Wolves 3 (Armstrong 14, Andre 34, Lopez 43) Port Vale 0
Cesar Peixoto enjoyed a winning start to life as Wolves head coach, as three first-half goals sealed the Old Gold’s safe progression in the Carabao Cup at the expense of League Two Port Vale.
Adam Armstrong’s smart finish opened the scoring after 14 minutes and Andre nodded home following a clever set piece for two. Fer Lopez rounded off the scoring with a clever strike, his first for the club, on a positive night at Molineux.
The Peixoto era enjoyed an excellent first 45 minutes at Molineux. Dan Bentley did have to be alert in the opening stages to deny George Hall, but on 14 minutes the opener arrived at the opposite end as Armstrong pounced on a half-cleared Mateus Mane cross and steered home the opener.
The goal settled the Old Gold, who nearly got their second when Armstrong curled wide, but instead it was Andre who doubled the lead from close range following a well worked set piece, leading to Yerson Mosquera setting up the Brazilian.
Goal number three arrived two minutes from the break and was the best of the lot. Andre’s diagonal pass freed Rodrigo Gomes who quickly found Lopez, whose first touch was exquisite, as was his second, which saw him roll his first Wolves goal into the bottom corner.
Half-time | Wolves 3-0 Port Vale
With the damage done in the opening period, Wolves were able to enjoy themselves after the interval, but Mosquera couldn’t keep his header from a Kieran Trippier cross on target.
The main talking point of the second period came on 54 minutes when the defender was penalised for fouling Mo Faal in the area. The striker dusted himself off and took responsibility himself, but was denied by the feet of Bentley, who preserved his clean sheet impressively.
The second half also brought the long-awaited return of Raul Jimenez, and he almost had the fairytale moment late on when Hugo Bueno fed him and the Mexican got a shot away, but Jackson Smith parried clear to deny the forward a returning goal, but Wolves were safely through.
Full-time | Wolves 3-0 Port Vale
Wolves | Bentley, Trippier, Mosquera (Krejci 84), Toti (Djiga 71), H Bueno, Andre, Munetsi (Doyle 66), Lopez, Gomes (Tchatchoua 84), Mane (Jimenez 71), Armstrong.
Unused subs | Sa, Lima, Abbey, Chirewa.
Port Vale | Smith, Headley (Hernandez 60), Lawrence-Gabriel (John 71), Byers (Croasdale 78), Faal (Lynch 71), Dempsey, Gordon, Montsma, Humphreys, Hall (Waine 78), Walters.
Unused subs | Terry, Hall, Simpson, Bussell.
