Raul Jimenez Leads Wolves to Late Victory Over Sheffield United
Raul Jimenez stepped off the bench and ripped up the script at Bramall Lane, smashing home a 90th-minute winner to drag Wolves past Sheffield United in a tight, tense 1-0 victory.
One swing of his right boot. One roar from the away end. One game decided.
A slow burner that exploded late
For long spells this never looked like a contest destined for late drama. The numbers told the story early on: Sheffield United had just two touches in the Wolves box in the first half and scraped together 0.06 expected goals. At home. Under the lights. In front of a crowd waiting for the usual chaos.
They never really got it.
Chris Wilder’s side came into the night with a remarkable run behind them – they had both scored and conceded in 14 of their last 15 Championship games at Bramall Lane. The place normally guarantees goals. This time, the pattern snapped.
Wolves were the more assertive side without ever turning that into a barrage. Marshall Munetsi carried the main threat before the break, meeting a Rodrigo Gomes cross on 19 minutes with a fierce first-time strike that was straight at Michael Cooper. It was a warning, not a breakthrough.
Tommy Doyle probed. Hugo Bueno buzzed around the edge of the area. But clear chances? Rare.
The handball that lit the touchpaper
The game’s biggest flashpoint arrived five minutes after the restart.
Mateus Mane flicked the ball towards goal. Mark McGuinness’ arm was out, the ball struck it and spun behind. Wolves players appealed, away fans howled. Referee Rob Jones pointed to the corner flag.
No penalty. No VAR. Just anger.
On Sky Sports, Gary Rowett did not mince his words. “His arm comes out, it hits him on the end of the arm. I think Sheffield United have probably got away with one there,” he said from the gantry, summing up the sense of injustice.
The controversy jolted the game. Bueno soon curled one just wide from the edge of the box. Ladislav Krejci flirted with a red card when he hauled down Sydie Peck on the hour but escaped with a reprieve. The tension, though, was building.
Ayew’s almost-perfect debut
Just as Wolves seemed to be tightening their grip, Sheffield United finally bared their teeth.
Jordan Ayew, on debut, cut in from the right and drove at the heart of the box. He whipped a vicious cross-shot across the face of goal and inches past the far post on 67 minutes. For a split second Bramall Lane held its breath, expecting the net to bulge.
It never did. That moment – the one that might have belonged to Wilder’s new man – slipped away.
From there, United’s attacking threat faded again. Wolves, as Cesar Peixoto would later point out, largely kept them at arm’s length. Cooper barely had a serious save to make all night.
Jimenez, the captain who waited
Peixoto had kept Raul Jimenez in reserve. At 35, and with three games in a week, Wolves’ head coach knew he had to ration his captain’s minutes. But he also knew exactly what the Mexican still brings when the game tightens and legs tire.
“Today, the team was a team for 90 minutes,” Peixoto said afterwards. “It was important the guys who came from the bench pushed in the last minutes to try to score. We scored and we won.
“He’s 35 years old, so we have to manage him the best way. He’s a key player for us… Raul, as a captain, helped the team from the bench, not only with the goal he scored, but he helped to defend the set-pieces.”
The plan worked to perfection.
As the clock ticked into the final minute, Wolves finally stitched together the move they had been searching for all night. Andre found Kieran Trippier, Trippier shifted it smartly into Doyle, and Doyle slid the decisive pass into Jimenez.
One touch. Low, clinical, ruthless from close range. His third goal of the season. The away end erupted, yellow shirts piling towards the corner flag as Bramall Lane fell flat.
Wilder’s frustration, Peixoto’s statement
Wilder could only reflect on a familiar Championship lesson.
“It’s top-end Championship football when you’re playing teams like we have done today,” he told Sky Sports. “They punish you if you just switch off for a moment.
“The players maybe didn’t get what they deserved from the game, but that’s how the Championship is at times, so we have to roll with that and handle it.
“Especially in the second half, we limited a very attacking team to virtually nothing. I don’t think Michael [Cooper] had a save to make. It’s just disappointing, with the positions we’ve got into, that we’ve not found that little bit of quality to get our noses in front.”
He had a point about the margins. But the scoreboard told its own truth.
Peixoto, by contrast, left with exactly what he wanted: a hard-earned away win, a clean sheet, and proof that his bench can change games.
“I think we deserved it because we were the better team, but it was a difficult game for us,” he said. Difficult, yes. Decided by experience and one cold finish, absolutely.
On a night when Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane goal-fest streak finally died, Jimenez made sure Wolves walked away with more than just a statistical quirk. The question now is whether this feels like a single smash-and-grab – or the moment Wolves show they can grind, suffer, and still strike late in a promotion race that rarely forgives anyone who switches off.
