Crystal Palace spoil Rob Edwards’ Wolves homecoming
By Sunny Badwal, PA
Rob Edwards suffered a 2-0 defeat to Crystal Palace in his first game in charge of Wolves via second-half goals from Daniel Munoz and Yeremy Pino.
Edwards left Middlesbrough to join Wolves 10 days ago but the change of manager did not stop them from suffering a 10th league defeat of the campaign.
The first period made for an entertaining battle from which Palace should have been on top, but Jean-Philippe Mateta’s one-on-one miss let the hosts off the hook.
Wolves looked good value to keep their first clean sheet of the season but Munoz’s opener sunk the confidence from an already depleted side before Pino produced a stunning strike to seal the points.
Wolves are still without a win nearly a third of the way into the season and sit nine points adrift of safety, leaving Edwards with a big job to keep them in the top flight.
The former Wanderers defender was given a massive cheer and applause from all four stands as he took the Molineux dugout for the first time but that positivity soon turned to boos following 90 minutes.
His first line-up saw Tolu Arokodare and Jorgen Strand Larsen start together for the first time this campaign, while Marc Guehi and Mateta both played for Palace after recovering from minor issues.
The first sight of goal came just shy of the 10-minute mark when Strand Larsen’s turn worked an opening but he fired high and wide.
Palace felt they should have had a penalty when David Moller Wolfe brought down Ismaila Sarr on the cusp of the penalty area, but the foul was deemed by VAR to be outside the box and Palace failed to threaten from the resulting free-kick.
Palace ought to have been a goal up in 16th minute when Pino cleverly flicked Adam Wharton’s pass and set Mateta through one-on-one with Sam Johnstone but the France international was unable to sort his feet out and scuffed a poor effort the wrong side of the post.
The visitors brought Johnstone into action for the first time when the ball dropped for Daichi Kamada at the back post but his volley was palmed behind by the Wolves keeper.
Guehi, having already received a yellow card, was walking a fine line when he brought down Strand Larsen marginally outside the box.
Palace relied on Dean Henderson’s reflexes to stop Wolves from taking the lead when Joao Gomes’ free-kick nicked off Wharton but the England keeper scrambled away for his first save.
Palace finally broke Wolves’ resistance in the 63rd minute. A short corner worked its way to Wharton at the edge of the area and his shot bounced off Maxence Lacroix and into the path of Munoz, who struck into an empty net.
Wolves’ heads dropped and Palace cashed in with another six minutes later courtesy of a moment of brilliance from Pino.
Hwang Hee-chan lost the ball on the edge of the box and Wharton fed it to Pino who let rip with a stunner which bent past the despairing dive of Johnstone, off the underside of the bar and in.
