Wanderers v Swansea City | Scott Murray

• Mail scott.murray@guardian.co.uk in the electronic fashion • Follow the rest of the day’s goals as they go in • Press F5 for the latest, or switch on the auto-refresh HALF TIME: Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-2 Swansea City. The teams depart to a chorus of boos. Wolves, more accurately, depart to a chorus of boos. They’ve been as dreadful as Swansea have been scintillating. Molineux is miffed. Here’s Roy Allen with “It’s Oversimplification Time! So here goes. Swansea are a well-coached team of players picked for their ability on the ball. Wolves are a disorganised shower of players picked for brawn and getting stuck in. It’s past v future, and the future is 2-0 up.” 45 min: Dyer is down getting some treatment on his right leg. He’s been outstanding in this first half; Swansea certainly won’t want to lose him. 43 min: Sinclair cuts inside from the left and hammers a shot goalwards. Hennessey parries. On the edge of his own area, Johnson looks to clear, but only succeeds in hammering the ball straight into Berra. The clearance could clank anywhere, but ricochets out of play down the left, well away from danger. Wolves are now officially a shambles. 42 min: Dyer diddles down the right, cuts inside, and is afforded an age to take a shot at goal. Luckily for Wolves, his effort is low and lame; for a second, that looked like a third. Swansea are nothing short of superb in attack, especially down this right-hand side. Wolves, on the other hand, well, let’s not riff on their pain. 38 min: “You’re getting sacked in the morning,” sing the Swansea fans. Black Dog is scampering up and down the vomitories. 35 min: GOAL!!! Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-2 Swansea City. So simple. Graham tears down the right after a clever looped pass. He’s in acres, and sends a low cross into the centre for Allen, who sidefoots brilliantly into the net, Hennessey having no chance whatsoever. Brilliant play from Swansea, though the closing down by Wolves in the middle, as the move developed, was questionable to say the least. Molineux erupts in booing, a mix of pique at the (correct) non-penalty decision, and the inadequacies of their own team. 33 min: Jarvis looks to spin Monk on the left-hand edge of the Swansea area. He’s upended by Monk’s lunge as he turns, and it looks like a penalty kick, but that’s an excellent decision by the referee, who only awards a free kick: on second viewing, the challenge was millimetres outside the area. The referee, of course, only had one chance to see it, and the poor buggers get pelters just about every week, so hats off for that. The Wolves fans don’t see it that way, of course, and boo accordingly as O’Hara steps up to send a free kick straight at Vorm. 31 min: Wolves can’t get anything going. “Up early here in the USA watching the match,” reports Herman Hooker from Atlanta. “I just wanted to let you know that my TV’s program guide calls this English Championship Soccer. They usually call it English Premier League Soccer. Perhaps an omen?” If Wolves fans didn’t already feel the chill winds of 1984 against their necks, they will now. 28 min: Graham, Dyer, Gower and Sinclair are coming at Wolves from all angles. The home defence looks very nervous whenever anybody runs with the ball at them. A couple of corners for Swansea, the first nervously cleared behind by Henry, the second a free kick to relieve the pressure after Graham puts himself about a wee bit too much. 25 min: A free kick for Wolves, 30 yards out, just to the left of goal. Hammill hits a beauty, the ball heading for the top left corner, Vorm fingertipping over spectacularly. A very decent response by Wolves, but one made in a very quiet stadium. Outside, you can hear Black Dog creaking through the turnstiles. 23 min: GOAL!!! Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-1 Swansea City. Dyer, cutting in from the right, shoots just over. No matter. A minute later, Gower, 30 yards out, lifts the ball straight down the middle, over Johnson and to the feet of Graham, who has broken clear into the area down the inside-left channel. He’s clear on the edge of the six-yard box, and pokes the ball past the advancing Hennessey and into the bottom-right corner. 20 min: Wolves so nearly take the lead. Good work from Doyle down the right, whose low cross finds Jarvis level with the far post. Jarvis spins and shoots, but his effort is blocked. The ball’s quickly swung back in, and there’s a wee melee, O’Hara finally hitting a shot in the crowded area from six yards straight at Vorm. The resulting corner’s wasted, but that’s raised the crowd. 18 min: Dyer, Rangel and Gower are causing Wolves all manner of bother down this right wing. Ward is spinning around like a teenager after two warm cans of Special Brew. He’s helped out this time by Jarvis and O’Hara, albeit not particularly convincingly, Dyer nearly threading a clever pass past two old-gold shirts for Graham in the box, but the ball’s eventually hacked clear. A concern for Wolves, this wing. 15 min: O’Hara busies himself down the left, giving Jarvis a bit of space to cross. The ball’s flung into the area, but easily cleared. Henry has half a second to unleash another long-distance effort towards goal, and he’s encouraged by the crowd to do so via the medium of holler, but he can’t get the shot away and the crowd go back to quietly seething. Don’t judge, a five-match losing run does this to people. 13 min: Swansea aren’t all pretty passes; they snap into the tackle, and harry all over the pitch. Like Barcelona, sort of, only admittedly not quite as good, but very much less self-righteous. 10 min: From the corner, the ball’s worked out to Rangel on the right. A cross to the near post, where Graham guides the ball well right of the target. He was free of the all-gold back line there, and should have done better. Swansea took a while to warm up, but they’re the better team now. Molineux is a wee bit quiet all of a sudden, anxiety having just arrived, Black Dog still queuing up outside the stadium for admission. 9 min: Swansea are pinging it around nicely, all of a sudden. Allen hits a rising shot from 20 yards that’s fingertipped over by Hennessey. 8 min: Swansea have settled a bit now, with Dyer their main outlet. Again he gives Ward a torrid time down the right, and sends a daisycutter into the area. Berra gets across to intercept, sidefooting the ball wide right of goal for a corner. The corner kick… yeah. 7 min: It’s sunny in Wolverhampton, by the way. Crisp and cold, I’ll be bound, coat and sunglasses weather. A good atmosphere, too, both sets of fans giving it plenty. 5 min: Dyer twists Ward this way and that down the right, some good old fashioned Garrinchaisms, but the Wolves man holds firm and Dyer has to lay the ball off. It’ll never make much of an anecdote, but it’s all that Swansea have managed in the Wolves half so far. 4 min: Nothing comes of the corner, but then this is Premier League football. 3 min: A strong start by Wolves, this. Ebans-Blake sends Jarvis free wide down the left, and the resulting cross to the far post is dangerous, but Henry miscontrols. Wolves come straight back at Swansea, though, the promising Hammill twisting and turning down the right to win a corner. And we’re off! Wolves set the ball rolling. Nobody manages to control the ball during the first 30 seconds, but then nobody managed that for nearly 70 minutes during the Liverpool-Manchester United game last week, and few complained about that. Then, after 39 seconds, Henry latches onto a loose ball 35 yards out, and unleashes a super-screamer towards goal. The ball’s low, rising slowly, and swerving all over the place, but by the time it reaches the six-yard box it’s straight at Vorm, who can parry clear. What a shot, though! And what a start. More, teams, please! The teams are out! They’re running about. They’ll soon be playing football. Referee: Michael Oliver (Northumberland) Swansea City: Vorm, Rangel, Monk, Williams, Taylor, Dyer, Allen, Gower, Britton, Sinclair, Graham. Subs: Tremmel, Orlandi, Routledge, Lita, Moore, Richards, Moras. Wolverhampton Wanderers: Hennessey, Stearman, Berra, Johnson, Ward, Jarvis, Henry, O’Hara, Hammill, Doyle, Ebanks-Blake. Subs: De Vries, Craddock, Hunt, Vokes, Milijas, Doherty, Guedioura. Kick off at the grand old Molineux: 12.45pm. Perhaps more pertinent, is the fact that Swansea are the only side yet to pick up a point away from home this season. And that Wolves have lost their last five league matches, their worst run in the top division since 1984, which was another relegation season for them I’ll be bound. No pointers worthy of note, then. I don’t know why I mentioned it. These two clubs have only ever met in the English top division twice. That was in 1981/82, when John Toshack’s Swansea were on their way to finishing sixth, and a place in Europe, while Wolves were on their way down. In October at the Vetch Field, the teams played out a goalless draw. Come March at Molineux, Swansea scuttled off with a dour 1-0 victory, Ian Walsh heading the winner. The result “salvaged Welsh pride”, it says here, as it sent Swansea top of the division on a day Wales got spanked in the rugby, 34-18 against Scotland, their first home defeat in 28 championship matches. Premier League Wolverhampton Wanderers Swansea City Scott Murray guardian.co.uk

Posted by on October 22, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.