Wolves 1 Cardiff 3 - Report and pictures
On the day that Steve Morgan returned to Molineux, a timely reminder of the Wolves of summer in 2015.
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Three goals, admittedly of excellent quality, were leaked as a run of four successive league wins was abruptly halted by Russell Slade's clinical Cardiff City.
Morgan, as one Twitter wag remarked, must be a glory hunter, having ended his self-imposed four-month absence from Wolves matches by surprisingly taking his place in the directors' box.
But he witnessed a similar result, if not an entirely similar performance, to the ones Wolves were getting used to when he so dramatically put the club up for sale last September.
Talk about coming back down to earth with a bump. Wolves were outdone by three wondergoals, two from the left boot of Craig Noone who fired the visitors into a 2-0 lead.
Kenny Jackett's team rallied, and more than earned the goal before half time which reduced the deficit, Michal Zyro's third in two matches.
But a third Cardiff goal just after half time, this time from Joe Ralls, killed Wolves.
Wolves (4-4-2): Ikeme; Iorfa, Batth (c), Ebanks-Landell, Doherty; Coady (Henry, 45), McDonald, Edwards, Graham (Enobakhare, 65); Van La Parra, Zyro.
Subs: Martinez, Golbourne, Saville, Price, Byrne.
Goal: Zyro (40)
Cardiff (4-5-1): Marshall (c); Peltier, Manga, Connolly, Malone; Noone, O'Keefe, Whittingham (Fabio, 86), Ralls, Pilkington; Mason (Dikcagoi, 75).
Subs: Moore, Kennedy, Ameobi, Revell, Macheda.
Goals: Noone (28, 36), Ralls (48)
Referee: Dean Whitestone (Northamptonshire)
Attendance: 24,238 (1,057 Cardiff fans)[/breakout]
Despite a belated response later in the half, they barely forced goalkeeper David Marshall into a save as most of Molineux's largest crowd of the season went home disappointed.
Unsurprisingly, Jackett stuck with the same starting line-up which had beaten Fulham 3-2 at Molineux on Tuesday.
There was a change on the bench, though, with young striker Bright Enobakhare replacing the ineligible Adam Le Fondre for his first first-team involvement since going AWOL last year.
Morgan attended his first game since visiting Deepdale for Wolves' 1-1 draw at Preston, where he was confronted by angry fans at full time and resigned 48 hours later.
He was certainly entertained in a breathless first-half, which saw both sides go on the attack and have no fewer than nine shots each.
Jordan Graham was involved in most of Wolves' early play, sending a cross to Conor Coady who nodded onto the roof of the net, and then curling a long-range effort over the bar.
Van La Parra unwisely went for goal from an improbably tight angle, with Zyro well-placed for a cross.
Wolves picked up where they left off against Fulham, playing some positive, occasionally free-flowing football.
But Cardiff, utilising a rarely-seen 4-5-1 formation under Russell Slade, began to see plenty of the ball in the Wolves third of the field.
They went close to breaking the deadlock when Joe Ralls' effort was deflected and flew just wide.
Then Stuart O'Keefe played his way into the box, combining with Peter Whittingham and Joe Mason, before opening up his body and curling an excellent effort off the crossbar.
It was a warning sign, but one Wolves didn't heed, as on 28 minutes they were behind to the first of two Noone wonder strikes.
He let fly from all of 25 yards and the ball crashed into the net past a flailing Carl Ikeme in the Wolves goal.
Wolves responded well and, just past the half hour, they bombarded the Cardiff box with a succession of crosses.
One of which rolled just behind Ethan Ebanks-Landell, before Graham and Kevin McDonald had shots blocked.
Coady then sent Van La Parra racing through on goal - he held off Bruno Manga and hit his shot low and true from the right of the box, but it flashed wide.
Just a minute later, Cardiff doubled their lead. Batth stood off Noone who drifted inside from the right and curled a beauty into the far corner, giving Ikeme no chance.
It was a stunning goal in more ways than one, with most of Molineux dumbfounded as to how Wolves were 2-0 down.
But, unlike at earlier moments this season, they reacted to adversity in exactly the right manner and soon halved the deficit.
Van La Parra curled a shot goalward and David Marshall poorly palmed it straight to Zyro who couldn't miss from six yards.
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It was the least Wolves deserved in what had been an excellent advert for the Championship in the first-half.
Jackett changed things up at the break, sending on James Henry in place of Conor Coady to give Wolves more width on the right flank.
The home fans will have been looking forward to a barnstorming comeback, and an early Zyro cross which just evaded van La Parra suggested as much
On 48 minutes though Cardiff again silenced most of Molineux with another long-range shot.
Noone was shown inside by Doherty and played to Ralls, who drilled into the corner from 20 yards to make it 3-1 to the jubilant visitors.
It was a great hit but again questions could be asked about Wolves' inability to close the ball down.
The same happened on the hour mark, with Anthony Pilkington trying his luck this time, but the ball drifted over.
Wolves were struggling to engineer any momentum, with Marshall having precious little to do in the Cardiff goal.
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Their afternoon went from bad to worse when Graham, while blocking the ball at close range, went down in some pain having appeared to pull a muscle.
He was stretchered off, with Enobakhare his replacement to make his first Molineux Championship appearance.
The change injected energy into the Wolves attack and Enobakhare soon combined well with van La Parra to finally put some pressure on the Cardiff defence, although successive crosses were cleared.
Zyro blazed a free kick over the bar when he had six team mates to aim for a cross with.
Then, with 14 minutes to go, came a great opportunity to pull one back but Zyro, Enobakhare and Van La Parra watched as Henry's cross rolled along the six yard box, silently screaming for a tap-in.
The lively Enobakhare saw shots deflected wide and blocked, before Ebanks-Landell headed over the bar as Wolves pushed for a second goal.
But, in the final 10 minutes Cardiff shut up shop, killing the game, with Marshall a spectator for much of the closing stages.
