Wolverhampton Wanderers name goes into the 4th round draw after they brushed aside the challenge of Plymouth Argyle in lacklustre match that Wolves fans may want to forget. Glenn Hoddle must have been looking into his crystal ball when he said ‘It doesnt matter if you play bad, and win 1-0. As long as your name is in the hat for the next draw.’ because that is what the 11,041 paying customers witnessed. A scrappy game that Wolves dominated and eventually ran out comfortable winners, but it was a lot less convincing a victory than Glenn Hoddle would have wanted.
Hoddle made 4 changes to the side that faced Coventry, Mark Davies, Paul Ince, Maurice Ross and Seol returning to the starting 11, with more surprises on the bench. No goalkeeper, and the return of Carl Cort ,joined by Darren Anderton, Rob Edwards, Vio Ganea and new signing Denes Rosa.
The first half started as many had predicted, with Plymouth looking happy to soak up any pressure Wolves applied. The games first clear cut chance fell to Wolves in the 4th minute when Mark Davies run from deep was picked out by Leon Clarke’s defence splitting pass only for Davies to lose his composure bearing down on goal and send his chip wide from long distance.
With neither side forcing the tempo, and Plymouth offering little in attack, a period of sustained Wolves pressure ended with a goal for terrace favourite Leon Clarke.
Wolves finally started to raise their game and following a long range shot from Paul Ince, the resulting corner led to a Gabor Gyepes header being cleared off the line. With Wolves fans claiming a handball penalty Plymouth half cleared their lines, but not the danger. Maurice Ross again impressing on the right fed the ball to Colin Cameron who crossed into the danger zone. Kenny Miller left the ball for Leon Clarke, who losing his marker brought the ball down on his thigh, before firing low into the Argyle goal.
Any hopes that a Wolves strike would force Plymouth out of their shell faded fast, as for the rest of the half they served up more of the same, their uninspiring 4-5-1rarely threatening to bare its teeth. Eventually in the first minute of injury time they forced Stefan Postma into a save, a long range effort from 25 yards out, straight at him.
Plymouth started the second half as they did the first, allowing Wolves plenty of the ball dropping deep in numbers, trying to snuff out any offensive threat. Maurice Ross continued to look threatening moving down the right and the home side were pushing for a second, but the killer touch eluded them time and time again.
Wolves settled into a pattern of posession without real threat. A superb Mark Kennedy cross almost found Kenny Miller free as Wolves started to take control, but were by no means completely comfortable. 2 Buzsaky crosses led to flurries in the Wolves penalty area, before Stefan Postma finally calmed the situation down, but Plymouth were growing in confidence.
The Pilgrims were first to make a change, finally introducing a second striker when Lee Hodges was replaced by Bojan Djordjic, and Buzsaky was replaced by Scott Talyor on 69 minutes. Shortly after Carl Cort made his much awaited return, replacing Seol on 73, followed by Denes Rosa replacing Colin Cameron on 80, but by then the game had started to fade and the pace, that had never been electric, slowed further still.
Wolves continued to create more half chances, the best falling to Carl Cort inside the last 3 minutes. But he couldnt quite reach Paul Inces perfectly flighted ball.
Plymouth finally found some urgency in injury time, but by then it was too little too late, and the score remained 1-0 until the final whistle.
Not one for the purists, but Cup football rarely is. As long as you are in the hat for the next round there is still a chance to correct it. On an uninspiring afternoon, there were at least some positives for the run into the play offs.Leon Clarke finally got a goal.Paul Ince came through his full return, Mark Davies showed great promise, and Carl Cort got 10 minutes under his belt on the long road back to match fitness. It’s another clean sheet for Stefan Postma, and another impressive display from Maurice Ross. Mark Davies’ potential is starting to shine through as well.
But the most important thing was the final result. Wolves have made it into the 4th round. Now attention can return to promotion.
After the game, Glenn Hoddle said
‘One nil down in a cup game i expected them to come at us, particularly the second half. ‘Theyre a set play team and we did better at that today.We worked on that in the week,video work, so that was good.It wasnt until the last 15 that they came at us’
