By Tom Bason
August 20 2015

Wolves slumped to a 3-2 defeat last night against QPR, despite having taken a two-goal lead through Benik Afobe and Kevin McDonald. But QPR hit back through Charlie Austin, before a Matt Phillips double secured all three points for the Hoops.

- Well, where to start with that. For the second game in a row, our performance levels dropped off after a bright start. The only issue this time was that we stopped playing after 35 minutes, and spent the rest of the match chasing shadows. Given the way we played during the opening half an hour, that is three points dropped in the worst possible way.

- Our starting line-up was the same as on Sunday, with Emiliano Martínez keeping his position ahead of Carl Ikeme in goal. This meant we had David Edwards on the left ahead of Scott Golbourne, for some of the match. Edwards spent too long drifting in - I don't have an issue with Edwards running from the wing into the centre, but he didn't start from the flank. Too often, Golbourne had the ball at left back, and no real option to pass the ball forward, and he was forced to play the ball back towards our goal. We had very little idea of how to attack down the left wing, and so we were predictable in our attacking. In the past, we have had one of the forwards drift wide to create problems, to try and engage the opposition fullbacks, but no one particularly did this today.

- However, we were slightly more effective down the right hand side. I'm not the biggest of fans of James Henry; he's someone I'd have looked to move on this summer. But, he was heavily involved in the two Wolves goals. The first goal came as a counter attack - Coady won the ball, which on another day would be given as a free kick, and got the ball forward. Edwards sent the ball out wide and got himself into the box quickly. Henry ran at the fullback and crossed it in, Edwards shot towards goal, it was blocked and Afobe was able to poke in from in the 6-yard box. The second saw Henry cross a ball that was poorly headed out, and McDonald finished superbly from the edge of the area. But, Henry didn't make great inroads into the rest of the game, and it wasn't overly surprised when he was taken off in the second half.

- One change we did make was to play Benik Afobe further forward. On Sunday, he played almost as a central midfielder, but tonight it was very noticeable how far forward he was playing, particularly when QPR had the ball. Neither Afobe nor Dicko were dropping back, and it probably wasn't a coincidence that as QPR got back into the game in the five minutes before half time, Karl Henry and Alejandro Faurlín had all the time in the world to control the game. Conor Coady and Kevin McDonald were sitting deep with little hope of engaging Henry and Faurlín. It really needed for one of the forwards to drop back and disrupt QPR's rhythm - it was far too easy for them to run the game. Interestingly, when Adam Le Fondre came on at half time, it was him who played the deeper role. I made a note that as QPR's equaliser went in, Afobe was stood on the half way line. I don’t know a huge amount about Le Fondre, but was surprised that Afobe was constantly the furthest forward.

- So, let's get on to the goals, and more specifically the goalkeeper. I didn't think Martínez was particularly at fault for QPR's first and second goals (the first was a thumping Charlie Austin header from a cracking Tjaronn Chery cross, while the second went through a forest of legs before the ball reached the goal). But, the third, I don't really know what he was doing. Matt Phillips cut inside from the left and sent a shot to Martinez's right, and he seemed to be completely wrong footed. I had wondered if it had been deflected, sending Martinez in the wrong direction, but I think he just lost it. After that Martinez did make one good save with his right foot from Massimo Luongo after some excellent link up play with Austin, but the damage was pretty much done. The other issue with Martínez was his kicking. He's not quite down at Stefan Postma levels of inadequacy, but it's not great. It was so frustrating to see the ball continually passed back to him, for him to kick the ball long and it barely reach the half way line. If we're going to kick the ball long, then I'd rather it was Richard Stearman or Kortney Hause playing it forward.

- But Martinez wasn't the only player at fault for QPR's winner. Kortney Hause lost the ball far too easily on the sideline to Charlie Austin in the build up the goal, seemingly afraid to just knock the ball forward. I guess that if you have a defence where half of them are kids, and want to pass the ball out from the back, then this sort of thing will happen. If Kenny Jackett truly believes in passing the ball out from the back then we will continue to do that next week.

- I think the most disappointing thing about the game was our complete lack of idea of how to get back into the game. Le Fondre came on at half time, and Rajiv van la Parra was introduced in the second half, but apart from that there was very little change to how we were playing. Sheyi Ojo spent the entire 90 minutes on the substitute bench, and I'm sure Jackett was looking around other options and not seeing any. I said over the summer that two wingers were the top of my shopping list for the summer, and I've seen nothing to change my mind so far. I very much hope that Jed Wallace can be an option, but I don't think that we have the wide options to really challenge. I hate comparing different teams, but look at the last Wolves team to win promotion, which had Michael Kightly and Matt Jarvis flying down the wings. There are many ways to get out of the Championship, but I do feel that a pair of wingers is one of the most effective.

- Last thing, a bit of housekeeping. I'm not at any of the next few games - it's possible my next report will be from Brighton. Hopefully we've managed to pick up a few points by then.