Having already booked their place in the knockout stages of this season’s Papa John’s Trophy, Wolves under-21s were unable to take maximum points from their group as they suffered defeat on the road against leaders Port Vale.
As the more senior side at Vale Park, it was the hosts who expectedly began the stronger of the two and came close to opening the scoring within five minutes.
The white shirts raced forwards from a quick break and after an initial shot was blocked Vale kept on the pressure which saw Lewis Cass lift a cross into the box, but fortunately for Wolves, Harry Charsley was caught unaware five yards out and was only able to get the faintest of touches on the ball, meaning Jimmy Storer was able to grab his effort from close-range.
Wolves were using their greater pace in their youthful legs to exploit the Vale defence, but Tyler Roberts and Leon Chiwome weren’t on the same wavelength and unable to link-up as well as they would have liked.
Three big chances followed ahead of the break, as Port Vale’s Rory Holden found his head on a long ball lifted into the box, and although the midfielder timed his run well, he couldn’t test Storer and headed over the crossbar. Moments later, Roberts was played through on goal down the left, but he saw his powerful shot across target palmed away by Aidan Stone.
It was then roles reversed by Wolves as Chiwome was the next to be played over the top of the Vale defence and used his trickery and pace to create a scoring chance. Having raced into the box and switched the ball onto his right, his low effort was blocked by Stone, but only as far as Roberts, but he was also denied on the follow-up.
Half-time | Port Vale 0 Wolves 0
As with the opening 45 minutes, Port Vale had much of the possession following the interval and it was Wolves’ gameplan to catch their opponents on the break, and the first opportunity of the half fell the way of Sammy Robinson. After steady build-up play from the hosts, the Vale defender was found on the edge of the Wolves box but was unable to keep his effort from flying high over Storer’s crossbar.
Another quick counter from Wolves almost brought the first goal of the game on the hour mark as Roberts was quick to capitalise on a slip-up in the Vale defence and he picked up a loose ball and raced the length of the pitch. Unfortunately for the forward, the white shirts were able to close down the space and Roberts was unable to get a decent effort away.
Storer was called into action minutes after an onslaught of Vale pressure and threat posed by putting several crosses into the box, which were all dealt with. But Mipo Odubeko was found on the edge of the box and his rasping shot was gathered at full stretch by the Wolves keeper. He then had to be at his best to tip over a shot which looked to be heading into the top corner from close-range.
The keeper was finally beaten with just 10 minutes of the contest remaining, as a free-kick from a tight angle just outside the area was taken by Mal Benning and the Vale man spotted a gap inside the Wolves wall and his effort managed to find its way inside the post with Storer scrambling.
The home side put the result beyond doubt as the clock ticked closer to 90, when Odubeko found space inside the Wolves box and his head met David Worrall’s cross before directing the ball into the bottom left corner of the net.
Full-time | Port Vale 2 Wolves 0
COMING UP
The under-21’s are back in league action on Saturday afternoon as the development side face a Premier League 2 Division 1 outing against Manchester United at Carrington.
NEXT FIVE
- 22/10 Man Utd (A)
- 31/10 Leicester (H)
- 07/11 West Ham (A)
- 14/11 Sunderland (H)
- 19/11 Porto (H) IC
TEAMS
Port Vale | Stone, Cass (Worrall 68), Hall, Holden (Politic 57), Small, Charsley (Benning 68), Odubeko (Plant 88), Pett, Agyakwa, Butterworth (Walters 88), Robinson.
Unused subs | Forrester, Silva Pervide.
Wolves | Storer, Mabete (Farmer 84), Tipton, Kandola, Birtwistle (Kaleta 64), Ojinnaka (Hodnett 74), Griffiths, Lembikisa, Keto-Diyawa (Francis-Burrell 84), Roberts, Chiwome (Harkin 64).
Unused subs | Amos, Matheson.
