Analysis of Portsmouth 3 Wolves 1

We've had the party and now we've had the hangover.

Maintaining the same levels after a week drenched in euphoria was always going to be difficult once safety was assured. And so it proved at Fratton Park.

Boss Mick McCarthy admitted the jolt caused by this defeat, the first Wolves have suffered since Arsenal, will hopefully be the spark to rediscover the urgency missing in both penalty areas for Sunday's Molineux curtain call against Sunderland.

If it is, then all well and good. If it is not, then it will not be for a lack of trying.

All season long the players have given everything in the energy-sapping scrap for points.

With their goal of survival attained, it was hard to scale the same highs that have shaped Wolves' matches since the end of January, so critics keen to have a pop should not be too hard on them.

After all, this was not their poorest performance of the season.

Anyone who witnessed the sobering displays at Chelsea and Blackburn and at home to Birmingham would have seen far more inferior displays - but it was probably their sloppiest.

It was far removed from their worst because at Fratton Park they created more chances in a game than they have in any other this season.

And, if McCarthy needed any reminding about where his priorities for strengthening lie for next season, there was plenty of evidence on the south coast.

The problem, as has been the case all season, is converting those chances.

David Jones and Jody Craddock had spurned opportunities before Aruna Dindane gave Pompey a 20th-minute lead. Then it was Ronald Zubar and Geoffrey Mujangi Bia before Kevin Doyle's leveller 15 minutes later. Doyle was also foiled by keeper David James before the interval.

But Wolves' wastefulness plunged to new levels after the break when Doyle was denied by James again and hit the post and Sylvan Ebanks-Blake missed the target from the rebound.

After Michael Brown reminded Wolves how it should be done, Kevin Foley missed a golden chance and Ebanks-Blake again failed to hit the target from a similar opening before the end.

And that was the story of missed opportunities for Wolves.

In truth this was a most un-Wolves-like performance from McCarthy's side.

Gone was the defensive solidity that has shaped so many of their displays post-change of formation.

In its place was a more gung-ho approach that saw them play with three strikers for the final 34 minutes as McCarthy gambled on getting something from a game that did not matter.

What he gained going forwards, he lost at the back and this was not a day when Craddock and Co needed deserting.

Dozens of the 2,400-strong sold-out Wolves support wore bloodied bandages in a tribute to the evergreen defender who may yet pip Doyle for the Player of the Year award to be announced at tomorrow's glitzy end of season dinner.

But, thankfully, their votes for the gong were cast before the weekend as the defender had a rare off day.

If Craddock was not at his best, then he found company in his back five team-mates as he was joined by Marcus Hahnemann, Christophe Berra and George Elokobi.

All such pillars of strength in recent weeks, they struggled to reach the same levels and Portsmouth, long relegated but with fresh impetus in their legs as the FA Cup final looms large, were only too pleased to profit.

It wasn't only the defence who were below par. In front of them, Michael Mancienne and Karl Henry could not replicate the so-effective snapping and snarling that has shoved a 'thou shalt not pass' barrier in front of opposing attackers in recent weeks.

The ever-conscientious Craddock was clearly irritated to have given away the free-kick that led to Dindane's opener, but he could only watch as the diminutive Ivory Coast forward was left all alone to glide in and glance home Brown's delivery.

Watched by his new boss at international level, Sven Goran Eriksson, Dindane played wide right of a virtual 4-2-4 formation and he had the better of fellow African Elokobi to impress a potential new one at club level in McCarthy.

But the Wolves boss must have been torn between marvelling at the prospect of seeing his potential new signings and tearing his hair out at his current players at times.

If it wasn't Dindane on the wing, it was the hard-running Kevin-Prince Boateng on the other, or the galloping Frederic Piquionne, who left Craddock trailing before bringing a diving save from Hahnemann midway through the first half.

Doyle has had so few chances this season that he could be forgiven for forgetting how to put them away. But he managed it at the second time of asking for his eighth goal of the season to cancel out Dindane's opener.

But it was a short-lived respite as John Utaka drilled home to beat Hahnemann at his near post after turning Mancienne to punish sloppy play by the on-loan Chelsea man following a throw-in.

Half-time saw Jamie O'Hara collect a table-full of player of the year honours from Portsmouth supporters - prompting the Wolves fans to sing 'sign him up' - and it would be little surprise if the Tottenham man again crossed McCarthy's radar.

O'Hara would have been purring at the save by James from Doyle's hooked angled shot that capped Wolves' best spell in the 15 minutes after the break.

James was helpless as Doyle lashed against the foot of the post soon after but Wolves' troubles were only underlined with Ebanks-Blake's miss from the rebound.

After creating so many chances, Brown's goal made the outcome slightly flattering in Pompey's favour.

But if it did tip the scales the hosts' way unnecessarily, it was a strike born from several mistakes Wolves will want to forget.

A careless pass from Elokobi intercepted upfield was followed by poor closing down of the scorer, whose shot saw Hahnemann slow to react. But if there were several Wolves men below their best, they will not have any issue with Doyle's selection as man of the match.

The Irishman was irresistible again, and, whether he wins the vote as Player of the Year or not, the extent of the plaudits he receives tomorrow night will leave him in no doubt as to his importance to the club and its direction in the coming years.

Keeping him could be as key as any signing this summer if Wolves are to enjoy similar celebrations again this time next year.

By Tim Nash