Wolves 0 Watford 0
inspirational
By Matt Lond & J Bateman
February 26 2003
Wolves blew there chance to gain distance from other playoff hopefuls by being held by a defensive minded Watford side.
Att: 24,591 Wolverhampton Wanderers were left ruing
the chance to increase the gap on one of their play-off rivals by being held to
a goalless draw by Watford. Wolves dominated the game at Molineux but
failed to convert their superiority into three points. Veteran keeper Alec Chamberlain kept
Watford in a game they could have lost by the interval with three wonderful
first-half saves. He was almost beaten inside the opening 60
seconds by a Colin Cameron effort which was heading for the corner of the net
until the keeper diverted the ball past the post with a full-length save. The chance was served as a warning to the
Watford defence but they were fortunate to escape again in the 13th
minute. When Wolves broke quickly and Cameron,
with time and space on the edge of the box, brought another fantastic parry out
of Chamberlain with a rising shot. The hosts were given a scare shortly
after, however, when midfielder Allan Nielsen was left unmarked inside the box
to force an alert block from Matt Murray in the Wolves goal, despite that rare
chance they had to defend more when Chamberlain produced a third good stop to
deny George Ndah before Alex Rae lifted an ambitious 25-yard strike into the
crowd. The relentless pressure saw Paul Ince, who
later went off injured, head a dangerous Denis Irwin cross wide of the
post. Striker Adam Proudlock arrival for the
home side raised their game and almost immediately, Paul Butler lifted a close
range header over the bar and Kenny Miller also missed the target with a
62nd-minute volley. A low parry from Murray kept out Paulo
Vernazza at the other end, but the home crowd knew victory was eluding their
side when a fabulous shot from Mark Kennedy curled the wrong side of the post
and the game ended up as a scoreless draw.
Report Courtesy Of Matt Lond
Wolves
0-0
Watford
