Wolves 2-2 Bolton

Last night Wolves conceded a late equaliser to surrender two points at home to Bolton Wanderers. Benik Afobe gave Bolton an early lead before a Kevin Doyle double saw Wolves ahead at halftime. Bolton pressure mounted throughout the second half, with former wolf Mark Davies scoring in the 89th minute to give Bolton a share of the spoils.

- The line-up was of no surprise to anyone. David Davis has been disappointing so far this season, and has really failed to kick on from his form in the latter half of 2011/12. He was taken off at half time at Huddersfield, with captain Karl Henry back in the starting eleven following suspension. Pre match, I was not confident about the result. I thought perhaps Bolton's comeback on Saturday would spark their season, and with new manager Dougie Freedman likely to be officially confirmed today, it was likely that all Bolton players would be out to impress.

- With Freedman waiting to be appointed, Bolton was managed by Sammy Lee and Jimmy Phillips. Interestingly, they started with Kevin Davies playing wide right with the on loan Benik Afobe through the centre and Chris Eagles just in behind. This line-up lasted precisely seven minutes, after which Afobe and Davies switched position, with Davies upfront when Bolton had the ball. When Bolton were without the ball, Davies dropped quite deep, leaving the more mobile but also more lethargic Eagles as Bolton's furthest player forward. While Afobe gave Bolton the lead with a smart control and finish from a Martin Petrov free kick, he struggled out wide and really failed to get into the match.

- Just behind Afobe on Bolton's right flank was Tyrone Mears who always looked to push forward. Two or three times he ran beyond Bakary Sako and got into dangerous positions, although his delivery was poor for him. On the other flank, Stephen Warnock didn't really look to get beyond the halfway line, and so on 35 minutes Sako and Jermaine Pennant swapped flanks, presumably as Pennant would give Stephen Ward a little more protection. Sako may not be the most productive defensively, but he was at the heart of both Wolves goals; firstly he slipped Kevin Doyle through on goal to finish before Adam Bogdan couldn't hold his free kick and Doyle turned in the rebound. Obviously I'm delighted that Doyle grabbed a brace, and hopefully he can kick on now and start scoring on a regular basis. 

- In addition to Doyle's goals, I thought his partnership with Sylvan Ebanks-Blake is starting to look better. There were a few moments when they linked up nicely; notably in the second half where a clever flick from Ebanks-Blake almost provided Doyle a scoring chance. But, I also thought Ebanks-Blake was generally poor, too often he lost possession trying to do too much when there were better options. Out of the two, it was clear which would be replaced - in fact the substitution came straight after one of those moments where he lost possession weakly. But we'll come back to the substitutions later...

- At halftime Bolton made a substitution, bringing on the former Liverpool striker David N'Gog to join Kevin Davies upfront with Eagles and Petrov on the flanks. This meant Bolton was playing virtually a 4-2-4 formation, with neither Eagles nor Petrov being particularly bothered about defending. Mark Davies and Jay Spearing gave Bolton the base from which to build. When I saw the substitution, I did hope that it might give us an advantage - it was now 4-4-2 v 4-4-2, and I hoped that Karl Henry and Tongo Doumbia would be able to grab control of the game. They had struggled at times in the second half, leaving huge spaces between the defence and the midfield. I lost count of the amount of times that a loose ball was seized on in the space between midfield and defence by Eagles or Petrov, two players who are adept at playing between the lines. Frustratingly, at no point did Ståle Solbakken attempt to close that gap, and even as the match went on, there were still pockets of space available for Bolton's attacking players.

- Arguably the substitution that changed the game was the removal of Stephen Warnock for another former Wolves player Keith Andrews. It was a bold change by Bolton's management, switching to a 3-1-4-2 formation. The back-3 were comfortably able to deal with our strikers, while Jay Spearing swept up in front of them. Given our substitutions had left us with Kevin Foley and Dave Edwards on the flanks, neither of Bolton's wide men were worried about leaving space in behind, safe in the knowledge that neither Edwards or Foley would be able to punish them. Add that to the fact that Mark Davies and Andrews had Spearing covering them, and it meant that Bolton effectively had six players on the pitch who were just there to attack. Moving to three defenders was brave by Bolton, but they were justly rewarded by Mark Davies' fine equaliser. Kevin Davies then finished the match as a centre half as Bolton reverted to a 4-4-1-1 formation to see the draw out.

- But, while Jimmy Phillips and Sammy Lee deserve credit for their changes, Ståle Solbakken should consider the changes he made. The first was understandable; Ebanks-Blake had been poor while Bjorn Sigurðarson could come on and make a nuisance of himself. Sigurðarson almost secured the three points, but screwed his effort wide. Similarly, the removal of Jermaine Pennant made sense - Pennant has not had a lot of football this season with Edwards being a more willing defensive worker. But, the problem with those substitutions was that it potentially left us without a threat upfront, especially with Sigurðarson struggling to get into the game. Sigurðarson’s struggles were compounded with the removal of Kevin Doyle. For some reason, Solbakken elected to move Sako upfront and move Foley wide left. Presumably the idea was to utilise the pace of Sigurðarson and Sako on the break but we never got hold of the ball for long enough to initiate a counter attack, with Mark Davies, Andrews and Spearing dominating the middle of the park. With Bolton also having a spare man at the back, it meant that it was impossible for us to retain possession - both our forwards and the midfield were outnumbered. We'd have been far better keeping Sako out left, and moving Foley or Edwards inside to match up the numbers in the middle. This would have had the added bonus of meaning Eagles had Sako to worry about on his flank, and meant that Bolton would probably have needed to make another tactical change - there would have been no point having three central defenders when faced with just Sigurðarson. As it was, out changes played right into their hands, and the late equaliser was thoroughly deserved.