By Tom Bason
January 17 2015

On a day of celebration of the life of Sir Jack Hayward, a scrappy 2-0 win seemed strangely apt. With the game looking like it was heading for a drab 0-0, goals from David Edwards and debutant Benik Afobe secured the three points. 

- After Tuesday's marathon against Fulham (and it's today that I'm pleased that game wasn't moved to the Wednesday), Kenny Jackett reverted to the same team that defeated Blackburn, with new signing Benik Afobe available from the substitute's bench. With Bakery Sako away with Mali preparing for the African Cup of Nations, James Henry played on the left wing, with Rajiv van La Parra playing on the right. Blackpool lined up in a 4-5-1 formation, with Jamie O'Hara in central midfield. 

- To be honest, I don't think there's a huge amount to write about this game. We seemed to be looking to get the ball forward a little quicker, with Kevin McDonald and Jack Price each playing long balls over the top for Nouha Dicko and Henry respectively, although ultimately neither led to a real chance. Wolves best chance fell to David Edwards; Dicko closed down the defender, and the ball fell to Edwards, with a clear run on goal. As he approached Joe Lewis's goal, he seemed to be in two minds, whether to go for goal himself or roll in Dicko for an open goal. I think he may have considered passing to Dicko, but thought Dicko was offside, so ended rolling the ball horribly wide with his left foot. That was easily the clearest chance of the first half, with neither side creating anything of note. 

- Probably the most interesting part of the game was the match up between Jamie O'Hara and Edwards. I don't know whether this was under instruction from Lee Clarke, but O'Hara appeared to have been given instructions to man mark Welshman. O'Hara gave away lots of niggly fouls, and indeed could have been cautioned in the first minute after fouling Henry. Watching them, I got the feeling there is love lost between Edwards and O’Hara; when O'Hara fouled Edwards in the second half, Edwards was straight up and telling the referee that it was O'Hara's third foul, and O'Hara was subsequently shown a yellow card. I don't really like our players asking the referee to caution the opposition players, but I thought it was interesting that Edwards did this to a former teammate. 

- I thought the two wingers had poor games. Henry never really got into the match, while van La Parra never really seemed to be sure what he was doing. His opposition player, left back Charles Dunne was very quick, and van La Parra wasn't able to beat him purely for pace. But Dunne didn't appear to be the best of defenders, and when van La Parra was able to beat him, he struggled to pick out a man. There were a couple of occasions when he had the opportunity to cross in, but took an extra touch and didn't deliver. He also doesn't get his head up when in a good position, and wanted numerous opportunities. 

- With the wingers struggling, I wondered whether we'd switch to the diamond midfield we tried on Tuesday. I'm guessing we've been working on this formation due to Sako being missing, with neither Henry nor van La Parra securing a regular first team slot yet. Instead, Afobe came on for Henry, and we had a very lopsided 4-4-2 formation. Van La Parra held his position on the right, but Edwards was nominally moved to the left. Now, Edwards is not a left midfielder, and wandered around everywhere but the left flank. Normally I wouldn't have an issue with this, but neither Price nor McDonald adjusted their position, and as a result Kortney Hause was often completely isolated on the ball. After shanking cross deep into the South Bank, Hause was replaced by Matt Doherty, which meant we had no width on the left whatsoever, with both Doherty and Edwards constantly moving inside. I think having a team without a single left footed player makes things very difficult, and automatically means that there are part parts of the pitch and methods of attack that are cut off. It also says a lot about Jackett's current feelings on Michael Jacobs, that with Sako unavailable, he cannot get on the pitch, and Edwards is preferred in that position. 

- Given out lack of threat down the left, it's of no surprise that the opening goal came down the right flank. Jack Price played a lovely slipped through ball to van La Parra, who was able to burst into the penalty area. I thought he'd cut the ball back to Dicko, but instead crossed along the six yard box, and Edwards was able to tap in for his fourth goal in six days. I've been critical of Edwards in the past, arguing that if he's not scoring goals he doesn't contribute to the team (he makes fewer passes than pretty much every attacking midfielder to have played in the Championship this season), but if he's going to be scoring goals, then I don't have a problem with him being in the starting line-up. 

- The game was wrapped up by Afobe, who chased a hopeful McDonald long ball. Goalkeeper Lewis came out of his area to clear, but both he and the retreating defender left it to each other, neither touched the ball, and Afobe scored probably the easiest goal he'll ever score in a Wolves shirt. I thought Afobe did well when coming on, he looks to get himself more involved in play than Dicko does, often dropping off into the midfield. Whether he will do this when playing as a lone striker is another matter though. There was one moment late on that did cause some concerns - he had the ball on the right, and had he looked up, could easily have rolled in Dicko or Edwards. But, he had his head down as he attempted to beat the defender - hopefully this is something that will come with game time though.