What you may not realise that our next game after that was away at Derby.  A 4-1 win that day sent us to the top of the Championship, a position we have not regained until today. Spooky?

Today, it was a goal from a former Derby player that set Wolves going.  After Forest had probably just about edged the opening 10 minutes, David Jones picked the ball up in the centre of midfield, and his guided effort nestled in the Forest net for his first goal in a Wolves shirt.  This settled Wolves down, and from then on, (with the exception of the very start of the second half) Wolves were in complete control.  Chris Iwelumo then went close following a Michael Kightly cross, before Wolves scored a fluky second, with Jones again at the centre of it.  He swung a left footed free kick in from the right, one that Paul Smith could only punch against Wes Morgan, and the ball trickled into the Forest goal.

Wolves were now completely dominant, both in terms of quality and work-rate, with both Kightly down the right and Matt Jarvis down the left causing the Forest defence all sorts of problems.  The lead was nearly extended when Kightly smashes a terrific strike from distance against the crossbar, with Smith completely beaten.  Forest obviously didn’t pay attention to this warning, and within 10 minutes, Kightly tried his luck again.  This time his effort flew in to the top corner to put Wolves 3 goals to the good before half time.   Not that this was the end of the first half action, as in the closing stages Jarvis got free down the left, and found Iwelumo at the near post to finish tidily.

The opening to the second half was shocking though, and Forest quickly grabbed a goal back with a goal eerily similar to Wolves second.  Again it was a free-kick into the box, again the goalkeeper could only punch and again the ball ricocheted into the defending team’s goal.  Within 10 minutes however, Wolves were again 4 goals up, this time Kightly wriggling past 2 defenders before bending a lovely left footed effort past the despairing Paul Smith.  That was the end of the goals for today, with Wolves coming closest to grabbing another- Smith with what appeared to be a wonder save from point blank after substitute Andy Keogh had set up Iwelumo.

All together, this was an excellent performance from Wolves, from defence right through to the attack.  Neill Collins and Richard Stearman continue to look like a potentially excellent centre-half pairing, with Stephen Ward playing surprisingly well at left back.  And going forward, at times we were awesome.  If West Brom were the supposed ‘Arsenal of the Championship’ last season, then on this showing, we are already laying a claim to be called the ‘Man United of the Championship’ due to some superb fast paced football.  It is worth noting that we’ve now scored 13 goals in our opening 4 games- it took until 29^th September last season for us to hit double figures, and until 20^th October for us to score 13.  Oh and finally, it is refreshing to come out of a win without losing one of our defenders to injury!  This is the first time we’ve been top in 6 years- let’s not leave it so long next time eh?

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