LAST UPDATE | 15 Oct 2022

IRELAND U21 MIDFIELDER Joe Hodge made a late cameo off the bench for his home debut as managerless Wolves moved out of the bottom three with a 1-0 win over Nottingham Forest.

Meanwhile, Aleksandar Mitrovic scored a second-half equaliser as Fulham twice came from behind to secure a point in a 2-2 draw against Bournemouth, while Leicester were held to a 0-0 draw by Crystal Palace.

At Molineux, Jose Sa continued to shrug off a broken wrist to become Wolves’ penalty hero and plunge Forest into deeper trouble.

The goalkeeper has been playing with the injury since the second game of the season but saved Brennan Johnson’s late spot kick.

Ruben Neves needed a controversial penalty to score what was just the hosts’ fourth goal of the season, securing a basement battle win and breathing fresh life into their survival hopes.

Referee Thomas Bramall eventually awarded a second-half spot kick for Harry Toffolo’s handball following a four-minute VAR delay.

Despite the contentious nature of the winner, Wolves deserved the points. Forest, who remain bottom of the Premier League, were left fuming but can have few complaints after an insipid performance which any leveller would have masked.

The hosts were in the ascendancy when finally broke the deadlock after 56 minutes.

Traore cut in from the right and his shot deflected behind after striking Toffolo’s arm. VAR official Lee Mason checked the incident but failed to make up his mind before passing the decision on to Bramall.

He then watched several replays before awarding the penalty – four minutes after the initial incident – which Neves emphatically buried.

Lifted, Wolves tried to find a killer second but needed Sa to be the hero 11 minutes from the end.

Again VAR intervened with Bramall eventually going to the monitor to rule Matheus Nunes had tugged back Ryan Yates.

But Sa, who has been nursing his injury since August, went to his left to save Johnson’s spot kick.

Hodge, who made his Premier League debut in the 3-0 defeat to Chelsea, was introduced in the 90th minute and picked up a yellow card in the almost ten minutes of stoppage time which was added on.

At Craven Cottage, Mitrovic scored his seventh goal of the season — but his first since 3 September — to earn Fulham a deserved 2-2 draw at home to Bournemouth.

Bournemouth had taken the lead through Dominic Solanke with the first attack of the match, before Fulham levelled matters through summer signing Issa Diop.

The Cherries then retook the lead in the first half through Jefferson Lerma as the hosts struggled to contain caretaker manager Gary O’Neil’s side’s counter-attacking threat.

Mitrovic levelled from the penalty spot on 52 minutes, and although Fulham had all the possession and chances in the final 20 minutes, they were unable to break through the Bournemouth defence for a third time.

With their first attack of the match, the visitors took the lead at Craven Cottage, with Solanke firing his side into the lead. The Cherries forward was played in by a Philip Billing cut-back after Fulham were unable to deal with the move which started in the visitors’ half.

In the 22nd minute, Fulham found a way through the Bournemouth defence with Diop rewarding Silva for his selection in the starting line-up. The defender beat his marker to the ball to head home from a Pereira corner and level the match on his 100th Premier League start, and his first home start for the Cottagers.

The score did not remain level for long however, with Lerma restoring the visitors’ advantage before the half-hour mark. The ball was played to an unmarked Lerma on the edge of the box by Solanke and he made no mistake, slotting the ball past Bernd Leno.

Seven minutes after the restart, Mitrovic was awarded a spot-kick after being brought down by Lerma.

The Fulham number nine then sent Neto the wrong way to score Fulham’s 10th home goal of the season, one more than the complete 2020-21 season at Craven Cottage.

In the lunchtime kick-off, James Maddison missed the chance to make a lasting impression on England boss Gareth Southgate as Leicester were held to a 0-0 draw by Crystal Palace.

Maddison has been vocal in his desire to go to the World Cup and Southgate was in attendance at the King Power Stadium less than a week before he names his provisional squad for next month’s tournament.

The 25-year-old Maddison was heavily involved in the Foxes play, but missed two decent opportunities, was not at his creative best and was also booked for diving in the lunchtime stalemate, meaning he will miss the midweek game with Leeds.

Maddison can now only wait nervously to see whether Southgate will take a punt on him, but he remains an outsider to be in Qatar.

Not many people will remember this game for long, where some Leicester fans chanted for under-pressure boss Brendan Rodgers to be sacked.

The Foxes had the better of it but were unable to make a breakthrough and will view this a missed opportunity to get three points on the board as they remain in the bottom three after 10 games.

Palace were not at their best going forward and mustered just one shot on target in a forgettable affair.