Wolves 3 - 2 Sunderland

Winter had most definitely arrived and three points were due for an ever unlucky hard working Wolves side, and for once we did it! Wayne Hennessey finally got a chance in goal after some disappointing performances from Marcus Hahnemann and there was a first league start for Ronald Zubar at right back, with Kevin Foley being pushed up to the right wing in place of Stephen Hunt. Other changes were Nenad Milijas in for Karl Henry & Stephen Ward for Christophe Berra with George Elokobi playing centre back.

Few clear cut chances were created in the opening 45 minutes, the best being Kevin Doyle blasting over from 12 yards and a Kieron Richardson free-kick hitting the inside of the post. The big talking point was when Richard Stearman was given offside when scoring from a corner and I can say that from seeing replays at half time he certainly wasn't and couldn't be, but in the end it didn't matter.

Ex-Manchester United trainees David Jones and Phil Bardsley do battle

Five minutes in and Wolves took the lead after Craig Gordon parried a Matt Jarvis shot straight into the path of Foley, who smashed home with his left foot to make it 1-0. For some reason we decided to sit back and let Sunderland pile on the pressure & not long after a knock on from the substitute Asamoah Gyan fell onto Darren Bent to equalize. The game was back and forth from here until the end and next goal went to the visitors again with Danny Welbeck heading home with 13 minutes to go and quite a lot of the home fans leaving thinking 'here we go again'. Now I'm not that stupid and my patience was rewarded in the final 10 minutes, first off Hunt scored from another Gordon save off a Elokobi header then super-sub Sylvan Ebanks-Blake got the winner with a great strike from a Doyle knock on, sending the crowd home happy for once.

Our defence still looked shaky (missing the experience of Jody Craddock), Hennessey couldn't do anything about the two well taken goals and had a decent game, Zubar didn't look like he'd been out two months at all, man of the match for me. Milijas & Jarvis yet again were superb in midfield and Doyle played well on his own but the subs were the difference today.

With West Ham winning as well this was vital to keep us close to the pack above, surely its a sign of our luck changing?

'Geesus'

LINE-UPS

WOLVES (4-5-1): Hennessey; Zubar, Stearman, Elokobi, Ward; Foley (c), Mancienne (Ebanks-Blake 80), Jones (Hunt 63), Milijas, Jarvis; Doyle. Unused subs: Hahnemann, van Damme, Fletcher, Bent, Davis. Booked: Ward, Elokobi

SUNDERLAND (4-4-2): Gordon; Onuoha, Ferdinand, Mensah (Elmohamady 83), Bardsley; Richardson, Henderson (Malbranque 55), Cattermole (c), Zenden (Gyan 55); Bent, Welbeck. Unused subs: Mignolet, Angeleri, Da Silva, Riveros. Booked: Mensah, Richardson, Cattermole

STATS (courtesy of Daily Telegraph)

SHOTS ON TARGET (OFF TARGET): Wolves 7 (7) - (5) 6 Sunderland

CORNERS: Wolves 11 - 5 Sunderland

FOULS: Wolves 11- 10 Sunderland

POSSESSION: Wolves 54% - 46% Sunderland

REFEREE: Michael Jones



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