Wolves Fans' Verdict v Southampton: Another amazing comeback

Clive Smith

It's heart-breaking. Everything is a struggle.

Regardless of our formation our identity is missing. No-one looks like they are enjoying it – they should, they are outside with their mates without social distancing. Lucky them.

Then half time comes along. Nuno lets the genie out the bottle and hey presto, we're at it again.

The first half, like many recently, was as bad as it gets. We never looked like scoring, we never looked like keeping a clean sheet, so we go behind again.

Every attacking threat, whether Neto or Traore, was stifled quickly as three defenders gathered around them. Jose looked forlorn and must be thinking his job description did not look like this when he signed.

Sadly, as each game goes by, he looks less likely to score. He is not the only one like that.

We turned it round again, thankfully. Traore and Neto played in the channels rather than hugging the touchline; this meant they saw more of the ball.

Neves' influence was greater, and further forward, which all led to us being able to retain possession beyond halfway and threaten their box.

Semedo too was further forward and his shot was goal-bound before a clear and obvious handball presented Neves with a penalty. All of a sudden we were winning tackles, finding passes, earning corners and in the game.

Fifteen minutes later we had taken the lead. Neves cleverly found Neto and his balance and quick feet led to a brilliant finish. We don't score many goals but Vitinha, Moutinho and now Neto have hit screamers in the last month.

It sounds a cliché but suddenly our confidence returned and we looked a team again. Not struggling individuals but players who had played together before. Our character to again come from behind should make us proud – that part of our identity is still intact.

Patricio made a good save in each half. Neto was obviously MOTM and the star of the day. Traore and Neves had a good second half while Semedo and latterly Marcal looked comfortable pushing forward. Coady was the pick of the centre halves.

Whether the midweek rest for some players was justified or not we will never know. It could be a coincidence, but only one of the players highlighted above played a full game on Thursday.

Nuno had a long group hug with his coaching staff at the final whistle. It meant a bit more. You could have imagined the away end would have had a prolonged celebration too.

Adam Virgo

Two wins in our last three Premier League games and we really earned this one with our second-half performance.

At half-time it all seemed doom and gloom and it felt like it was only heading one way. A little tweak in the tactics/formation from Nuno and it worked a treat so huge credit to him for doing that.

The second half really felt like the Wolves of old at times and I didn’t really notice any stupid individual errors in the second 45 either.

Ings’ goal was a great strike but the ball should have never ended up at him. We allowed Southampton to walk through our midfield originally, then Armstrong went past Semedo and Adama far too easily and finally Dendoncker not closing the ball down quickly enough to stop the cross. Too many individual errors which has played a big part in the goals we’re conceding this season.

The penalty is always going to have contrasting opinions, for me it was a bit of deserved luck after the one Kilman had against him earlier in the season at Leicester. Bertrand’s hand was out when Semedo hit the ball so with the rule now, it is a penalty.

Neves dispatched the penalty brilliantly and from then on we looked like the team wanting to go and win the game. It took a bit of magic from Neto but my word what a goal it was. Ebanks-Blake flashbacks from Charlton away 13 years ago, he’s been our best player this season by far and he’s currently one of the best young players in the league.

It is now 14 consecutive league games where we’ve failed to score the first goal though, something that does need to change very soon.

Leeds on Friday night is a perfect opportunity, the way they play leaves them so open at the back and we can exploit that with Adama and Neto. Hopefully we can get the first goal and make it back-to-back wins in the league for the first time since October.

Rob Cartwright

This was the proverbial game of two halves; just like last season at St Mary’s. It was that game that gave me hope for an unlikely second half come-back.

Southampton were well on top in the first half. This was a much-changed team, from the Cup game, and it was agonising to see them struggling to mount any sustained pressure. We continually gave the ball away. Neves the worst culprit, but Moutinho, Dendoncker, Semedo and Saiss were all guilty. The three central defenders looked unsure and Rui had plenty to do to keep it level.

There was little he could do for their goal. A great goal from Southampton’s viewpoint, as it appeared a perfect cross and volley. Awful from Wolves viewpoint, as Semedo and Traore let Armstrong go down the line without challenge. He crossed to the edge of the six-yard box where Ings was waiting, again unchallenged. This, just three days after scoring at Molineux.

Wolves did little in the following 20 minutes to make you think things would change, but we’ve seen it time and time again. A slight tactical change with the wing-backs pushed more forward and, more significantly, Traore moving more central and Neto switching to the right. This helped Semedo, who flourished having more space in which to operate. A sure sign that Traore is playing too deep when out wide!

It was a different Wolves who came out for the second half. Immediately we were on the front foot and playing much more positively. Traore and Neto were now both causing danger. Jonny and Semedo were taking the ball into their half too, so we were now playing the game out in their half, we were making passes and keeping possession.

Semedo made the cross which resulted in a handball penalty. Neves coolly put it away, just as he did against Arsenal two weeks ago, when the pressure was on.

Wolves were now looking for more and it didn’t take long. Neto scored a fantastic goal, similar to the one from Ebanks-Blake, at Charlton, all those years ago.

It was good to see we didn’t try and “just” hold on. We kept pushing forward with Neves going close to adding another. Rui had to be on guard too and a great double save towards the end helped seal victory.

Richard Perkins

John Lalley

The end justifies the means? Maybe, but the calamitous selection that sealed our grotesque exit from the Cup on Thursday surely wasn’t a necessary price to pay for this terrific result at St Mary’s.

Southampton’s current form is as dire as ours and to gift them a free pass to the quarter-finals defies logic I reckon. We have the capability to win both of these games; no trade off was required.

The disconnect between expectant supporters and disdainful clubs regarding cup matches is cavernous. Baffling for fans, routine business for clubs. Hate it myself; detracts so much from the whole fabric of our game and leaves a very unpleasant taste in the mouth.

It took us a match and a half to realise that right now Saints are a shadow of the team that started this season so stylishly and so successfully.

From the moment Traore and Neto were given licence to get up Southampton noses, we were a team transformed. Almost as if months of frustration were being unshackled in the understandable belief that to continue in the present passive mode was becoming totally unsustainable.

Massively pleasing too was that once in front, without ever over-committing, we didn’t revert to type and immediately fall back into the deepest of defensive trenches praying that our luck would hold. Sure, Patricio admirably distinguished himself more than once, but late on we pinned a frustrated Southampton back in their own territory and rarely looked likely to concede.

Where this newly-found reserve of self-belief surfaced from is impossible to decipher. But it’s long overdue; we haven’t expressed ourselves positively in a very long time.

Whether tempers were belatedly roused I don’t know but during that second half, not only did we presume for once to be dominant, but we were refreshingly sharp and incisive in the tackle unusually winning second balls looking to go on the offensive. I wasn’t quite astonished but pleasantly taken by surprise.

Russ Evers

There is a famous old saying attributed mainly to Bill Shankly that football is a simple game. That simplicity was highlighted to me in the main difference between the archetypal 'game of two halves'. After a dispirited and slow first half we changed to a second half of being on the front foot and pressing which is the game plan that has served us so well for most of the last nigh on four years.

There seemed to be a lack of understanding and dare I say it effort in the first half epitomised by the abject non attempt by both Semedo and Traore to stop Armstrong who skipped down the wing to deliver to Ings for a brilliant strike. The best you could say after 45 minutes was that we were still in it. Second half however we were totally different, Adam and Neto running at and beating players and the forward motion led to a penalty expertly dispatched by the hard-working Neves.

Neto then did what he does best to give us the lead and, other than a decent Patricio save, we rarely looked in trouble.

There have been glimmers in the last three league games that we are getting back to the recent years' normal and the second half reconfirmed this. Now bring on Leeds.