Wolves hand Coventry all three points - Report

Own Goal
By Scott Cooper
January 2 2006

WOLVERHAMPTON Wanderers today gifted Coventry City all three points in a thoroughly disappointing afternoon at Coventry City's Ricoh Arena.

A huge army of 5,000 fans travelled down to junction three on the M6 today only to be sent back a couple of hours later wondering just what had gone wrong since the weekend.

The Plymouth game 48 hours ago was full of commitment and neat football whilst the first half performance at the Ricoh Arena today was an alarming contrast to the last game in 2005.

Wolves gifted Coventry City two ridiculous goals, the first hit home by Scowcroft whilst the second was sliced into his own net by the usually dependable Joleon Lescott. Wolves huffed and puffed in the second half but the lack of fire power again let Wolves down.

Glenn Hoddle made just one change from the side which drew with Plymouth on New Years Eve. The then superb Maurice Ross surprisingly found himself out of the frame all together and back came Rob Edwards on the right hand side.

Coventry looked the livelier side in the opening minutes and took the lead just seven minutes in. A corner from the left was swung into the Wolves box. The corner itself was never going to threaten the Wolves goal but the defence were unable to clear the ball, a speculative header back into the box found McSheffery who evaded Craddock's sliding tackle to drag the ball across the face of the area. Again Wolves failed to clear the ball, the unmarked Scowcroft then hit the ball goalwards and it ended up in the back of the net after the four Wolves defenders on the line were unable to avert the shot away from goal.

Wolves showed a brief interest after the goal, with Colin Cameron's chip which landed the wrong side of the post being the only notable chance.

If the first goal was sloppy, the second was even worse. A corner from the left was swung into the box, a Coventry striker unmarked headed the ball back towards goal and for the second time in less than a week a mix up between Joleon Lescott and Steffan Postma resulted in the defender, under no pressure, slicing the ball into the net.

The second half was much better from a Wolves perspective but they were unable to create any real clear cut chances. Gabor Gyepes saw one effort turned around the post by Fulop and the keeper had to do the same minutes from the end from a Mark Kennedy shot.

Hoddle tried to change things around mid-way through the second half by changing Craddock for Seol, Anderton for new signing Rosa and Cameron for Ganea but neither player was to make any real impact.

A poor poor day at the Ricoh.