Wolves 0 Stoke City 1:SOMETIMES MATCHES can exceed all expectations and then there are other occasions, like this, when the fare is every bit as disappointing as many would have feared. From a pudding of a pitch to the rows of empty seats and a meeting of two managers whose priorities lie elsewhere, all the ingredients were there for an uninspiring FA Cup tie that came to life only in the final nine minutes.

During that period Robert Huth headed Stoke in front before the central defender and his team-mate Matthew Etherington tangled with Nenad Milijas to give away a penalty in injury time. The Serb picked himself up to take the spot-kick but Thomas Sorensen, who has not played in the Premier League since October, flung himself to his left to save. It was a moment that summed up Wolves’ performance on an afternoon when only 11,967 turned up.

“It strikes me that there is a lot of skint people around at the moment,” said Mick McCarthy, the Wolves manager, when it was pointed out that only 9,000 of the crowd were Wolves fans. “There are austerity measures, nobody has got any money, they’ve probably paid for their season tickets and it makes it difficult, I think, to have a game in between when we’ve got games coming up. Our supporters have been brilliant in the Premier League and maybe they just don’t see (today) as being as important as coming up against Manchester United next week.”

Although McCarthy named a strong team – he made only three changes from the side that lost to Liverpool – the corresponding fixture in the Premier League last season was a dour goalless draw when both were lucky to get nil. It looked as if that might be the case again after a soporific first half.

“There wasn’t a lot of quality in the game,” said Tony Pulis, the Stoke manager. “It was two honest teams having a go.”