Real Betis 0 Wolves 1

The first half was terrible.

On a bouncy, bobbling pitch neither team did much of anything.

Betis twice benefitted from their opponents giving the ball away in dangerous territory, with young Taylor Perry most culpable, but failed to capitalise on those openings.

Wolves did even less, unable to string more than two passes together despite the return of Joao Moutinho to the midfield. Trincao might as well have not been playing.

This made it all the more frustrating when Morgan Gibbs-White played a perfectly timed through-ball to Raul Jimenez, only to see the linesman incorrectly raise his flag to deny the Mexican a clean run on goal. It wasn’t the last time the man with the flag was keen to make his presence known.

To compound an ugly first 45, Willy Boly limped off with a hamstring injury. It’s clear he’s still struggling to get through games and it seems likely he again won’t be a consistent presence this season.

Fortunately for Bruno Lage, he has Yerson Mosquera to call upon who looked strong, aggressive and powerful in the air on his Wolves debut – qualities the team desperately lacked last season, especially when Boly didn’t play.

I like Max Kilman too but worry he doesn’t possess the nastiness to be a consistent fixture in a good Premier League side. He reads the game well and is excellent in possession so may well prove me wrong.

Jose Sa was nimble and quick with his feet but almost played himself into trouble on a few occasions. Whether or not he proves to be better or worse than Rui, he’s certainly a different type of goalkeeper.

The two new signings showing their worth was symbolic of a better second half with more positives to extract.

In midfield, we had a midfield when Ruben Neves entered the game and his fierce drive from distance was the only real save their keeper was asked to make.

Patrick Cutrone finished smartly when Wolves finally played their way through and love or hate the Italian, he’s shown in the last two games he gets into the positions. The goal will be a handy morale booster.

The positives are that we look reasonably solid playing with a back four when our senior guys are on the pitch and it’s clear that Bruno demands more intensity from the team overall.

My concern is still where the goals are coming from and I feel we’re light in attack, particularly with Neto out for a few more months and Podence yet to make an appearance. I don’t think Gibbs-White or Ait-Nouri (as a winger) are the answer.

But this was better than Crewe and against a decent Betis outfit that finished 6th in La Liga last season, so we can at least feel pre-season is following the right trajectory.