The Tim Spiers debrief – Shrewsbury 2 Wolves 2

Nuno Espirito Santo’s team were nearly embarrassed by League One side Shrewsbury, but Matt Doherty spared their blushes in the 93rd minute.

Disaster averted

Wolves will have wanted to feature pretty late in the Match of the Day running order on Saturday night.

It would have meant they’d probably coasted to a fairly regulation away victory with little or no FA Cup ‘magic’ in the Shropshire air.

The only reason this near-Cup upset wasn’t first on the BBC’s flagship highlights programme was due to the Goliaths of Everton and West Ham being dumped out by lower league opposition – and that’s why drawing at Shrewsbury isn’t by any means a disaster.

Most teams who venture deep into the competition have a near-death experience at one time or another. Who knows, maybe this will be Wolves’? Perhaps they’ll look back and remember how fate was on their side?

Or perhaps it’s unwise to look any further than Tuesday/Wednesday week, when Wolves will be offered a second opportunity to see off their League One opponents.

The pitch will be bigger and smoother and they’ll have the home comforts they were missing on Saturday.

But if they play with the same drab incompetency that we witnessed for the first hour or so at Montgomery Waters Meadow, Shrewsbury will get another great big whiff of a Cup upset.

Wolves deserved their replay – just about – but equally, had they been humiliating dumped out of the competition in the first FA Cup tie they’ve played against lower league opposition since Luton Town in 2013 (a 1-0 defeat which signalled the end for Stale Solbakken) they could have had few complaints.

Lacklustre

Wolves crashed to a 2-0 deficit in the opening 25 minutes of the second half, but at least the lights had switched on and they were creating meaningful opportunities at this point, with Helder Costa and Raul Jimenez both guilty of spurning golden chances.

Instead, it was a lacklustre first-half display which was even more frustrating from a Wolves perspective.

Shrewsbury defended manfully, restricting space for Morgan Gibbs-White and the two wing-backs, as well as allowing no room in behind for the pacey duo of Costa and Adama Traore to sprint into.

But Wolves barely raised the intensity level above ‘meh’.

Their passes were either banal or misplaced and they didn’t test Shrewsbury keeper Steve Arnold on a single occasion.

They offered limited but committed Salop a foothold in the game and allowed Sam Ricketts to no doubt belt out an uplifting half-time team talk in which his players will have been mightily encouraged by the lack of intimidation provided by a Wolves team which cost £61million to assemble.

Fourth favourites

The sleeping giant did awake for the final knockings and it must be said that Wolves’ late comeback was rousing.

They showed fight, desire and spirit to come from 2-0 down with just 15 minutes to play. Any questions about whether Wolves wanted to stay in this competition were emphatically answered.

Their head coach, despite some understandable reluctance about having to play another game in what he called a ‘tight schedule’, isn't adverse to a cup run judging by his team selection.

It showed six changes, yes, but apart from Ryan Giles it was a senior side with big-hitters on the bench. It was certainly good enough on paper to comfortably win the tie.

Nuno is taking the competition pretty seriously – and with his team one of a rapidly decreasing number of Premier League sides still left in the hat for found five, many fans will implore him to pick as strong a team as possible from now on.

Everton, West Ham, Arsenal, Liverpool, Bournemouth, Newcastle, Cardiff, Leicester, Southampton, Huddersfield, Burnley, Fulham and Tottenham Hotspur have exited the competition already. That’s 13 Premier League teams gone – and only five (the Manchester clubs, Watford, Chelsea and Crystal Palace) are definitely in the fifth round.

If Wolves can negotiate the replay – and we’ll see what the draw throws up tonight – then they can rarely have had a better chance in the past three of four decades to make a serious impact in the FA Cup.

They're fourth favourites to win the whole damn thing, the most famous club cup competition on the planet.

Birthday boy

The last time we saw Ryan Giles in the first team it was short-sleeve weather.

The youngster enjoyed a seriously impressive pre-season campaign after joining Nuno’s squad in Switzerland and then appearing in a couple of friendlies on English soil, notably against Stoke City and Ajax.

His exuberant displays on the left wing suggested he wasn’t too far away from making his Wolves debut, but having Jonny Castro Otto and Ruben Vinagre ahead of him in the pecking order has seen his opportunities limited to just a couple of unused substitute appearances.

On Saturday – in his Shropshire homeland and on his 19th birthday – he got his chance.

He gave a solid debut with some smart defensive work and a couple of nice ventures forward. He grew into the game and on another day his pull-back to Raul Jimenez, which put the ball on a plate for the Mexican, would have seen him grab an assist.

Hopefully for likeable Giles it’s the first of many appearances. He certainly possesses the temperament to go far – he’s just about the most well-spoken and level-headed young footballer you could wish to met.

Usual suspects

Ahead of him Helder Costa did his future first-team prospects no favours with an anonymous performance.

The forward players have frustrated in almost equal measure this season.

Diogo Jota has put together a string of decent displays with goals and assists in recent weeks but Costa’s form has taken a nosedive to the extent where he’s just not getting the basics right now and he appear bereft of confidence.

It was left to Wolves’ best two players this season, Raul Jimenez and Matt Doherty, to drag them out of trouble.

Others need to step up to the plate if Wolves aren’t to become over-reliant on the pair. Adama Traore and Ivan Cavaleiro, we’re looking at you.

Final word

Star man: Matt Doherty

The boss: Formation change earned Wolves a replay

Fans: Played their part in a fantastic atmosphere

Magic moment: A crucial 93rd minute goal for the second week in a row

In a word: Relief

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