West Brom 0 Wolves 2 - Liam Keen and Nathan Judah analysis
After Wolves went 2-0 up in the 78th minute, shortly after the game was stopped as a disturbance in the crowd flared up.
The players from both teams were dragged off the field as police and stewards raced to two corners of the ground where Albion fans were attempting to get on the pitch.
It is believed some Wolves fans were discovered in the home end after the second goal went in, which was scored by Matheus Cunha. The game was stopped for around 35 minutes.
Earlier in the game, Wolves took a 1-0 lead through Pedro Neto after surviving some early scares.
The players from both teams were dragged off the field as police and stewards raced to two corners of the ground where Albion fans were attempting to get on the pitch.
It is believed some Wolves fans were discovered in the home end after the second goal went in, which was scored by Matheus Cunha. The game was stopped for around 35 minutes.
Earlier in the game, Wolves took a 1-0 lead through Pedro Neto after surviving some early scares.
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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:09 Hello, I'm Nathan Judah, I'm here with Wolves Report, and it's Mr. Liam Keane.
00:13 Liam, FA Cup, fourth round, Westbourne, Shelby and Nil, Wolverhampton Wanderers 2.
00:18 We've got a lot to talk about.
00:21 A lot of course.
00:22 Let's talk about the game first.
00:26 Look, end of the day, most important thing is Wolverhampton Wanderers are in the hat for the fifth round.
00:30 Black Country Derby, not won here since when? 18 what?
00:33 Not won here since '96.
00:35 '96.
00:36 Yeah, not a great history here.
00:37 Look, they got the job done, they came here, they did a professional job, they were not at their best by any means,
00:44 but at the same time, especially second half, they were, I thought, deserved of the win overall.
00:49 Yeah, I think so.
00:50 It was a Wolf side in that first half, I think you tweeted to say it's not quite recognisable of what they've been this season.
00:56 Maybe a little bit nervy, out the gate.
01:00 I should expect maybe a little bit.
01:02 Yeah, which I get.
01:03 I think Albion were definitely on the front foot in the first 15, 20 or so.
01:07 Wolves settled, had a couple of half chances, they looked a little bit shaky in defence throughout that first half, up until the first goal.
01:15 Overall, it wasn't a good first half performance, in my opinion.
01:20 But what it was, was a professional, clinical performance.
01:24 Now Wolves' premier quality came to the fore and it came from an Albion mistake from a corner, the Wolves punished, and they punished brilliantly.
01:32 I thought Matt Doherty brought the ball down excellently, moved forward with it brilliantly, with purpose and played in netto.
01:38 Maybe got a tad lucky with the tackle coming in, he sort of ball ricocheted back up to him rather than maybe losing it.
01:45 And then the finish, obviously, into the far corner.
01:48 And from that moment, I thought they finished the half fairly comfortably.
01:54 And then going into the second half, were definitely the better side in what was still a fairly cagey affair, as you'd understand.
02:00 But I thought Wolves deserved it.
02:02 Yeah, and they go into that second half and you think, okay, you're going to get bombarded a little bit first 10, 15 minutes, but it didn't.
02:07 It was quite quiet, they controlled the game.
02:09 I think they kept the ball down on the pitch, didn't they?
02:12 They didn't go aerial too many times today and I thought that suited them, suited the players had in the side.
02:16 There were a couple of really big performances there.
02:18 And then, of course, what you need is you need to get that second goal and that's exactly what Matthias Kuhnjer does.
02:23 Yeah, and it's a lovely goal, it really is.
02:25 Killman with the long ball forwards, Kuhnjer's very intelligent running off the shoulder of the last man, he just stays onside.
02:31 It's close, but he just stays onside.
02:33 Albeit we haven't got VAR here, so we don't know for certain, but from what we saw, he looked onside.
02:37 The linesman plays on, he runs through and it's a lovely finish into the bottom corner.
02:41 And obviously after the game had restarted, after what we'll come on to with the trouble here, he had a very similar chance that he almost made it 3-0.
02:48 And it was a very good save from Griffiths and goal for Albion.
02:50 So Kuhnjer I thought was very good today, probably one of Wolves' better players, despite the goal, regardless of the goal, the overall performance for him was assured.
02:58 Just his build up play was great, he was clinical when he needed to be and like you say, he could have had 2 or 3 on the day.
03:03 But just playing with supreme confidence at the moment.
03:05 He was probably a little bit disappointed with his performance on Monday Night at Brighton, but I thought he's come here.
03:10 And look, these guys, Pedro Neto and Matthias Kuhnjer, they're not just goal scorers when we look at it today.
03:17 These are people who are going to be statues.
03:20 I mean people are going to love it, I'm also going to love it.
03:22 I mean these are people who are going to go down in folklore, aren't they?
03:24 I hope so.
03:25 These are goals that people are going to replay for years and years and years to come.
03:28 It's been a while.
03:29 It's been a while, it's been a while.
03:30 And it's a history making win for Wolves and for these Wolves players who will be remembered for that.
03:36 And to be the two players that scored the goals as well.
03:38 Yeah.
03:39 Yeah, really, really important.
03:40 You can see what it meant to Gary O'Neill at the end there.
03:44 He's normally quite cool, calm, collected.
03:46 I was going to ask him about the post-match press conference and he went out quite quickly.
03:50 He doesn't celebrate too often. We've seen a few goals this season, a few late goals, a few big moments where he has celebrated but not that often.
03:56 He really gave it to the away fans at the end there.
03:59 Yeah, it meant a lot to him.
04:01 Who I thought were absolutely magnificent on the day.
04:05 Behind that goal they were superb, they enjoyed the day, they were loud, the atmosphere was great.
04:10 Liquidate were the star, you know, I mean just fantastic to be there.
04:13 It was an 'I was there' moment.
04:14 At the same time, couldn't you score us that second and then all of a sudden, pandemonium.
04:19 I mean, I've never been a part, I've never seen anything like that since I've been covering football for 20 years.
04:23 But all around the ground, pockets, it was pretty crazy, pretty scary at times and very worrying.
04:29 I mean, there was a point, I think when the players were off the pitch where you thought,
04:33 'Is this going to restart?'
04:34 But really disappointing scenes and I'm sure this was going to run on for quite a while to come.
04:38 Yeah, it felt like it was getting a little bit close at one point to not restarting.
04:43 There was about 35 minutes they were off the field in the end, weren't they?
04:46 Something about, something around that.
04:47 There was pockets all around the ground, wasn't there?
04:49 Yeah, so it started on the opposite end to the Wolves fans.
04:52 We've seen a few videos since then, we had someone we know who was sitting nearby as well.
04:56 It sounds like there was a couple of Wolves fans in the home end that celebrated when the Cunard goal went in,
05:01 which sparked a melee really and they were all kicking off.
05:04 We'd seen that previously, just below us down here, there was some Wolves fans that got kicked out.
05:08 Luckily that was fairly quiet and subdued and the stewards took them out and there was no issues.
05:12 But there was Wolves fans definitely there.
05:13 There was pockets of people coming onto the pitch and it looked like there were some Wolves fans, some Albion fans.
05:18 There was a lot of Albion fans at both ends of the field trying to get on the pitch as well once it had all kicked off.
05:22 To be honest, I thought the police and the stewards did a good job of containing it because it could have really gone out of control at one point.
05:28 The riot police were coming in at that time?
05:31 Yeah, the riot police were coming in, there was people bleeding, there were paramedics in there.
05:34 It got really upsetting at times.
05:36 And then you see Karl Bartley going in and the players' families are all in that area, a lot of the Albion players' families.
05:41 And he's taken his kids out from there.
05:44 Obviously all the players' families were up there and there were subs getting involved.
05:47 It was chaotic.
05:49 I know some Wolves fans allegedly were in the section but at the same time I do feel like there was, and we'll find out what's gone on,
05:57 I'm sure there's been a few arrests today.
05:59 Not as many as you would think by the way, there's only been three arrests on the day.
06:02 But this is sad that we're talking about it because it's a black country town, we've all been waiting for a long time
06:10 and yet the first questions the manager has been asking are about crowd trouble.
06:13 And that's not how we wanted the results, obviously what we wanted, but at the same time I thought that the good thing was
06:21 is that they came back on the pitch, the players wanted it, the managers wanted it.
06:24 I thought the referee was excellent today to be honest.
06:27 I agree.
06:28 And the stewards did a really good job in the end of calming this down.
06:32 And actually when they came back on the pitch, when they played, when they played out the last ten minutes or so,
06:36 plus injury, very quick injury time, it was...
06:40 Two minutes wasn't it?
06:41 Yeah, it was dulled a little bit and I think everybody realised the ramifications that would be coming sometime soon
06:48 and we just finished it and thank God there wasn't any more trouble.
06:51 Yeah, pleased, we were able to see that game out very quickly before I carry on.
06:57 Wolves have just been drawn at home to Brighton.
06:59 Oh that's right, okay.
07:00 So that was good timing as it comes up on the TV there.
07:05 Not a terrible draw, could be better.
07:07 Not a terrible draw, not a great draw.
07:09 At home though.
07:10 At home it's big.
07:11 They're in Europa as well.
07:13 Yeah, if it's away you're upset.
07:14 I don't mind it, I don't mind it.
07:16 Yeah, I'm glad it... had that been a scenario where that game gets called off
07:20 and Wolves have to come back here, you'd imagine with no fans probably,
07:24 and have to do 12 minutes or even replay the whole game, whatever it is.
07:27 And not next week, it'd be the week after next.
07:28 Exactly, that's a disaster for everyone.
07:32 And a lot of the fans here from both sides who don't cause trouble,
07:36 a lot of the fans here that are here to watch the football,
07:38 and here to cheer their team on and have a bit of friendly bant obviously,
07:41 but be there to support either side.
07:44 It was a shame, but I'm glad that Wolves were in the end,
07:49 well both teams in the end, able to get back on the pitch
07:51 and Wolves were able to see what was a very, very good and historic victory.
07:55 Gary O said they weren't at their best today by any means,
07:57 he didn't expect them to be at their best.
07:59 But to prepare to disrupt and to be disrupted,
08:02 and I thought that actually in the second half they were pretty professional.
08:06 Yeah, professional is the right word because they won their little,
08:09 there's always a danger of Albion getting back into it.
08:11 And they did have a couple of flashpoints,
08:12 Thomas Sassanti had a shot from edge of the box that he skied
08:15 that could have maybe been a bigger moment for Albion.
08:19 But aside from that, Wolves managed the game quite well.
08:22 That would be another key phrase I think,
08:24 because I talked about the game, before the game,
08:28 you've got to play your game and not the occasion.
08:30 I think Wolves a little bit in the first half were guilty of playing the occasion at times,
08:34 in that second half definitely not.
08:35 It was never going to be the most exciting performance,
08:38 but it was industrious, it was professional,
08:42 and they were solid at the back and that was what I didn't see in the first half.
08:46 So it was definitely an improvement.
08:47 Yeah, and look, Pedroneto came off, didn't come back on the pitch,
08:50 I think that was just precautionary because you're cooling down as well,
08:53 especially with his situation, I thought it was a very smart move by Gary O'Neill
08:56 with Chirero coming on, and thankfully they saw the game out
08:59 and actually could have had a third.
09:00 Look, they've got two games now in the best part of a week,
09:04 they've got Manchester United on Thursday,
09:06 we've got a deadline day to come, we don't expect too much business of course,
09:09 and then Chelsea on the Sunday.
09:11 So, you know, an important couple of games now,
09:13 they've got to look to the league, and Gary O'Neill haven't been focused on the league,
09:15 that's for certain, they're doing very, very well.
09:17 Can this team, do you expect this team to go again on Thursday,
09:20 or would you say maybe a Ryan Akinori might be someone who might come in for Matt Doherty?
09:25 But, I know Pablo Sarabia missed out today as well.
09:27 Yeah, you'd hope that Sarabia wouldn't be too far off,
09:30 when we spoke to Gary on Thursday he hadn't trained,
09:32 but he was hoping he would make it, obviously he didn't today,
09:35 but you would hope that, you know, with the calf strain from Monday at Brighton,
09:38 he won't be too bad.
09:40 If we're assuming he's not in the team to start Sarabia,
09:44 I think the only change would be Akinori coming in.
09:47 He didn't do a lot today, but that wasn't really his fault,
09:50 it was more that he came on at a time in the game when Wolves were defending
09:53 and then obviously everything kicked off,
09:55 he had little opportunity I think to impact the game,
09:58 but having Akinori back is a massive, massive plus for Wolves.
10:01 He's been one of the standout players this season for me,
10:03 and in this hybrid role that he will be playing,
10:06 which he didn't play today because he came on and Doc was still on the pitch,
10:08 he played as a winger today, but when he does come on and play this hybrid role
10:11 as a left wing back/winger position,
10:14 it will be a massive plus for Wolves.
10:16 I think he starts United, and by the way, I think if Wolves are anywhere near their best,
10:20 they've got a really, really good chance of winning that soft Thursday.
10:22 I agree.
10:23 Look, overall thoughts on the day, I mean, it's kind of a strange feeling at this moment in time,
10:27 I mean, look, buzzing, but at the same time still there's a little bit of disappointment,
10:31 I guess, tinged with warmth.
10:32 Yeah, it was sort of subdued, wasn't it?
10:35 The players looked ready for that game to be over when they came back out to play,
10:38 what, another 15 minutes was it, around about, 12 minutes or so.
10:43 It was almost friendly, the way that the game was played.
10:46 60-70% pace.
10:47 Yeah, exactly.
10:48 And I think the supporters still gave it as much as they could,
10:52 but it almost felt like it was a little bit on the back burner at that point,
10:55 because so much had happened.
10:57 I think no one thought Wolves were going to go and concede a goal at that point
11:01 and Wolves were going to lose that game or lose from a winning position.
11:05 It was a fairly comfortable end to the game, but slightly subdued because of what had happened.
11:11 But Wolves fans have got the bragging rights and that's all that matters.
11:14 They certainly do. Wolves are through to the fifth round of the FA Cup,
11:17 where they will face Brighton at Molineux today.
11:20 West Brom 0, Black Country Derby, Wolverhampton 1-2.
11:23 For all the post-match reaction, make sure you log on to ExpressingStar.com
11:26 because I can't do it because, you know, we've got to be respectful.
11:28 You can't do it.
11:29 I can't do it, Will, you can't do it here.
11:31 Come!
11:33 [BLANK_AUDIO]