Despite the comfortable victory in the end, the game did not go all Wolves way, with the continued defensive frailties obvious to all in Molineux.  This wasn’t helped when Captain Jody Craddock was forced off with what appeared to be an injury to his knee.  Fan’s favourite Neill Collins was his replacement.  However, even when Craddock was on the pitch, Wednesday’s attack carved through us far too easily, with Esiajas shooting wide, and then Deon Burton mis-hitting an effort with just Wayne Hennessey to beat.  Wolves did not heed these warnings signs though, and Esiajas gave Wednesday the lead, wriggling past George Elokobi before beating Hennessey at his near post.  Deon Burton missed a further 2 excellent chances, Hennessey saving comfortably on both occasions, as Wednesday looked to press home their advantage.  Esiajas gave Elokobi a torrid time in the first half, before thankfully being withdrawn at half-time.  Elokobi is not a player that I particularly rate (although I am more than happy to be proved wrong), and usually makes up for his shocking lack of awareness and positional sense with his outstanding physical attributes.  Today, whether he was just plain tired following 120 minutes on Tuesday or he’s struggling to carry his excess weight he was poor in all defensive aspects for the opening half an hour.  After this though, he appeared to get to grips with Esiajas, and Wednesday’s attacking play down his wing was negated.

The rest of the defence wasn’t too much better either in the early stages.  Twice Stearman and Craddock let journeyman Deon Burton wander beyond them, and a higher class of striker would be leaving Molineux with the match ball under his arm.  On the other flank, Kevin Foley initially struggled to deal with the raw pace of Jermaine Johnson who twice drove in from the left, forcing last gasp tackles inside the penalty area.  Saying this, Foley caused as many problems going forward as Johnson did, as two excellent crosses gave Wolves their best chances of the first half.  The first, inside the opening two minutes, saw Foley whip a ball with his right foot which was met excellently by the head of Matt Jarvis.  With the net seemingly about to burst, the former England Under-21 goalkeeper Lee Grant flung himself away to his left to superbly tip the ball around the post.  The second Foley cross did lead to a goal.  This time, he chose to cut inside onto his left foot, and his floated cross was superbly met by Iwelumo to give Wolves a barely deserved equaliser.

The second half was much better, with Wolves on the attack for much of it, taking the lead after a well constructed counter-attack found Matt Jarvis bearing down on goal.  Instead of hitting the ball early on his favoured right foot, he chose to move the ball to his left, and found himself sprawling along the ground having had his heels clipped by Sean McAllister.  Sylvan Ebanks-Blake duly dispatched the penalty in front of a delighted North Bank.  The rest of the game reminded me very much of the game at Hillsborough last season, with Wolves counter attacks looking dangerous.  On the hour mark, one of these counter attacks effectively sealed the game with Iwelumo bundling in his second of the game after Jarvis/Kightly* saw their effort come back off the post.  The game should have been wrapped up far sooner than it was, with Wolves reaching the goal line in the penalty area no fewer than three times, with substitute Andy Keogh, Ebanks-Blake and Michael Kightly picking out goalkeeper Lee Camp each time.  Finally, Wolves grabbed their fourth (the first time Wolves have scored 4 in a League game at Molineux since hitting Reading for 4 in December 2004- Leon Clarke scored twice) after a long ball released David Edwards, on for Michael Kightly, to tidily slot home the ball in stoppage time.

*delete as applicable, I really can’t remember which it was

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