WE all know football can be a cruel sport – and last Sunday we got the full force of a proverbial kick in the you-know-whats.

I should say straight off that I do think it is a penalty so this isn’t going to turn into a piece slagging off VAR and the ref.

But to concede a penalty so late in the game was hard to take, especially given how well we’d played.

Wolves came into the game on the back of a trip to Turin for the Europa League and perhaps didn’t turn in a vintage performance by their standards.

But, that said, I think a lot of the reason for their relatively poor showing was just how good we were.

The energy on and off the ball was back to the intensity of two years ago and Jack Cork and Ashley Westwood, I thought, were superb in the middle of the park.

Ashley Barnes continued his incredible start to the season with a stunner and in reality the game probably should have been out of sight by half time.

I did wonder whether one goal would be enough and unfortunately the fact we sat back and invited the pressure meant that it wasn’t.

I do think at times we sit back a bit late in games and that for me is always a bit of a risk.

I’m not being critical at all there but we do concede late goals and we could perhaps be a little better at the game management deep into matches.

All in all though, I’d have happily taken a point before kick-off and that’s what we got.

It just doesn’t stop you being disappointed we didn’t get more from the game!

The less I say about the Sunderland game in the League Cup on Wednesday the better; this is a family newspaper after all.

But I would just point out that if players aren’t getting game time, they really need to step up to the plate when they have an opportunity.

A spell in the first half aside, I’m not sure many will have forced themselves into Sean Dyche’s plans for the weekend.

This Saturday’s tea-time kick-off against Liverpool should be a cracker.

They’ve started the season strongly and look, again, like real title contenders.

But we like an upset and have taken plenty of big scalps at the Turf before.

Don’t bet against us getting one over the European champs this weekend!