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Wolves Away Is A Winnable Game

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Written by billythekid

After a recent run of five defeats in six games, the latest being at Dean Court against Liverpool, the Cherries are on the road again, this time to the Black Country to face newcomers Wolverhampton Wanderers, commonly known as Wolves. Their ground since 1889 Molineux Stadium which was formerly a pleasure park not dissimilar to Crystal Palace.

The Cherries have a good record there in the League and Cup, especially their famous FA Cup run back in 1957. The Cherries won 0-1, Wolves were in League 1 at the time and after this, we went on to play two other League 1 sides, Spurs (who we beat) and Manchester United (we lost), both games at Dean Court. Reg Cutler scored the only goal in the Wolves v Cherries game, but earlier he landed up in the net after a challenge with the Wolves goalkeeper, this brought down one of the goalposts, which delayed the game for several minutes.

Wolves appointed Nuno Espirito Santo as manager in the Summer of 2017, he was previously at Porto. He replaced Paul Lambert who was in charge from November 2016, Wolves finished in 15th place in the Championship that season. In the first season in charge, Santo took Wolves up from the Championship into the Premier League, they were runaway winners in the Championship with 99 points, 9 points more than second place Cardiff City (when AFCB won it in the 2014-15 season, they won with 90 points).

This Summer Wolves have made a number of signings, some permanent and others on loan. They signed midfield player Adama Traoré from Middlesbrough for a club record fee of £18 million. Our old player Benik Afobe for a reported £12.5 million, he has gone on loan to Stoke City with the option to buy in January. Last season Diogo Jota was on a season-long loan from Atletico Madrid, this was made permanent with a £12.6 million signing of the midfielder. Willy Boly who also was on a season-long loan, this time from Santo’s old club Porto, has signed for £10 million. Rui Patricio a goalkeeper has signed from Sporting Lisbon for an undisclosed fee. Forward Leo Bonatini from Saudi club Al-Hilal for an undisclosed fee. Two players from Monaco, Ruben Vinagre who plays in midfield has signed for an undisclosed fee. Another midfielder João Moutinho another undisclosed fee. Loan players, Raul Jimenez the forward from Benfica, defender Johnny Castro Atletico Madrid and Leander Dendoncker a midfield player from Anderlecht.

Wolves sit in 10th place with 22 points, 1 point and 2 places behind AFCB. In our first season, AFCB were in 14th place with 16 points. Wolves had a mixed start in the Premier League.
Their first game was at home against Everton, the game finished 2-2 (same result as AFCB against Everton at DC also in August). The next game for Wolves was away at Leicester C, it finished in a 0-2 defeat. Last game of the month was at home against Manchester City, it finished 1-1. Wolves are only one of two teams to draw at home against Manchester City, the other being Liverpool.
September was a good month for Wolves, they won 0-1 at West Ham, then beat Burnley at home 1-0. Finishing the month with a 1-1 draw away against Manchester United.
Into October and yet another 0-1 win in London this time against Crystal Palace. The next two games Wolves fortunes changed, they lost 0-2 at home against Watford, then lost 1-0 away at Brighton.
This continued in November, they lost 2-3 at home against Spurs, then an improvement with a 1-1 draw at the Emirates against Arsenal. Things changed again and Wolves lost their next two games, first, 0-2 at home against Huddersfield and 2-1 away at Cardiff C.
This month results improved and two wins so far, first at home against Chelsea 2-1 and in their last game away at Newcastle 1-2.

In the Newcastle game, Wolves took the lead after good work from Costa on the right who placed a perfect ball for Jota to poke home. Six minutes later Perez equalised for Newcastle. Problems came for Newcastle in the 57 minutes, when Jota broke away on goal and was brought down by Yedlin just outside the area when it looked like Jota was going to get the ball and get a chance of a shot at goal. Yedlin was shown a straight red card, much to the dismay of the Newcastle manager. After this Newcastle managed to contain Wolves until four minutes into injury time. That man Jota was again a problem for Newcastle as he raced away beating Newcastle players and then had a shot at goal which the Newcastle goalkeeper could only parry and Doherty was on hand to head the loose ball into the net for the winner.

Over the years the Cherries have a good record at Molineux. The last time we played Wolves was in our Championship winning season. It was at Dean Court and AFCB ran out 2-1 winners. The away game also ended in an AFCB win, with the same score 1-2. In our away league games against Wolves
AFCB have Won 2, Drawn 0, Lost 1. In all competitions, AFCB have Won 6, Drawn 2, Lost 2.

Wolves Team News
Jonathan Castro Otto (Jonny)is out with a MCL knee ligament injury. Otherwise, it seems they have a clean bill of health.

Wolves Player To Watch
Diogo Jota who was Wolves leading scorer in the Championship last season with 17 goals. He has scored goals in his last two games, in Wolves previous home game against Chelsea, he scored the winner and on Sunday scored the first against Newcastle. Previously he has had a barren run with no goals in the Premier League. Doherty also played well and has 3 goals and 3 assists this season. Another player to keep an eye on if he plays, is their young 18-year-old midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White, in his first Premier League start he had a very good game against Chelsea. Wolves leading scorer is Raul Jimenez, with 4 goals and the most assists with 4.

AFCB Team News
Adam Smith cartilage knee injury and Lewis Cook ACL knee injury both long-term injuries. Dan Gosling no further news on his injury/return. Hopefully, Callum Wilson will be back leading the line after missing the Liverpool game with a hamstring injury.

AFCB Player To Watch
We missed Callum Wilson in the Liverpool defeat. He gives us that bit extra up front and his goals and assists were needed as well. Hopefully, he will back for the game at Molineux on Saturday.

Simon Hooper is the referee, we had him for the League Cup game against Blackburn.

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