Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0 Nottingham Forest
Wolverhampton Wanderers are now unbeaten in 6 games after seeing off Nottingham Forest on Tuesday night.
The away side’s resistance was eventually broken just after the hour mark. However, Forest could easily have scored, before Conor Coady cleared Britt Assombalonga’s effort off the line. Wolves then broke away down the right-hand side, with Nouha Dicko slotting home Andreas Wiemann’s cross to complete a narrow victory at Molineux.
Dicko was only in the side because of an injury to star man Helder Costa during the warm-up, but he took his chance well. Paul Lambert’s men have now climbed 11 points clear of the drop zone in 15th place and look to be safe with just 7 games left to play.
Assombalonga almost opened the scoring for Forest in the first half; his right-footed shot saved at the near post by ‘keeper Andy Lonergan. Ben Marshall and goal hero Dicko went close at the other end too in a very close opening period.
The drama didn’t end after Dicko’s winning goal with Andy Lonergan diving to deny Mustapha Carayol in the final moments of stoppage time before a second yellow card sent Danny Fox off for the visitors.
Wolverhampton Wanderers Player Ratings:
Andy Lonergan – 8/10
His performance was steady and competent. That crucial save right at the death effectively earned Wolves the win.
Conor Coady – 8/10
His new found confidence as a right-back has led to an improvement in his defending. He produced a wonderful clearance to stop Wolves from scoring, just before his side struck the goal.
Danny Batth – 7/10
No goal this time for the skipper, but another sound defensive display underlined his importance.
Kortney Hause – 7/10
Improving nicely and did his job on the night. He seems to be developing a good partnership with Batth at the back.
Matt Doherty – 7/10
Not great early on and made a first half mistake which could have been costly. However, this is not his natural position and he did much better, later on, playing a part in his team’s goal.
Dave Edwards – 6/10
Perhaps needs to play further forward, given his goal record. He had a quieter night than usual.
Lee Evans – 6/10
More experience for Evans who is improving. Maybe it was not his best night, but he played his part.
Nouha Dicko – 8/10
Having not played as much as he’d have liked, Dicko looked desperately keen to impress and he did. A chance to score in the first half was followed up by the match-winning goal in the second.
Ivan Cavaleiro – 7/10
Was busy at both ends of the pitch and a more energetic and committed performance was of benefit to the home side.
Ben Marshall – 6/10
Tiredness looked to have got the better of him on this occasion. It was not his best game.
Andreas Weimann – 8/10
On paper, Wolves need more goals from Weimann. However, it was another lively display from him. He gave an assist for the goal which eventually turned out to be valuable.
Substitutes:
Morgan Gibbs-White – 6/10
Impressive cameo from the youngster.
Jon Badi Bodvarsson – 6/10
Showed the good and bad in his game. He should have put Weimann in on goal at one point.
Romain Saiss – 6/10
Sat in midfield to protect the lead late on. Completed his task.