Wolves 2 Bolton 3

Wolves staged a dramatic revival with a late comeback against awayday specialists Bolton at Molineux – but it was all in vain.

A 49-second Richard Stearman own goal, a superb effort from Johan Elmander and one from Stuart Holden put the visitors, who have only been beaten once on their travels this season, in firm control with 23 minutes left.

But Mick McCarthy's out-of-sorts side made it a grandstand finish with goals from Kevin Foley on 69 and substitute Steven Fletcher eight minutes later.

Steven Mouyokolo glanced wide at the death from point-blank range, as Wolves piled forward for an equaliser.

But it was perhaps too much to expect, as Wolves never really showed the form they had in the previous four games.

McCarthy made four changes to the team beaten 2-0 by Arsenal on Wednesday.

Christophe Berra injured his knee in the warm-up and was replaced by Mouyokolo for the £2.5million summer signing's Premier League debut for Wolves.

Two of the other three changes were also enforced, with George Elokobi and Stephen Hunt replacing the injured Stephen Ward and David Edwards, while Sylvan Ebanks-Blake returned up front as boss Mick McCarthy reverted to 4-4-2.

Ward was on the bench after his gashed shin sustained on Wednesday.

Whether the changes disrupted Wolves is not known, but it looked that way as they fell behind within a minute for the second time in four days.

After failing to get close enough to Marouane Chamakh for the Gunners' 37-second opener in midweek, Stearman was again involved.

This time he headed past his own goalkeeper under pressure from Mattthew Taylor, after Lee Chung-Yong headed back into the danger when his initial cross had been nodded away by Mouyokolo.

Wolves' shaky start continued as they seemed too eager to hit back and continually wasted possession with some careless, hasty passing.

Elokobi was forced into a vital clearance to deny Taylor, but he was only repairing his own damage after missing his tackle on Chung-Yong from Davies' flick-on.

Wolves remained nervy and disjointed and their frustrations were summed up by a needless booking conceded by Hunt for charging into goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen after he had caught the ball.

There were few chances, but plenty of errors and an uncharacteristic giveaway by Karl Henry in midfield led to a rare shooting opportunity, which saw Davies force goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann into a falling save to gather a low drive.

But Wolves gradually started to improve and created a couple of half chances before the break.

Ebanks-Blake hit the post but replays showed the linesman was right to flag as the striker's contact was with his hand, after Doyle flicked on Hahnemann's kick.

Nenad Milijas forced two diving saves out of Jaaskelainen from long distance.

The first came from a curling free kick which saw Ebanks-Blake volley well over after Foley retrieved the rebound and crossed, then with a virtually identical effort from where he scored a superb goal in the same fixture last season.

Wolves' first clear-cut chance came in the second minute of injury-time, when Matt Jarvis – watched from the stands by England coach Fabio Capello – fired straight at the goalkeeper after Milijas' brilliant through ball inside Sam Ricketts sent him racing clear.

But the hosts had to guard against a second goal and Gary Cahill headed over from a Chung-Yong corner at the death, before the home side were greeted by a chorus of boos at the half-time whistle.

Wolves fans almost had something to cheer within three minutes after the restart however when Milijas' chip hit the bar, following a Jarvis corner.

Fabrice Muamba then saw a shot deflected wide from the edge of the box for Bolton.

But Wolves were the side in the ascendancy and they forced four corners in the opening seven minutes of the second-half.

Bolton tried to threaten on the break and Stuart Holden forced a falling save from Hahnemann from 25 yards, while Taylor was high and wide with a rising effort.

As poor as Wolves had been, it would be stretching a point to say a second Bolton goal was coming.

Yet when it came, in the 62nd minute, even the staunchest Wolves fan could not deny the quality of Johan Elmander's strike.

With his back to goal, the Sweden international took a pass from Holden, spun and turned Henry and Mouyokolo in one movement then curled a shot inside Hahnemann's left-hand post.

Wolves were at sixes and sevens and conceded a third goal five minutes later, when Chung-Yong Lee and Davies combined to split the defence to allow a simple tap-in from the increasingly influential Holden from six yards out.

That appeared to be it for the home side and several fans headed for the exits.

But Kevin Foley gave McCarthy's men hope with a fine chip on 69 minutes for his second goal of the season, after Jarvis' square pass to the edge of the area.

A tense finale was then ensured as Fletcher dived in to head home Jarvis' corner to make it 3-2 on 77 minutes.