Charlton Athletic 1-1 Wolves

Wolves came away from the Valley with a 1-1 draw with Charlton Athletic. Both goals came from corners as Andre Bikey-Amougou gave Charlton a deserved first half lead before a Danny Batth equaliser as Wolves rallied in the second half.

- Wolves made a couple of changes from the 0-0 draw at Blackpool, with Leon Clarke the most notable. Kenny Jackett selected a 4-3-3 formation, with George Saville and Kevin McDonald joined in midfield by Lee Evans, fresh from signing a contract extension. Generally, McDonald sat the deeper of the three, with Saville and Evans taking turns to push forward, much in the same way that Edwards and and Evans did last season. On the flanks were James Henry and Bakary Sako, who probably had slightly advanced starting positions than when playing in 4-2-3-1 formation.

- A couple of notable things on the formation. Firstly, for some reason Wolves fans have got attached to the idea of having a 'number 10' type player, in behind Dicko, and I heard some bemoaning thee fact that none of McDonald, Evans or Saville were playing this role. For me, there is only one player in the squad capable of fulfilling this role, and if Michael Jacobs isn't selected in the starting lineup, I'd rather have no-one in this position than someone playing it poorly. But, having a flatter central midfield did put pressure on Sako and Henry to provide support to Leon Clarke, and generally I felt that Clarke was too isolated. I was pleased he was given a start, but felt it was a tough role to play given how far he often was from his team mates. If you're going to isolate a striker that much, then perhaps Nouha Dicko would have been the better option, using his pace to stretch the defence.

- We started the game poorly, and could easily have been 2-0 down after just ten minutes. Firstly Johnnie Jackson ran beyond the defence and was almost able to take the ball around Carl Ikeme, then Matt Doherty stood off the winger, with the cross being headed wide of the far post. There was a real lack of tempo in the first half, and I think this might be an issue when Saville and McDonald play together. Both of them slow the game down slightly - last season, Jack Price seemed to be responsible to quickening the play with his sharp passing, but without him in the team we can sometimes move the ball a bit slowly. Charlton were the better team early on, and deservedly took the lead when Andre Bikey Amougou contorted himself to flick home a corner. Both Danny Batth and Richard Stearman immediately complained to the referee - I think Bikey-Amougou's foot might have been slightly high, but I'm not sure if this is what they were complaining about. This didn't quite wake us up, and Charlton almost doubled the lead immediately after; Evans' pass in midfield was short, and Marius Tucudean was played in by the excellent Igor Vetokole but dragged his shot wide.

- Changing games hasn't been Jackett's strongest suit since joining the club, but today he made a change at half time, taking off George Saville for Dicko and switching to 4-4-2. Having two strikers on the pitch naturally makes teams more direct (for a start, there's often one fewer midfielder through which to build up play), and Clarke and Dicko caused Bikey-Amougou and Tal Ben Haim all sorts of problems. We looked to hit Dicko very early, playing balls in behind the defence for him to use his pace to trouble the defence. I've been critical of Dicko's holdup play in recent weeks, but in the second half we really played to his strengths and he was excellent. There was some nice link play between the two of them, particular when Clarke flicked on on a long ball from Doherty, Dicko collected the ball, and found Sako whose shot was deflected narrowly over.

- The change also seemed to galvanise McDonald and Evans midfield. I thought Evans had a fine game anyway, but McDonald really upped the tempo after the break. McDonald obviously has a touch of class, but I've wondered before about his motivation. Last season, he was quoted as saying he got bored in some games, and I'm not sure whether this has been completely eradicated. But he really stepped up in the second half, and I wonder this down to the extra responsibility he had with only one other central midfielder alongside him. I certainly thought his influence waned when David Edwards joined the midfield, and he seemed to finish the game on the right side of midfield as Jacobs did his usual vacating the flanks trick.

- I mentioned George Saville and McDonald together slowed the game, but this isn't necessarily Saville's fault. I watched him quite closely during the first half; firstly, it's nice having a left footed central midfielder. I like teams to have left footed options as I feel it opens the pitch up in a way that teams full of right footed players don't necessarily have access to. Secondly, he has a very good awareness of what's around him. Watch him for just a few minutes and count how many times he glances around to see what's around him. He was slightly unlucky not to score, seeing his effort come back off the inside of the post after good work down the left from Clarke. I don't think he was taken off at half time because he had a bad game, but because McDonald and Evans are the senior partners in the midfield and Jackett wanted to move to two upfront.