Poor Finishing Denies Wolves All The Points

First Goal
By Scott Cooper
December 21 2002

Wolves traveled to the Capital without any fans who were banned my Millwall and, had it not have been for some poor finishing Wolves could have taken all 3 points.

As expected, Dave Jones replaced Colin Cameron for Paul Ince and Kevin Cooper was put back into the squad following the poor performance of the new formation a week ago, Dean Sturridge who replaced Kenny Miller along side Carlton Cole was the only other changed made my Jones.

 Wolves, in Old Gold were on their own, the Wolves faithful had also been banned from the New Den and this made a hostile atmosphere for all associated with Wolves however the players knew that the Gold and Black Army would be watching on giant screens at Molineux as the rain continued to pour.

 It was up to Wolves to silence the Millwall crowd who persisted in booing every touch of every ball a Wolves player had, and in only the 5th minute the New Den was quiet.

 Carlton Cole won the ball and played a superb ball out to the left flank where the ball found Kennedy. Mark Kennedy took the ball in his stride as he cut inside and smashed the ball into the net from 12 yrds.

 Murray was forced into a great save before Cole and Sturridge both went very close, both missing good chances to double the Wolves lead, however in the 43rd Minute Wolves were made to pay for the missed chances.

 A Dennis Wise corner was punched to the edge of the area as far as Roberts who struck a well hit volley through the defenders into the back of the net.

Half-Time: Millwall 1 Wolves 1

 Wolves started the second half much brighter than they did in the first and it was the Millwall shot stopper who was by far the busier of the two keepers.

 Cooper found space to run half the length of the pitch to slide the ball to Kennedy who`s shot was saved, and only a minute later the keeper made another great save, this time from a stinging Rae effort.

 Wolves were heavily applying the pressure, as Wolves got closer to restoring the lead.

 On 55 minutes Dean Sturridge missed the best chance of the game. Some lovely work by Cooper allowed him to feed the ball to Sturridge who shot wide from only 5 yrds.

 Ndah then replaced Cole who had picked up a calf injury and Kenny Miller replaced the hard working Kevin Cooper.

 Wolves battled and battled and the Second half performance was superb in relation to the few chances Wolves made in the first. Millwall were very slow at the back and had it not have been for the poor finishing and defending from Wolves then they could have found themselves on the wrong side of another 6-0 thrashing.

 **Dave Jones has also said that Wolves will be having talks with Chelsea discussing the immediate future of Carlton Cole`s loan deal which is due to finish early January.