Wolves secured progression in the Emirates FA Cup on Saturday afternoon as Rob Edwards’ side claimed a dominant 6-1 victory over Shrewsbury Town in the third round and the Matchday Live Extra team were in position to give their thoughts post-match.
Coming into the game in high spirits thanks to an unbeaten run of three games, the Old Gold extended that run to four, thanks to Jorgen Strand Larsen’s hat-trick and goals from Jhon Arias, Rodrigo Gomes and Tolu Arokodare, setting up a fourth round tie against Grimsby Town.
After the final whistle, former Wolves full-backs Andy Thompson and Lee Naylor discussed putting in a professional display to overcome the League Two strugglers, the performances of Hee Chan Hwang and Arias in attack and how the team need to replicate what they showed on Saturday in the Premier League.
Progressing in the cup
Thompson: “They were very good. The way they were playing, the sharpness in the tempo of the play, I just thought that’s what we want to see from our team. I know the Premier League is totally different, but if you play that way – the way we were moving the ball… getting it down the flanks was the big one for me. We always keep saying that Krejci hits a couple of those long balls over the top, and it’s not just a boot up field, it was a quality ball into the space for them to run onto.
“We’ve got a couple of lads who like to get forward; usually it’s Bueno down the left hand side, but Wolfe played, and Tchatchoua, I think that’s going to favour him and the way he wants to play. It gets him into a position where he does get on the ball, but he can put it across the box, when he’s running onto it. There was some nice one-touch football for the first two goals, the run going through the middle was affective, and I just thought they looked good. Now we’ve got to take this into the Premier League. We saw it in midweek that although Everton went down to nine men, we just didn’t have the quality to put that quality into the play to break them down.”
Hwang’s threat for the opener
Naylor: “Hwang’s really good at making clever runs. His timing was perfect, but to get it into Larsen’s path wasn’t easy. He’s had to dink it over the keeper, literally, and it’s a brilliant finish, but Hwang was full of that. When you get Hwang up to speed and running like he is at the moment, that’s when you get the best out of him. I think he’s getting there.”
Arias having an impact
Thompson: “I still think that Arias has got more that he can give to us. In some of the positions he finds himself in, I still think he comes a bit too deep sometimes and I’d rather see him a bit more advanced when he receives the ball and I feel he can be more effective in those positions, but he’s scored two in the two home games that’s we’ve just had, we’re starting to get some vibe in the way that we’re playing with him, but I still think he can produce more. He’s come with a reputation of a more advanced player, and I want to see more of that.”
Naylor: “I think that’s the negative side of him, where you see him take a touch and look back. But it’s been a gradual thing with everyone in the squad, but I think the confidence is picking up so now they’re getting it out their feet quickly, and now they’re looking up and making that pass forward. It just opened up nice for him and they’re good weight of passes, good one-twos and it’s a goal.”
Jhon Arias finishing a fast attacking move 🇨🇴👏 pic.twitter.com/tvIttNdPmU
— Wolves (@Wolves) January 11, 2026
Scoring six for the first time in 12 years
Thompson: “How many goals have we scored this season in the league? Not many. We’ve never been a big scoring team anyway, have we? Even when Nuno was here, we weren’t a massive scoring team, and when it got to 3-1 we would have shut up shop, and it was game over. But I just think that, with no disrespect to Shrewsbury, the opposition you were playing against, you’re not going to come up against them every week in the Premier League. But you can still replicate and take forward the play that we did play, the tempo that we played, the little quick movements, the little one-twos. Don’t get me wrong, the opposition is better in the Premier League, but you can still put that play into practice against the better teams. If we do this and get this right in the Premier League, then I think we’ll have a bit more success out of it.”
Naylor: “Against Everton, the ball was moved so slow and that’s when it should be at its fastest. The opposition [Shrewsbury] weren’t great, but you still had to be professional in what you do. The reason why we’ve got players at Wolverhampton Wanderers is because they’re better than Shrewsbury players. It’s as simple as that. And if you move the ball quickly, they shouldn’t get near you. If you’re doing that, and you put a professional performance on, then you’ll win the game. That’s what we did, and it was nice to see, because I’ve seen these games before where things become too easy and you start making mistakes, and then it becomes a problem, but there was none of that.”
Being up for the cup
Thompson: “I said in the week that I thought Rob would go strong in the FA Cup because we want to try and get something out of a run. Nobody loves a cup run as much as we do and we want to see the team go as far as they can. We’ve seen what it means to everybody around the club, and with things the way they are with our league position, it’s always nice to have that cup run and have get something out of it.”
Thompson and Naylor were talking to Mikey Burrows on Wolves’ official post-match podcast, Matchday Live Extra, which is available to listen to now on all podcast providers.
