Wolves 2-3 Coventry: FA Cup quarter-final – as it happened

Ellis Simms

Honestly, it’s great. The fans were amazing and we’re just delighted as a team. This might be the most important win of my career so far. To get to Wembley is unbelievable.

The first goal took an awful long time [for a VAR check]. One of their players was holding me and I just shouldered it in. As soon as they gave the goal it was a great feeling.

I’m so proud of the lads today. We never gave up, even at 2-1. It’ll be a great occasion at Wembley – it’s awesome. We’ve just gotta enjoy it; we want to go all the way.

Haji Wright

I’ve said many times we’ve got a lot of quality in our side and as long as we believe and keep trying, I think we’ll get our chances. Today we were able to take three of them and that was enough for the win.

It’s an amazing occasion and great fun for all of us. Hopefully we can enjoy it and then get back to work.

Both me and Ellis can attest to [the importance of Mark Robins]. We didn’t have amazing starts here but he always believed in us and gave us opportunities. Now we’re at a point where we can perform for the team.

Niall Mullen sums it all up “3-2 is a wonderful Coventry FA Cup score”

The Coventry players are having a party in front of the away end. Quite right too; they were terrific and retained an almost naive belief even when they went behind in the 88th minute.

You all deserve a lie-down after that finale. Alas, you won’t be getting one.

The Wolves players are stunned – especially Rayan Ait-Nouri, who seemed to have won the game when he scored and made the late goals that put them 2-1 ahead. But Ellis Simms equalised in added time and Haji Wright showed indecent cool to wave a 100th-minute winner past Jose Sa.

Coventry fans will be talking about that forever, and I only wish Neil Kulkarni was here to do it justice.

Coventry are into the FA Cup semi-finals for the first time since 1987!

What a fantastic goal to win a brilliant FA Cup tie. O’Hare, who has been terrific since coming on, beat Joao Gomes on the left and dragged a cross towards Simms at the near post. He laid it off deftly to Wright, who curled a nonchalant first-time shot into the far corner. What a finish!

Haji Wright has just gone down in Coventry City folklore!

Oh my word, what a cup tie this has been. Wright ran down the left, away from Semedo, and teased a lofted cross towards the near post. Thomas guided a header across goal and Simms nodded it decisively past Jose Sa from close range.

Simms missed an open goal in the first half; now he’s on another FA Cup hat-trick.

Ellis Simms has saved it for Coventry!

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90+5 min Kilman makes an important challenge on the edge of the area to thwart a good run from O’Hare.

90+4 min Ait-Nouri, who is full of confidence, tries a shot from a tight angle that is comfortably saved by Collins.

90+3 min: Double substitution for Coventry Victor Torp and Fabio Tavares replace Eccles and Latibeaudiere.

90+3 min Chiwome, who has done well since coming on, buys Wolves a bit of time by winning a free-kick near the halfway line.

90 min Bidwell’s latest excellent cross is headed across goal dangerously by Wright, but there’s nobody there. There will be nine minutes of added time.

Ait-Nouri, who scored the equaliser, has now made the winner* in superb style. Coventry were exposed from the moment he turned Thomas on the halfway line and surged infield with purpose, hugging the ball on his left foot. Chiwome got in his way for a second but Ait-Nouri kept his cool and played an eye-of-the-needle through pass to Hugo Bueno. He controlled the ball calmly on the run and swept it emphatically into the far corner.

* Probably.

Coventry couldn’t hold on: Hugo Bueno has scored his first senior goal to put Wolves ahead!

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88 min A reminder that there will be extra-time and penalties if necessary. If the tie is still level after that, there will be a replay a week on Wuesday.

85 min Coventry really should have been out of sight; now they’re hanging on for extra-time.

It’s a cruel moment for Latibeaudiere, who was at fault for the goal. He was caught in two minds as Joao Gomes’s cross from the right came towards him and ended up thighing the ball in the air back towards his own goal. Ait-Nouri charged onto it and cracked a decisive volley past Collins from eight yards.

And just like that, Wolves are level.

82 min: Another chance for Coventry! Bidwell’s beautiful cross from the left is met on the run by Kitching, who stabs a volley that is pushed round the near post by Sa. That’s an excellent save, muybe his best yet.

81 min O’Hare’s shot from 20 yards is pawed away by the diving Sa, a tougher save than the one a moment ago, then a follow-up cross is taken off Simms’ head by Santiago Bueno. Without that touch Simms was probably have scored.

Sarabia is booked for taking out his frustration on a Coventry leg.

80 min This game is so open now. Simms runs onto a nothing ball forward, 18 yards out, and batters a volley that is beaten away by Sa. As Ally McCoist says on ITV, either side and it would have been in.

77 min: Ait-Nouri hits the post! Sarabia’s free-kick from the left is nodded back across goal by Doherty and headed onto the post by Ait-Nouri! He just couldn’t get round the ball enough to guide it between the posts.

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75 min I don’t think Doherty was fouled, in fact – he seemed to anticipate a tackle that never came and stumbled as a result. I think that’s what happened anyway.

In other news, VAR have cleared that high challenge from Semedo. It was clumsy rather than malevolent but it wouldn’t have been a surprise had he been sent off.

74 min O’Hare ducks into a bouncing ball and is caught by the very high boot of Semedo. Play continues but there’s a VAR check.

73 min Doherty seems to be fouled by Latibeaudiere just inside the area but stays on his feet and nothing is given. There’s no time to dwell on that because Joao Gomes hits a vicious long-range shot that is touched onto the outside of the post by the flying Collins. That’s a fine save.

73 min: Wolves substitution Hugo Bueno comes on for Tommy Doyle. Ait_Nouri has moved to the right wing.

71 min It doesn’t detract from how well Coventry have played, but Wolves are really missing Cunha, Hwang and Pedro Neto in attack. They have struggled to create chances all day.

70 min: Coventry substitution The excellent Kasey Palmer is replaced by the exciting Callum O’Hare.

67 min: Chances galore for Coventry! Sa makes three saves in 15 seconds, including a good one with his legs to deny Wright. Then he rolls the ball out to Doherty, who loses it, and is no man’s land when Palmer chips the ball nonchalantly over him from 20 yards. It drifts this far wide of the far post.

65 min Lemina’s snapshot from the edge of the area hits his teammate Chiwome and flies behind for a goalkick. Wolves have responded angrily to Simms’ goal.

64 min “Isn’t VAR just wonderful?” says Niall Mullen. “Five minutes of nothing happening. That doesn’t even happen in NFL.”

Even though I’d happily shoot VAR, I thought that was a really difficult decision. Besides, five minutes of nothing happening is perfect preparation for movie night: it’s The Thin Red Line.

63 min Wolves get a free-kick on the edge of the D, slightly left of centre. Doyle lethers it across goal but it’s fractionally too high. Decent effort though.

61 min Wright’s low cross is slightly behind Van Ewijk, who screws his shot high and wide as a result.

Wolves have switched to a back four with Doherty on the left wing.

59 min: Double substitution for Wolves Matt Doherty and Leon Chiwome, an 18-year-old forward, replace Toti and Nathan Fraser.

58 min The VAR check took around four minutes. Eventually they decided the evidence for handball was inconclusive so the on-field decision was upheld.

Ellis Simms has put Coventry ahead with his bicep!

57 min They’re still checking… it’s fiendishly difficult to tell whether it was handball.

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The ball definitely hit Simms’ right bicep before bouncing into the net, and it’s almost impossible to say whether it was above or below the line for handball.

VAR check for handball

The goal came from a free-kick 35 yards out. Palmer curled it beyond the far post, where Kitching headed the ball back across goal. Latibeaudiere tried to score himself, but ended up shinning the ball against Simms and then into the net.

It’s Simms’s goal – but I think it hit his arm, and if so it may well be disallowed.

I think this might be an own goal but Coventry couldn’t give a stuff!

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51 min Haji Wright runs away from Sarabia, 25 yards out, and booms a good effort just over the bar. Coventry continue to threaten; with Wolves so light in attack, this is a great chance to reach their first FA Cup semi-final since then.

49 min Ait-Nouri plays a slick one-two with Lemina, charges to the edge of the area and shoots well wide with his right foot. A poor finish but the rest was lovely.

46 min Coventry, in the shape of Kasey Palmer, begin the second half.

Half-time reading

A terrific cross from Ait-Nouri just evades Fraser and is miscontrolled by Semedo beyond the far post. That’s the latest action of the half, an interesting arm-wrestle that ended goalless. Coventry were slightly the better team and had the best chance when Ellis Simms missed a comedy sitter, though any goal may have been ruled out for offside in the build-up.

45+1 min At the other end Lemina’s crossshot leads to a scramble in the Coventry area before Fraser flicks the ball wide. Wasn’t much of a chance.

45 min “Good day Rob,” says Kim Thonger. “I wonder if you might feel like wishing ardent Wolves fan Jan Chrin all the best. He’s sure to be following the game. He’s the only man I know who looked more like Jesus Christ than Jesus Christ himself, even when keeping goal wearing baggy shorts. He married Janice, possibly so they could both have the initials JC, in Wolverhampton in I think 1981. Marvellous Polish family wedding. Great fun.

“Such a devout Wolves fan was he that, being in charge of our University Catholic Society team strip, he managed to have it changed to the Wolves strip. As the team goal poacher and token Protestant I modelled myself on Derek Dougan. Very happy days. Jan’s a physicist with a PhD now, resident in Switzerland for many years. Bald as a coot of course, as are we all these days.”

I would love to wish ardent Wolves fan Jan Chrin all the best, especially as he sounds like somebody who wears life at a jaunty angle.