Wolves v Southampton: FA Cup fifth round – live!

21 min: Fine Saints interplay ends with Djenepo not quite getting hold of of an effort from 18 yards, the ball bobbling up to Ruddy. Saints are the better side here without *quite* managing to turn that into a really threatening effort on goal.

19 min: Armstrong leads a counter before laying in Redmond, who tries to play Ings through but sees a defender nip in. Then Armstrong sees another effort deflect wide. Ward-Prowse’s corner is well short of his usual standards.

17 min: Moutinho is down after Bednarek barges him in the back. I think he’ll soldier on.

14 min: Salisu, the debutant, heads away a Gibbs-White cross after decent work from Neves and Hoever. Then Hoever aims a cross in for Silva, but Bednarek intervenes. Better from the hosts.

12 min: Saiss again is sharp to block Ings’ attempt to slide home a Redmond pass. Wolves try to break but are struggling to get much going just now. Southampton’s tempo is something of a piece with their old selves.

9 min: Ings takes the ball down *exquisitely* in the box in mid-air and is in, but Saiss gets across to block bravely. A fourth Saints corner is then defended. The visitors, at fuller strength perhaps, are making all the early running.

7 min: It’s another corner for the visitors though, and it’s half-cleared to Bertrand … who swings and misses his kick from 12 yards! A subsequent Armstrong drive is blocked for a third corner, and Ruddy gets lucky here – it’s played to Armstrong, who shoots again and sees it fumbled by the keeper. Ruddy just dives upon it before Ings can pounce.

5 min: Saints show first, with a left-sided corner after bright work from Redmond. There is some jostling in the box so Romeu gets a talking to. Then it’s finally taken but Ruddy bats Ward-Prowse’s inswinger away.

3 min: We await some action. On paper you’d fancy, or fear, extra time in this one. Am I being a cynic?

The Saints, garbed in all white, kick us off and go left to right.

I do like Molineux. A proper old city-centre arena. I’ve covered a few games there in the Covid times and you really do feel the absence of fans all the more at stadiums like that one.

The players will shortly be striding out at Molineux … let’s hope it’s shackles off and an early evening show for all of us. Don’t forget Barnsley host Chelsea after this one!

Fair to say Nuno is prioritising the league game even though Wolves are 12 points clear of the drop and 12 points off sixth place.

More fun while-u-wait – today’s Football Weekly Extraaaaaaaa!

If you want something more exotic than – or with – this, Scott Murray has the Club World Cup final for you:

For Wolves, a bit of a perk-up recently after some grim form – they beat Arsenal, albeit a touch fortunately, last week and then held Leicester. They’ll need to be on better form today than when they squeezed past little Chorley in the last round though.

I wonder if there’s just a little extra something on this game for Southampton. They have lost four in a row and the third of those, of course, was the 9-0 shellacking at Old Trafford. Any kind of win at a tough venue like this could transform everything, restore them to their bright & breezy best and leave them feeling good about themselves again.

More FA Cup fifth round action! And what do we have here – Man Utd v West Ham, Everton v Spurs or something very much inbetween?

Let’s hope entertainment levels are closer to the latter. Both Wolves and Saints, mid-table in the league and feeling a little bit less perky than their best selves, may as well give the cup a decent shot – until Man City storm in and blow everyone away, anyhow. Not much need for caginess at Molineux, so let’s hope they go for it.

Unless they fancy a bit of shadow boxing, of course, because they meet at St Mary’s on Sunday. Saints had a similar situation when they faced Arsenal in the last round, winning in the cup before getting turned over in the league. Once bitten, twice shy?

We will soon find out – stay with us ahead of kick-off, and get your tweets and emails in as ever!