Wolves U23s were in action last night, and beat Reading in a 4-3 thriller at Aggborough.
Chem Campbell was the star of the show, hitting a hat-trick, while summer signing Yerson Mosquera played and scored his first goal.
James Collins’ youngster continued their unbeaten start to 2022 with the result. They have moved up to eighth place in the Division 2 table.
They are level on points with Aston Villa, but have a couple of games in hand.
It’s all very tight, with Wolves actually only three points behind Norwich City in second.
Last night, Collins named quite a strong team that included some players who are on the first-team periphery.
Luke Cundle started, as did Mosquera and Toti Gomes, who recently covered the absence of Romain Saiss for Bruno Lage.
There was also a start for Chiquinho, who has ended up missing out on the last couple of first-team squads following the return to fitness of Pedro Neto.
It was a good chance for the January to get some match action, and it was an impressive outing by the 22-year-old.
The club’s official match report noted how the former Estoril ace was ‘proving to be a handful’ for Reading. And there was one particularly exhilarating moment from him.
In the 87th minute, he latched on to the ball from a Reading throw-in in their attacking third,and proceeded to carry the ball at pace all the way to the Royals’ penalty area.
It looked as though he was going to score an amazing goal. But a defender got back in and just gave him a little nudge to prevent him shooting.
There was potential for a penalty to be awarded, but the referee was unmoved.
Wolves look to have landed an exciting talent in Chiquinho
It was a great piece of play from Chiquinho, and something definitely right out of the Adama Traore textbook.
Chiquinho looks to be a vibrant player who enjoys carrying the ball and using his dribbling to beat players.
He’ll probably have to be quite patient to have regularly first-team involvement.
Bruno Lage now has a plethora of options to use on the wings so it could be that we don’t see much of Chiquinho in the first-team for a little while.
But it’s good to see him playing with confidence with the U23s.