Wolves 2 Bolton 3 - analysis

Wolves might not be relegated yet but it's now a question of when, not if.

Of course Terry Connor's side will carry the fight to Stoke on Saturday tea-time, and against Arsenal the following Wednesday, and for however long it takes for the final nail to be hammered in their top-flight coffin.

But without a miracle cure for the chronic conceding of goals, we are witnessing Wolves drawing their final breaths at this level, for this season at least.

Wolves produced their most rousing home performance since August – for an hour at least, and certainly their best under Connor – on a day when their chances of survival took a devastating blow courtesy of a familiar face.

That the game's turning point was effectively conjured by a player who spent 11 years at the club was hard on Wolves, disappointing from Mark Davies and erroneous from referee Jonathan Moss.

The West Yorkshire whistler also awarded Everton's soft penalty for Stephen Ward's minimal contact on Louis Saha at Goodison earlier this season.

But if Davies and Moss were culpable, then Roger Johnson must also take a share of the blame as the man whose going to ground enabled Davies to make the most out of the situation.

Davies, a player who couldn't get a regular game under Mick McCarthy in the Championship and was sold by him to a Premier League club for a cut-price £1m, could now end up having played a part in sending his hometown team back there.

He was booed off and Wolves clapped off by those who remembered the pressure forced by the home side over the first hour of an incident-packed game.

The vitriol aimed out of frustration at Davies was understandable in the circumstances. But nothing happening at Wolves right now is the fault of the little midfielder from Willenhall. Saturday was a symptom of a deep-rooted problem that has seen Wolves, no matter how well they play, fail to stop the flow of goals against from August onwards.

That was what ultimately cost McCarthy his job, which exposed the naivety of a board without a plan in the messy search for his successor, which left the cruelly-undermined Connor in charge and a rudderless team that for all its admirable attacking passion down the flanks, is continually destabilised by its defensive flakiness.

As soon as Martin Petrov equalised from the spot, they capitulated as soft goals by Marcus Alonso and Kevin Davies in the last 10 minutes sealed their fate, only interrupted by Matt Jarvis' second successive goal and fifth of the season to provide a grandstand finish.

The final whistle was greeted by near silence by the Molineux masses, save for the boos for Davies. The anger that came and went with the defeat by Blackburn three weeks before was replaced by grim acceptance and gallows humour at the Manchester United game.

Now there is merely apathy, and, rather like waiting for a terminally-ill loved one to die, hope that their demise can come with some dignity. A dignity that doesn't include goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey and Johnson squaring up to each other.

Dismissed as a show of passion by Connor, the head-to-head spat may have been more a public airing of Molineux's dirty laundry that could be symptomatic of a bigger problem.

At a time when Wolves desperately crave leadership, their captain sparked the normally mild-mannered keeper's ire with his reaction to the keeper's shout and an ugly slanging match followed.

It's not the first disagreement Johnson has had with his team-mates, and, after his recent misdemeanour, the fans made it clear where their loyalties lay.

Apart from the final-day trip to Wigan, Saturday appeared to offer their best chance of points with mid-table Stoke, Sunderland and Swansea away and Arsenal, Manchester City and Everton at home. But yet another home defeat to make it seven in a row in the league and eight in all to make it the worst in the club's 135-year history, plus wins for Wigan and QPR, left Wolves six points adrift at the bottom.

It all looked like it was going to be so different in the first hour – but everyone in the ground knew that they needed more than Michael Kightly's sweetly-sweet left-foot shot which gave them a richly-deserved 53rd-minute lead, the first time they had gone ahead at Molineux since Stoke on December 17.

With such flimsy foundations, one goal is no platform for victory for this team and so it proved as Bolton's three goals made it 31 leaked in the last 10 games.

Steven Fletcher, who has been such a clinical chance taker for much of the season, has seen his razor-sharp senses dulled in the last few games and is searching for his first goal since Connor took over.

His headers forced a superb save from Adam Bogdan and Ryo Miyaichi clear off the line before another one crashed off the top of the bar on a day when he benefitted most from the exciting wing play of Kightly and Matt Jarvis.

Indeed, it's hard to remember when the two widemen have terrorised a defence as much as this since the Championship.

Unfortunately for Wolves, it looks as if they are heading back there.

By Tim Nash