Kenny Jackett was pleased with a first Wolves runout of the season in Saturday’s behind-closed-doors friendly with Shrewsbury Town at Compton Park
A James Henry brace put Wolves 2-0 up by half time before a much younger team in the second half saw the visitors fight back strongly to draw 2-2.
“It went very well, we were pleased with the game,” said the Head Coach.
“It was a very realistic game for when you first start (pre-season) against a professional side.
“Quite often the way is sometimes playing a non-league team first, and when you do it can sometimes be misleading.
“Shrewsbury have signed eight players and it was a good test.
“Playing two different teams in the first and second half gave us a good idea of where the players are, which is the main thing, to make that assessment.
“I wanted to try to get the team into a routine as far as we could.
“There may or may not be changes on the way, but I wanted to work on cohesion because it’s something that’s very important, particularly when we have a number of players out of position and working towards understanding their roles.
“We played a 4-4-2 formation.
“Overall the players showed good spirit, good heart, a decent amount of technical ability and quite good fitness, considering the stage of pre-season they’re at.
“We have quite a young, fit group, and it was very pleasing to see James Henry score twice.”
There were several players missing from the two teams fielded by Jackett on Saturday.
Kevin McDonald was absent due to strong interest from a fellow Sky Bet Championship side, and Nathan Byrne for personal reasons.
Carl Ikeme had an injection to help clear up a shoulder problem and Ethan Ebanks-Landell is being eased back gradually from the broken metatarsal sustained last season.
There was the opportunity for many younger players to have a chance to impress, and Jackett says that could yet extend to next week’s training camp in Cork.
“It’s close between quite a number of the under-21 players,” he said.
“There’s a high amount of them and while we’re taking some players for a couple of days in training, moving them back, then another few and seeing how they do.
“A few will be going to Cork next week and are trying to stake a claim for a place in the first team squad.
“There’s always a few senior players injured, which is the case at the moment.”
