Match Thread: Wolves v Fulham 7.30pm KO 25.02.2025
What a win at the Cottage
By Ivybridge Wolf
February 25 2025
After the important victory and three points on Saturday, the fixtures keep coming, with Wolves returning to action with an evening Molineux clash against and Fulham. Should Wolves manage another win, then with Leicester and Ipswich playing tomorrow, the reward of being eight points clear of the relegation zone is tantalisingly within reach. Fulham are a tricky side to predict, though from a Wolves supporter perspective, it has been good to see Raul and Adama showing decent form of late …… but please not tonight …… I fully expect both players to receive a good reception from the Wolves crowd. In the last month The Cottagers have beaten Forest at home and Newcastle away but at the weekend they lost at home to Palace. Which Fulham will we see tonight ….. for that matter what type of Wolves performance will we see?
This game is the reverse of our biggest win of the season, a terrific 4-1 at Craven Cottage which in hindsight provided a somewhat false dawn in terms of fortunes. A repeat, or indeed any win will, without question, deliver a significant boost ahead of our forthcoming FA Cup weekend. We were outstanding on that chilly November night in Fulham with another man of the match contribution from Matteus Cunha who scored a wonderful brace with one goal each from Joao Gomes and Guedes.
Back to last Saturday, despite the hard work Wolves made of the second half (MOTD highlights flattered a bit), I thought the side looked reasonably balanced and after a tough start, they performed well when at 11v11. The issue remains putting the ball in the back of the net with several good chances to kill the match off going begging. Thank goodness for Cunha being in the right place at the right time ….. again. What would this season look like without him? The overall performance in Dorset leads me to wonder if Pereira will make starting adjustments, however Guedes, Agbadou, R Gomes and Hwang all remain sidelined.
On the positive for Wolves, we haven’t lost at Molineux to Fulham in the premier league, winning six from eight games. That is remarkable, in fact our last defeat on home soil was back in our second division relegation season in 1985 when just 6,172 attended. Readers may remember our last defeat to Fulham, at Craven Cottage in 2023, when VAR conspired to gift all three points to the home side.
On the down side Fulham have already won five away matches this season, and are looking for their third in a row, so hopefully we can demonstrate a strong and resilient back line. In terms of their injuries concerns, it has been reported that Emile Smith Rowe may be back in contention this evening.
The match tonight has a 7.30pm kick off and will be screened live on TNT. In fact TNT are screening all of the matches tonight (as with tomorrow) which always gives me a few nerves hoping that the Wolves match will get the nod in the local pub. I think it will, Ivybridge Wolves have done our ground work!
Enjoy the game, all the best to the lads to complete the Fulham double, I invite all to leave your thoughts and comments in the thread below.
All the best …………. UTW!!!
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2025:03:15:11:50:56 by Ivybridge Wolf.
Cmon lads.
UTW
Curse of the former player? Jimenez on the bench, but Adama can carry on with his usual unproductive fireworks. Saw some stats that suggested he has never improved from Villa, Middlesbrough, Barcelona, now Fulham. Tonight would be a very bad time for that to change.
Nervously optimistic for two decent 45 minutes , for a change
Vitor Pereira keeps the same Wolves side that claimed a 1-0 win at Bournemouth on Saturday.
Wolves XI: Sa, Doherty, Ait-Nouri, Bueno, Munetsi, Andre, Gomes, Cunha, Semedo, Toti, Bellegarde.
Subs: Johnstone, Traore, Strand Larson, Doyle, Sarabia, Djiga, Lima, Pond, Mane.
Onwards and upwards.
Caught cold at the start of the first and second halfs and we never recovered from the goal at the start of the second half.
We huffed and puffed again but just run out of ideas how to break down a well drilled Fulham defence, just no creativity at all.
Don't like pointing fingers at players but I think we all saw tonight that santi bueno is really poor and fails to pick runners up.
That defence will continue to struggle with him in it I'm afraid, Agba looked a big miss tonight.
Don't think sa in goal covered himself in glory tonight either, very poor in his discision making yet again.
Oh well let's just hope results go our way again Wednesday and Thursday to keep the 5 point gap.
Every thing tonight was just to slow and predictable but it's been like that all season.
We need to go back to 2 speedy wingers on the flanks but unfortunately we ain't really got that option at the minute.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2025:02:25:21:53:17 by essington wolf.
Overall I felt we were the much better side in the first half but the defending and goalkeeping was not great for either goal. I thought Sa made poor decisions on both goals, not narrowing the angle swiftly enough on the first and running out far too quickly on the second.
Obviously Soton lost again tonight but hopefully Ipswich and Leicester will fail to make up ground tomorrow.
A sobering night for this Wolves fan, hope we are able to win our FA Cup tie this weekend or at least create a bit more and keep the show on the road.
UTW
Quote:chicagowolf
Unchanged so no start for Djiga.
Curse of the former player? Jimenez on the bench, but Adama can carry on with his usual unproductive fireworks. Saw some stats that suggested he has never improved from Villa, Middlesbrough, Barcelona, now Fulham. Tonight would be a very bad time for that to change.
Nervously optimistic for two decent 45 minutes , for a change
The same Adama Traore that set the second goal up and plays for a top half of the table team? He would walk into our starting 11- not that he would want to. Hopefully Bournemouth get reduced to ten men again or play the reserves in the cup otherwise we're going out. People are getting carried away on here off the back of a few results which is the randomness of football.
We have 6 wins in 27 games this season with Christ knows how many defeats in the second half of last season and 22 points with 11 games to go . The only reason we aren't in the bottom 3 is how dreadful the promoted teams below us are which is quite unprecedented where all three are so dire. The squad is a disgrace and if we stay up it will be by default based on the extreme nature of how bad the 3 below us are.
Quote:An angry wolfQuote:chicagowolf
Unchanged so no start for Djiga.
Curse of the former player? Jimenez on the bench, but Adama can carry on with his usual unproductive fireworks. Saw some stats that suggested he has never improved from Villa, Middlesbrough, Barcelona, now Fulham. Tonight would be a very bad time for that to change.
Nervously optimistic for two decent 45 minutes , for a change
The same Adama Traore that set the second goal up and plays for a top half of the table team? Bournemouth get reduced to ten men again or play the reserves in the cup otherwise we're going out. People are getting carried away on here off the back of a few results which is the randomness of football.
We have 6 wins in 27 games this season with Christ knows how many defeats in the second half of last season and 22 points with 11 games to go . The only reason we aren't in the bottom 3 is how dreadful the promoted teams below us are which is quite unprecedented where all three are so dire. The squad is a disgrace and if we stay up it will be by default based on the extreme nature of how bad the 3 below us are.
Not very interested in the F..ing Cup. But yes, when your best hope is Leicester and Ipswich continuing to be dire, that’s pretty bad