Watford 2 Wolves 3 - analysis

Mick McCarthy labelled his side's defending as rubbish after this rollercoaster win.

In the muck and nettles of the Championship, it's all about the points and Wolves are back to winning ways. Saturday's victory was neither pretty, flattering or hugely deserved. But it was welcome as it was scrappy.

After 'winning ugly' against Coventry, this will go down as Wolves' most fortunate success of the season.

Watford hit the bar, missed a penalty and had two efforts kicked off the line by the superb Kevin Foley, while Hornets keeper Richard Lee was blamed for the visitors' first two goals.

At a time when Wolves have been struggling for confidence, there was a return of the belief that had underpinned and accompanied previous wins.

That belief was more evident in Wolves' celebrated "front four" – which included Michael Gray from the start for the first time in the Championship this season –than their back four.

I Watford were aggrieved at not forcing something from the game, then they were only helped into a position where they could have gleaned anything by Wolves' defensive generosity.

We're not talking about the visitors' back four here. Or keeper Carl Ikeme for that matter.

As Gray pointed out afterwards, defending starts with the strikers and the frailties underlined by 14 goals shipped in the last five games are a symptom shared by everyone.

Chris Iwelumo was bold enough to admit Watford's second goal was down to him not picking up scorer John-Joe O'Toole.

Admirable though the big Scot's honesty is, it is this sort of sloppiness which is costing Wolves goals at the moment. The Wolves manager's strongly-voiced concerns about his leaky defending appears well justified.

After all, Wolves' record of 21 goals against is the equal third worst in the Championship after Sheffield Wednesday (23) and rock bottom Nottingham Forest (22).

Thankfully, they are finding goals just as easy to come by at the other end and their tally of 31 is comfortably the best in the division. On pure statistics, Wolves look cavalier, but as the players and manager will tell you, they set out to be anything but.

McCarthy regularly organises training sessions purely with the aim of concentrating on defending as a unit, almost replica roleplays of situations just like they encountered on Saturday.

Every man knows their job and nothing is left to chance. Whatever happens on the training ground isn't being carried through to matchday at the moment.

After the horror show at Norwich four days earlier, Wolves' spirits were lifted by a show of a different kind as the players were shown a DVD of their excellent win at Ipswich in August on Friday to remind them how good they can be.

Revisiting that high octane performance at Portman Road seemed to do just the trick as Wolves rediscovered their conviction to win games. After conceding in the first six minutes of the previous three games until Tuesday, they put themselves on the front foot by grabbing the opener after 42 seconds.

There was certainly no more grateful scorer either as Iwelumo chested the ball into the empty net, before he was clattered by Lee following Sylvan Ebanks-Blake's flick-on from Ikeme's long kick.

After THAT miss, the former Charlton man was the most relieved man inside Vicarage Road, as he punched over the corner flag to celebrate his ninth goal of the season.

In this scrappiest of Championship encounters, you sensed that was never going to be end of the scoring and it was little surprise when Watford snaffled a 20th minute equaliser with an even scruffier strike.

One-time Wolves target Grzegorz Rasiak tapped home, after the luckless Ikeme spared Jason Shackell's blushes by diverting his deflection from Will Hoskins' shot against the post.

Things threatened to get worse for Wolves when Rasiak headed against the bar, before Neill Collins threw himself in front of Jon Harley's piledriver.

Wolves weren't at their best but they edged ahead again five minutes before the break, from Dave Jones' 25-yard free kick.

Struck through the eye of a needle after Leigh Brondby manhandled Iwelumo, it will go down as a nightmare for Lee, who somehow allowed the ball to squirm through him.

Any thoughts of Wolves having sewn up the points quickly unravelled within two minutes of the restart, as more catastrophic defending allowed O'Toole to stab home, after Tommy Smith's angled free kick had crashed down off the bar.

If Ikeme has largely been blameless for the 11 goals that have rattled past him in his four games, this one – after Sammy Clingan's free kick at Carrow Road – will go down as one he may be disappointed with.

McCarthy must have felt he had wasted his breath after warning his side not to concede free kicks as Collins – albeit harshly – did just that when his momentum heading away carried him into the back of Rasiak.

Worse followed as Wolves conceded the mystery 61st minute penalty for Jones' challenge on O'Toole in a crowded penalty area, Smith blazing over from the spot as the visitors' breated a sigh of relief.

In a game where mediocrity always triumphed over quality, Wolves managed to squeeze the winner through the unlikely source of Gray in the 71st minute.

At 34, the oldest man on the pitch might have thought his goalscoring days were behind him. But, on his first League start of the season, the veteran was there pelting forward to get on the end of Michael Kightly's unselfish cross to finish off his 20th strike on his 488th League appearance.

Then it became the Foley show, as the highly-prized full-back gave a one-man demonstration in the art of defending, as he cleared off the line from O'Toole and substitute Jobi McAnuff.

In contrast to Wolves' struggles over the last few weeks, Foley has come into his own and his awareness in anticipating the ball was nothing short of superb.

There was still time for substitute Dave Edwards to have an effort blocked, while Watford sub Liam Henderson somehow missed from point-blank range.

Wolves held on. That was all that mattered.