Wolves 2-3 Aston Villa - Henry is the Villain as Wolves Lose

 Wolves lost an entertaining local derby to Aston Villa, 3-2. Darren Bent gave Villa an early lead, before Wolves hit back with goals from Michael Kightly and David Edwards. It wasn’t to be, though, and a second half double from former wolf Robbie Keane gave Villa the three points. Karl Henry was sent off in the second half for a kick at Marc Albrighton. 

• Wolves reverted to the starting-11 that earned a 1-1 draw against Tottenham Hotspur last weekend. This was no real surprise given the fact that no-one did enough to earn a place in the shocking midweek defeat to Birmingham City. Perhaps the only change that could have been made was Adam Hammill being on the bench ahead of the perennially ineffective Stephen Hunt.

• Villa took the lead after Bent was clearly fouled by Christophe Berra in the penalty area. This only came about after Berra was very slow in getting the ball clear – Bent nicked the ball from him, and was caught by Berra. This shouldn’t have surprised anyone; just a few minutes earlier, Bent had closed down Stephen Ward’s clearance. Twice in the opening ten minutes, Wolves defenders were slow in clearing the ball, resulting in a goal. In fact, Villa’s second goal came by the same route. This time Jarvis’s clearance was poor, and Keane was able to find space to score from outside the area.

• It was obviously written in the stars that Keane would score, and he didn’t disappoint. However, it appeared that Hennessey should have done a little better with the first goal – I’ll need to see it again on Match of the Day tonight, but it looked to me like he wasn’t quite in position when Keane shot, as if he wasn’t expecting Keane to hit quite so early. As a result, he was slow getting down to it, and he will be very disappointed to have let it in. Keane’s second, though, was a terrific strike that I don’t think Hennessey can really have expected to get to.

• The 20 minutes spell during which we scored twice in the first half was possibly the best football I’ve seen us play in the Premier League. We attacked brilliantly down both flanks, with both Kightly and Jarvis having the better of their fullbacks. It makes such a difference to the team having attacking threats on both wings, and with both players being able to go down the line and cross or cut inside; it must be a nightmare to be defending against them. Saying that, the part Emmanuel Frimpong played in Kightly’s goal shouldn’t be underplayed. It was a brilliant piece of skill in the middle of the park, before he released Kightly to cut inside Ciaran Clark and side foot past Shay Given.

• At halftime, Alex McLeish made a change, substituting Gabriel Agbonlahor for Stephen Warnock. This gave Villa two defensive minded players in midfield (Clark and Stiliyan Petrov), giving the fullbacks a little more protection. Kightly’s role in the second half was massively diminished – I think this was more to do with Clark and Petrov stopping Wolves midfield getting the ball out to him than Warnock defending particularly well. Below shows the passes Kightly received in the first half in comparison to the second half, although admittedly we were down to 10 men for the final 15 minutes.

• Talking of the red card, I don’t have any complaints with the sending off. Karl Henry is an idiot, especially as Frimpong had earlier been carried off and O’Hara is out. It’s a pity, because Henry and Frimpong had played well together and given the forward-4 a good platform from which to attack. The only issue I have with the red card is why Villa got the free kick? The first foul was clearly committed by Albrighton who was holding on to Henry. The fact that Henry stupidly retaliated has no bearing on that; Albrighton committed the initial offence and so we should have had the free kick.

• I also didn’t really have any complaints with the penalty shout in the first half that was turned down. As Edwards was running on to the ball, it obvious he was going to go to ground; his only intention was winning a penalty, not gaining possession of the ball. It probably should have been a penalty, but I can fully understand why the ref didn’t give it. One very poor decision in the first half was a foul on Kightly that was not given when he poked the ball past the defender right under the assistant referee’s nose. I can only think that it wasn’t given because Kightly had put the ball out of play, but this shouldn’t make any difference at all. The same assistant referee prevented Kightly and Jarvis taking a quick corner – I think this was because he expected Michael Oliver to have a word with Karl Henry who had gone in with studs up on Petrov a little earlier with the ref giving the advantage to Villa.

• I was a little disappointed at the lack of acknowledgement of the death of Dave Plant, the Wolves former kit man. Roger Johnson and Henry appeared to bring out wreaths, but I didn’t hear anything over the tannoy or see where the wreaths were placed.

• Finally, apologies at the lack of match previews in recent weeks - I've started a new job, and have less time than before. The reports will continue though.