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after last week's win over their other great rival, aston villa, just about guaranteed PREMIER LEAGUE football at the hawthorns again next season, this was always going to be made all the tougher a fixture for it. it would be easy to make excuses for this one and even be somewhat cynical, but the baggies played poorly in the first half and conceded early goals on a pair of corner-kicks leaving them 2-0 down within the first half-an-hour. despite rallying and creating several good scoring chances in the second half, it was an insurmountable score-line and wolves' goalie, wayne hennesy, made several key saves that put the issue beyond doubt.
to be fair, the baggies were fielding a squad desperately depleted through injury (as well as paul scharner's single match suspension) and in no need of taking chances or any undue gambles. three key players needed for defending corner-kicks - a particular and conspicuous weakness for the baggies this season - were missing from the line-up, in the likes of paul scharner, chris brunt and steven reid. it almost felt like the fulham away game all over again.
while referee mike dean called a pretty fair game over-all, he was intent on awarding wolves everything in the first few minutes, and didn't look like he would be comfortable until they had a good crack at goal. a second of two fairly soft fouls on the edge of the albion penalty area saw scott carson at full stretch to palm away jamie o'hara's dangerous free-kick. it was on the resulting corner-kick that wolves took the lead.
steven hunt's delivery was well put into a dangerous area and the albion defenders were largely left watching as the ball broke for wolves' front-man, steven fletcher who duly smashed it past a flailing scott carson.
with less than half-an-hour gone, wolves again took advantage of the albion's poor defending on corner-kicks when a similar goal was scored by french midlfielder, adlene guedioura. again wolves lost their markers and terrorized the west brom goal with a largely unchallenged aerial assault which saw guedioura head the ball home for a two-goal lead.
a third goal early in the second-half through a technical error by abdoulaye meite put the game beyond the baggies despite getting a goal back through a peter odemwingie penalty which kicked off the threat of a west brom comeback. at the end of the day, though, it was wolves who both wanted and needed this game more than the baggies did.
i'm sure that roy hodgson learnt a few things about the character of some of his individual players today. abdoulaye meite mis-controlled a routine ball that allowed steven fletcher an easy opportunity to score wolves' third goal. on the back of his unfortunate own-goal against the villa, the technically gifted centre-back - who has otherwise been in sterling form since his re-introduction to the first team - is sometimes prone to mistakes of the most basic nature. likewise, somen tchoyi who is another technically good player, has no idea how to pass a football, and one has to hope he is able to create direct opportunities on goal otherwise his time on the ball can be largely wasted.
simon cox continued to impress and was unlucky not to score. the young striker, who has found a place as a starter in the first team since roy hodgson taking over, looked sure to score only to see his effort saved by a superb reaction from wayne hennessy. somen tchoyi also should have had a goal, but put his opportunity at a free header just inches over the crossbar; while jerome thomas, exhibiting a superb piece of individual skill, sent a screaming shot spinning skyward off the woodwork with an effort that had wayne hennesy well beaten.
it was a rare win for wolves in the black country derby who have been decidedly second-best in games with the albion over the last decade. they were due for the win, wanted it more and needed it to continue their bid for top-flight survival.
it's going to go down to last day. wolves are going to need at least one more win and hope results in other games go their way in order to survive. at the moment, they look like finishing ahead of west ham, wigan, blackpool and birmingham, but you never know what the last two matches will bring, and goal difference is looking like it might come into play in deciding the final relegation places.
i think we all probably want to see the black country derby again next year, and will be hoping that wolves survive for that very reason.
meanwhile, and in all likelihood, the baggies will go into the last day contesting an 11th or 12th place finish with newcastle united away at st. james park.
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