A wasteful Charlton performance was punished by defeat today at Molineux. A hatful of chances were missed and lazy centre-back defending encouraged Wolves to believe there were goals to be had.In the first half, Luke Varney missed a sitter in the first attack, Iwelumo had a header brilliantly saved by Hennessy and Ambrose blazed over. Chrissy Powell was struggling for most of the first half following a heavy tackle and was replaced before the break by Sam Sodje. By contrast, Weaver hadn't anything to do though Wolves broke well and Michael Kightley looked dangerous throughout.
The second half was only a minute old when Jay Bothroyd beat Madjid Bougherra to a near post cross from Karl Henry and slammed home on the half-volley. Charlton rallied and Varney got a shot in at Hennessey; Mills fired over and Zheng Zhi did the same from another Iwelumo knock-down. Todorov and Thomas were brought on in a double substitution for Bougherra and Ambrose as Alan Pardew gambled for an equaliser. Varney managed another shot at Hennessey before Wolves broke with five minutes to go and Karl Henry applied the coup de grace. Alan Pardew will be disappointed with the number of chances missed and needs to look again at the how the back four operate. Andy Reid may have been less rested than many of the others but he was well marshalled by Karl Henry and had a quiet game.
The good news is that only Bristol City in the chasing pack won, so whilst we slip to third, we have every prospect of regaining second spot from the two home games this week. We are however, now 7 points behind Watford, a gap that will be very hard to close.
I'm off to the newly re-opened, extended and all-improved Royal Oak this evening to drown my sorrows. Maybe the England under-dogs can lift the spirits with a World-Cup winning rugby performance in Paris tonight?
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