Luton Town 1-0 Wolverhampton Wanderers
(Lawless 46)
Blue Square Premier side Luton Town ran out deserved winners in a big FA Cup shock at Kenilworth Road. This was a match that always had the makings of a shock result and because of this, Solbakken went for a very strong side. In fact, he only made 2 changes from the side that started at Crystal Palace, with O'Hara and Forde coming in for Davis and Stearman respectively. It was a side that wouldn't look out of place at the top end of the Championship (ignoring, of course, our dreadful recent run) and had some Wolves fans feeling relatively confident that if we could start on top, we'd run out comfortable winners. Yet straight from kick-off it was The Hatters, backed by a passionate crowd, who looked the more comfortable of the two sides and they forged early openings with Lawless and Gray looking particularly lively. Despite being the better team on paper, it seemed Wolves were happy to sit and soak up pressure before hitting Luton on the break. And it was through this that the Midlanders almost took the lead - and by rights really should have. A through ball from Jamie O'Hara opened up the opportunity for Kevin Doyle to open the scoring, but from 8 yards out the striker put his angled shot wide of the far post. There was a sense that that was Wolves' big moment to take control of the game and after that, Luton kicked it up a gear. As per usual, a cheap mistake in midfield gave possession back to Luton and the ball was slipped through for Andre Gray. The Wolverhampton-born striker, who was a threat to Wolves all afternoon with his pace and movement, couldn't beat Carl Ikeme to get the ultimate revenge on the club who released him as a teenager. Wolves did have a further two half-chances, with Forde putting an effort over the bar and Bakary Sako twice being denied by Mark Tyler.
The second-half had barely begun when, with Solbakken's words still fresh in their mind, Wanderers found themselves 1-0 down. Luton won a throw in deep in the Wolves half and when Kevin Foley scuffed his clearance, his former side punished him. Striker Jon Shaw nodded down into the path of Alex Lawless who struck a sweet half-volley past Carl Ikeme to send Hatters fans into ecstacy. From then on, the feeling amongst the away fans was that this was going to be yet another defeat. The introduction of the returning Peszko, as well as a first competitive appearance in Wolves colours for Jake Cassidy, both from the bench for Forde and Doyle respectively gave Wolves a little bit more impetus. Christophe Berra headed against the top of the crossbar from close range but that was about as close as Wolves came, with Tyler very rarely being tested. An injury to JJ O'Donnell meant there was 9 minutes of injury time shown and it was in this added time that Wolves attempted to lay siege to the Luton goal, but all they had to show for it was a Jamie O'Hara drive that was tipped over by Tyler. Luton held on, though, to claim a richly deserved and famous victory to progress to the 4th Round of the FA Cup for the first time since 2007.
I was going to discuss the criticisms of the performance, and what needs changing. But just as I was about to, news broke that Stale Solbakken had been sacked by the board. So therefore I'll end this post there, because the events at Molineux tonight need an entirely new blog post of their own. But I had to keep up my run of match reports after every match, and I had to give Luton the credit they deserve. They were brilliant against us, using their pace in behind our backline to perfection. And they defend ever so stoutly too. To put it simply, they wanted it more.
My Wolves MOTM: Carl Ikeme. Made an early save to keep us in the tie, and looked commanding of his area. But in truth, nobody really stood out for Wolves today.
Wolves In A Word: Humiliation
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