Wolves Vs Coventry

The Front Row
By Dave Hunt
December 15 2002

A solid display by defenders Jo Lescott and Marc Edworthy still couldn’t stop the Sky Blues taking all 3 points on the day. Edworthy and Lescott both put in fine individual performances on Wolves first loss in 11 games.

In a Wolves side not too different from the one that won at Highfield Road 3 weeks ago, the young central defender and his former Coventry teammate worked none stop. As manager Dave Jones told the clubs official website - "All Matt Murray had to do was pick the ball out of the net twice" Unfortunately, the hard working defence was the only positive thing that came out of a dull game.

Neither team particularly shone in a wet, rainy day at Molineux. Coventry player-manager Gary McAllister was by far the strongest player on the opponents nervy looking side who had only claimed 3 points out of a possible 12 in the run up to the game. Maybe as my view of the north end of the pitch is limited, McAllister's seventh goal of the season seemed a little tame, but there was no doubt in the quality of Coventry’s second goal. Ritchie Partridge curled the ball beautifully into the far side of Matt Murray’s goal and I even said to my friend 'great goal - at least we loose to a good strike'.

The Wolves strikers’ didn’t really put together any good attacks. Kenny Miller's only real input during his 69 minutes on the pitch was a spirited run through the Coventry defence only to be ended by Morten Hyldgaard in Coventry's goal. Carlton Cole never seemed to get a good effort on the end of some nice crosses my Mark Kennedy and Dean Sturridge didn’t have enough time to contribute to the game. The midfield clearly missed Paul Ince, who has been one of the major reasons Wolves have gone on such a long successful run - being an inspiration on and off the ball. Kevin Cooper replaced an under performing Keith Andrews but didn't add his usual flair to the squad.

Final Notes: *Dave Jones shouldn't have altered a squad that has performed so well in the previous 10 games. *Wolves still don’t seem to be able to take corners - Denis Irwin's in particular were very bad. *Our defence is without doubt the strongest part of the team – I know the result says otherwise but the lads at the back worked as hard as the midfield and attackers put together. *I was surprised at the lack of support for Coventry – they are a huge city – their very few supporters could barely be heard nestled away at the north end of the John Ireland Lower.

MY MAN OF THE MATCH - Lescott