Not an exciting game, but a good tactical battle. For the Championship purist this must have been heaven, more muck and bullets than Franks WW1 thread.
Ipswich came to nullify, kick, harass and win set pieces. They were pretty bad but somehow came away with a point. At times it was attritional stuff not helped by a shockingly poor referee who seemed to think Wolves players weren't allowed to touch Ipswick players but was happy to allow Tex, Costa and Bod to be kicked to ribbons, he also hesitated over the pen which was as blatant as you like. He was truly piss poor.
Whilst Ipswich were busy carving our front three to ribbons Dangerous Dave fancied the night off and whilst he ran around trying to press to no avail he looked perplexed when somebody gave him the ball to play with, like a 3 year old with a Rubik's cube he couldn't quite master what it was and promptly gave it back from whence it came.
Poor Bod looked shattered from the off and his touch was laboured but he was still effective promptly shown by his rounding of the entire Ipswich defence in a five minute period, it looked like he was on One Man and His a Dog at one point as the defenders flocked around him.
Our first half formation flat out didn't work (4-3-3) and with passenger Dave and hard working but ineffective Coady it needed a change. II think I have seen Lee Evans weakness - he can only play in one direction, first half everything was backwards, the second half he was a completely different player and everything went forwards, a 4 first half and 8 second half, maybe Walter threatened him at half time with a ban on hair products, who knows, but it did the trick and he was excellent second half.
Tex was a mixed bag, fantastically skilful and far to quick for the traditional championship players Ipswich had but frustrating lax in his execution at times culminating in a right bollocking from Saville. Speaking of the facially flawed midfielder, he made a real difference on the left, a strange forward position in the second half's formation of 4-2-3-1 but it worked as he allowed MoTM Doherty (please don't faint) room to go outside and inside with lung bursting runs (hopefully you're still believing this) and almost twice through on goal.
Doherty was mixed in defence but he got his body on the line to stop crosses and controlled Hause when needed to. Apart from one hospital ball his distribution was decent, quick a and mainly on target. Iorfa had an accomplished night on the other side and got forward to good effect in the main. I still think he looks better at CB and his replacement for tonight Hause was OK but he seems to lack physical strength, ability to think decisively and on tonight's showing, reading of the game. I hope they improve because he is the weak link at the moment. Batth was a mixed bag, brutal in the air for the most part but some of his directional heading was downright bizarre, his much maligned distribution was excellent tonight, popping in Chanel balls with good weight and at one point hitting a 50yd cross field pass to Dogerty's feet, glorious stuff.
Mason doesn't really get a mention as he was anonymous out wide, anonymous in attack and I really don't see how he fits in this team.
Costa was a true box of tricks, an outrageous piece of skill where he flicked the ball at full pace around his man and left the defender for dead, only then to lose the ball doing a bit too much. Looks to have pace to burn but the end product isn't there yet, when he's fully fit and up to speed I think he'll be a nightmare for defenders. Not so good when central after Jed Wallace came on but by that point Ipswich were in full defensive mode.
Credit to Ipswich they had no intention of playing much football and their job was to get a point, they did this but we're fortunate as Wolves created all the best chances and a particularly good save from Evans (I think) towards the end preserved their point. I didn't see their disallowed goal clearly enough but there was more pulling in the box than desperate, grab a granny hour in Chicago's.
We huffed and puffed and looked a little bit one dimensional as we kept possession but did nothing with it apart from hump it to Bod. Strangely Bod went wide a lot and this was a tactic which really didn't work and when he went off Wolves were forced to move the ball quicker and on the deck, however Wolves were effectively down to 10 men when Bod went off as Mason was so abject.
I enjoyed the game but then I'm masochistic like that. Overall a 6/10 performance and one that should've been 3 points not 1.
I did have one particular gripe - my sodding radiator in my car sprang a leak so I missed the entire pre-match build up in the pub. Bloody thing.
