Wolves 1 (Hubner 84) Blackburn 2 (Bloxham 48, Gilsenan 52)
Wolves under-21s were beaten by 10-man Blackburn Rovers in Premier League 2 on Monday evening.
Despite being a man light, the visitors struck twice early in the second period through Tom Bloxham and Zak Gilsenan. Justin Hubner pulled one back with six minutes to go, but it wasn’t enough for James Collins’ side who fell to defeat at Aggborough.
Wolves came close when the returning Harry Birtwistle made tracks down the right and crossed onto the head of Aaron Keto-Diyawa. The full-back nodded back into a dangerous area where Tawanda Chirewa was running onto it, but he saw his effort blocked at the last by the Blackburn defence.
At the other end, Jimmy Storer reacted well from a Gilsenan attempt from the edge which was struck well, but the Wolves stopper was right behind it.
Marvin Kaleta then went on a solo run down the right-hand side and ventured into the Blackburn penalty area before unleashing a powerful attempt that was saved by Nicolas Michalski at his near post.
The visitors were reduced to 10 men on the stroke of half-time as former Wolves man Harley O’Grady-Macken was shown a second yellow card following a foul on Chirewa.
Half-time | Wolves 0-0 Blackburn
Blackburn opened the scoring three minutes into the second half when Hubner’s loose touch was pounced upon by Bloxham who nipped in and fired in at Storer’s near post.
And it was two just four minutes later as the visitors capitalised once again. This time, a long ball over the top looked to have been going straight into the gloves of Storer, however Gilsenan got there ahead of the goalkeeper and was able to tap into an empty net.
Wolves had a glorious opportunity to reduce the deficit when Josh Esen cut the ball back for substitute Leo Lopes, but he took a swipe and didn’t connect cleanly, before Keto-Diyawa’s follow-up effort rolled straight into the gloves of the goalkeeper.
The home side were given a potential lifeline with six minutes left to play as Hubner met a Hesketh free-kick at the back post to give Wolves a route back into the game.
And the Old Gold so nearly levelled straight after when Lopes rose highest in the box to head towards goal, but his attempt came back off the underside of the crossbar and fortunately for the goalkeeper, the touch off his back deflected away from goal.
Wolves were throwing the kitchen sink at seven minutes of added time and they thought they’d levelled when the ball dropped to Hubner’s right boot, but he skewed wide of the post as the game ended in defeat.
Full-time | Wolves 1-2 Blackburn
COMING UP
Wolves under-21s are back in action in the New Year when they travel to face Norwich City in PL2.
NEXT FIVE
- 12/01 Norwich City (A)
- 17/01 Hertha Berlin (H) PLIC
- 22/01 AFC Bournemouth (A) PL Cup
- 26/01 Arsenal (H)
- 05/02 Charlton Athletic (A) PL Cup
TEAMS
Wolves | Storer, Kaleta (Lopes 71), Keto-Diyawa, Hesketh, Kandola, Hubner, Birtwistle (Rees 59), Esen (E. McLeod 90+2), Chiwome, Chirewa, Farmer.
Subs not used | Ojinnaka, Mabete.
Blackburn Rovers | Michalski, Duru, Doherty, Haddow, Olson, O’Grady-Macken, Montgomery, Bloxham (Stritch 90+5), Gilsenan (Biniek 72), Trialist, Mullarkey-Matthews (Nsangou 25).
Subs not used | Khan, Thirkill.
