Wolves 3 Derby 0 - analysis

That's the 50 up then. Points that is. But hitting the half century mark of goals is just around the corner too as this season of abundance for Wolves shows no sign of letting up.

Derby County were swept aside at Molineux last night by two more from Sylvan Ebanks-Blake, sandwiching a thoroughly-deserved David Edwards effort to leave Mick McCarthy's team with better vital statistics than Beyonce while striking just as successful a groove in their goal-filled football.

Incredibly Wolves are on course to out-Albion the Baggies, last season's Championship darlings and the fact that they might not yet be enjoying the same critical acclaim cuts no ice in their camp.

Their figures, instead, say all that is required. Just one game short of the half-way mark, Wolves will score 100 goals and pass 100 points if they repeat over the second half of the season what they have done over the first.

That will make mighty demands of their consistency but this comprehensive victory was another powerful statement of intent from within the Wolves dressing room. As the players made clear afterwards, nothing, not the pressure from behind being applied by Birmingham City and Reading, nor the hiccup of that defeat at QPR after such a sustained run of victories, is going to deflect them from their course.

This single-minded, business-like purpose must be hugely encouraging to supporters who are, by nature and experience, happily pessimistic. Scarred by so many disappointments in the previous 20 years, they are reluctant to dream for fear of another drenching in despair at the end of the road.

But even they will be getting twitchy with excitement now. Every time McCarthy's 2008-09 model has run into trouble this season, it has come storming out the other side, still bang on course and with its vital components intact. So much so that the fans must surely be daring to believe again.

True, it would have been nice for this telling Wolves performance to have put a little more daylight between themselves and their persistent pursuers but Blues and Reading refused to yield with their own victories last night.

But you sense this matters not – at least not at the moment – to this flourishing young group of players. It's on to Barnsley, Saturday's visitors to Molineux, where two more goals can take their tally to 50. Wolves won't care about that, though; three points will be all that matters. Nevertheless, it is a team which continues to carry the most destructive goal threat in the division. So much so that it could absorb the loss of top scorer Chris Iwelumo here without missing a beat.

Not only did Sylvan Ebanks-Blake take up the slack but there was a stand-out performance – one of several in fact – from Andy Keogh as he eagerly seized the chance to fill his old position at the head of the line.

And this was the Keogh of old too – or rather the centre-forward who arrived from Scunthorpe nearly two years ago and injected Wolves with such attacking momentum they came from nowhere to reach the play-off semi-finals. He's had his struggles since then as lost form, aggravated by positional switches he has taken on uncomplainingly, took its toll. But he was much more like his former self last night, never more obvious than when he set up Wolves' third goal after refusing to allow Derby's back-line a moment's rest.

For raw finishing power, however, Keogh would give way to Ebanks-Blake. His two in this game took him to 14 for the season and 26 in just 41 appearances for Wolves since arriving the January after the Irishman. Wolves will play good, not-so-good, indifferently and perhaps badly at various stages in their remaining games but while they have that kind of marksmanship within their numbers, they will take some stopping.

This victory was given a leg-up, it must be said, by a penalty awarded after just 55 seconds for a handball against Derby defender Darren Powell as he challenged with Keogh. Referee Grant Hegley's call was tough on the visitors but a bonus for Wolves and gave Ebanks-Blake an opportunity to show the steely mind which is such a vital element in a goalscorer's make-up.

Would that fluffed header at Loftus Road be troubling him still? Would it heck. The spot-kick was dispatched with a certainty which would spread through Wolves game as they first had to concentrate in fending off Derby's spirited response.

This they completed thanks to two key factors. First, Argentinian Emanuel Villa could not dig out his team's one half-opening as the ball got under his feet and second, Michael Mancienne. The loaned defender served notice of the outstanding performance he would go on to complete in this one sequence of the match when Wolves were under pressure with a string of pacey interceptions, tackles and clearances. Then it was time for another key ingredient to make its presence felt.

As Edwards and Karl Henry began to establish control, so Michael Kightly got the chance to take Wolves forward with verve and penetration, setting up Ebanks-Blake with one wonderful burst to the by-line for a shot which thudded Stephen Bywater's left-hand post before chipping over the cross from which Edwards claimed his goal with a well-placed cross-shot on 40 minutes.

It then needed only one more key intervention from Kightly to finish the contest as he burst forward on the hour and executed a sweeping forward pass which identified Keogh's undetected run through Derby's stretched defence.

Although his shot was saved by Bywater, the keeper could only parry the ball back to Keogh who intelligently picked out Ebanks-Blake with a pass. And that was that – despite minimum backlift, his right-foot finish had too much power for the spread-eagled defenders attempting to protect the goal-line.

The final third of the match was best summed up by the South Bank, who frequently asked the Derby fans if they did not have homes to go to. At least I think that's what they meant. McCarthy, meanwhile, ran through his substitutions while basking in the satisfaction of an excellent debut from Matt Hill at left-back.

He has a squad which can handle injuries and make an impact from the bench; he has Matt Jarvis up his sleeve, Iwelumo to return, back-up both experienced and youthful, proven and promising. He has points on the board and goals in the locker. He pretty much has it all.

And that includes an increasing confidence that his players are going to deliver.

By Martin Swain.