Express & Star

Wolves 1 Bristol Rovers 0 – Five talking points

Wolves laboured past Bristol Rovers in the Carabao Cup with a 1-0 win after extra time.

Published

Bright Enobakhare's first goal for two years saw Wolves reach the fourth round for the first time since 2011.

But Wolves were far from convincing and relied on a string of saves from keeper Will Norris to somehow preserve a clean sheet.

So what did we learn from the game? Wolves correspondent Tim Spiers picks out five talking points.

In the hat

And as Nuno said, that's all that matters.

Against a highly motivated Bristol Rovers team who actually produced some of the best football seen against Wolves this season, the game was a real struggle for Nuno's side.

It was a reverse situation to round two when a driven Wolves, backed by a sizeable away support went to a quiet St Mary's stadium and were the better team against a Southampton team in a higher division than them.

Molineux on a Tuesday night for a League Cup tie against lower league opposition can guarantee a small crowd with a terrible atmosphere...and the Wolves performance was duly flat.

It should be no excuse for professional footballers but it does make a difference. Witness a vibrant performance and a six-goal thriller against Bristol City a week earlier when the midweek attendance was Wolves' for five years.

After an initial bright start Wolves sporadically produced chances here and there but rarely looked like breaking the deadlock.

But after making eight changes and winning, Nuno couldn't ask for much more. That's eight wins in 11 matches – and seven clean sheets.

Bright Enobakhare was the match-winner with his first goal for more than two long years.

A justified criticism aimed at the forward in that time has been his lack of end product...well he's starting to change that this season. At Derby and Hull away he was excellent and after a little dip with Cavaleiro and Marshall pushing ahead of him in the pecking order he produced a breezy performance here with a few flashes of his natural ability and a very tidy finish for the goal.

It should do his confidence the world of good.

Way of the dragon

That they won was chiefly down to Will Norris, who was the undisputed man of the match.

The keeper will be enjoying this cup run more than most – not only has it given him three appearances when he'd otherwise be likely sat on the bench for months on end, he's kept three clean sheets to boot and made a number of excellent saves both against Southampton and now here.

Aside from not coming for a couple of crosses Norris doesn't have any obvious weakness – his reflexes are superb and his distribution is good too.

It's often been the case then when Wolves' second choice keeper has come into the side for a cup game or to cover injury it's notably weakened the side.

The same cannot be said of Norris. Indeed he is providing some serious competition to John Ruddy, who of course blundered for Forest's goal on Saturday.

Midfield missing

Wolves' biggest weakness here was their midfield.

Jack Price was possibly the best outfield player on the pitch but he had nothing to work with either side of him. Alfred N'Diaye was careless at times and the wing backs didn't offer enough penetration. With a fit Barry Douglas and Matt Doherty in the XI this may have been a more comfortable victory.

Sylvain Deslandes was fine but looks better at centre half these days and shock debutant Oskar Buur Rasmussen endured a tough evening, albeit he didn't really get a chance to show what he could do going forward as his team mates seemed reluctant to pass to him when he was in space.

Magic Michal

Michal Zyro took another big step in his Wolves comeback – how great was it to see him make his first start since April 2016.

It's been such a long road back for the Pole who suffered a very complicated and serious cruciate knee ligament injury.

The likeable 25-year-old (it's his birthday today, happy birthday Michal) cares about this club more than most and has worked tremendously hard to get to where he is now.

He'll need patience – obviously he's still a long way short of proper match sharpness after going off with cramp just past the hour – but there were some promising signs last night particularly in the first half when he got in the right positions to go close to scoring twice in a minute.

Physically he looks stronger and in another few weeks could be ready to provide good back-up to Leo Bonatini in that number nine role.

Cup run??

Right then who fancies a proper cup run? This is already Wolves' longest run in the competition since 1995 (they reached round four in 2003, 2010 and 2011 but were in the Premier League on each occasion and skipped the first round) and they'll fancy their chances against a sizeable chunk of the teams left in the hat.

They certainly wouldn't be overawed by facing the likes of Bournemouth, Crystal Palace Swansea or West Ham, home or away.

A glamour tie (Spurs away at Wembley, anyone) would be nice but if Nuno can continue to rest most of his first team players and progress through the competition then long may it continue. It certainly hasn't impacted on their league form, which of course remains very much the number one priority.