Until the 72nd minute, when Nottingham Forest’s Igor Jesus jumped high in the box to head in the only goal, this low-rent contest lurched between the laborious and the ludicrous. There was an excruciating VAR delay of more than five minutes to disallow the Brazil striker’s first-half header and in the second another needless stoppage for another VAR review to confirm Ryan Yates was about a yard offside amid a check for a penalty. “It’s not football any more,” bellowed the South Bank, though the locals have felt disillusioned with Wolves for quite some time.
When the match-winning moment arrived for Igor Jesus, he took his chance superbly, leaping above Emmanuel Agbadou and beating to the punch the Wolves goalkeeper, Sam Johnstone, who flew erratically from his goal to clear. The cross was a beauty, too: Omari Hutchinson, on his first league start for Forest, cutting inside on to his left foot and sending a delicious cross into the box. Igor Jesus’s disallowed goal also stemmed from a Hutchinson cross, albeit a corner, but an offside Dan Ndoye was deemed to be impeding Johnstone.
Forest ultimately seized their chance and Wolves spurned theirs. Rob Edwards, the Wolves head coach, crouched on the edge of his technical area in disbelief, covering his face after Jhon Arias headed wide from Jackson Tchatchoua’s cross four minutes into the second half. It felt costly at the time and even more so as Wolves struggled to carve further openings. Arias beat a dozing Nicolò Savona to the ball at the back post but did not get sufficient purchase on the ball. Moments later, Ibrahim Sangaré headed away when an unmarked Agbadou sent a header towards goal.
