Wolves 52 Lakeside 41

Sometimes they do so and you stuff it back in their face. That perhaps, will be Wolves in 2009.

Because make no mistake, last night's first league match of the season could very easily have gone the way of the fast-starting Hammers.

Six points up after five races, sharp from the starts and eager in the cut-and-thrust first turns, Lakeside looked every inch the team that won both last season's Monmore league matches, with Jonas Davidsson extraordinarily quick right from his heat one win over home skipper Peter Karlsson.

Wolves, in contrast, were left to bemoan their luck. Number eight Joe Haines, in a sprightly debut, led heat two only for mechanical failure to bring him to a halt.

Adam Skornicki's misfortunes had struck before a wheel had turned, as the van carrying all his gear was snarled up on the M6.

Consequently the genial Pole turned out for his first two races in Karlsson's kevlars, on Ty Proctor's bike and with his feet ensconced in the boots and steel shoe of mascot Cameron Hoskins.

Unsurprisingly, Skornicki could not trouble the scorer in those early heats and the Parrys International Wolves got another slap in the face in heat six, when the visitors' Kauko Nieminen hit the deck in a tightly-contested first turn as Karlsson brilliantly squirmed around him.

The pass looked clean, Nieminen's fall unfortunate but unaided – however, referee Margaret Vardy took the safe option and called all four back for the rerun.

That would have heralded an implosion in the home ranks last season. But here Karlsson nailed the start and Nicolai Klindt, building form and confidence, joined him at the front.

The resultant 5-1 switched the momentum and suddenly it was Wolves who were starting to push.

The Lakeside team – resplendent in their retro claret and blue – has been built as a solid one to seven unit with every rider capable of popping up with a win.

That was underlined as unexpected wins for Stuart Robson and Nieminen maintained a perilous grasp on their two-point advantage.

But where there is solidity there will also be a lack of out-and-out top-class strength – and as the match wore on it became clear that Karlsson and Fredrik Lindgren would have the last words.

Inexorably, Wolves moved ahead, Klindt conjuring up a stunning pass between Richardson and Kylmakorpi in heat 10 to join Karlsson at the front and Tai Woffinden beating Lee Richardson two races later, to make up for just missing out on the verdict in a headlong sprint for the line in their earlier clash.

Haines was unfortunate in the 11th. His terrier-like pursuit of Hammers number one Adam Shields nearly came to an abrupt end as the Aussie suffered sudden machine failure right in his path.

He somehow swerved between rider and fence without hitting either but, at such a cost, in momentum that Davidsson was able to pass.

Lindgren had been winning his races by the kind of margin that all but placed him in the next post code.

But he was made to work in the 13th, driving fast and high round Shields on the third bend. The Aussie declined to yield easily, moving over hard but fairly and leaving the kind of rapidly diminishing racing gap that asks all the key questions of a rider's ability and courage.

Lindgren, not short in either department, kept it wound on to go clear and there was an added bonus as Shields' attempt to cover the move left the way clear for Karlsson to come through on the inside.

While Kylmakorpi won his double-point tactical ride in the penultimate race, Skornicki and the admirable Proctor limited the damage by keeping Robson at the back and Wolves were seven up with one heat to go.

Under the Elite League's new scoring system they needed at least to retain that advantage to take all three points on offer.

With Lindgren and Karlsson the nominated pair there was never any doubt, fast Freddie duly completing a 15-point full house in another maximum heat win.

Wolves are up and running.