Wolves 0 Luton Town 0
Despite not finding the back of the net, Wolves and Luton Town played out a lively goalless draw in a pre-season meeting between the Premier League sides at Molineux.
Wolves went close on multiple occasions throughout both halves, while the visitors had the ball in the back of the net three times, but were denied by the offside flag.
After some early Luton pressure which was comfortably dealt with by those in gold shirts, Wolves gradually grew into the first half, with the first opportunity to open the scoring coming on 10 minutes.
Matt Doherty, in his return to Molineux after three years away from Wolves, clipped a fine through ball between the Luton defence towards Matheus Nunes, who wins the battle against former Old Gold man Ryan Giles but can only flash a low drive across the face of goal and narrowly wide of the far post.
Despite the friendly nature of the fixture, Joao Gomes was living up to his nickname as the Pitbull received a 16th minute yellow card for cynically chopping down Tahith Chong after the former Birmingham City midfielder tried to break over the halfway line.
Another chance fell the way of the hosts inside 20 minutes as Hee Chan Hwang left his marker in the dust before racing to the edge of the box where he played Rayan Ait-Nouri inside, but the Algerian was unable to pick out a gold shirt, despite Sasa Kalajdzic lurking in the six-yard box.
The Austrian came close to finding the net midway through the first half when Ait-Nouri played a long ball into the Luton box and Kalajdzic beat keeper Matt Macey to the ball with a stretch of his leg but was unable to direct his effort on target. Moments later, Doherty and Silva got in each other’s way before the Irishman was eventually able to get a shot off which was blocked behind.
Although Wolves were having much of the ball and the chances, Luton almost found the opening goal themselves before the break when Giles whipped his corner into the box and found the head of Mads Andersen, but the Danish centre-back couldn’t direct the ball on target, sending it over the crossbar and into the South Bank.
Half-time | Wolves 0-0 Luton
As the rain poured down at Molineux to kick off the second half, Wolves could have gone in front if not for a missed opportunity from Kalajdzic. Following clever hold up play by Silva, he slipped in Nunes whose cross fell to the feet of the Austrian in the centre of the box, but with the goal gaping, he fired well over the crossbar.
Moments later, Wolves were back on the attack with a quick breakaway from Hee Chan Hwang. The South Korean slipped a pass through to Silva and, after taking a touch, he could only fire a stinging shot narrowly over Macey’s crossbar.
Luton had the ball in the back of the net twice in the following minutes, with Elijah Adebayo the man who thought he had scored both times. But he was firstly penalised for fouling Dan Bentley in the Wolves goal as they jumped for the ball before being flagged for offside, before moments later getting on the end of a dangerous Giles cross into the box, but once again the Hatters forward was offside.
Wolves missed another guilt-edged chance on the hour mark when Gomes played a delightfully intricate chipped pass over the top of the Luton defence, but Hwang was unable to turn the ball home from close range. Silva then tested Macey, but the Hatters keeper was strong to the effort to turn it behind.
With 68 minutes on the clock, both teams made a raft of substitutions, which saw Wolves hand s first senior start at Molineux to academy star Nathan Fraser as he played up top with Matheus Cunha supporting, and it was the latter who almost scored with his first touch as he was played into space on the edge of the box, but his shot was blocked.
Luton had a chance from a set-piece with just over 10 minutes left on the clock, as Luke Berry stepped up from 25 yards out, but his effort cannoned into Fraser in the wall before the offside flag went up as the Hatters put the rebound into the box.
The Old Gold substitutes almost combined in the closing minutes of the match as Pablo Sarabia was picked out inside the Luton box, and the Spaniard’s header pulled out a decent save from Macey to turn the ball over his crossbar. Hugo Bueno then picked out the forward for another header, but he was denied by the Luton keeper once again from point-blank range.
Full-time | Wolves 0-0 Luton
Wolves | Bentley, Doherty (Semedo 74), Kilman (Dawson 68), Toti, Ait-Nouri (Bueno 68), J. Gomes (Hodge 74), Traore (Griffiths 82), Nunes (Sarabia 68), Silva (Cunha 68), Hwang (Neto 68), Kalajdzic (Fraser 68).
Unused subs | Sa, King, Pond, Esen, Farmer.
Luton | Macey, Kabore (Ogbene 68), Andersen, Lockyer, Bell (Potts 68), Giles (Doughty 68), Ruddock Mpanzu (Campbell 75), Nakamaba (Berry 75), Chong (McAtee 68), Adebayo (Clark 68), Morris (Woodrow 68).
Unused subs | Horlick, Francis, Johnson, O’Dell.
Referee | Darren Bond
