This should have been a story of how Pedro Neto and Matheus Cunha etched their names into Black Country folklore as they helped Wolves to win their first derby at the Hawthorns since 1996 to earn a place in the fifth round of the FA Cup. Instead the passions of this fixture spilled over into ugly scenes as fans in the Halfords Lane clashed and the game was paused for 35 minutes.
These founder members of the Football League may not have played for three years, when West Brom were on their way down from the Premier League during the Covid‑19 pandemic, but that only added to the anticipation for a game that has made names of Steve Bull, Iwan Roberts and Peter Odemwingie down the years.
Wolves are seven games unbeaten now and in fine fettle. West Brom, notwithstanding a fine record at the Hawthorns where they have only been beaten four times in Carlos Corberán’s 15 months in charge, could feel the difference in class against their Premier League visitors. They can now turn their focus on the hunt to join them again, their pitch for a playoff place resuming with another derby, against Birmingham next Saturday, as they await their longstanding takeover.
Neto, now with 10 goal involvements this season despite two months out injured, scored seven minutes before the break, and on the break, and Cunha also showed how deadly Wolves are on the transition as he effectively sealed the result, if not the drama, 12 minutes from time.
“It wasn’t vintage football,” said Gary O’Neil, the Wolves manager, “but we didn’t expect it to be, with the pitch, the local derby, but the lads were really professional, stuck together and didn’t look under any real threat. We’re short on numbers but not on quality and Matheus Cunha and Pedro Neto offered that.”
West Brom were the better side in the first quarter of the game, repeatedly getting in the space behind Matt Doherty, the Wolves left wing-back, and if either Brandon Thomas-Asante or Jed Wallace had scored from relatively free headers, then the game’s trajectory could have been different.
Tommy Doyle dropped into the left-half berth to quench West Brom’s primary danger. This freed up Doherty further forward for the Premier League side who, despite performing below par at this stage, took the lead at a crucial stage.
It was from a corner for the home team that Wolves broke to score. When Doherty intercepted Alex Mowatt’s delivery on the edge of his own area, Neto set off at pace down the right, soon receiving Doherty’s perfectly weighted pass. This is how Neto likes it. Throwing a couple of shapes with his shoulders, coming in from the flank, the Portugal forward rode inside past John Swift and Conor Townsend before drilling a left-footed shot back inside the near post, wrong-footing Josh Griffiths, West Brom’s cup keeper.
West Brom had nine players missing, with Semi Ajayi and Grady Diangana at the Africa Cup of Nations and Daryl Dike and Adam Reach joining the injured list, yet kept to their task doggedly. “We have competed well,” Corberán, the West Brom manager, said, “well enough to get something. But in football you have to use what you produce.”
Nine minutes after half-time, Albion might have had a penalty. Mowatt crossed from the left and when Wallace headed intelligently across the face of goal, Max Kilman did not appear to get any of the ball as he prevented the impressive Thomas-Asante from turning it over the line.
Thomas Bramall, the referee, erred on the side of leniency throughout, however, which let the game flow, even when Wallace took Doyle out and Kyle Bartley blocked Cunha with elbows out.
Cunha mustered the ultimate revenge when he scored the goal that should have taken the sting out of this game and left Wolves cruising calmly into the fifth-round draw.
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Kilman intercepted to play a standard ball up into the inside-right channel for the in-form Brazilian striker, who scored the winning penalty in the third-round replay against Brentford, to compose himself before striking his eighth goal of the season through Griffiths’ legs.
One minute later, however, any sense that this was going to pass off as a relatively comfortable derby victory for the Premier League visitors against their game Championship neighbours disappeared into the cold Black Country afternoon.
