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Fletcher earns dramatic draw for Wolves
Steven Fletcher rescued a deserved point for Wolves with a late equaliser in a pulsating 3-3 draw with Tottenham at Molineux.
Kevin Doyle and Jermain Defoe shared four first-half goals before Roman Pavlyuchenko looked to have wrapped up victory for Spurs. But substitute Fletcher headed home the leveller in the 87th minute to earn his side a vital point in the battle for survival.
It also prevented Spurs from climbing above Chelsea into the fourth Champions League spot.
Defoe had the satisfaction of scoring his first Premier League goals of the campaign in his 14th appearance and he now has 99 in total. But Wolves produced some of their best football of the season and Nenad Milijas was a constant threat playing behind Doyle while Matt Jarvis delivered a series of menacing crosses.
Before kick-off there was a minute’s applause from supporters in honour of former Wolves and Tottenham defender Dean Richards who died last week aged 36.
Spurs made a bright start and were the first to threaten on a bobbly pitch; Luka Modric teed up Pavlyuchenko 20 yards out but he opted to place his shot and did not seriously test Wayne Hennessey.
Hennessey needed to react quickly in racing out of his area to hack the ball clear from Defoe after he chased down a long clearance from Benoit Assou-Ekotto. But Wolves enjoyed a sustained spell of possession and Adam Hammill then picked out the run of Milijas into the Spurs box though he could not keep his header down.
Jarvis had a first time shot deflected by William Gallas into the side netting but it came as no surprise when Doyle put them ahead. Milijas delivered another quality cross and Doyle got in front of Gomes and flicked his header into the net.
Spurs responded and after 30 minutes a superb strike from Defoe brought Spurs back on level terms. He had time to line up a shot 25 yards out but he caught hold of it perfectly as it flew past the drive of Hennessey.
Five minutes later another brilliant effort by Defoe put Spurs in front. Modric’s pass, cut out by Ward, rebounded fortuitously to Defoe and from the left of the area he curled a shot past Hennessey inside the far post.
Wolves hit back and after 39 minutes Doyle made it 2-2 from the penalty spot. Milijas had his shirt tugged by Hutton who appeared to be the last defender as he chased down a deflected shot by Doyle. But referee Mark Halsey opted to yellow card Hutton before Doyle sent Gomes the wrong way from the spot.
Spurs needed only two minutes of the second half to regain the lead through Pavlyuchenko. Jenas was allowed to run unchallenged to the edge of the Wolves box before slipping the ball to Pavlyuchenko. He turned inside before drilling a 15 yard shot past Hennessey for what was his 11th goal of the campaign.
Wolves came close to equalising and Ward glanced a header just wide from Jarvis’ inswinging centre and Michael Dawson was yellow-carded for up-ending Hammill in full flight.
McCarthy made his first change after 58 minutes with Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, who netted twice last week against Blackpool, replacing Ward. Wolves started to build some momentum and Gomes made a fine save to turn Milijas’ low drive onto a post.
Hennessey had to be alert in saving at the feet of Defoe who raced onto Modric’s ball over the top, before Gareth Bale made his return after a back injury in place of Pienaar.
Ebanks-Blake could have made it 3-3 but he dragged his shot wide from 12 yards wide after Jarvis had cut the ball back from the by-line and Milijas then poked the ball over the bar at full stretch when meeting a cross from Doyle.
Gallas was yellow carded for bringing down Ebanks-Blake but Bale could have wrapped the points up but shot wide from close range.
Stearman had the ball in the net from a Milijas cross but referee Mark Halsey adjudged Gomes had been fouled and Defoe came close to completing his hat-trick when his shot hit the post.
But in the 87th minute Fletcher levelled with a header from Jarvis’ cross to send the Molineux faithful into raptures.
Doyle: Point ‘massive’ in relegation fightWolves striker Kevin Doyle hailedthe 3-3 draw with Tottenham as a “massive result” in their fight against relegation.
“To go ahead, and then to go behind twice in the game, we keep on, keep on and get an equaliser so it’s massive for us,” Doyle told Sky Sports. “There are not many games left, it’s very tight and we needed that draw today so it’s great to get it in the end.”Wolves had reason to feel hard done by as decisions from referee Mark Halsey seemed to go against them.Alan Hutton could have seen red for pulling back Nenad Milijas in the incident that led to the penalty, but he was only booked, while Richard Stearman appeared to have levelled with 10 minutes left, only for Halsey to give a generous free-kick to goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes.”As players, you always think the decisions are going against you,” Doyle said. “We were celebrating like mugs, but we got the equaliser from Fletch in the end so that was nice to be able to celebrate.”Fletcher also admitted he thought Stearman’s goal had been given as Halsey’s signal confused both sets of players.”I was running away celebrating for about five minutes so when you get back to the half-way line and see he’s given a free-kick, it’s a bit disappointing,” he said.Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp admitted the late goal was a blow to their hopes of Champions League qualification as they remain in fifth, below Chelsea who play away to Blackpool tomorrow.”Obviously it’s a blow, you look like you’ve got three points but you only end up with one,” he said. “But you just keep going. We’ve got another game next week and we’ll see how we go.”Asked if he thought his team had done enough to win, Redknapp added: “I did. We got three fantastic goal and then had chances to kill it off. We had some unbelievable opportunities when Gareth (Bale) has gone through or when (Defoe) hit the post.”
Credit: http://soccernet.espn.go.com
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