Wolverhampton 2 – 1 Stoke City
Wanderers
David Jones 37 Abdoulaye Faye 55
Steven Fletcher 39
Att: 27,850
A Tale of Two Jones’s
Stokes third season in the top flight got off to a bad start coupled with a bad performance and rather bad looking injury to record signing Kenwyne Jones who left Molineux on crutches.
Stoke started the brighter with Etherington immediately breaking down the wing but it came to nothing. Two minutes in and the first of many innocuous challenges from Wolves came in with Craddock lunging into the back of Fuller. Jones (Kenwyne) wasted no time in introducing himself to the game with a good break down the right and his shot beating Hahnemann but not the bar. But Jones’s game came to abrupt end shortly after with another poor challenge coming in from Craddock leaving him down clutching his ankle and leaving the pitch in tears with Sidibe coming on to replace him.
There were very few decent chances in a physical and at times scrappy first half, Wolves did however have the ball in the net but it was ruled out for a foul on Sorenson. The game saw its first goal in the 37 minute with a superb free kick from Jones (David). Whitehead had lunged in on the edge of the area and with shouts of a penalty the ref gave a free kick which Henry the former Stoke man touched back to Jones who neatly flicked the ball up for himself before smashing it in off Sorenson’s bar. Just two minutes later and Wolves had their second after a shot by Berra deflected off Faye and looped up over Sorensen leaving Fletcher to head the ball home at the far post. 2 – 0 and the game seemingly over for Stoke who looked shell shocked and ready for the half time whistle with Wolves finishing the half by far the stronger.
With Stoke needing an early second half goal, Tuncay came on after 52 minutes replacing the at times pedestrian Sidibe, which seemed to lift Stoke as three minutes later Faye headed home an Etherington corner after a good bit of pressure from Stoke. With the wind in their sails Stoke failed to capitalise and grab an equaliser only mustering up a few decent half chances from throw-ins and corners. Sorensen kept Stoke in it with a superb save midway through the second half tipping a shot onto the bar. Huth and Whitehead were booked as Stoke pushed on with the introduction of Tonge for Whelan after 67 minutes who impressed pre-season but failed to make any sort of impact. Wolves offered very little in second half and seemed happy to sit back on the lead and only mustered up a few half chances them-selves.
Stokes afternoon was summed up in second half injury time when Delap wound up for one last throw of the dice but the ball slipped form his hands and the ref awarded a foul throw.
WOLVES: Hahnemann, Foley, Berra, Craddock, Ward, Jarvis, Henry, Jones, Van Damme (Elokobi, 72) Ebanks-Blake, Fletcher (Keogh, 49, Halford, 88)
Subs: Stearman, Hennessey, Milijas, Guedioura
STOKE: Sorensen, Huth, Shawcross, Faye, Higginbotham, Delap, Whitehead, Whelan (Tonge 67), Etherington, Jones (Sidibe, 11, Tuncay, 51), Fuller.
Subs: Begovic, Collins, Pugh, Wilkinson
Ref: Lee Probert