Burton Albion vs Wolverhampton Wanderers. Sky Bet Championship.
Pirelli StadiumAttendance5,080.
Saturday 30 September 2017 18:15, UK
Wolves returned to winning ways in the Sky Bet Championship by inflicting Burton's second 4-0 home defeat in the space of five days.
The disappointment of the midweek loss to Sheffield United was quickly forgotten as goals from Diogo Jota, Romain Saiss, Ruben Vinagre and Leo Bonatini helped push the visitors back into the top two.
Nuno's Wolves turned in another impressive away display, having suffered defeat in the corresponding fixture last season. The visitors did the damage within the first 11 minutes, although a howler from Burton goalkeeper Stephen Bywater helped them on their way.
There was little the experienced keeper could do, though, when Jota sprinted on to a pass from Ivan Cavaleiro to calmly slot the ball into the bottom right hand corner of the net after just five minutes.
The visitors doubled their advantage six minutes later when Bywater made a hash of catching what looked to be a routine free-kick from Ruben Neves on the angle of the box. Moroccan midfielder Saiss was quick to pounce, almost on the line, to leave Albion with a mountain to climb.
Burton worked hard to try and get back into the game, with the pace of Lloyd Dyer threatening to open up the right-hand side of the Wolves defence.
Jamie Allen forced John Ruddy into a good save with a dipping shot from the edge of the box and Lucas Akins could not quite steer a fierce cross-shot from Hope Akpan on target.
But Wolves had their third goal four minutes before half time as two of their Portuguese stars combined to excellent effect. Vinagre exchanged passes with Cavaleiro on the edge of the area and then showed quick feet inside the box to pick out the bottom corner of the net.
The second half had barely begun when Wolves had a strong claim for a penalty as full-back Matt Doherty was brought down by Stephen Warnock, but referee Tony Harrington ruled the offence took place just outside the box.
A fourth goal for Wolves always looked likely and it was no surprise when it arrived just after the hour mark. Doherty intercepted a pass from Warnock and launched a swift counter-attack with Cavaleiro down the right.
The full-back continued his run into the box to help Cavaleiro's return pass into the path of substitute Bonatini, who smashed the ball into the net from 10 yards.
Nigel Clough: "It's a pretty horrible week for us. We had a good result at QPR last weekend and we were looking forward to this week. We are not giving ourselves a chance in games at the moment - 3-0 down at half-time in both games and the game is over from that point.
"Both of the first two goals today were avoidable, in fact the first three were in the first half. With better defending we don't concede them."
Nuno: "It was a good game, a good result and a good performance today. It means a lot coming back from a bad result and knowing that you cannot stay there in that moment of sadness, but to react, and the boys did that today and I am very proud of them.
"We controlled the game very well. We must say that we have the momentum the first time we arrive on the box of Burton and we score. Everything changes from there and it is important to keep going and keep believing, keep increasing the result. The boys played really, really well."
